When leg pain makes walking or sitting difficult, we’ll assess the pattern, explain your options and practice a starting plan for getting more of your day back.
Share your goals and questions before deciding on care. We’ll reply by phone or text to arrange a time.
Your first PT visit is 60 minutes. If you prefer support online, ask about virtual health and wellness visits.
One-on-one with Dr. Emily Warren, DPT, Cert. MDT
McKenzie certified · No referral needed
In-person PT at our Holladay clinic, serving Greater Salt Lake City. Virtual coaching from anywhere.
Kim P. on back and leg care
“She quickly identified my back and leg issues within just a few appointments, leading to immediate improvements in my condition.”
DPT, Cert. MDT
Your story comes first with Dr. Emily
Emily’s early work in neurological rehabilitation shaped her interest in movement, pain and what people want to get back to.
Emily asks where symptoms travel and which positions or tasks change them. She checks the back, hip and relevant nerve findings before choosing treatment. Movement practice and follow-up help show whether any relief carries into sitting, walking or the activity you miss.
Meet Emily and explore her approach · Request a Free Case Review to discuss how to sit, walk and return to activity more comfortably.
What is sciatica?
Sciatica describes pain associated with irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve pathway. Symptoms commonly travel through the buttock and one leg and may include tingling, numbness, or weakness. A disc herniation or spinal stenosis can contribute, but leg pain alone does not establish its cause.
Why the cause of your leg pain matters
Sciatica is a description of symptoms, not one exercise prescription. A herniated disc, narrowing around the spinal nerves and other conditions can contribute. Pain around the buttock or hip can also have a different source. That is why Dr. Emily asks how the symptoms behave and examines your movement, strength and sensation before choosing the plan.
If sitting brings on leg symptoms, we want to understand that response. If standing or walking is the main limitation, we want to understand that too. The aim is to find a useful starting point for your day, then build your capacity instead of repeatedly provoking the same symptoms.
Your plan may connect disc-related care, stenosis care or another approach with the findings of your examination.
If you are unsure whether buttock pain is sciatica, our sciatica and piriformis guide explains why the examination matters. A disc finding on MRI is another part of the conversation, rather than a complete explanation of every symptom.
What to expect at your first sciatica appointment
Your first 60-minute visit is dedicated one-on-one time with Dr. Emily Warren, DPT, Cert. MDT. You do not need a referral or a perfect explanation of what is wrong.
- Tell us what you want back. We listen to where symptoms travel, what you have tried and the activities you miss.
- Find a useful starting point. We examine movement, strength, sensation and relevant nerve findings, then compare how selected movements or positions change your symptoms and a meaningful task.
- Practice your plan together. You leave knowing what to try, the starting amount, what to notice afterward and when to check in. Bring previous exercises and relevant scan reports if you have them.
A practical plan for sciatica between appointments
Tell Emily what life with leg pain is like, including the moments you hesitate to sit, walk or exercise and the things you most want back. Those details help us make your examination useful. We choose a few things to practice, explain what each is meant to help and leave room for you to say when the plan is not fitting your day.
Use your movement response to guide the plan
If we find a movement direction that helps, we’ll practice it with you and explain what to look for afterward. We also check strength and sensation as you progress. Tell us if symptoms change so we can adjust the plan together.
- Map the symptoms: note whether they reach your buttock, thigh, calf or foot before and after the prescribed movement.
- Make one daily task manageable: split a difficult walk into shorter outings or vary sitting with comfortable movement. Choose an amount that does not repeatedly leave symptoms worse.
- Review the after-effects: note what happens to the next activity, later that day and the next morning. Feeling better during an exercise is only part of the picture. Persistent spread farther down the leg, increasing numbness or weakness means stop the exercise and contact your clinician.
Build beyond symptom relief
As appropriate, treatment progresses toward leg and trunk strength, walking endurance and the tasks you want back. Pain education helps explain why an irritated nerve can remain sensitive and how to respond without either forcing through symptoms or avoiding everything. Read our sciatica exercise guide for questions to bring to your visit.
What progress can look like as sciatica settles
What did a Salt Lake City PT trial find?
