About Our Approach
AT HANDS ON HEALTH, WE PRACTICE IN A DIFFERENT WAY.
We offer a supportive approach through collaboration across our dedicated team. By tapping into each HOH team member’s unique expertise and skills, we are able to customize treatment plans to each patient’s individual needs.
We believe in providing treatment that targets the root issue and improves function, which means we aren’t simply treating or masking symptoms. Our goal is to have our patients leave their visits feeling better, stronger, and fully empowered.
LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. KELLY AND THE TEAM
About Dr. Kelly
Dr. Kelly Davis has over 15 years of experience as an orthopedic manual physical therapist. With her warm, empathetic approach, she holds a healing space for each of her patients, serving as an intuitive listener and movement expert combined into one provider.
After graduating with her doctorate and manual therapy certification, Dr. Kelly completed a three-year post-doctoral fellowship in manual therapy. From her experience, she found that patients who received one-on-one care improved faster with fewer visits and greater satisfaction.
In 2017, when her daughter was one year old, Dr. Kelly founded Hands on Health in New Orleans, Louisiana, a concierge manual physical therapy business that delivers highly individualized treatment and connects with each patient to improve their quality of life.
Evolving from decades of training and experience, including a post-doctoral Fellowship in Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy, Dr. Kelly is the only therapist to offer her progressive blend of diverse healing methods that address the mind and body.
This includes yoga, Reiki energy healing, manual therapy, acupressure, dry needling, craniosacral therapy, intentional breathing, relaxation techniques, ancient healing practices, and more.
As her practice continues to grow, patients and medical professionals within the niche of holistic medicine seek out Dr. Kelly’s unique skill set. She bridges a distinct gap in healthcare, weaving together integrative healing and manual therapy to treat each patient’s mind-body-spirit while remaining rooted in a scientific, evidence-based approach.
Her method not only relieves pain but also arms patients with self-care practices they can use in daily life.
Dr. Kelly loves to enrich the community through collaborative projects, teaching and learning with skilled healers, integrative functional medicine practitioners, bodyworkers, and local entrepreneurs. The most rewarding facet of her work is helping people break through their limitations to feel healthy and whole again and achieve an internal state of balanced healing.
"Dr. Kelly took time to listen carefully, explore possibilities of different diagnoses, ask thoughtful questions, and ensure that her treatment plan for me was customized to my needs."
Meet the Team
Amelia Embley, MPT, Clinic Director
Amelia graduated from LSU Health Science Center and has 20 years of manual therapy and orthopedic experience. She brings her clinical expertise to the orthopedic clinic with her specialty training in Functional Movement Systems. Amelia excels at using the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) as screening and diagnostic tools to systematically assess her patients’ movement.
To expand her knowledge and clinical skill set, Amelia has taken years of manual therapy and orthopedic courses, earning additional certifications in dry needling, Graston and ASTYM, Active Release Technique, and Parkinson's Disease Big and Loud training.
In the private practice setting, Amelia often found that patients with the most one-on-one treatment time improved at an accelerated rate. By teaming up Hands On Health, she is able to offer completely individual-focused care in a one-on-one capacity.
Inger Tusa
Inger is a mobile concierge physical therapist, which allows her to care for patients in their home settings. A native to Metairie, Louisiana, Inger received her B.S. in Biology at UNO and then earned her Masters of Science at LSU P.T. School. For a decade, Inger worked as both Team Leader and Rehab Director at River Parishes Hospital.
In 2012, Inger began home health physical therapy and since 2017, she has exclusively provided care to patients in their homes. She is dedicated to the profession because she sees how improving her patients’ mobility and function also improves their overall well-being and happiness.
Inger‘s focus is in treating the geriatric population in functional mobility, fall prevention, post-op training, and pain intervention. Since Inger is mobile, she is able to make home modifications for safety and fall prevention, create a physical therapy plan with the support of family members when necessary, and practice daily living activities in a comfortable environment.
Danielle Paciera, LDN, RDN, CCN
Danielle is a licensed and board-certified clinical nutritionist and registered dietitian with over 20 years of experience in both clinical settings and private practice. She maintains a successful integrative nutrition private practice in New Orleans, offering her unique approach of “root-cause nutrition.”
Danielle works to identify dysfunctional health patterns at the root of a person’s imbalance, and then promotes healing with an integration of mind-body approaches, evidence-based nutraceuticals, blood chemistry analysis, and nutrition and lifestyle counseling. Her collaboration with Dr. Kelly’s manual therapy practice aims to improve patients’ gut health at all levels.
