Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrea Reed. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andrea, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
Burnout is a very common phenomenon in the physical therapy world. In the standard model of care, physical therapists are asked to see anywhere from 15-20 patients a day, oftentimes overlapping patients (to no one’s satisfaction). This, on top of ever complicated paperwork and constant requests to increase productivity, leads to frustration and fatigue in the profession and causes a lot of good therapists to leave the profession entirely. I was definitely not immune to this. My first job out of school, I saw 20 patients a day and had a whopping 20 minutes with them before the next patient came. Things got a little better during the pandemic, because the emphasis shifted to one-on-one care, but the ever-present focus on the bottom line started to affect quality of care.
Unfortunately, the answer to this problem doesn’t lie within the current common model of physical therapy, so in order to escape the burn out, I had to rethink what my job looked like. I ended up deciding to open my own clinic, with a niche clientele outside of the insurance realm in order to treat patients the way that I wanted to; one-on-one with an emphasis on their personal goals, not the bottom line.
In order to be successful, I made sure to be the best in the area by seeking out higher education skills like an orthopedic residency and manual therapy classes.
In this competitive world, you have to take the time to get good – or be prepared to get busy.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I have been an orthopedic physical therapist for about 10 years now, but my practice truly changed after finding functional fitness in my personal life. This unleashed a desire not only for myself to get more fit and strong, but to somehow marry this foundation with physical therapy. Shortly after, I became pregnant with my daughter and was trying to navigate the all too common struggle of staying physically active while undergoing a huge change in my body, both pregnant and postpartum. Cue the deep dive into pelvic health physical therapy, and I wanted nothing more than to help other women thrive during this crazy time in their lives, especially when there is so much misinformation about exercise and pregnancy! My practice now marries these two niches of orthopedics and women’s health and is based on a fitness forward approach in a performance-based model, completely one-on-one and 100% focused on my clients’ goals.
My physical therapy clinic, Onward Cincinnati, helps clients eliminate pain to maximize fitness. This could look like the weekend warrior that hurt his back playing with his kids but wants to get back to deadlifting in the gym, the mom who is recently postpartum and wants to rehab her core and pelvic floor to return to CrossFit, or the man or woman who recently retired and wants to get into better shape so that they can play with their grandkids on the floor comfortably. Whatever the goals, I want to find a way to help my clients succeed.
Above all else, I want people to know that “back to baseline” should not be the goal. We are going to go beyond getting you out of pain and get you fitter and stronger than before your injury in order to make you a more resilient and healthy human.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
For my profession, it’s important to understand that physical therapists could have the best critical thinking and manual skills in the world, but if they can’t develop a rapport with a patient, then no one will pay to see them. So while honing my clinical skills was important, the charisma, personal confidence, and comfort with sales was equally important. I spoke earlier about how PTs need to “get good” at clinical skills, and I definitely recommend seeking out those classes for the basics of how to get people feeling better. For taking your presence to the next level, reading up on cultivating personal charisma (The Charisma Myth by Olivia Cabane is a great read) and how to use voice and posture for public speaking is paramount.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I would love to collaborate with other fitness and health professionals or gyms in my area. Every patient that comes through my door eventually gets placed with a fitness group that excites them and will encourage and support them in a healthy lifestyle, so I love to connect with other gyms to build my referral network. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if you would like to collaborate!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.onwardcincinnati.com
- Instagram: @onwardcinci
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@onwardcincinnati4357
Image Credits
Space Cabin Studios
