Specializing in Fascial Counterstrain

welcome to calyx physical therapy

San Francisco Bay Area

Gentle Hands-On Therapy for Pain Relief, Recovery, and Long-Term Healing


Bodies don't follow a standard script.
Injuries and illness, including stress, don't either.
Every condition affects everyone differently.

Sometimes the body just doesn't finish healing. In ideal situations, following injury or illness, the body resolves and resets itself — quieting the pain signals, clearing the inflammation, and returning to balance. Sometimes it doesn't quite get there. When it doesn't, inflammation accumulates, showing up as persistent symptoms that simply won't resolve.

Fascial Counterstrain meets every body where it is.
So healing can finally finish what it started.

Fascial Counterstrain (FCS) is particularly effective at addressing exactly this — helping the body complete what it started. And sometimes, even when healing is on track, helping the body clear inflammation more quickly can make recovery faster and more complete.

Physical Therapy in San Francisco. Personalized, one-on-one care for chronic pain

We specialize in treating the whole body, which means we can help with a wide range of concerns and conditions:

  • A sprained ankle or tendinitis that isn't healing the way it should

  • A shoulder that still doesn't feel right after treatment or surgery

  • Chronic back, sciatic, or pelvic pain

  • TMJ dysfunction or headaches

  • Post-surgical recovery that stalled

  • Digestive complaints or breathing difficulties that haven't resolved

  • Fatigue, dizziness, or sleep disruption

  • Something that has been difficult to resolve no matter how many approaches have been tried

Fascial Counterstrain is a gentle, effective approach at the heart of this practice — one that often helps when other treatments haven't.

[About Fascial Counterstrain]
[Conditions we treat]


Cristina Shupe, PT

I've spent nearly 30 years doing what I love: helping people feel better.

Fascial Counterstrain changed how I practice — and what's possible for the people I treat. My approach combines it with evidence-based rehabilitation and therapeutic movement — and I believe that understanding your condition is as important as treating it, because that knowledge empowers you to take an active role in your own healing.

My goal is to ensure each session is unhurried and focused, and to give every patient the time, attention, and continuity that real healing requires.