Healthy Aging Physical Therapy Mission
Physical Therapy: With patient-centered planning at the core of each physical therapy plan, the Healthy Aging Physical Therapy mission is to enable each patient to remain healthy and well as they age. All Healthy Aging Physical Therapy goals center around maintaining functional independence, prevention of falls and the achievement of a rewarding quality of life.
Continuity of Care: By providing comprehensive post-therapy fitness options, the Healthy Aging Physical Therapy mission is enable all Healthy Aging Physical Therapy clients to remain committed to their health and successful in maintaining their achievements well beyond their physical therapy course of care.
Education: Committed to the education of the therapist, the patient the community, the Healthy Aging Physical Therapy mission is to provide a service of health promotion not only to the individual, but to the community as a whole.
Healthy Aging Physical Therapy Values
The core values, and the values I strive to live my life by and design my business around, are Strength, Support and Stability.
Strength:
I’ve always found myself striving to be strong. As a person, in my athletic pursuits as a swimmer and as a physical therapy clinician. Strength fosters resilience. When life becomes challenging, physically or emotionally, it is your strength that helps you remain resolute, that helps you achieve your goals and remain whole when you emerge on the other side. This is a value I work on daily in myself. It is an attribute I work on at each visit with my patients. And it is a value I wish for as I develop my business.
Support:
I’ve been in the ‘helping’ field as long as I can remember. My first job was a mother’s helper when I was somewhere around nine or ten. I started volunteering at eleven as a swim teacher for kids with disabilities. I continued in this role until I left for college. I worked at various camps and recreation programs for people with disabilities from my teens into my early twenties and when it came time to choose a career, it felt like a given to make a choice within the helping professions. There certainly weren’t any other careers that piqued my interest, and the only jobs that felt worthwhile to pursue were ones that would allow me to support other people. I strive to support my friends and family when they struggle, and I feel like being able to support my patients as they recover from illness and injuries is best part of my job. In opening my own practice, I have given myself the flexibility to expand the ways I support my patients. I have developed programing to support patients before, during and after physical recoveries and under a greater umbrella of health and wellness, and can now provide support during my visits without the constrains of productivity standards and other factors that limit how I choose to spend my time.
Stability:
Stability is successful maintenance of balance. Stability has far reaching implications in all areas of health - mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. While some people yearn for freedom, flexibility, or adventure, and while I also value all of those things, I believe that you can only truly grow when you have a stable base to keep you grounded. I’ve always been drawn to images of trees with giant sprawling roots, and wear a necklace each day with that depicts a tree of life, embellished with my children’s initials. I feel most at peace in the woods, among tall trees, in fresh air, on a clear fall day. While I can’t completely put into words how why I feel this way, I can tell you how it makes me feel. It makes me feel calm. It makes me feel like I can see the ‘forest for the trees’ - it helps me put my problems in perspective and see my world on a larger scale. When I’m stressed, or overwhelmed, I can take a walk in the woods and emerge feeling renewed and optimistic. While I don’t consider myself spiritual, per say, there is a passage that always catches my eye during the high holidays each year. Paraphrased, it reads:
“Will you be troubled every passing wind or be the calm within the storm?”
I strive to live my life as the calm within the storm - and want the very same for my patients. I want for them to experience stability in their health by providing them with an education beyond what a physical typical therapist may provide. I want them to be stable, literally, so they can avoid falls and remain free from injury. I want to be able to support each of them, to help them develop the strength and the stability they need to age successfully. I believe these values, my core values, are what makes HAE/PT special and I look forward to sharing them with you.
The Healthy Aging Physical Therapy logo has an image of a Tree of Life. This choice reflects concepts central to healthy aging - roots that ground you, a strong trunk to support you, and branches and leaves that can only develop over time reflecting the experience and wisdom that comes with age.