What is Dynamic Balance?

Dynamic Balance Therapeutic Care is designed for individuals struggling with disabilities, chronic pain, or facing acute physical Challenge. Dynamic Balance aims to provide tailored support to prioritize the individual above all else. With over 30 years of experience the focus is on bridging the gap between physical therapy and fitness by providing personalized care based on each person’s needs. The approach is centered around putting the person first before method or product to help the client achieve improved function and quality of life.

The Story Of Dynamic Balance

Dynamic Balance is founded and guided by Mark St. Peter, a survivor who traumatically lost function after being struck by a speeding auto. Like most survivors he was left to languish with too much pain, too little function and a lack of hope from medical staff. After graduating from years of Physical Therapy, he wanted to progress further but found there was no bridge between its completion and basic fitness. Fortunately, Mark’s education had informed him and provided the tools to bridge that gap, leading to the development of Therapeutic Care.

From his lived experience, it is clear that some physical conditions benefit from treatment and care outside the focus and timeline of typical medical practice, whether it be to increase capacity to keep symptoms at bay. Throughout 30 years of practice Dynamic Balance has sought to help those with disabilities and limitations, those who hope to overcome acute hurdles and/or those pursuing chronic pain management. Sometimes a person simply needs support and guidance when lost in the enormity of physical challenge.

The physical services market is oversaturated with lots of hype to cure you, offering many different angles, pitches, products, programs and promises. Typically, these are born from narrow perspectives which fail to consider the whole person, the individual. Most programs are process or product first… person second, or not at all. We flip this equation; person first, methods second. Services are tailored to fit the person, applying our broad based problem solving skills and knowledge to you accordingly. In doing so we will provide you with a frank, upfront assessment of what you are facing and the path to improved function.

If circumstances prevent us from working together, please know that there are other processes and services to improve your quality of life, unlock possibility and prevent progression of degenerative conditions. A great place to start is to better understand your pain.

We believe that those who have suffered trauma and other physical limitations can find new levels of function and comfort if they have the will and quality guidance.

Mission Statement

I am very thankful for my career but throughout it I have pondered bigger tasks. Most obvious might be defining and sharing the therapeutic work that I do but beyond that I also have given tremendous thought to topics like:

  • Sharing the value of societal understanding and valuation of kinetic care from a young age forward.
  • How to communicate our capacity for deeper healing
  • Influencing the physical education system toward physio and kinetic awareness
  • Bringing therapeutic care healing awareness to a larger market.
  • Further developing delivery of online services.
  • Contributing to therapeutic robotics development.

Throughout my career of serving clients one-to-one my thoughts have been irresistibly consumed by these goals. Now pushing 60, kids long gone, a recent health scare and concomitant awakening I am looking at things differently. With a great team in place It is time for a final push in my work to seek opportunities to contribute at scale to contribute to a future where kinetic care is culturally ingrained.

I will contribute to finding a path toward a deeper societal understanding and valuation of not only our ability to recover to greater levels than currently accepted but to emphasize preventive kinetic care starting at a young age. I seek to heighten the awareness and methods for healing and body repair that lie in the space in between where science meets shamanism. The path to both of these goals is developing human practitioners and developing AI enhanced tools to help the cause.

The possibilities for projects and mastering new ways of providing useful service have changed significantly in recent years. It is my mission to make something new and better with them. With modern tools we now have the ability for quality contact through not only video but live streaming interface literally at the flick of a few switches. Robotics and AI are just awakening and the potentials are both frightening and exciting. The possibilities for provision of care are greater than ever before.

Achievements

Years in practice
0 +

Thousands

Of clients helped

A Personal Statement from Mark St. Peter

I am at a transitional point in my life and career. After 35 years working 5-7 days per week I estimate that I have conservatively accumulated 78,750 hours of experience helping individuals overcome physical challenges and helping them find higher levels of function.

To this point my career has been that of an independent practitioner in my own enclosed space, serving those that come to me with old fashioned hard work. Bodywork, stretching and training, coaching and genuine concern, mostly one-on-one. Most of these folks were facing substantial challenges many having been through all medical care had to offer having not received the relief they sought.

My life, blessed as it is, has delivered some very heavy challenges, it has made me well versed in meeting and overcoming them. Each client presents a puzzle to be solved. Often these folks have been through the medical ringer including surgery and medication regimens without resolution before finding me. In most of these cases we have solved or mitigated the issues ranging from back and neck pain, sprains and tears, full body trauma, and full body mystery pain.

Training, bodywork and mobilization and their integration are the basis of my work. I have learned that these modalities are more powerful when combined, yet even in combination they are not yet optimized. Other synergistic skills/techniques include but are not limited to; observation, personal relation, investigative skill, ergonomic assessment, systems assessment, self awareness and assessment, education, business skills, communications skills, empathy, situational awareness… I could go on. Having mastered the realm of personal service I am ready for newer, bigger challenges, one’s that I contemplated deeply during those 78,000 hours, things that were not possible earlier in my career. Though I will always maintain client practice as long as I am able, I am now actively seeking to work on projects that make a greater difference in areas where I can contribute.

