Karen, how did you become a physical therapist?

Tennis was a family tradition in my home.  It was our activity we did together. I played competitively since I was 12 years old.  At the age of 16, I was an extremely competitive junior player in Florida. I remember playing tennis 4-5x/week with tournaments on the weekends almost every week it seemed. One day, while playing tennis on a clay court, I was sliding to hit a forehand. I, then, had to quickly get back to the middle of the court for the next shot. As I was changing directions, I heard and felt a loud “POP!” in my groin area. I crumpled onto the court and could not get up. I was carried off the court, with what I thought was a simple groin strain.

The injury felt better in a couple of weeks, but within a few months, I developed an occasional numbness in my left thigh and nagging knee pain. For months, I struggled through the numbness and pain, thinking it would go away.  It was depressing; I couldn’t play my game. It was scary, because I did not to know what it was and what to do about it.  My game suffered. I was not as quick on court and I stopped playing an aggressive serve and volley game. Instead of singles, I opted to play more doubles so I would not have to run as much. It was so hard. I was losing to players I had beaten easily before. I lost my #1 seed on my high school tennis team. I never returned to playing on clay courts. My confidence was low.

My coach convinced me to see a doctor and I was referred to a physical therapist. I was told it could be 4-6 months before I could really play tennis again!  The physical therapist evaluated me and started connecting the thigh and knee problems to my flat feet, muscle weakness, and (to my surprise) a misaligned pelvis, due in part, to my groin injury. I pulled my pubic joint, actually my entire left pelvis, out of alignment.

With physical therapy, I was given exercises to strengthen my legs, and to stabilize my pelvis. I was given orthotics to help with my alignment. Being young and impatient, I wanted to start playing 100% right away. I did my exercises everyday and cut back on playing to allow the body to heal.

Within 2 months, I was back to #1 on my high school team, just in time for spring season!  Not only was I playing doubles, but returned to singles competition as well.  I had an amazing tournament season, actually playing better than I did before. That summer, I became a force at the net and advanced to the 4.0 level.  I played in tournaments in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles divisions. I had an incredible season….and painfree! And it was all due to physical therapy!

While working with my physical therapist, I became very interested in how much they knew about the human body: how it is put together, how it works, how it moves. As a result, I wanted to know as much about the human body as well.  I realized, as a physical therapist, I could make a noticeable impact on people’s health, wellness, and lives, especially for women and female athletes. So I decided to dedicate the rest of my professional career to helping women overcome physical limitations from life or injury so that they to can live painfree and go back to the life they love.

Why did you come to specialize in women’s issues?

Because of my own groin/pelvic problem as a teenager, I gravitated towards treating the low back and pelvic area. I have taken many classes to assess and treat this area.  After working with a client who was an OB GYN, I started seeing many women who were pregnant or just after having a baby. To me, it seemed like a natural progression.

I treat low back and all sorts of leg aches and pains. Women who are pregnant have low back and all sorts of leg aches and pain.  I started taking more classes on women’s health (prenatal and post partum issues, incontinence, osteoporosis). A common theme became obvious: Women become the nurturers in their families and often dismiss their own aches and pains.

Many women believe their conditions are normal part of aging (such as incontinence). They are NOT!  I believe many physical problems for women start in the childbearing years, when women take on the “pregnancy posture” from nursing to caring for young children and never train out of it,. This poor posture, overtime, can be the root of many conditions (low back pain, incontinence, and frozen shoulder to name a few).  So it is important to educate women young (especially if they are starting organized athletics at a young age), to be stronger, stand tall, and learn good postural/body mechanics early on.