Welcome to Empire Therapy

Mission

Get better quickly!

Mission

"We place our trust in God to guide our staff and lead our patients toward greater function."

Therapy

Get better quickly!

Mission

Empire sees all ages but specializes in infant feeding and development, cerebral palsy, and concussion care. We welcome you to create a new perspective of preventative and therapeutic care. We are the trailblazers in the Inland Northwest with the Empire Method in primitive reflex integration.

Get better quickly!

Our amazing therapists discharge from OT, PT, Speech, and Lactation with goals met. Our goal is to meet functional goals for a neurotypical child or adult in less than 6 months and definitely in 12 months seeing 1x per week.

REFerrals

Get better quickly!

We never put infants on a waitlist, they are seen same week. Our current waitlist for OT is 2-4 weeks depending on your flexibility of schedule. ST is 4-8 weeks and PT is 8 weeks. You also do not need a referral to see us. We have an in house ARNP and many of the therapists have direct access, meaning, no referral needed.

What are Primitve Reflexes?

Primitive Reflexes Are:

Primitive reflexes are involuntary motor responses originating in the brainstem present after birth in early child development that facilitate survival. Once integrated, a primitive reflex turns into voluntary functions which include: sensory, motor, cognition, and emotional regulation through the lifespan.

- Involuntary motor responses: Movement (grasp is a primitive reflex)

- Brainstem: Involuntary motor responses processing center (baby's hand automatically grasps)

- Facilitate: Helps

- Survival: Fighting to be our best (hold on!)

- Integrated: Nerve is sending and receiving correct message (holding onto the bar with no effort)

- Voluntary functions: Moving the way we want without pain or restriction

- Sensory: Information from our environment (feeling the bar in the middle of the hand)

- Motor: The ability to respond to our environment (holding onto the bar)

- Cognition: The ability to learn (can grasp ideas)

- Emotional Regulation: The ability to respond to our environment socially (stress hormone regulation)

*This child is holding onto the bar with weakness in the wrists and without the thumb wrapped over the bar. We would need to work on the hands grasp reflex with this child since the motor pattern is not properly developed. Once his reflex is integrated, one will see increased fine motor development (handwriting), able to thrive instead of survive, better understanding ideas, able to hold on!, and better regulation of stress.

PEER REviewed Article on primitive reflexes

This article discusses problems such as developmental delay, learning difficulties and behavioral problems that children may experience when they have retained primitive reflexes, which are typically only present in the first few months of life. The authors outline different types of primitive reflex present in infants and how each may affect a child when retained beyond the time when they are normally inhibited. Where relevant health professionals with expertise in this area children should be referred for occupational therapy. This article explains how a different professional can assess a child for each primitive reflex and describes exercises that can be taught to a child and his or her parents to carry out at home to reintegrate the reflex.

Lucky for our clinic we specialize in primitive reflex integration with OT, PT, Speech, Nursing and Lactation! Call us now for an evaluation. (509) 701-7651

Retained primitive reflexes in children, clinical implications and targeted home-based interventions 2019 (pdf)Download

WE ARE CREATING THE FOUNDATION FOR Independence

Sensory/motor

Sensory information comes into the body and is organized by the brain. Our brain then sends the appropriate signal back to the muscles for our bodies to react. That circut is called a reflex. By the time a child walks they have full development of their primitive reflexes which allow for correct alignment and function for their rest of their lives. Activating all 22 reflexes soon after birth provides your child with the best possible preventative care.

Our Therapists are Truly Amazing!

Empire strives to provide their employees with extensive training for the most benefit for everyone we serve. In the last six years, employees of Empire have spent more than 2500 hours in certified continuing education courses in manual and neurological rehab.

Real Change

Part of our extensive training is about how a reflex is not firing correctly. Some reflexes may have not emerged and other pathways stop firing due to physical or emotional trauma. We are able to "connect the dots" for the brain. Replicating this reflex is important, so a home program is key. Call us today, it's never too late and your are never too old to make your life easy.