IASTM in River Forest.

For tissue that healed but never started gliding again: a contoured instrument that finds the restriction, and the exercise right after that makes the change stick.

Scar tissue Old injuries Mobility Talk to a Specialist

What It Is

Not a gadget. A better set of fingers.

You have rolled it, stretched it, iced it, and given it a year. It does not hurt all the time. It is just tight in a way that never fully clears, and it flares the week after you finally do something you enjoy. So you stop signing up for the thing, quietly, and call it getting older.

IASTM stands for instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization. Your therapist works a contoured stainless steel tool along the muscle and the layers that are supposed to slide over it. The edge picks up texture and resistance that fingers can miss, so the restriction gets found instead of guessed at, and the treatment lands on the spot that actually needs it.

Then we load it. Dr. Rachel Richard is a certified ASTYM provider, and the tool work is the door, not the destination. The exercise you do immediately after is what tells your body to keep the range you just got back. One-on-one with a Doctor of Physical Therapy, every visit.

Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization on a patient's leg Pressure you control, start to finish

What It Helps

Where IASTM shines.

For tissue that healed but never started gliding again.

Tennis elbow that keeps coming back A heel that hurts for the first ten steps Scar tissue from an old repair A knee that feels tight, not weak Stiffness left behind by a cast An old injury that never fully cleared

What A Session Looks Like

Three steps, one visit.

1

We map where it actually restricts.

2

The tool works that tissue.

3

You load the new range, same visit.

Why It Works

Four reasons it earns a place in your plan.

Finds restriction fingers can miss.

Reaches tissue that healed stiff.

A certified ASTYM provider on staff.

Paired with loading, so it holds.

Pairs Well With

IASTM rarely works alone.

Manual Therapy Hands-on work that buys the range your exercises then keep. Physical Therapy The full hour, one-on-one with a Doctor of Physical Therapy.

Questions, Answered

IASTM, no mystery.

You feel pressure, and a scratchy sort of tenderness over the spots that are restricted. It tends to ease as we work. Some redness afterward is normal and settles on its own. You set the pressure here: say back off and we back off, every time, and we tell you what we are doing before we do it.

ASTYM is one branded system of instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, with its own tools and its own certification. Dr. Rachel Richard is a certified ASTYM provider. The brand on the instrument matters less than the two things around it: finding the tissue that is actually restricted, and giving you the loading that keeps the change.

IASTM is done inside your physical therapy visit, not sold as an add-on. We are in network with Medicare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Tricare, Multiplan and all Workers Compensation, and Illinois has direct access, so no physician referral is needed to start. We verify your exact benefits before your first visit, so there is no surprise on your bill. Questions before then? Call us at (708) 657-4038.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

  • Hours Mon–Thu 7am–7pm · Fri 7am–5pm
  • (708) 657-4038 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
  • No referral needed in Illinois

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