Long Island University Center for Physical Rehabilitation
In Brooklyn , Helps Heal Patients Gently

"I am 100 percent positive that if I did not go to the center and work with Cristiana, I would still be walking with a cane," says 16-year-old student David Huber of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. At age 13, Huber severely injured his left ankle while playing basketball, leading to years of pain and disability.

When 47-year-old Legal Aid lawyer and mother of two, Sara Bennett, was recovering from shoulder surgery and knee pain, her experience at the center was near magical. "When I finished my therapy with Cristiana, I felt I was 10 years younger, my energy was back. Maybe I’m a zealot, but I always recommend her to everyone because I just think she has a special knack — a calling — for healing," Bennett says.

At Long Island University Center for Physical Rehabilitation (LIUCPR) in downtown Brooklyn, Kahl and her team of licensed physical therapists don’t practice magic. Instead, they emphasize a hands-on approach to treatment along with an individualized exercise program to alleviate pain and establish optimal biomechanical functioning in their patients.

"We treat the source of the pain, not just the pain," says Kahl, who is director of the center. "The site of the pain often times is not the source of it."

A native of Brazil, Kahl came to the United States at age 16. She graduated from New York University in 1986, where she also earned an advanced master’s degree in developmental disabilities. With extensive clinical experience in manual therapy, Kahl is a certified specialist in neurologic physical therapy, has received post-graduate training in PNF (a hands-on treatment technique), has been an assistant professor at the Brooklyn Campus since 1991, and is currently pursuing her doctorate.

Huber’s case was a difficult one, Kahl says. Diagnosed with a severe ankle sprain, David developed Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), a chronic and extremely painful neurological syndrome. He endured increasing pain, and saw a number of doctors and physical therapists with little progress. For nine months, he was on crutches, and barely able to walk. One doctor had even told him that many RSD patients never recover and have residual pain. "I took it to heart," he says, and his mother, Susan, adds, "I thought he would never walk again. I cried myself to sleep many a night."

Finally, Huber was referred to Kahl. Within two treatment sessions, he noticed a significant reduction in pain level and was walking with a cane. "Her approach was totally different from the other therapists. She has more of a hands-on approach, instead of just using machines. At the first session, she spent two hours just examining my whole body. She never gave up on me even if I came back depressed. She became like a mentor and helped me through," he says. By the end of six months of intensive physical therapy with Kahl, Huber was walking without any devices, and by the end of a year, he was running.

Says his mother, "I can’t stress this enough, Cristiana got him walking and gave him back his life."

As a direct result of his experiences with Kahl and LIUCPR, Huber volunteers at Coney Island Hospital in the physical therapy department and hopes to study physical therapy upon graduation from high school.

Like Huber, Sara Bennett had seen a number of physical therapists over the years for knee and shoulder pain before learning about Kahl. "When I was in pain, I was miserable," she remembers. "The pain was intense and took over my life. I was overwhelmed, especially with two little kids."

After shoulder surgery, it was important for her to be active again — bike riding, playing ball and skipping ("which is very important for my daughter"). With Kahl’s help, she slowly recovered. "Cristiana knows, her hands know what the problem is, and she is very empathetic," says Bennett, adding, "My surgeon was very impressed at my recovery. For someone like me, who was not an athlete, he had not seen better results."

The LIUCPR is a 2,300 square foot facility with state-of-the-art therapeutic and exercise equipment, three treatment rooms and a spacious rehab gym. The licensed physical therapists — Kahl, Charmaine Quijano and Joseph Whelan — address treatment of pre-and post-orthopedic surgery, orthopedic problems such as neck and back injuries, chronic pain, sprains and strains, joint pain, arthritis, sports-related injuries, and neurological problems such as RSD, stroke, spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson’s Disease, to name a few.

All major medical plans are accepted at LIUCPR. A written referral from a doctor is required for evaluation and treatment. The Center is located on the 2^nd floor of the William Zeckendorf Health Sciences Center, at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, 1 University Plaza, Brooklyn. Office hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, call (718) 780-4531.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s three residential and three regional campuses, including nearly 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.