My Story (long version)

Hello, my name is Eric and my healing journey began when I moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Physical Therapy after graduating from a 6 year Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Carroll University in 2016. Since I had played soccer most of my life and sustained multiple injuries during my childhood, I had always been interested in healthcare and helping others while also knowing that I was only interested in a job that did involved me being on my feet and moving around due to my very active mind and body. After having clinical experiences in outpatient orthopedics, a hospital, skilled nursing facility, school, and even a prison, I was confident that I wanted to start my career in outpatient orthopedics largly due to my history in athletics. I began my career at a private practice in Montrose, CA where I was the lead physical therapist in charge of 2 PTA’s and a rehab aid. After a year and a half in that setting and performing over 4,000 visits, I was already recognizing that many clients were getting better, but returning with the same or related injuries months after going through a PT perscription and feeling better upon discharge. This sparked my search for more answers as to why the injuries were not completely resolving.

One day, I was scrolling through Instagram and came across a treatment technique called Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT). I ended up signing up for the level 1 class shortly after and fell in love with the technique. NKT is a 3 level certification that I ended up completing between February and November of 2018, which completely transformed the way I looked at and treated the body. The technique gave me a framework for how to look at the entire body as one system and how everything was interconnected.

During 2018, my wife Cassie and I started our first company called Advanced Physical Therapists and began providing services for Medicare as a home health care physical therapists. I ended up providing over 1500 visits to patients 65 and older in their homes throughout the greater Los Angeles area from early 2018 to mid 2019.

During my time as a home health physical therapist, I was becoming more and more passionate about NKT and ended up working at a private practice part time in Culver City as an apprentice under the lead NKT level 3 study group leader for Los Angeles County until 2020. Shout out to Dawn <3! The experience working with her was incredible and extremely foundational in my understanding of the nervous system and meshing my training as a physical therapist with the NKT system. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, everything came to a screeching halt.

Walz Wellness was created in late 2019 as a transition from our home health company, Advanced Physical Therapists. Business was going well at first, but when the pandemic hit, the caseload took a huge hit for months.

Fast forward to December of 2020 and I ended up starting a job at a trauma center in Los Angeles where my boss had a degree as an LMFT as well as studied spiritual psychology for many years. My experience in working with patients at this center and sharing knowledge with my boss was probably the most influential in bringing me to the awareness of how interconnected the physical, emotional, psychological and energetic systems of the body are. It was at this center that I realized how important combining the 5 senses with psychological trauma, with physical body pains was to the complete recovery and integration of the person being treated.

In late 2021, I began working full time in my own business, Walz Wellness, applying all of the skills I had learned over the past 5 years. The journey has been extremely rewarding with a lot of highs and lows. In October of 2022, my wife and I brought our son, Quinn into the world and after a couple of months trying to make it work in Sherman Oaks, CA we decided it would be in our best interest to move back to the midwest in order to be closer to family. Since then, I have continued to maintain a presence in Los Angeles by traveling out for 1 week of every month to see clients and continue working on growing my own knowledge by connecting deeper with my true self.

While I have extensive experience as an energy healing practitioner, I am no longer a licensed physical therapist and I am also not a physician, psychologist, psychotherapist, or other licensed health care provider, nor are my services licensed by the State of California, Illinois, or Wisconsin. I am currently working on getting a better understanding of how my own psychology affects my actions with a system called Internal Family Systems (IFS), reading some of Carl Jung’s work, as well as learning more energy techniques to apply to myself and in the practice including Integrated Energy Therapy (IET). 2023 is going to be another big year and I am very excited for the experience!

Educational Background:

Bachelor’s in Exercise Science- Carroll University 2014

Doctorate in Physical Therapy- Carroll University 2016