Body Tuning & Physical Therapy

Dr. Tatz is the real deal. This man has helped me recover tremendously from two joint injuries. He is the most legit physical therapist — full hands-​on work with the Doctor himself…

I have known Dr. Tatz for at least ten years. Every member of my family has gone to him for treatment over the years with wonderful results. He is knowledgeable and caring. His «hands on therapy works! He is the BEST at what he does & I would not hesitate to recommend him.

I came to see Mr. Tatz with neck and back pain. During our first session he did not ask for a case history nor did he have a conversation regarding my problem. He just automatically began working and if I asked any questions he told me to be quiet. He spends 15 min with you and then uses a machine for the rest of the time. He is extremely unprofessional and rude. He does not answer any questions and literally screams at you if you ask anything. Also he sees three people on one time. He is very pricy. Doesn’t take any insurance. I would definitely not recommend him.

I’m a professional dancer, and I constantly have lower back issues. Under a friend’s recommendation, I went to visit him. I am very glad that I gave it a try, and I felt that the tension on my lower back released after the first visit and walked out of his office with a new body! I made the second appt right away, because I know my body needed it! I recommend Dr Tatz, if you have serious problems on your body!

I purchased 3 visits through Social Living.
The first time I’ve had an appointment with Dr. Shmuel Tatz, when I came at the designated time to discover that he left home not feeling well half an hour earlier, but nobody bothered to notify me.
I have been suggested to receive a treatment from Dr. Tatz colleague, which I agreed to as my back pain was killing me and it wasn’t clear when can I have another appointment. I agreed to it and asked Dr. Tatz to call me the next day. 15 minutes of that treatment I was getting heat, something that I could have done at home and I didn’t feel like its worth paying for.
The second time, I have sent my husband with a neck pain. He was treated by Dr. Tatz, who told him that all those people doing yoga is the source of half of the problems that he sees with patients, but he didn’t specify what exactly my husband should stop or start doing. He didn’t explain what exactly he is doing to him, nor did he say what should happen next.
The 3^rd time I came for the appointment, previously verifying that Dr. Tatz is indeed there and that I get an appointment with him and not with his colleague. When I got to the spot, I was told again that he left half an hour before I came as he wasn’t feeling well. Again I asked to call me back, which he never did.
I think that maybe Dr. Tatz was a thing a while ago, but it seems that the good reputation went to his head.
I would really avoid coming to him again.

Dr. Schmuel Tatz is an incredibly talented physical therapist. He possesses a gift for finding the root of your pain and treating it at the source, and also for helping you gain a sense of awareness of your own body to prevent further problems. I am sharing my stories here in hopes of more people discovering the joy of living pain free through the work of Dr. Tatz.
I first went to see Dr. Tatz in 2012 after a recommendation from a ballet teacher of mine. I was in a great deal of knee pain from a patellar tracking problem. After a few sessions and the simple home exercises Dr. Tatz recommended for me, my knee started feeling much better. One session, after he worked on my knee for a bit, he asked how it was feeling, and I replied it was doing much better. He then said, «Okay, now let’s work on your back.» I was surprised to hear this, so he began to explain that he could tell that my spine was a bit out of alignment, and that we should do some preventative work so that I would not have problems later on. We did a few more sessions working on my back and knee, and I left with a sense of relief that my knee pain was finally diminishing.
3 years later, I had long since forgotten about Dr. Tatz’s recommendation for my back exercises, and low and behold, I injured my low back lifting a heavy object. I sought advice from a sports medicine doctor, who said he thought it might be a disc problem, and recommended 6 – 8 weeks of physical therapy at a neighboring facility. I followed suit, and the therapists gave me a series of exercises designed to strengthen my core, as they believed that weak lower abdominal muscles were the root of my problem. This surprised me, as I am a very physically fit individual, but I followed suit nonetheless. Over the next 8 weeks, I began to feel stronger in my core, but my lower back pain was not ceasing. It would seem to get better one day, but then be worse again the next. I began to feel very depressed, as it seemed my low back pain was becoming a chronic problem.
It had been 3 months since my injury, and I began to lose hope that I would ever return to my normal activities without a great deal of pain. It was then that I remembered Dr. Tatz, and I quickly made an appointment. Upon entering for my first session in 3 years with Dr. Tatz, as I was taking off my coat and before I uttered a word, he said, «Ah, you are here to work on your back.» With a look of amazement upon my face, I replied yes, and I told him about the first round of physical therapy I had finished two weeks before. He was not surprised that the other physical therapy treatment was not working. He said the problem was not that my muscles were not strong enough, it was that my spine was not in the proper alignment, and thus the muscles were always working hard to try to correct this, thus causing my constant pain and muscle spasms.
I should note that I had also seen an orthopedic surgeon the same week and finally had x-​rays taken of the area. The x-​rays completely confirmed Dr. Tatz’s theory: they showed no problems with my discs as the first sports medicine doctor had thought, but rather a «straightening of the lower lordosis», which means that the lower curvature of my spine was slightly flattened out, exactly as Dr. Tatz had described before I ever had the x-​rays done.
I’ve been to Dr. Tatz for 7 visits this year, and I’m thrilled to say my back pain has completely disappeared. My posture has also greatly improved, which was a problem I wasn’t even aware of until I went to Dr. Tatz.
Even after all that however, this is the most amazing thing I have experienced with Dr. Tatz: I was in a session last week, and he asked if I had any pain here, and was pointing to an area between my ribcage, around where my stomach is. I replied no, that I didn’t think so. I did not have any pain there at the time. He asked are you sure, you have some vertebrae here that are not happy. I then thought about it for a few minutes, and it dawned on me that I had been in the hospital just five weeks earlier with incredible abdominal pain. After a day in the ER and numerous tests, the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with me, and sent me home with some pain medication. The pain went away and did not return, and I did not think about again it until Dr. Tatz asked.
I relayed this story to him, and he laughed with a knowing smile, and said, «Ah yes, the mind forgets, but the body does not forget!!» This last story is further confirmation that Dr. Tatz is a true master of his field. Just by simply touching an area on my back, and without any fancy tests or imaging, he could tell that I had had incredible stomach pain in my recent past.
I greatly encourage anyone with pain anywhere in their body to see Dr. Tatz for an appointment, and give him my highest recommendation.