In addition, Danielle offers nutritional consultations for corporate employees and healthcare professionals, as well as on-site grocery shopping visits. She believes in educating her clients on how to shop seasonally and make healthy choices that improve their well-being from the inside out.
Combining her expertise and experience with her passion for helping others, Danielle devotes ample time to supporting each patient in achieving their personal health goals so they can feel better, function better, and live longer, more fulfilling lives.
Danielle is in-house on Mondays at HOH. Currently, Danielle schedules appointments through her website, 365 Vitality.
Brad Holstein
Brad is a New Orleans native with seven years of clinical experience in orthopedics and over 10 years as a personal trainer. Working in crowded outpatient orthopedic clinics has helped Brad appreciate how precious and beneficial one-on-one time with his patients can truly be. He enjoys being able to dedicate all of his attention and focus to his patients within Hands on Health. While practicing physical therapy, Brad continued his education with coursework to improve his skills such as Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), dry needling, and instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization.
Blending his love for athletics, functional fitness, strength training, and hands on manual therapy into his treatments, Brad helps to empower his patients by helping them understand how strong and resilient the human body can be.
Lauren Davis Condon, OT
Lauren received a bachelor of science in psychology at UNO followed by a Masters of Occupational Therapy at LSU Health Sciences Center. For the last 13 years, she has worked with the geriatric population through skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehab facilities and the home health setting. Working exclusively in home health with elderly patients for the past decade, Lauren aims to maximize the quality of life for her patients as they age. She loves implementing a functional focus to therapy that involves incorporating personal lifestyle interests.
Lauren focuses on core balance and upper body strength as a foundation for a healthy approach to all functional movement. She enjoys incorporating a dynamic approach to treating the head, neck and shoulders as one collective unit to strengthen and stretch for increased motility to the body. The home setting allows for creativity, gearing treatments to the patient’s interest while gaining strength, balance, coordination, and, of course, safety awareness.
Marilyn Ong, DPT
Dr. Marilyn Ong earned her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of Vermont in 2022. During her comprehensive training, she gained invaluable experience in inpatient rehabilitation at Berkshire Medical Center and outpatient orthopedics at two private practice clinics in Burlington, Vermont. This diverse background allowed her to refine her skills in postural restoration, understanding postural adaptations, and their impact on muscular development.
Marilyn is passionate about providing personalized, one-on-one patient care and believes in an integrative treatment approach that combines evidence-based complementary therapies to address the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Her diverse treatment methods empower patients with the tools they need for success in managing their conditions.
She excels in teaching patients how to incorporate effective management strategies into their daily lives, utilizing techniques such as manual therapy, dry needling, postural restoration, breathing exercises, vestibular retraining, and various orthopedic and neurological methods. With a strong focus on overuse injuries and non-surgical treatments for the spine, hips, knees, and shoulders, as well as aquatic therapy, Marilyn is dedicated to delivering individualized care at the cutting edge of science and healing arts.
Joining the Hands-on Health team, Dr. Ong is enthusiastic about providing concierge care in the clinic, aquatic environments, or within patients' homes, ensuring a holistic approach to rehabilitation and wellness.
Chris Weber
Chris joined Hands on Health with a passion for service and a deep, personal understanding of what it means to navigate chronic illness. After earning his business degree from LSU in 2016, he sought a meaningful path that aligned with his values. This search took him across the world, where he spent three transformative years teaching English in South Korea. It was there that Chris discovered his calling: supporting others through compassion, connection, and care.
Upon returning to New Orleans, Chris faced significant health challenges of his own. As a patient at Hands on Health, he experienced firsthand the complexity and frustration of living with chronic pain—and the hope that comes with truly integrative care. His journey from patient to team member brings a rare empathy to his role as office manager and administrative assistant. Chris understands how hard it can be to advocate for yourself in the medical system, especially with conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and other invisible illnesses. He strives to make every patient feel seen, heard, and supported.
A quote he likes to live by is:
"The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is today."
Extended Network
We are the functional movement experts. If necessary, we refer patients to physicians for further medical diagnosis or assessment. We work within a network of local holistic providers, accessing a continuum of care to best fit your needs.
Our integrative network extends beyond Hands on Health to address specific needs, such as mental health including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. We believe this integrative approach supports our patients with mind-body physical therapy methods that are unique to our practice.