Alicia Kowsky pursued a career in physical therapy after a long journey to manage her own chronic pain. Ever since high school, she had been experiencing aches and pains that made participating in sports and activities extremely difficult. 

 

In 2012, she sought out her yoga teaching certification to manage her aches and pains and after completing her yoga teacher training, she enrolled in a three year Yoga Therapy certification program. At that time, she built a strong relationship with her students that were also experiencing chronic pain and tailored her movement sequences to alleviate their pain. After this experience, she was motivated to learn how to better help her students. 

 

In 2019, Alicia graduated from Upstate Medical University with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. Throughout school, she had continued to teach yoga and build relationships with chronic pain patients and worked in outpatient physical therapy. Alicia has focused expanding her skills with both hands-on manual therapy work, as well as expanding her practice with pelvic floor health. Dr. Kowsky is one of the only physical therapists in the area that specializes in pelvic floor therapy. “It's important because many people don't realize how they could be helped. They don't realize that they don't have to live with issues of incontinence or pelvic pain. That getting older or having children doesn't spell out that they have no choice but to live with such issues,” she says.

 

Both with yoga and exercise, she finds a strong relationship with chronic pain and pelvic pain issues. She is sitting for an exam in February 2022 that will give her the Women's Health Certification Specialty (WCS).

 

In her spare time Alicia continues to teach yoga with a focus on reducing pain and improving quality of movement. She also loves to hike both here in the Catskills and in the Adirondacks.