Getting help can make a useful difference. A Salt Lake City trial of 220 adults with sciatica lasting less than 90 days compared education plus four weeks of early PT with education and usual care. At one year, 45.2% in early PT versus 27.6% in usual care rated themselves “a great deal better” or “a very great deal better”. This was a patient-rated outcome, not a pain-free or disc-healing percentage. Emily uses your own symptoms, nerve findings and daily activity to choose and review your plan.
How will we check your own progress?
An early improvement might be easier sleep, a more comfortable chair rise or less intrusive symptoms in the calf or foot. We also check strength and sensation. Together, these tell us more than a pain score alone.
What would make the biggest difference to your day? Choose one activity to discuss and track alongside your examination findings:
- Sitting or driving: notice how long you can sit, where leg symptoms travel and how they settle when you change position. Our driving guide offers practical ways to prepare for a journey.
- Standing or walking: compare a familiar, manageable route and the recovery afterward. Read the standing and walking guide if this is your main limitation.
- Sleep: note interruptions, which positions are manageable and how you get out of bed. Explore sciatica at night for practical adjustments.
Bring that observation and your previous exercises. Together we can decide whether the plan is making a useful difference, needs adjusting or needs another opinion.
As that task becomes easier, we build walking tolerance and strength around the activities you miss. We do not judge recovery from one painful afternoon or keep increasing an exercise that repeatedly leaves you worse. Your response, strength and sensation help us decide what to progress and when to reassess.
Still waiting for sciatica to settle?
Dr. Emily explains what can slow progress and how manageable movement, sleep and support for stress fit into recovery.
Key points from the video
- Dr. Emily explains that different causes of radiating leg pain need to be understood before choosing a plan.
- Irritated nerves can take time to settle; activity should avoid continually aggravating symptoms.
- She encourages manageable movement, sleep and support for stress while following recovery progress.
How does the McKenzie Method help guide sciatica care?
Our care brings together McKenzie assessment, pain education and strength work. A study following 176 people with sciatica found that centralization—leg symptoms moving closer to the spine during movement testing—was associated with later improvement. We watch both symptoms and function, practice a useful strategy and build toward sitting, walking and the activities you miss. Hands-on care or dry needling may help with accompanying muscle discomfort.
Related care includes herniated-disc treatment, spinal-stenosis physical therapy, and back-pain physical therapy. If pain has become persistent and unusually sensitive, our chronic pain and hypersensitivity guide explains questions to discuss during assessment.
Watch how Dr. Emily uses your response to guide movement
This demonstration is for some types of sciatica coming from the lower back. It shows an option we may explore during assessment, rather than a sequence everyone needs to complete.
What Dr. Emily demonstrates
- Lying on the stomach and first noticing whether symptoms decrease.
- Propping on the forearms, keeping the back relaxed.
- Using the arms for a gentle press-up, then lowering back down.
The important part is the response. Dr. Emily says to continue only if it helps and to stop if it does not. We choose the appropriate starting position and amount with you. Do not keep progressing if leg symptoms spread or numbness increases; new weakness needs medical assessment.
Watch the exercise demonstration on YouTube.
Prefer a longer conversation about sciatica?
Hear Dr. Emily on the Arthritis Adventure Podcast: The Keys to Finding Sciatica Relief.
Common questions about sciatica treatment
How long does sciatica take to improve?
Sciatica often improves over weeks to months, but it can last longer or recur. We track practical progress, such as walking farther or sitting more comfortably, and adjust care when needed. Seek reassessment if symptoms worsen or interfere with daily activities. Our disc recovery guide explains how to think about milestones when a disc is involved.
What are signs that sciatica is getting better?
Look for a trend you can use: sitting longer, walking farther or getting through the night more comfortably. Symptoms that retreat from the foot or calf toward the back during movement testing are called centralization; this can help guide our plan. Tell us about numbness and strength as well as pain. Less pain by itself does not confirm that a nerve has recovered, and new or worsening weakness needs prompt assessment. We explain which changes to watch in your own situation.
Should I walk or stretch?
