I have lived and worked as a physical therapist in Ketchikan and Southeast Alaska since 1995 and been in private practice since 2004, initially as a sole proprietor. After watching many individual healthcare practitioners come and go from Ketchikan, and take their contributions with them, I knew I wanted to establish something more lasting for this community to help build more stability for our healthcare options here. In 2011, when the practice became incorporated, and following a decade of developing advanced skills in Craniosacral Therapy as an integrative modality, and recognizing that there was a better, more holistic way of promoting people’s paths toward healthy living, I named the practice ‘Optimum Health & Wellness Physical Therapy.’
In 2015, recognizing that for my clients, just spending time on a table receiving manual therapy was not sufficient to integrate them back into successful daily living, and that more was needed for them, I opened a fitness gym named ‘Optimum Fitness’ when a number of my clients could not find a conducive fit for their exercise needs and still needed some support after finishing their physical therapy plans of care. Never one to settle for excuses or accept frustration as anything other than a call to action, I concluded, “Let it begin with me!” This is now combined with our main clinic as a wellness/fitness membership program.
During this time, I also recognized the value of actively participating in more evidence-based practice for our evolving profession of physical therapy and discovered that diagnostic testing could be integrated into the clinic to better serve the local healthcare needs of our community. In 2018 we began offering musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSKUS) imaging and electrodiagnostic (EMG/NCS) testing.
I love what I get to do for a living! I love learning and growing. And I love helping people and serving this community with a passion for excellence. Perseverance, faith in God, and a strong commitment to the health and wellness of Ketchikan have carried ‘Optimum Health & Wellness Physical Therapy, Fitness and Diagnostics’ to its current state of existence. Throughout each of these evolutions a vision has remained: To Encourage, Equip and Empower Ketchikan into Wellness!
“Equipping, encouraging and empowering Ketchikan into wellness.”