Biographies
Denise Schwartz, PT, CIMT, CAFS, CFGS, Owner
Denise opened The Manual Touch PT in August of 2010, and her whole body approach to health uses traditional and nontraditional PT methods to assist her patients in overcoming pain and improving quality of life. She began her career working in a level 1 trauma hospital for 14 years. She focused her skill development in the outpatient area, treating a variety of orthopedic and neurological patients.
Denise has taken more than 5,000 continuing education hours to further her PT knowledge in manual therapy, spinal care, running and functional rehabilitation (rehab). She is certified in Applied Functional Science and has extensive training in Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT), going beyond the required 1500 hours of continuing education in order to become certified.
She then went on to start CenterIMT Chicago. As part owner of three CenterIMT clinics, she organized numerous IMT courses and mentored other IMT therapists.
Denise has assisted at many manual therapy classes and has taught myofascial release and therapeutic taping to other physical therapists at continuing education courses. In addition, she teaches the physical therapy assistant students at Oakton community college about running.
Denise began running later in life which quickly became a passion. Despite multiple injuries common in older runners, she has gone on to complete many half marathons and 1 marathon. Denise’s specialties are: IMT, Applied Functional Science, cranial therapy, spinal conditions, functional rehab, kinesiotaping, running injury/prevention, and myofascial release.
Kevin Harang, PT
Kevin Harang, PT joined The Manual Touch in June 2020. As a practitioner with 30+ years of experience, Kevin uses a holistic approach to help his patients overcome pain and injury, using a combination of functional exercise, a variety of manual therapy techniques, and patient education. Kevin has vast experience working with patients in a variety of settings, including outpatient clinics, large teaching hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
Kevin graduated from Northwestern University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy. Realizing the importance of ongoing education, Kevin has taken over a thousand hours of continuing education and inservice training, with an emphasis on manual therapy and exercise techniques for neck/spine, shoulder, hip/knee, and ankle/foot. In his spare time he enjoys swimming, bicycling, running and golfing. In 2019 Kevin completed the Chicago marathon.