  1. To bring higher awareness to society of the value of the work I and others like me do and to help make such services more available to the masses.
  2. I envision Therapeutic Care as prevalent in society and readily accessible as soda. Delivered by humans and robots, where knowledge like my own and others like me have our knowledge and insights imparted to AI in the form of Carebots.
  3. I see a world where via a modernized physical education system there is greater awareness of care and bodies are maintained and fewer who suffer insult and injury will be left to “Just live with it.”

I am a problem solver, a creative, someone who likes to know how things work and finding ways to make them work better. I have worked in the fitness industry since 1989, my most rewarding work is done with those who have been deemed incurable or in need of surgical repair but wish to avoid it at all costs and those still suffering after surgery.

When considering a problem I don’t care about convention. At first glance I don’t care specifically how others have approached a problem, I like to make my own thorough observation of a situation and settings to understand the dynamics and then apply my onboard knowledge. If something is unclear or I have uncertainties then reach out to experts for consultation to confirm my thoughts and fill in the gaps. Often a knowledgeable but unconnected observer sees things differently than regulars and insiders, sometimes highlighting things that are overlooked or not yet considered. Too many times I have found that some with the most impressive of credentials fail to see simple solutions to what appear to be intractable problems.

I intentionally vow to never accept another practitioner’s opinion as a limitation of what might be possible in a given case.

  1. My work is and has long been guided by 4 basic principles:
    To help individuals with the greatest need.
  2. To contribute to the improvement of human living.
  3. To help a greater number of people.
  4. Leave a record of my knowledge.

It is time in my life to put some focus on numbers 3 and 4.

About Mark St. Peter

This is the story of how Dynamic Balance came to be.

Mark’s early life was defined by trauma. His mothers untimely death at age 13. Being a pedestrian struck by a drunk driver traveling 50 mph and being read last rights and surviving, into a life of wheelchairs, crutches, canes and life long pain. For Mark, this traumatic experience was the beginning of an extraordinary journey. He navigated years of countless surgeries, physical therapy, and recovery all while completing his degrees in health sciences and psychology. A set of circumstances that would provide unparalleled understanding of the rehabilitation processes and the inspiration to create an innovative practice focused on improving lives.

It was his industry job as fitness director at a San Francisco health club where Mark witnessed firsthand the chasm between rehabilitation and fitness. He witnessed that many in the gym environments were attempting to rebuild themselves, Others were just making problems for themselves down the road. Poor form and bad information and fitness programs designed for the able bodied do much to derail challenged individuals seeking to improve their physical well-being.

This sparked creation of a service that has one goal: to improve the physical capacity and quality of life for those seeking to recover from trauma and those looking for answers to chronic pain. Combining academic knowledge, athletic training background with personal experience of trauma and recovery complimented by influence of other masters like Moshé Feldenkrais, Frederick Alexander, Joseph Pilates, Joseph Heller, Dr. Ida Rolf – … visionaries who have shaped the field of therapeutic practices.

This led to “Dynamic Balance – Therapeutic Care” – a groundbreaking program designed to empower individuals with physical challenges, chronic pain, or those seeking to prevent injury and degeneration. Mark’s personal story of resilience and determination is part of the fabric of Dynamic Balance process and practice. We hope to help on your journey to less pain and higher function.

Expertise

  • Trauma Recovery
  • Chronic Pain
  • Bodywork
  • Exercise
  • Mobility
  • Gait
  • Posture

About Tiffany

As a Bay area native, Tiffany grew up playing sports and exploring the outdoors. During the height of her highschool volleyball career she was diagnosed with two herniated discs in her lumbar spine with sciatica symptoms. Her time spent in various PT clinics inspired her to pursue a degree in Kinesiology at SFSU with a focus in Movement Science.

After graduating in 2016, she was introduced to Dynamic Balance as a treatment-resistant client who was desperate for relief. Her recovery has been slow but significant; as healing is by no means a linear endeavor. She’s experienced numerous breakthroughs that couldn’t have been reached without Dynamic Balances’ guidance, expertise and commitment to healing. Naturally, she fell into an apprenticeship and then a trainer.

Tiffany believes that one of the most transformative aspects of healing from this type of persistent chronic pain has been sharing and connecting with others who experience it. It is her goal to share the life-changing methods with people on the outskirts of “mainstream” fitness. Her dream has always been to guide those who seek higher function post-PT.

She is proud to be an Affirming Fitness and Movement Practitioner and Cancer Exercise Trainer. Her recent studies have been in Lymphatic and Vagal nerve workshops. In a nutshell, she is dedicated to nurturing her clients towards a supportive and joyful relationship with movement.
Currently, she enjoys urban hikes in SF and dance classes, focusing on Samba No Pé.

Credentials

  • BS Kinesiology- Movement Science
  • CPT - ACSM
  • L4-L5 & L5-S1 disc herniation - sciatica
  • Affirming Movement Practitioner

Expertise

  • Alignment-based fitness
  • Foundation Strength
  • Assisted Stretching
  • Corrective Exercise
  • MAT practitioner (in training)