Walt Fritz, PT

Walt Fritz, PT, is a leader in providing education in manual therapy in speech-language pathology, voice intervention, laryngeal disorders, breathing disorders, oral motor dysfunction, and related communities. Unlike historically more aggressive or tissue-based approaches, which view problems as the result of a single tissue or behavioral fault, Walt’s blended views allow newer models that point to multifactorial causes and effects. This model requires adaptation by most new practitioners, as lowering our view as the “expert” and elevating patient perspectives is not easy. However, a shared decision-making approach results in patient/client empowerment and boosts outcomes.

Walt has taught thousands of speech-language pathologists, vocal coaches, registered dental hygienists, massage therapists, physical therapists/physiotherapists, occupational therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, and ENTs his work through workshops worldwide. Casting such a wide net has added value to various rehabilitation settings and performance interventions, including positive results with world-renowned performers.

Walt makes his information available through live hands-on seminars, online courses, many podcasts, videos, articles, and his book, Manual Therapy in Voice and Swallowing: A Person-Centered Approach (Compton Publishing LTD.), with details here. Walt published the paper “The Mechanism of Action for Laryngeal Manual Therapies: The Need for an Update” in Current Opinion in Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery (2024) and is a contributing author for The Oxford Handbook of Voice Pedagogy, from Oxford University Press (early 2026).

Walt’s in-person classes are a lively blend of lectures, demonstrations, and immersive, hands-on learning that prepare the participants for application in their practice. He has a progression of online courses targeting his voice and swallowing curriculum, and a comprehensive online course for clinicians seeking a more general view of a shared decision-making model of non-manipulative manual therapy.

He holds an MA in Professional Practice from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UK), a BS in Physical Therapy, and a BA in Community Mental Health through the University at Buffalo (NY). His MA work advanced the academic credibility of the coursework he teaches to others. He is a research supervisor at the Voice Study Centre (UK), helping to spearhead research into manual therapy’s place in voice and related disorders. He sees patients through his Upstate New York practice for voice/swallowing-related problems and more general physical therapy-related concerns.

In addition to teaching classes internationally, Walt has contributed talks, workshops, and articles for:

British Voice Association (BVA) workshop presentation (July 2025)

Keynote Speaker: 2024 Newcastle (UK) Voice Conference.

The Voice Foundations Symposium (2017, 2019, 2021)

The Pan-American Vocology Association Conference (2021, 2023)

The British Voice Association Voice Clinics Forum (2021)

Numerous short course presentations for the Voice Study Centre (UK)

Leylek Online Conference (Turkish Speech Pathology, 2023)

Lecturer: The 3rd World Congress of Fascia (2023)

Registered Massage Therapists’ Association of British Columbia Manual Therapy Conference (Keynote Presenter, 2016)

“Focus on Myofascial Release for Head and Neck Disorders for Speech Pathologists: Voice, Speech, and Swallowing.” Presented at the 18th Annual Head and Neck Conference: Focus on Rehabilitation at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Lecture and hands-on presentations (2015).

“Myofascial Release: The Neck and Lower Back.” Presented to the Natural Health Practitioners of Canada (2015).

Speaking Inquiries

Walt is available for international seminars, speaking engagements, and customized hands-on learning experiences. Please contact for details. Since 2013, Walt has presented the Foundations in Manual Therapy: Voice and Swallowing Disorders to clinicians from around the world.

Treatment by Walt Fritz

Receive expert intervention from the person who teaches others.

Walt Fritz, PT, has been in private practice for over two decades and has been educating health professionals through person-centered manual therapy intervention since 2007. More recently, he has taught this work to speech-language pathologists and voice professionals to aid them in their interventions with patients dealing with voice and swallowing disorders, as well as the vocal performer. Walt now offers personalized, one-on-one treatments to people with specific vocal, swallowing, and related issues, along with more general physical therapy concerns, in his Lima, New York, clinic (near Rochester, NY). Walt and the thousands of therapists he has trained worldwide are helping improve the quality of life with everyone, from those most seriously challenged secondary to surgery, injury, or post-radiation changes to the highest level of elite vocalists. You can now receive treatment directly from the person who has trained these therapists in his approach.

Many treatment options are available for people traveling out of town for specialized help, including intensives (more than one session per day). For more information, please click here to be taken to Walt Fritz’s practice page.

Specific areas addressed may include:

  • Muscle tension dysphonia

  • Voice disorders

  • Vocal performance concerns

  • Breathing and airway problems

  • Oral motor dysfunction and delays

  • Tongue limitations

  • Swallowing problems (dysphagia)

  • Neck pain or loss of movement

  • Issues from a broader range of traditional physical therapy concerns, including lower back pain, headaches, and many other conditions.

A medical professional in gloves and a mask performs an oral check on a young woman wearing glasses during a medical examination, while two other women observe closely in a clinic or medical training setting.
A bald man with glasses, wearing a checkered shirt, smiling with his hand on his chin against a plain white background.

As a physical therapist (PT), I see the value in movement to stay healthy and restore function. However, movement takes many forms. The traditional PT view of movement is typically formalized exercise under the guise of or need for strengthening. “We need to make you stronger so that you have better stability,” and other phrases are often used to explain this belief. Such descriptions are popular beliefs on pain and movement disorders, but lack credibility when looking at the evidence. “Am I in pain because I’m weak? Do stronger people have less pain?” is a great way to examine this dilemma. While strengthening can work at times to reduce pain, it often misses the needs of many people.

I’ve used manual therapy as my primary intervention for decades, first as a standalone treatment and now as one blended with functional movement and performance. While I have recently moved on from “myofascial release” as the descriptor of what I use in my PT practice and what I teach health professionals, I continue to use that gentle, sustained stretch style. The reason for moving on from that description involves insufficient background science to support myofascial release. Having evolved from explanations that speak to fixing “issues in the tissues,” touch-based manual therapy is now seen as a broader form of intervention, where touch is viewed as a means of communication that allows the patient to have input into their issues and recovery.

My approach to physical therapy is to address areas that concern you the most or those that are most limiting to you through manual therapy work. Then, we try to craft a movement and exercise program that, along with home self-stretching strategies, improves the quality of life.

My physical therapy practice is here for you, whether you are a local resident or someone traveling in for more specialized and experienced care. Contact me for more details.

Walt Fritz, PT

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