I found a groupon for this place and the idea of «body tuning» like a musical instrument sounded alluring to me. I checked Dr. Tatz’s website and hearing the story of a dancer who was healed completely after an injury sounded amazing. Although I’m not a dancer but that kind of healing sounded intriguing.
So I bought the groupon for two sessions. I booked one immediately. Its in a nice building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Nice interior, kept up and clean. Interestingly music was blasting out of the wall mount speakers everywhere. It was unusually loud but at least it was opera which is my favorite. The receptionist said that Dr. Tatz likes to concentrate on his work while listening to the music. My appointment was at 11:30 am. Dr. Tatz came a little after 11:35 and I went to the room with him. Since it was my first time I thought there will be a discussion/​consultation regarding my condition but he immediately asked me to lay on his table. he is an older gentleman with very heavy accent which was a little challenging for me to understand sometimes. He is eccentric but nice and pleasant.
He spent about 10 minutes in the room with me, asking questions and working on my body and making some recommendations. Then his assistant-​in-​training came and she spend another 10 minutes with me by herself. She was very nice and courteous as well. the body work was similar to regular massage except I was fully cloths.
Then Dr. Tatz came back to the room, put an electrical pulsating device (the likes of what chiropractor use) on my lower back as it has been a problem area for me and left the room. After 10 minutes its started to get hot on my skin and a shooting pain went down my leg. It was very uncomfortable, I was alone in the room and the music was blasting! I didn’t know exactly what’s on my back as I was face down on the bed and could not see. I did’t want to just rip it off so I started to call for Dr. Tatz. The music was so loud they could not hear me. It took couple of minutes and me screaming «Doctor», «hello», «anybody»… for him to come to the room and take the device off my back.
All he said was that you have another appointment right? You are done for today!!! At this point I was in a state of panic. I came out and just told the receptionist that this was not ok to leave me in the room like that and the whole thing was only 35 minutes. She was very sweet, apologized and promised that this will be addressed. Later that day when i got home I had a voice mail stating that since your appointment was so short, Dr. Tatz will add «5 minutes» to your next appointment, that’s it and nothing else was addressed.
I found the whole experience extremely uncomfortable, unsafe and scary. The extreme lack of care was disgusting to me. He is running a therapy mill! He spent only 10 minutes with me during which constantly check the next room where her assistant in-​training was working on someone else and then he disappeared completely after that!
This was a very comprehensive and super honest description of my experience, use your own judgment!

Loved this place. Simply amazing what Tatz can do for pain. Must be why they’re so dang expensive!!!
Also had some scheduling issues which I was really flexible with which was a little annoying. Won’t be going back simply because I cannot afford it not because I don’t want to. As for him being cocky, he has a gift, he is aware of his gift, didn’t feel offended in the least bit but can see how some may have been made to feel in such a way.

I had been having extensive trouble with the more physical aspects of my violin playing for almost two years, and the renowned violin maker David Segal recommended that I pay a visit to Dr. Tatz, a world famous «body tuner» located in the heart of Manhattan. Dr. Tatz is no ordinary physical therapist — he is a true master of his craft, and he understands not only the fine details of how the human body works and how it can be manipulated and repaired, but also the specific needs of musicians, dancers, athletes, and other entertainers who rely heavily upon their own bodies as an expressive medium. He knows that we rely on our bodies for our professions, and his treatment is designed to get us back in the game as quickly as possible, when taking time off is not an option. Many doctors and physical therapists do not understand that if we were to take two or three months off of our jobs, we would not be able to make the rent — Dr. Tatz understands not only this, but his comprehension of the human body in general is unrivaled by any other physician or therapist I have ever been to.
When I first started going to Dr. Tatz, I could barely play my violin for more than fifteen minutes at a time without being afflicted by debilitating pain that would sometimes take hours to subside; my mobility was severely limited to the point that even mundane tasks had become difficult, such as using dining utensils, or holding a toothbrush, or even trying to write with a pen. After my first session with Dr. Tatz, my mobility increased by what I estimate to be about seventy-​five percent, and I was able to play the violin for an hour the next day. I went back for another appointment the day after that, and my mobility was increased even further, and the next day, I was able to practise the violin for an hour and a half, and my pain was greatly nullified. After three weeks of sessions, I was able to play the violin for at least three to four hours every day, and almost all my pain was gone; my mobility was almost completely restored. It has been a month since I stopped going to Dr. Tatz for regular treatments, and continuing with the exercises he prescribed to me, I am able to play the violin for seven to eight hours a day with little to no pain, and I see improvement every week. The residual pain I feel is as a result of inflammation that built up over two years’ time; continuing with Dr. Tatz’s recommendations and exercises has been reducing my inflammation gradually over the last few weeks, and now I am able to play with more freedom and comfort than I have felt in the last two years; my violin teachers comment that I have made more improvement in the last month alone than I made all last year.
I searched long and hard for a solution to my problems, spending hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars taking lessons with various teachers who claimed they could solve my pain problems, seeing Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais specialists who claimed that if I listened to everything they said about body awareness, my pain would dissipate (end result: if anything, my pain got worse after seeing these people).
The month I spent going to Dr. Tatz was, in my opinion, as important to my well-​being and to my artistry as a full year of violin lessons.

I took my grandfather Bernando Lapallo to see Rob Jokel to see about some annoying back pain he had after a fall about a year ago. He had complained that is was painful when laying down. Rob performed some very gentle crania sacral work and voila no more pain. Apparently there were a couple of vertebrae turned the wrong way and he gently with the emphasis on gently helped realign them. Bernando said that he felt no more discomfort at the end of the 90 minute session. To perform this work on a man who is over one hundred years old is quite something. We will be back for a «tune up» the next time Bernando is in New York. Thanks Rob!

I had to come to NYC for a month for work. My body was totally out of whack on the right side. Severe shoulder, neck and jaw pain on the right side. My mother told me about Shmuel Tatz. I decided to try it. Thank God I did. He really put me back together. The whole experience is a little odd since he is a 70 year old man with a heavy Lithuanian accent with all these machines and gadgets with lasers and magnets etc. But whatever it was it really helps. I highly recommend going if you are in any pain at all.

Dr. Tazt is the most wonderful healer. As a physician myself, I have had the opportunity of knowing about many physical therapists in NY– both from the results of hundreds of my patients, as well as having visited several therapists myself after my own knee surgery in early 2010. Being a physically active person, it was extremely frustrating to not be able to go back adequately to my activities even 8 – 9 months after an uncomplicated laparascopic knee meniscus surgery. Within two weeks after treatment with Dr. Tazt, my knee mobility as well as overall strength and function of the involved leg improved tremendously, and I am now joyously back to my physical activities at about 90% (it was at about 60% at the 9 month post-​op mark prior to treatment with Dr. Tazt) — and have faith that this will continue to improve. Additionally, since the skeleton and mind are interlinked, the treatment has also had an amazing effect on my physicality and well being as a whole.
THANK YOU DR. TAZT!