Meet Dr. Erika Johnson

We recently connected with Dr. Erika Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Erika , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I learned resilience from my mom. She was a middle school teacher but pivoted her career after having me. She started her own business when I was a toddler and slowly built it over time. I grew up watching her work long hours for work and our family. I witnessed her success, struggles and failures which she handled with grace and strength. She also worked hard to be present at home after school, cooked meals from scratch and adjusted her work hours as needed over the years to support our family. She continues to inspire me with her calm and perseverance.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a pelvic health and orthopedic physical therapist and own a private practice in Westborough, MA. I am grateful to have spent my career with a focus on 2 specialties as I believe that they are very closely intertwined. I enjoy helping people reclaim their lives after injuries, surgery, childbirth, chronic pain or life circumstances that have disrupted their body’s normal function and activity level. I am honored that people trust me with their rehabilitation and love the final days of care when patients reach their goals. My practice at Better Together Physical Therapy focuses on finding the root cause of a patients pain or dysfunction rather than just placing a bandaid on their symptoms. This allows them to fully heal and achieve their goals.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. I was in an intense dance training program when I was in high school and sustained an injury that I thought was going to end my dancing career. This was devastating because my goal was to become a professional dancer. During my period of healing, I went to physical therapy and am forever grateful for this experience. It not only allowed me to heal and return to dance but it also helped me find my career path for after dancing. The experience of knowing what it felt like to be a patient has kept me humble over the years. I am also grateful for my dance training which has helped me guide patients with a lot of different strategies on movement correction.

2. I am an empath, a listener and I am patient. These skills have helped me connect with patients, even the ones who are mad that they have to go to physical therapy. I find that patients are often dismissed by the medical field but ironically, they are often pointing us to the root of the problem if we listen carefully and get the whole story from them.

3. My training in orthopedic manual therapy has been invaluable in helping patients with pelvic health dysfunction. I am grateful that I trained under some very talented mentors early in my career. They cemented the foundation for understanding the important connection of orthopedics in the pelvic health care field.

Advice for people early in their journey: For those who are early in their careers, I would highly recommend finding mentors who are well educated and skilled in the area(s) that you would like to work. Shadow and co-treat with these individuals as much as you can. This hands on learning will stay with you for the duration of your career. I would also highly recommend taking courses with labs. The hands on practice does not happen in enough courses but is so needed in the field of physical therapy.

Please listen to your patients and consider all of the information that they are sharing. Sometimes, it is the small details that matter the most.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

The most impactful thing that my parents did for me was to let me be my own person and choose my path in life. My parents have always been supportive and quiet cheerleaders but never push me in any one direction or indicate that they have preferences about what I do. For this, I am forever grateful to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bettertogetherpt.com

Image Credits

Images by Erika Johnson