FUNctional Physical Therapy, founded by Bala Pillai, provides pediatric physical therapy services; movement based learning readiness/enhancement programs (Brain Gym^®); programs to improve school grades (HeartMath) and services to address everyday stress management (HeartMath).

As a pediatric phsyical therapy service provider, we believe that play is essential to a child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. A child’s interactions with people and his/her environment determine the skills which are practiced and mastered. We use highly motivating play activities, with various levels of structure, to provide the kinds of challenges each child needs for further development across all areas of function.

We employ a variety of frames of reference during treatment including:

• Developmental - using materials, activities and age appropriate language to engage the child while facilitating developmental skills ( balance, coordination, sitting, standing, walking etc).
• Functional - increasing play repertoire.
• Classroom Skills – Pre writing skills, ability to scan the board, copy from the board, handwriting skills, seating consultation, enhancing brain potential for learning.

A common response from patients is "Your services are different—very practical , functional and educational”.

Our movement based learning readiness/enahancement programs (Brain Gym^®) are designed to help teachers, school systems and parents struggling with the challenge of motivating and teaching children reading, writing and arithmetic. Learning is often not perceived as enjoyable and challenging but as frustrating and drudgery. Brain Gym® creates immediate and lasting changes by actually building neurological bridges and pathways within the brain and body that assist in the completion of developmental processes. Brain Gym activities are helping significantly to reintroduce the feelings of joy, confidence and positive challenge into the learning process. Students, of all ages, who use Brain Gym improve their confidence and self-esteem, and ameliorate behavioral problems and attention deficit disorders.

We teach your child/student techniques for managing stess and anxiety. Why teach these techniques? Many young students are unprepared for the pressure of mandated exams and can become emotionally and/or physically upset, even weeks in advance. Because of this, their ability to learn new information and to recall and use what they have learned already is greatly inhibited. With TestEdge^® tools, techniques and strategies, students learn to overcome test anxiety, resignation and discouragement while at the same time improving listening and focusing skills.

Many people are noticing lately how time just seems to be speeding up, how everything is getting busier and busier and more and more responsibilites are being put into our schedules and that ofcourse brings us lots of stress and lots of overwhelm. HeartMath tools help you reduce your stress as go through out your day. When first learning the tools, it’s best used with the emWave^® personal stress reliever. This is a handheld tool that you can take through out the day, and as you use it it measures your body’s biological response to stress and it teaches you a technique that is called the quick coherence technique. It helps you balance your heart, your breath and your brain, and as it helps you align that, it creates a very powerful internal signal that is called coherence