I became inspired to become a physical therapist after my high school PT educated me about my hyper-mobile joints, treated my never-ending injuries, and always encouraged me to enjoy life.

My 6’4” height was a natural fit for basketball, but only my PT knew why I got injured so easily. He quietly and confidently educated me about my hypermobile joints and hypotone muscles, all while keeping me in the game. He never once made me feel like I couldn’t succeed or do anything I set my mind to doing. I became inspired to provide the kind of support and encouragement to others, the way he did for me in high school.

After graduating from Calvin College with an interdisciplinary major in Kinesiology, Psychology, and French, I began my Doctorate of Physical Therapy education in 2016.

During graduate school, my education came to an abrupt halt from multiple joint injuries resulting from being a “practice patient” in labs. My professors didn’t believe me when I told them that those treatments were hurting me and were contraindicated for my hypermobility and hypotonia. My injuries were serious and will be a lifelong issue. It appeared that my career was over before it even started. I persevered through years of surgeries, regenerative treatments, alternative modality sessions, and endless physical therapy. Little did I know that I would become the first student in the USA to transfer to a new DPT program because of a program director who believed that students like me, with disabilities, should be valued in this profession. I graduated in 2022. I learned firsthand what can happen if medical educators or practitioners do not believe you and impose treatments that have unintended consequences. As a result, I acknowledge that patients know their bodies best, need to be believed, and that hypermobility and complex medical diagnoses are often misunderstood. Having been in both good and bad environments as a patient, student, and practicing clinician, I have developed an intense conviction about what it really means to be a strong advocate for every patient suffering from chronic pain.

Many practitioners in the profession have told me that my unique patient care philosophy is highly unusual for a recent graduate. This philosophy developed from experience overcoming challenges with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I particularly enjoy working with vulnerable populations who struggle with chronic pain and complex medical conditions, not only because I’ve been there, but because I thrive on the challenge that these cases present. My education, combined with my own quest for answers, has resulted in an improved ability to think outside the box, find creative solutions, and be genuinely understanding, empathetic, and intuitive when working with patients.

After gaining my initial work experience in the profession, I am ready for this next chapter in my career. I’m so excited to start my new clinic specializing in treating chronic pain, hypermobility, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I have so many patients to thank for encouraging me.

Choosing Exceptional Solutions PT as your practitioner will give you a health partner with a unique experience and philosophy that is often not found in this profession.

My Insatiable Quest for Knowledge

I find chronic pain very challenging and interesting. These types of cases energize me and it’s why I love what I do. In fact, I was often academically bored during my graduate school education. I would research and learn additional material not being taught just to satisfy my curiosity about more complicated cases. I enjoy learning a variety of treatment modalities, some of which have been instrumental in my healing journey. I thrive in an environment where there’s no protocols or productivity standards hindering me from doing the best that I can for each and every one of my patients.

My Passion is Personal

I know how hard it has been for me both physically and emotionally, which is what drives me to help others to overcome. I know what it feels like to just stop trying. My experience has created a passion to help others get through it and thrive. I have experienced a lifetime of physical therapy visits. There aren’t many exercises that I haven’t tried in my own healing journey. I’ve learned what treatments or exercises have worked or not worked for me and why. I know how my body, and thus yours, compensates incorrectly, responds differently to touch, pressure, exercise intensity, and everything related to overcoming injuries and recovering from surgeries. Everything about my career choice is personal. I live it every day.

My Intuitive Abilities Have Been Developing Over My Lifetime

This has developed from growing up with a disability. I hear your story and relate to it. What I feel in your body, I’ve felt in my own. I also developed a keen ability to feel anatomical responses over a lifetime of riding horses. I didn’t have the strength to try to control these thousand pound creatures like many riders do. I couldn’t hold weight in the reins. I couldn’t keep pressure on them with my legs, and I certainly couldn’t stay on if they misbehaved. Out of a need for self preservation and a desire to enjoy riding, I had to develop a different way to interact with them. As a teenager, although I was told I wasn’t strong enough to do pretty much any sport, I was able to train my horse to dressage FEI level movements that is very difficult to achieve. I had to thoroughly understand horse anatomy and how horse muscles contribute to their healthy and natural movement. I also had to be keenly aware of how my own body affected the horses movement. Given that I was only capable of  gentle touch on the horse, I became motivated to elicit a relationship where the horse could learn. He had to know that I would never hurt him and that he could trust me. Learning how to subtly feel the action of his muscles and mine allowed me to utilize gentle aids effectively. I could sense any hint of tension in either of us, and feel our levels of relaxation. I never rushed him to learn anything. Some things he learned quickly and others he needed to learn in very small increments. We always took the time that he needed. Even one mis-step by myself and he would let me know that he was frustrated. It was a bit like walking a tightrope. Animals are known to be keenly intuitive and have acute sensitivity about everything. As a disabled rider, I took advantage of that extraordinary ability in my horse and in response developed my own acute sensitivity and intuition to feel and understand his every biological response to my requests. Training a horse to FEI level dressage should’ve been impossible for me, but it wasn’t. My disability developed an extraordinary ability to be intuitive and acutely sensitive out of necessity.

Well, today I am applying that same extraordinary ability to each patient that I work with. I have learned to intuitively know how to feel subtleties from your body and be acutely sensitive to it because I did it with horses and I know how my hypermobile and hypotone body reacts, which will be just like your body. They try to teach this in graduate school, but it fails in comparison to how I have learned. I’m not sure it can be taught at all.

I have learned firsthand what can happen when medical practitioners do not believe that you have pain, and they impose treatments that have unintended consequences of physical harm or cause severe pain.

 Physical therapy is supposed to help improve pain, not cause more pain and suffering. I will be gentle and use  gradual methods to overcome your pain. I promise that I will not immediately work on strengthening. We have years of learned inefficient and painful ways of moving our bodies. Even if the original injury or trauma is gone, the body and brain have still formed a pattern in which even the simplest of movements cause pain.

I promise to listen to your story and focus on your goals. I will work with you in a collaborative spirit. You will never experience a “this is how we do it here” attitude, and there will never be standard protocols at this clinic. I promise to be as dedicated to helping you heal as I was in finding solutions to my own pain. Every treatment will be completely individualized to your situation, including varied techniques from both mainstream and alternative treatment modalities to treat in a well-rounded, holistic manner. There is always something else to try as we work together to accomplish your dreams or goals.

I promise that I understand how easily we can lose our enjoyment of life, experience anxiety and depression, and ultimately feel hopeless in these chronic pain situations. I know what that is like, and it drives me to help my patients overcome like I have done.

You’ll never hear me say that there is simply nothing that can be done. Nor will I say that you’ll never do something again. I believe that each of you knows your body best, and we’ll work together towards your goals. Complex pain is often misunderstood. It really does help to work with someone who has experienced complex pain and has overcome it to help you find your path to healing.

And last but not least, I promise to research and find answers if I don’t have them. I will give my all to you.