Reactivate Muskoka helps you recover from injury as quickly—and effectively—as possible

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When you’re an active person, injury and illness can be frustrating and the desire to get back to doing the things you love to do can push you to try too soon…landing you almost right back where you started from. It doesn’t have to be that way.

That’s where Reactivate Muskoka comes in. The new multi-disciplinary rehabilitation clinic, which includes sport and exercise medicine physicians, chiropractors, massage therapy and physiotherapy, works with people of all ages and activity levels to treat injuries and illnesses and help them get back to their formerly active selves as quickly as possible.

“The overall goal is to get people reactivated so that they can get back to living and enjoying the things they do, whether it be gardening, hiking, cycling, swimming, or training for the next big competition that they are aiming for,” says Dr. Rich Trenholm, sports medicine physician and co-owner of Reactivate Muskoka with chiropractor Dr. Chad Barber.

But it’s more than just getting you back to where you were before injury or illness prevented you from living life to the fullest. The Reactivate team, through targeted plans that may include one element or many elements of what the clinic provides, takes patients beyond that point with proper biomechanical (human movement patterns) analysis and correction so that “they may actually improve beyond what their normal baseline level of function was,” says Trenholm. “Patients are part of the team as well since only with their ongoing feedback will we be able to treat them efficiently and effectively.”

Trenholm and Barber met about five years ago through their shared interest in triathlons, and found that they also shared a vision for how to treat injuries.

“When we were treating patients, we were using all the different services because each has benefit and when you put them together you get much more efficient and longer lasting care, and patients reach their goals faster,” says Barber. Having all of those services under one roof allows the team to “have open discussions about the patient and make sure that everybody is working toward the same goals. It also makes it easier for the patients because every service is all in one building.”

Trenholm adds that he was frustrated by the “considerable amount of fragmented care that went on when it came to treating muscle, tendon, ligament, joint, and arthritis-related injuries in both active and recreational individuals. People went one place for physiotherapy, one place for chiropractic, one place for massage, one place for acupuncture, and so on… The patient continues to follow along the path of the treatment, with conflicting treatment plans from all of the therapists. Reactivate aims to minimize that and offer, under one roof, the ability for a client to seamlessly move from one treatment modality to the next or have them integrated for the best possible treatment effect.”

Huntsville is the ideal community for a clinic like Reactivate Muskoka, notes Barber, “simply because of how vibrant and active the community is. We have high-level athletes, we have weekend athletes, we have people who garden every day, we have people who walk a couple kilometres every day. People are active in their own way and they are usually the type of people who want to take care of their body the most. Huntsville was just a natural fit for this type of clinic.”

Trenholm and Barber are joined in the clinic by sport medicine physician, Dr. Pierre Mikhail, chiropractor Dr. Matt Diston, registered massage therapist Mark Lewis, and physiotherapy resident Carly Litchfield. Kandis Dacosta is the smiling face who will greet you when you arrive for your appointment.

Reactivate’s model of care is based on all of the modalities that are available through a clinic including chiropractic therapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, physiotherapy, Shockwave therapy, cryo compression therapy, and custom and off-the-shelf bracing, notes Trenholm.

“I think one thing that sets us apart is that we are very aware of the need for therapy once you have finished physiotherapy. Most people think that once you are done the various therapy modalities that you are able to just jump right back into your activity or sport,” says Trenholm. “Often this leads to re-injury because your body is not functionally ready. So we do sport-specific rehabilitation in order to best prepare the person to reintegrate themselves into their activity or their sport at the full potential.”

The practitioners at Reactivate Muskoka are all athletes themselves and that makes them uniquely positioned to understand their patients’ injuries and recovery.

“We know the types of injuries people sustain and we know the urgency in care that they have—they want to get better as quickly as possible so they can continue and we understand that,” says Barber. “That’s why we want to utilize the different strengths of the different practitioners so that we can help them keep training or get back to training as quickly as possible.”

The Reactivate Muskoka team in the physio room (from left) Dr. Matt Diston, Carly Litchfield, Dr. Chad Barber, Mark Lewis and Kandis Dacosta (Missing from photo: Drs. Rich Trenholm and Pierre Mikhail)

Appointments for most of Reactivate Muskoka’s services don’t require a referral—you can book online or by calling the clinic. The exception is the sport medicine physicians. Because they are specialists, you’ll need a referral from your family physician or nurse practitioner and their cost is often covered by OHIP. Check your health plan for coverage for the other services.

The clinic is open six days a week, closed only on Sundays. Thanks to requests from patients, evening and Saturday hours are available.

Learn more about Reactivate Muskoka at reactivatemuskoka.com and stay up-to-date by following the clinic on Facebook or Instagram @reactivatemuskoka.