I am going to tell you why I walked away from a corporate physical therapy clinic.
Physical therapy is a very rewarding and satisfying profession for me. My experience and education that I gained as a clinician was very valuable and helped me become a better therapist and movement teacher. I loved my role of empowering people to live healthy lives.
Despite my love, there were aspects of physical therapy I loved that were not being able to be maintained in the fast paced orthopedic physical therapy clinic, due to restrictions by the insurance company and high patient volumes. Most of these physical therapy clinics were largely focused on the numbers, meaning that I was required to treat a certain number of patients each day and only have 30 minutes to see two patients within that time range.
There were days when I was treating a 78-year-old lady with fall risks and an 18-year-old boy for ACL post-surgical rehabilitation within the same 30 minute time slot. Each individual patient required my focus and full attention to address their issue. I felt like I was being forced to make decisions that would compromise my patient's care. It was extremely hectic and stressful.
To be honest, it was challenging for me to give the high-quality standard of care that my patients deserved. In the end, this left me feeling frustrated and dissatisfied with the work I was doing in the clinic. A "number game" began to take over, this wasn't what I wanted for myself, so I made the difficult decision to walk away from the physical therapy clinic and start my own PT & Wellness studio with a lower patient volume, where people are more important than profits.
How I work with people now is what I had always envisioned as a physical therapist. I spend one hour with only one client at a time so that I get to know my client better and find each client’s unique movement patterns. This way I can teach how to move better in order to feel better, perform better and live better. Making an impact on people's lives is what drives me. My goal is to empower people to take control of their rehabilitation process and to have ownership of their body.