By Michelle McLemore Photographs by Susan Ayer
The caregiver’s heart is characterized by a few simple, yet powerful traits: empathy, commitment, and action. This holds true across diverse homes, occupations, and settings. The call to nurture another being is one of humility and hope. It is knowing that even when logic says nothing else can help, there is still love and presence to provide.
The presence of Amira Tal-Henig, founder and owner of Healing Hands Physical Therapy, in Ann Arbor, precedes her physical being. Her excitement and zeal for life, learning, and helping others energetically, extends both over the phone and upon physical approach. Her biofield extends respectfully but warmly, like a trusted family member’s hug, before words are even uttered. It is the mark of a caregiver’s heart—to extend honor and service without expectation of obeisance or respect given by the client first. This capacity for care developed through a lifetime of what some may describe as spontaneous adventure, in which Tal-Henig followed her heart from her home in Israel, across the world, and built her home, business, and family in Ann Arbor.
A relationship-building current permeates Tal-Henig’s workspace. When I arrived to interview Tal-Henig, one staff member came to the car, warmly greeted me by name, and proceeded to check my temperature and review the Covid-screening questionnaire. At the front desks, two others greeted me by name with direct eye contact, smiles, and focused presence of being. They weren’t just glancing up at “someone” coming through the door. I noted the entire staff, throughout my visit, committed to sharing moments without shuffling papers or giving off cues that I was interrupting their to-do list. Receiving the patients and myself was the priority at whatever moment we arrived in the various areas of the office.
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Tal-Henig and I settled in her office with cups of tea to discuss the 66 adventurous years of her life, including the nearly 40 devoted to physical therapy. “We are here to help everyone be the best they can be in their bodies. We are the muscular-skeletal masters!” she mused. “We learn a lot about each bone, joint, each muscle. Our training is a doctorate in physical therapy. We can even help organs and digestive issues!” Her enthusiasm was palpable. Later, as we toured the 4,800 square foot facility, Tal-Henig eagerly pointed out the gym, each therapist’s private room, and spaces for the newer modalities.
“I love my staff,” Tal-Henig enthused. “Everyone is amazing at what they do.” Currently, Healing Hands combines the talents of 13 physical therapists, two massage therapists, three therapy aides, and three office professionals. “Everyone at the center shares the core values of quality care, one-on-one care, going above and beyond, continuous learning, and doing what is best for each patient.” Tal-Henig continued, “I empower them to be the best they can be, which is naturally also good for business.” The same is true for the boss, as well. “I’m the queen of continuing education,” she joked. “If I get a little down, I need to take a class. It energizes me, and then I can give more to others.”
The biographies and trainings listed on the business website are impressive and include practitioner education and work in Nepal, India, China, England, Lebanon, Israel, California, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Tal-Henig herself has extensive education and training in multiple methods. She earned her Bachelor of Physical Therapy degree through Tel Aviv University in 1983, and then worked at Tel HaShomer Hospital for three years. She later earned her degree as Doctor of Physical Therapy, Evidence in Motion, at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, in Boston, in 2013. Currently, Tal-Henig is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association, Michigan Physical Therapy Association, and International Pelvic Pain Society.
With the help of her focused vision and a dedicated and cosmopolitan staff, Tal-Henig has founded an integrative physical therapy center synthesizing the latest in therapy strategies, proven traditional techniques, and personalized patient care. Though they are widely recognized for their transformative work for scoliosis patients, their scope of care is quite diverse, while always featuring client-focused approaches. Laser therapy, dry needling, pelvic floor work, cranial sacral therapy, post-Covid recuperation therapy, and orthotics are the latest innovations the team offers on location.
One of the newest options effective for multiple concerns is laser therapy. Tal-Henig clarified, “It is amazing because it works on inflammation and pain without contraindication. The light goes into the cell, excites it, and releases the natural substance for tissue healing. Dry needling—another newer technique—uses the same hair-thin needles as acupuncture, but we go into the muscle instead of a meridian point. This helps with pain, inflammation, and motion.”
Both Tal-Henig and another team member are versed in pelvic floor work through training from the Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute. Tal-Henig explained, “For me, the awareness of pelvic floor work came when I gave birth to my daughter, in England. There, it is standard practice after birth. At that time, I had 14 years of physical therapy work and a doctorate, but this was new.” The physical therapist coached her through her initial experience, and Tal-Henig was amazed by the results. It became the foundation for her passion for making greater availability of women’s health a priority. “Every woman should have this! It is a necessity. We don’t have to live like our mothers did.”
Pelvic floor physical therapy can do more than help post-delivery. It can treat chronic pelvic pain, painful intercourse, vaginismus, leakage, incontinence, and concerns with sexual arousal. “Some couples come because they cannot have comfortable intimacy,” Tal-Henig shared. Pelvic floor therapy has helped to strengthen their relations, leading to successful conception of their first children. In addition, therapy for males can treat leakage and other issues that occur post cancer treatments.
When asked her general philosophy, Tal-Henig revealed that the team’s goal is to educate all patients in preventive and self-care techniques, so that they can transition from a place of injury to a place of well-being. To further this goal, she has trained in many approaches. In addition to Craniosacral Therapy Certification (a two-year program at the Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust in London, England, in contrast to condensed U.S. training), temporomandibular joint (TMJ) training, the Alexander Technique, and the Integrated System model, Tal-Henig also studied Trauma Healing in Boulder, Colorado, where she graduated from the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. Tal-Henig emphasized the importance of this training. “It is common during cranial sacral work for trauma to come out. The training is for dealing with the body sensations. You are able to create a safe space for them [clients] to go through the emotion. It is the skill to know how to move the patient forward, so they are not stuck in the trauma over and over again. I don’t tell anyone how to heal; we just support the person to move through it. It is important to empower the individual.”
As a group, the practitioners at Healing Hands Physical Therapy continually research how to best meet the Ann Arbor community needs and strive for the practice to be a “long term, responsible provider.” Developing an orthotics branch and a post-Covid-19 therapeutic recovery program were both spring 2021 innovations for the team. Since they are neither associated with a hospital nor overseen by a doctor’s private practice, they must support themselves. Tal-Henig offered, “I’ve always believed, if you do the right thing, do good work, do 120 percent—I used to say 150!—and give, then [good] things will come back.” The hard work and good Tal-Henig has shared her entire life seems to have given back generously across family and business ventures.
Tal-Henig was born and raised in Givatayim, Israel, near Tel Aviv, in central Israel. It is part of a metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Upon graduation from high school, she served her required two years in the military. “I was idealistic,” she remembered. “I wanted to help in the best way I could.” For Tal-Henig that meant requesting a transfer from a clerical position to social work, caring for approximately 300 male soldiers in the Golan Heights during a time of political strain. After completion of her service obligation and some personal time for traveling, she discovered her interest in physical therapy. The entrance interview for a program of study revealed what was to become the core of her practice.
“The final interview question was, ‘What do you do for the really frail old man in the chair for whom there is nothing that you can do—no therapy you can give?’” Without hesitation, Tal-Henig recalls, “I said, ‘I could still give him love.’”
One of her first affiliation experiences during training was in a pediatric burn unit. A six-year-old had burned his hand and was hesitant to do the rehabilitation. On their first meeting, suddenly Tal-Henig was inspired to begin identifying each finger as a character with a role in a story. “This one was the king, this one a messenger, food deliverer, and so on,” she demonstrated to me, her eyes taking on the look of one traveling back years, the office walls disappearing. She recalled that even then, a different state had come over her much younger self. “You know when you are really in the zone, you aren’t aware of anything around you.”
At some point, she realized, the nurses in the room had fallen quiet, all observing, as the boy and she worked together manipulating each digit. The mom was nearby crying. At the end of the session, the boy asked, “Will you come again tomorrow?” Tal-Henig reassured him, “Of course I will.”
“It was the transformational moment. I still feel it.” I felt it, too, as we sat in the quiet of the office, with the desk light casting a soft glow over her nostalgic face. Then, she was back in the present with a rush, “I knew—okay, this is what I want to do! That moment changed my life. I felt so aligned with who I am and what I want to do in this world. I am actually in love with the profession.”
“There is beauty in it—certain moments that are transformational—it does something to your heart.” She continued, “For me, every patient is a whole world. I look at the whole patient: the physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and even sexual [aspects], because I do pelvic floor therapy. I believe it is all connected. In order to heal—not talking about range of motion—you need to address all those issues. I try to connect with all of my patients like that.”
Defining her current focus, Tal-Henig clarified, “Now I’m really working on the business. Originally, I wanted to be the best therapist I could be. Now I want to make it the best business it can be, while maintaining the core values. This sings my heart, to know that the center will continue helping women and the community.”
Tal-Henig’s passionate positivity is reflected in her family, as well as in her life’s work. Isaac (Itzik) Tal-Henig and Amira married in 1983. His job as an engineer for Ford Motor Company brought him to the U.S. ahead of her, as she stayed behind to finish her degree. She took her final exam for physical therapy while holding a ticket to New York for later the same day. A friend at the time asked, “What if you fail the test?” She remembers answering with certainty, “That’s not an option.” That confidence in direction seems to flow across the entire family. Itzik retired last December and now does green woodworking, or wood craft with unseasoned wood, on their 40 acres. Their son Ben earned his master’s in health information, son Daniel is a musician in California, and daughter Alona is designing her life in Colorado as a yoga instructor.
Outside of her dedicated work, Tal-Henig enjoys hiking, cooking, traveling, visiting with friends and family, and spending time with their rescue dog, RoZ, a combination of golden retriever and shar-pei. To stay balanced, she exercises, dedicates time to her spiritual path, and sees “one of our excellent physical therapists or massage therapists” as needed.
In listening to Tal-Henig’s stories and her excitement over her family, a constant theme was present: There doesn’t need to be a Plan B: find your spirit’s true Plan A. For example, Tal-Henig had instinctively rejected her father’s suggestion that she learn typing for a clerical back-up option. She was determined not to enable that path, which seemed so against her inner voice. (Though now she laughs, seeing that typing skills would have been really helpful!) Her children have also listened to their hearts to create their most joyful lives.
When I asked, “How did you teach your children this intuitive, brave spirit—to follow their hearts?” Tal-Henig smiled and partially shrugged. “I trusted my kids. I never felt I knew better. I was there to support them in finding their right path. We come here on a journey to grow up. We try to fit in, but the journey is to undo that.”
In wrapping up, I was curious what final life advice we might glean from Tal-Henig’s vast experiences. She graciously offered, “Listen. Be open-minded. Take care of the earth…please. Every day, try to be the best you can be. Support each other. We are all connected—that is the thing. What one does affects everyone.” She paused for a moment thinking, and then added with a smile, “And always, don’t suffer—you don’t have to have pain. You can come for physical therapy!” We laughed. “No, seriously, pain can be a teacher, but you don’t need to suffer. You can have help.” She concluded with, “Be true to yourself. Design the life you want to live. Take care of self, life, and others.”
Tal-Henig may have arrived in the U.S. carrying “just two suitcases,” but her life experiences and passion for helping others could not be contained nor concealed, and she has years of clients and friends who are ever so grateful.
Browse physicaltherapyannarbor.com to learn more about the team and services Healing Hands Physical Therapy has to offer.
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