Manual therapy refers to specialized therapeutic procedures applied by the physical therapist in order to help increase function, ROM, pliability, improve circulation, reduce inflammation and effusion, and regain appropriate muscular control for a region of the body.  These would include passive range of motion stretching, manual soft tissue mobilization, deep tissue friction massage, myofasical release, manual traction, joint mobilization, trigger point release, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASM), active release technique (ART),  as well as other hands on techniques.

These are the most common treatment types: