Catherine Lewan Physical Therapy Charleston

PT in Charleston SC: Empowering Recovery, Personalizing Care

Helping people with chronic pain, hypermobility, and complex health conditions reclaim agency, resilience, and joy through personalized therapy.

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Is Healthcare Working Optimally for You?

Are you tired of a healthcare system that doesn’t seem to care for you?
Exhausted by persistent aches, arthritis, pains, sciatica, and symptoms you’ve had to simply “live with”?

So am I.

As a patient, clinician, and researcher living with a rare and often misunderstood connective tissue disorder, I know firsthand how hard it can be to get the care you need. My own journey has taken me across 8 states—and several decades—to find the answers I needed to get to the root of my issues.

Beyond my degrees and certifications, the most essential skill I’ve developed is learning to listen to my body and advocate for what it needs.

Sometimes that means researching conservative treatments I can implement as a PT. Other times, it means assembling a team of specialists and coordinating care across disciplines. It has definitely required going out-of-network and thinking outside-the-box of traditional healthcare.

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Better Care for Better Outcomes

What’s Most Often Missing in Healthcare? Listening and Compassion.

Insurance doesn’t pay for providers to listen and understand your full story—yet that’s exactly what’s required to form a complete picture of your health.

Being truly seen and heard—especially if you’ve been dismissed in the past—is not just validating. It’s therapeutic.

But we don’t just need others to listen to us.
We have to relearn how to listen to our own bodies.

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Reframing Symptoms as Signals

Here’s what the system often teaches us:

• “You can’t have that symptom—it didn’t show up on the scan.”
• “You shouldn’t still be in pain post-op—we fixed the problem.”
• “You don’t meet the diagnostic criteria, so we can’t treat you.”
• “We’ve already done everything we can—there’s nothing left to try.”

These messages make us doubt our own experience. We push through pain, disconnect from our bodies, and suppress important signals—until they boil over into pain+ nervous system dysregulation, anxiety, fear, and/or avoidance of the things we love because they cause symptoms.

But pain isn’t a punishment. What we call symptoms are actually signals.
And they can be retrained—so your nervous system becomes a helpful ally, not a constant alarm.

This is the heart of my work: restoring communication between your body, brain, and sense of self.

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My Expertise & Values

With 30+ years of experience teaching movement and 15+ years as a rehab specialist, I’ve become the PT in Charleston people call when nothing else has worked.

I’ve helped clients with:

• Chronic pain including jaw pain, pelvic pain, post-stroke, post-concussion or TBI
• Dysautonomia, POTS & nervous system dysregulation
• Hypermobility spectrum disorders/Ehlers Danlos Syndrome
• Orthopedic pain: spine/ribs, shoulders, arms, hips, legs, knees, ankles, feet
• Pelvic conditions in all genders: incontinence, constipation, retention, frequency, restoring bladder/bowel and sexual function
• Headache, neck pain, jaw pain (tempromandibular disorder)
• Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
• Low back pain, stenosis, spondylolisthesis and sciatica
• Functional movement challenges after trauma, surgery, or misdiagnosis
• Balance, proprioception, vestibular function and sensory integration
• Restoring an active lifestyle

All care is one-on-one with your physical therapist.
We create a plan that is individualized to your goals and needs—never a generic protocol.

Techniques used during your sessions are always discussed with you. If pain is the main barrier, we focus first on techniques to reduce pain and calm the nervous system.
Only then do we layer in strategies to restore endurance, stability and strength—because when pain is high, the body can’t access its full potential.
(Pain inhibits muscle function—this is a basic but often ignored truth in “no pain, no gain” rehab models.)

You deserve better.

By emphasizing education, nervous system regulation, and prevention, I help you not only get results—but keep them.
The skills you learn in PT should serve you for life. This isn’t just recovery. It’s self-leadership in your healing journey.

I lead with integrity, honesty, compassion and transparency.
If your issue is outside my scope of practice, I’ll tell you—and help you get to the right next step.

Book a free discovery call to explore whether we’re a good fit.

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A Holistic Invitation

I specialize in complex and chronic conditions—especially for those ready to work holistically.

If you’re open to changing how you move, how you think about your symptoms, and how you respond to your body’s signals, you’re in the right place.

Pain is never just physical.
It lives in the body, brain, and emotions.
Real, lasting healing honors our whole selves.

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Are You Ready to be Treated as a Whole Person?

Ready to feel seen, heard, and supported?
Let’s explore how we can work together.

Treatment Modalities

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