Laura Disenhaus, PT, DOMP, DScO is a Licenced Physiotherapist and Osteopathic Manual Practitioner. “Osteopathic Manual Practitioner” is the designation for Canadian-trained osteopaths in Ontario. Laura has advanced pelvic physiotherapy and advanced osteopathy training in gynecology, obstetrics, and andrology conditions.

• Physiotherapist (University of Toronto) since 1988, licensed in Ontario and New York State
• Osteopathic Manual Practitioner, DOMP, Canadian College of Osteopathy, Thesis 2010 on Chronic Constipation
• Previous instructor for New York University School of Continuing Education in Physical Therapy
• Previous lecturer for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Rehabilitation
• Current Teaching Assistant for Canadian College of Osteopathy
• Past craniosacral therapy teaching assistant at the Upledger Institute (New York)
• Manual lymphatic drainage specialist since 1995
• Member Canadian Physiotherapy Association, Women’s Health and Pain Science divisions
• Member Ontario Association of Osteopathic Manual Practitioners
• Member of the American Academy of Osteopaths
• Member International Pelvic Pain Society (IPPS)
• Member Canadian Society for Pelvic Medicine
• Member National Vulvodynia Association (NVA)
• Member Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA).

Laura Disenhaus, PT, DOMP, DScO obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in biology/psychology from the University of Western Ontario before going on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Physiotherapy (BSc(PT)) from the University of Toronto. As well, Laura is a graduate of the Canadian College of Osteopathy, obtaining her DOMP/DScO in 2010 after presenting her thesis on osteopathic treatment for chronic constipation.

Laura has extensive experience in various areas having worked in hospital settings (Hospital for Sick Children Burn Unit, and Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City) as well as in private practice since 1999, and was an instructor for New York University Physical Therapy department and a guest lecturer for New York’s Touro and Downstate College Physical Therapy departments (oncology). 

Laura has advanced post-graduate pelvic physiotherapy training in the United States and Canada through Herman and Wallace, the first accredited teachers in pelvic physiotherapy in North America, and advanced courses through the Women’s Health Division of the American Physical Therapy Association, as well as with Marie Josee Lord and Claudia Brown in Ontario. She also has post-graduate training in the Osteopathic approach to obstetrics and fertility, including advanced visceral manipulation and lymphatic drainage, through courses in Canada and Europe.

Her current areas of specialization include chronic pelvic pain and dysfunction in men and women, infertility, coccyx pain, and digestive disorders (irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, reflux).

Detailed Background

From working in the burn unit at the Hospital for Sick Children and the sports clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, to working with cancer patients and running the off-site lymphedema clinic at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, to then leading a post-treatment joint replacement program for Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and on to private practice first in Manhattan and then in Toronto, Laura has extensive medical and practical experience as a physiotherapist. 

At the same time as working and teaching in New York City, she became interested in alternative complementary therapies, first becoming a Registered Polarity Practitioner, and then a Craniosacral Therapist. Laura became teaching assistants for both the Polarity program and the Upledger Institute while still practicing in Manhattan; then, given that both these therapies were founded by osteopaths, and wanting to pursue traditional osteopathic training, she returned to Toronto, to establish her private practice here while attending the Canadian College of Osteopathy. 

She attended the Canadian College of Osteopathy from 2003 to 2008, graduating in 2010 by completing her thesis on chronic constipation and osteopathic treatment. Laura is now a teaching assistant at the College in Toronto.

While living in New York, Laura became very interested in pelvic floor problems and began training in pelvic physiotherapy both in United States and Ontario, and then continued training in both osteopathic and physiotherapy approaches to these issues.