Dedicated to helping the whole family reach their goals.
For more than 20 years the Sherwood community has been able to rely on Therapeutic Associates Sherwood Physical Therapy, where the dedicated team is committed to helping every patient achieve their goals and maintain healthy, active lives. While the faces have changed over the past two decades, the passion for patient-centered care remains the same. From the fun and friendly welcome of the front office staff to the compassionate and collaborative care of the physical therapists and aides, here patients of every age can count on having a positive experience on their healing journey.
For physical therapist and clinic director Anne Jeffery, ensuring patients feel a connection with their PT and with the entire clinic team is a top priority.
“Beginning with your first visit, you should feel really welcomed, listened to, heard and valued,” Anne emphasized. “We really care about your goals, about why you’re here in the clinic whether it’s for pain or something else. Maybe you want to work on your posture or get back to hiking with your family or be able to interact with your grandchildren or simply go to the grocery store without having a bladder leakage episode. It’s so important to us to hear what is important to you.”
Understanding what motivates their patients enables the clinic team to create customized treatment plans that lead to the best possible outcomes. By focusing on the meaning behind their patients’ goals, the practitioners avoid a cookie-cutter approach and bypass the idea of prescribing general exercises for the injury or condition they’re addressing. Instead, every plan of care is specific to individual patients and to exactly what they want and need to get out of physical therapy.
“We treat a lot of different types of patients here, all ages and abilities,” Anne explained, adding that their patient population spans from newborns to those who are 100 years old or even older. “We have young athletes, new moms, working adults … we really treat the whole family.”
As the family-oriented Sherwood community continues to grow, and new residential neighborhoods continue to pop up throughout the area, Anne is excited to expand the clinic’s reach, to serve all those who come to call this place home.
“My main specialty area is pelvic health, so I work a lot with women and men who have issues with bladder control, leakage or urinary frequency issues, pain with urination, or pain with intercourse. I see a lot of different pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and it has become something I’m really passionate about,” Anne said.
As a pelvic health PT, Anne often works with women before, during, and after pregnancy to help them return to optimal function after childbirth so they can focus on the joy of motherhood and not be preoccupied with worrying about urinary leakage. It’s exciting, she said, that more and more women are learning about pelvic floor PT.
“One thing that’s really important to us is that we are collaborating with your other providers,” Anne shared. For pregnant women, this often includes their obstetrician, but for every patient, it can include a medical doctor, a naturopath, a dietitian or a counselor. “We really want to know all the different aspects of your health and how we can work with your entire team to really provide you with the best outcome.”
Every patient’s medical history is considered from the very beginning of their PT journey.
“During your first visit, we do a really thorough evaluation; we’re assessing not just the body region that’s causing pain, but all the surrounding body regions as well so that we’re not missing anything that might be contributing to the dysfunction,” Anne explained. “We will check your range of motion, your flexibility, how strong your muscles are … we might check your breathing habits.”
It’s not uncommon, Anne continued, for someone to come in thinking their PT will simply assess the body part that is injured or in pain only to have them uncover something seemingly unrelated that’s possibly contributing to the problem or something that is a separate issue that they can also help with.
“We look at the whole person and every aspect of their health and how it all plays into what they’re dealing with,” she said.
Patient education is important at Therapeutic Associates Sherwood, where they’re committed to empowering patients with knowledge and understanding of the musculoskeletal system. The learning environment within the clinic also includes teaching PT students who are working on internships, as well as aides who are interested in learning as much as they can every day.
“We really look at our jobs as physical therapists as also being educators,” Anne said. “We’re educating future physical therapists here in the clinic, and we’re always looking for ways to provide information to our community members, whether they’re here in our clinic or we’re speaking and presenting at local events.”
When it comes to sharing information, Anne hopes that every patient who completes their PT course of care not only feels extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished but also feels empowered with knowledge.
“We want our patients to leave PT with all the necessary self-care tools so that if things aren’t perfect going forward or they have flareups, they know what to do and have the resources to care for themselves at home,” she said. “Of course, they also will know that we are always here for them if they need us, for the same issue or any other issues in the future. They should just feel like they have a PT who is their PT for life. We love that relationship piece and that doesn’t end on discharge day.”
For Anne, the relationships she builds fuel her passion for her career.
“I often reflect on all the different types of people I get to work with every day that I would never get to meet or get to know if it weren’t for my job. It’s not uncommon for patients to leave PT with a reflection that it’s been a life-changing experience and it’s really humbling for me. I just feel honored to be able to play a role in their story and see their quality of life improve and see them meet the goals that they wanted to work on.”
We look forward to being a part of your healthcare team.
Our experts are committed to providing effective, efficient, and compassionate care to help you live a pain-free, active life. Our passion is to help every patient reach their goals on their journey to recovery and optimal performance.
