Physical therapy is one of the fastest-growing careers in the country. One of the benefits of being a physical therapist is that it offers individuals the chance to have a meaningful impact on patients every single day. If you’re considering physical therapy as a career path, we’ve taken the time to ask some of our physical therapists and leaders across Results Physiotherapy to see what inspired them, what they enjoy about their day, and why they ultimately chose physical therapy as a career.
“I originally became interested in the healthcare field in elementary school when a good friend of mine’s father was an athletic trainer for an NFL team, and I got to watch him work on injured players firsthand a few times in addition to hearing his stories about caring for the players. After having my own knee injury and surgery during high school football, I had my first true experience with physical therapy, and I immediately knew this is what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.
“I loved working as a clinician with patients and have grown to love working in the multi-site operations and business development side as well. In my current role, I love advocating for the profession and ensuring we get the best care delivered to as many patients as possible. I am very optimistic about the future of the physical therapy profession because I believe we can and will be the leader in safe and effective conservative care for musculoskeletal conditions. I also continue to be extremely impressed and excited about the quality and passion of the young therapists coming out of school.”
— Brian Murphy, Vice President of Employer Solutions
“I grew up swimming competitively and injured my shoulder in high school. Throughout the remainder of my swimming career in high school and college, I went to PT multiple times. I had a very positive experience at PT each time. After my experience, I wanted to be able to help other people return from injuries and enjoy life without pain.
“My favorite part of my job is helping people be in less pain and getting to know them along their journey!”
— Caroline Carlisle, Physical Therapist, Clinic Director
“When I was 11 years old, I broke my hand playing basketball. When I finally told my parents, the fracture was already set, and my only chance for normal hand use was surgery or a PT that specialized in Sports Medicine and Hand Therapy. When I went to see the PT, he was working with an Olympic Pole Vaulter on spine mobility. He braced me up and then let me hang with him while he worked on a series of patients. Everyone he worked with had different levels of function and different needs, but he was able to spend time with them and make them feel better. At that point, I figured being a physical therapist was pretty much the coolest job anyone could have. I proceeded to hurt myself several more times through high school and college, ending up in PT multiple times. No matter what, I knew that I wanted to help people live better lives through physical therapy.
“Now in management, I realize that I have the ability to help exponentially more people through coaching and leading many therapists. This is a career that I find extremely fulfilling and I am amazed every day at the number of people that we get to help live without pain.”
— Matt Winters, District Operations Leader
“I originally wasn’t planning on being a PT. I wanted to go get my MBA, then go to culinary arts school, and then open up a chain of my own restaurants. After I took accounting and sat in some business courses, I realized that I wasn’t digging the subject matter. About the same time, I was finishing up the first semester of my sophomore year, and I had to give up playing football due to multiple injuries and facing the reality that the NFL wasn’t going to call anytime soon. I threw myself into powerlifting and body-building and realized how much I liked to learn about the body and what makes it work.
“I spent some time looking into different professions that might apply and asked around for input. A family friend at church offered to bring me in and let me observe her working as a PT, and the rest is history. I was hooked after my first day of observations. And the reason I love what I do, is because this profession isn’t about just fixing a symptom. It’s about healing the person and positively impacting their lives, which creates a ripple effect in the community where they live – making a positive impact!”
— George Asous, District Operations Leader
“Both of my parents are medical professionals, and I remember a lot of “talking shop” over the dinner table during my childhood. I always wanted to work in the medical field, and by high school/college, I knew that my future profession would be in medicine – I just wasn’t sure what specific field of medicine. I played all the sports growing up and loved that world, so I started working as a student athletic trainer while at Mississippi State.
“I fell in love with the rehab part of my work as a trainer, and realized what I enjoyed the most was the relationships I built with the athletes. My original plan was to go to medical school, but after shadowing several MDs I was disappointed at how little time they were able to spend with their patients.
“Next, I did some observation hours with few physical therapists I knew, and loved every minute! The time with the PTs passed so quickly because of all the moving and talking and working with patients; I thought the wound care was so wonderfully gross, and the patients were so engaged during their time with their PT. I tell people that I just “stumbled” upon PT as a profession, but when I look back, so many things led me to this life. As so many other PTs will say, the relationships are my most favorite part of physical therapy. I feel so lucky to come to work every day and really make lasting impacts – measurable impacts – on people’s lives.”
— Meagan Paczesny, Physical Therapist
“I started out as a biomedical engineer not knowing what direction I wanted to go with my career. After dabbling in some research and realizing it wasn’t for me, I came across physical therapy. PT was perfect as I wanted something with a more immediate impact and ability to help people more quickly than research or design. PT to me at that point was applied biomechanics.
“As I completed PT school and continued my learning in the profession, I loved that we empower patients to help themselves and improve their quality of life by their own means. The human body is fascinating and resilient, and I love teaching patients about it and helping coach them on how to get better without the need of any special equipment or resources. To be able to change someone’s life through the use of our hands and education is very powerful and rewarding.”
— Rachel Miller, District Operations Leader
“The decision to pursue physical therapy as a career began early for me. Like many of my colleagues, I was exposed to the profession as a young man, following a sports-related injury to my knee. Following surgery, I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful therapist who inspired me to pursue the profession, as well as rehabilitate me back to the sports I loved. I interviewed for PT school through a Direct Entry program when I was 17 years old, and after acceptance, spent the next 6 years immersed in all things physical therapy.
“I look forward to going to work every day. When I was treating in the clinic, I enjoyed the patient interaction, loved to educate and inspire, and took great satisfaction from watching a patient progress out of pain and dysfunction. In my current role (non-clinical), I enjoy working with my clinical colleagues to educate on best practices, while ensuring clinical quality as it pertains to the Results Physiotherapy’s worker’s compensation and occupational health program.”
— Chris Scoma, Director of Worker’s Compensation Quality and Education
“Growing up I always knew I wanted to be in healthcare. Initially, my interests were around sports medicine and orthopedic injuries, so I was focused on being an Orthopedic Surgeon. When I was in high school, I ended up suffering an injury to my back that sidelined me for several months. I was not able to finish my track season or participate at all in my soccer season the following fall.
“When the injury first occurred, I was referred to physical therapy and worked with a PT who was focused on getting me back on the playing field. She was very intentional to provide direction and exercises focused on what I needed to return to sport, and we worked together multiple days a week over a few weeks. Eventually, I was able to return to soccer and continue to remain active without any pain or limitations. I was also fortunate enough to spend a 3-week internship in high school with a PT in an outpatient setting. It was then that I solidified my interests in pursuing PT as my career of choice.
“As I have been practicing over the past 16 years, one thing remains true and that has stuck with me from the time I was a patient: being able to help a patient return to an activity and improve their quality of life is one of the greatest benefits of being a PT. It is why I still do what I do today. Every patient is unique and has their own specific goals, and it makes what we do challenging and rewarding all at the same time. Being able to help people feel better, move better and reach their goals is what PT is all about.”
— Miller Tallent, District Operations Leader
Results Physiotherapy and our parent company Upstream Rehabilitation are always on the lookout for physical therapy talent that would be a great fit our hundreds of clinics across the country.
Browse and apply to our open job postings today!