Start with activity you tolerate rather than assuming a deeper stretch is better. A shorter, manageable walk may be a more useful starting point than a long outing that repeatedly leaves you worse. Change position during your day and ask Dr. Emily how to adapt movements that provoke leg symptoms. If a stretch brings symptoms farther down the leg or increases numbness, stop and discuss it rather than forcing it. New weakness needs prompt medical assessment.
Do I need an MRI, injection, or surgery?
Not everyone with sciatica needs these. The useful question is what a test or treatment would change for you.
- MRI: imaging is not routinely needed at the start. It becomes more useful when the findings could change treatment, such as when a specialist is considering a procedure. New or worsening nerve-related changes can require earlier medical evaluation.
- Injection: an epidural may be considered for acute, severe sciatica. Ask what relief it is intended to provide and how it fits with restoring activity.
- Surgery: a surgical opinion can be appropriate when nonsurgical care has not improved pain or function and the scan findings match the symptoms. Urgent nerve changes need prompt medical care, not a trial of exercises.
Bring any recommendation you have received. We can help you understand what a PT plan would involve and when another opinion would be useful.
What if McKenzie exercises make my leg pain worse?
More is not always better, and the McKenzie Method is more than press-ups. If an exercise repeatedly sends symptoms farther down the leg or leaves you worse afterward, stop that exercise and tell us. We reassess the direction, position and amount rather than asking you to push through. If no helpful movement direction emerges, we use the rest of your examination to choose other ways to build activity and strength, or explain why further evaluation is needed.
What if previous physical therapy did not help?
It is discouraging to put effort into care and still be hurting. We want to know which movements you tried, whether symptoms changed location and whether any benefit lasted long enough to help you sit or walk. That information helps us reassess and choose a manageable starting plan. You should understand what we are testing and how we will decide whether it is helping. Bring your previous program; our guide to PT that has not helped can help you prepare.
Is sciatica the same as a pinched nerve or lumbar radiculopathy?
People often use “pinched nerve” to describe radiating leg symptoms. Lumbar radiculopathy refers to a problem affecting a nerve root in the lower back and may involve weakness, altered sensation or reflex changes. An examination helps clarify what these terms mean for your symptoms and treatment.
Can I work with Dr. Emily if I do not live nearby?
Yes. Virtual coaching offers movement education, an exercise program with video demonstrations and messaging between visits. We can discuss your goals in the Free Case Review. Coaching and clinical PT are different services; if you need clinical assessment or treatment, we’ll confirm availability for your location before booking.
When is sciatica an emergency?
Seek emergency care for new difficulty passing urine or loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness around the groin or anus, or severe or rapidly worsening leg weakness. In a US emergency, call 911. New or increasing weakness, especially in both legs, needs urgent medical assessment.
Sciatica appointments in Holladay and support online
- In-person PT: 4890 Highland Dr, Holladay, UT 84117, serving Greater Salt Lake City. See clinic details.
- Between visits: we agree on what to practice and when to check back, based on your response and goals.
- Virtual coaching: direct video calls with a PT, an exercise program with video demonstrations and access to messaging between visits. Explore coaching from anywhere; we’ll confirm the appropriate format before booking.
We are a cash-pay, out-of-network practice and provide a superbill you can submit to your insurer for possible reimbursement. Learn how out-of-network care works.
Your physical therapist
Dr. Emily Warren, DPT, Cert. MDT, founded Mindful Movement PT in 2021. She has practiced PT since 2012, with neurological rehabilitation experience and a transition to spine-focused orthopedic care in 2020.
Explore our patient guides · Appointment locations and formats
Google review: Susan W.
“My pain has decreased, my confidence is much higher and overall quality of life improved.”
Free Case Review
Let’s talk about your symptoms and what you want to do more comfortably.
Leave your name and number. We’ll call or text to arrange a free conversation about what you want to get back to and whether care with Dr. Emily fits. You don’t need to choose a treatment first.
Local or virtual: In-person PT in Holladay, serving Greater Salt Lake City. Virtual health and wellness coaching is available from anywhere.
Your free case review can happen by phone or video. If you choose to proceed with PT, your first assessment is a separate 60-minute visit.
Ready to begin? Request a Free Case Review · Call/text (385) 332-4939.