Karen Dooley works as a physical therapist whose 31 years of thought, professional growth, and observation supports her practice. Karen grew up in southern California, and moved to Bend during her junior year of high school. She arrived in Eugene as a young woman, and expected to be here for just a few years. No one is more surprised than she that she still lives in one of our neighborhood’s log cottages and gardens around it on the leafy north side of Masonic Cemetery.

Karen earned a science and math degree in the ‘70s. She went on to earn a certificate in physical therapy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1978, and passed the Oregon State Board exams before beginning what became her life’s work. Oregon allows physical therapists to see patients for 30 days before a referral from a physician is required, so Karen sees both referred and word-of-mouth patients.

There are various types of physical therapy training. Karen started with what is considered conventional training, but experience with her patients and a car accident contributed to a long process of additional practical and formal education. She now describes herself as alternative.

In the mid 90’s, Karen became certified in the Feldenkrais method that integrates movement, posture, breathing, and state of mind. The idea that healing cannot take place if we focus solely on muscles and bones without considering the whole body seemed to match with what Karen was observing with her patients.

Karen’s father worked as an osteopathic physician, and she followed her father’s path by studying ostiopathic treatment techniques the late ‘90s. Osteopathy focuses on promoting the body’s innate ability to heal itself. Yet, with all the training she now had, Karen still felt a critical element or perspective was lacking. Complete healing seemed elusive.

In one of those painful events that become an opportunity to learn, Karen was in a car accident that left her with injuries that refused to fully heal. She could stand, but not lie down for more than two hours at a time without suffering from head pains and severe back pain and stiffness. Her only relief was through racewalking long distances. She became seriously sleep deprived.

Finally a physical therapist acquaintance worked on her for 75 minutes after which she was able to sleep again. Perhaps this fellow had the answer to what she needed to complete her training. She excitedly inquired where he trained, and discovered he’d had two mentors. Karen chose one, Frank Lowen, and began a new series of training in what used to be called Biovalent Systems, but is now referred to as Lowen Systems :Dynamic Manual Interface (DMI).

Karen describes DMI as being sensitive to the body’s rhythms and being able to distinguish between them. She found that in order to change her practice to accommodate this added feature, her lifestyle had to change as well. Her life needed balance to allow her the sensitivity to do this work with the required focus to be successful.

Karen listens closely to hear rhythms in the body, decipher them, and then devise an order of work that will be most effective. Karen describes herself as “a mediator. I ask questions and bring patients to self-knowledge. I don’t offer recipes, but require patients to engage in their healing.” She works closely with others from conventional medical doctors to acupuncturists. “When I was doing osteopathic therapy, I was the unconventional therapist. I don’t know what they call me now.”

Karen works three days a week for Peace Health’s Orthopedic Sports and Spine Clinic across from the old Sacred Heart Hospital. The other two days she works in a quiet, soothing building set in the lovely garden of her meditative backyard. That business is called the inner Current. Her phone number is 541-513-7240, and her hourly fee is $70.