My Journey to Becoming a Dance Physical Therapist
This question has often been asked to me by my professors, colleagues, clients, and even strangers – why did you want to become a physical therapist? The typical response by most of us physical therapists tends to be, “I had injuries myself, I saw a physical therapist, really liked it, and could see myself becoming one”. There may be some truth to that in my story as well but I would like to dive deeper into my passion of becoming a dance physical therapist.
Prior to my initial curiosity with physical therapy, I vividly remember asking a dance teacher whom I admired if she knew of any local physical therapists that specifically worked with dancers. In high school and during the prime of my competition dance career, I dealt with multiple chronic overuse injuries. I desired to find a medical professional who understands how a dancer’s body moves, the challenging positions we put our bodies in, and just someone who truly understands and can relate to me as a dancer. Unfortunately I never found her.
The true inspiration of becoming a physical therapist started when I was actually pursuing a career as a commercial dancer in LA at the time. The physical therapy department of USC performed a study on dancers’ injuries and I participated as a research subject in the study. Their goal was to study the biomechanics of landing from a jump, such as a grand jeté. It was at this point my excitement grew because I saw two worlds combining for me.
Although the curiosity of learning about physical therapy was exciting and felt right, leaving LA to return to Colorado was a difficult decision and the first challenging decision I had to make on my own without the help of others. I went through quite an identity crisis of imagining my life long career as a dancer now shifting to something I really knew very little about at the time…but that is a topic for another blog post.
After returning to Colorado, I completed my undergrad degree at the University of Colorado, Boulder in Integrative Physiology. I then applied two times to PT school and unfortunately was not successful in getting into any program. Negative ruminating thoughts such as “is this ever going to happen for me?” was a common occurrence. But thanks to a great support system, I never gave up.
Little did I know that I would be led to another amazing career path of becoming an Athletic Trainer. I was finally accepted into an incredible graduate program, Masters of Athletic Training at Pacific University in Oregon. It was then that I fell in love with the profession of Athletic Training. I often dabbled with the idea of even applying to PT school, as being an ATC alone brought me joy. I decided to apply to PT school one last time and it was meant to be, I was finally accepted.
Physical therapy school was not easy - lots of failures, doubt, and illness. But persistence got me through to the finish line in addition to my amazing support system. What a joy to walk across that stage on graduation day and prove everyone wrong who told me “no” or had given up on me….which ultimately was myself most of the time.
Today I am proud to call myself both a Physical Therapist and an Athletic Trainer. I have my own practice in which I am living the dream of working with dancers. I may not have found her when I was young and needed her the most, however I grew up to be her.