Speaker 1: 0:30

I'm Dr Brittany Elkins and I own and operate Balance Physical Therapy and we have an office. We've been there for five years in Haymarket and we just opened. Last Wednesday was our grand opening and our ribbon cutting for the Warrington office. We have two locations here in Northern Virginia.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Amazing. Yeah, I remember you telling me about that. Congrats on the new opening.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Thank you so much. Really exciting, a pinch me moment for sure. We're really happy to be there.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Yeah, such a big accomplishment, thank you. Now take me back.

Speaker 1: 1:04

What initially drew you to the world of physical therapy. So, as a lot of physical therapists, I was an athlete when I was younger it's been a long time, but I actually injured my knee when I was playing sports and had to have some physical therapy. And then also I worked as a rehabilitation technician, which just offered respite services for youth that had developmental or physical disabilities and deficits, and so we got to go to them with their family appointments and to their physical therapy appointments, and that was really I'll never forget the first time that I stepped foot in that physical therapy clinic. I just thought it was magical that you got to play with kids and you got to be with them and be so involved in their care, and I'll just never forget the feeling of being able to see that and then realizing that I could also be part of that.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Yeah, that's really beautiful. It's beautiful that you had that moment.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Thank you, it was yeah, it was like an aha moment. Like you hear about those and I don't know how often you actually get to experience them, and so I can still vividly remember walking in that clinic and being like I can't believe this is a job, like people can actually do this, and so that was kind of what ignited my fire Awesome.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Balance Physical Therapy has earned multiple best of awards. Yes, congrats, thank you. We have an amazing team.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Thank you yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:16

What's the heart of your clinic's culture that drives both your team success and your patients' trust?

Speaker 1: 2:22

So I think I hear the most. I'm a Southern girl through and through and so I try to bring just that Southern hospitality into our everyday clinic and so I want people to, when they find balance, and when they come in, I want them to just feel welcome and that's all that. I feel like we all crave at our core is the ability to be welcomed and loved, and so we try really hard to be authentic with that in our clinic and we want patients to feel that, because they're vulnerable when they come to us and oftentimes the worst version of themselves and so they come and they're scared and they're just had surgery and they've been in pain and so they're depressed. There's the social and the emotional aspect that goes into it, and so we just try to take that burden off of them when they walk in the door and it's like this is the place where you're welcome and it's warm and we're going to love you and we're going to fix you, and I think that that's what keeps people coming back, and so they are not afraid after that to come back to physical therapy if they have an injury in the future, or to tell their neighbor like this place wasn't sterile, it wasn't cold.

Speaker 1: 3:27

I didn't see a tech the whole time. I was there, like when you come, you actually see a licensed therapist the whole time that you're in our office, and so I think that that is better health care, and I think that that's at the root of what we want to do is like be the best physical therapist that we can be, which I think has helped us win so many awards, because we really do love being physical therapists and we really do love the work that we get to do every day, and so then getting to do that and love on people simultaneously is kind of like a really special blend of skills, I think.

Speaker 2: 3:59

Yeah, it sounds like it, and it sounds like that really sets balance apart from other practices. I think so. With my own experience in physical therapy, I feel like I saw tech almost every time and my mom has been to physical therapy and she was in such a vulnerable position after getting in this massive car wreck and she didn't have a great experience. But it sounds like when you bring that love for serving people and love for doing what you do into it and that passion to just make people feel safe, it really goes the extra mile and makes a world of a difference.

Speaker 1: 4:31

And that's what we want to do. We want to go the extra mile, and so most of my therapists have been therapists for years and we've all worked in those clinics where you've got four patients coming in at every hour and there's a tech and you may not even know who your PT is and the therapist burnout is so incredible. And I was in those situations too and I actually love being a physical therapist, and so that was what made me want to go out on my own and kind of do my own clinic is because I wanted to still love being a therapist but then authentically get to bring my blend of passion and my blend of priorities and make that what the culture and the heartbeat of balanced physical therapy is. And so that's what I tried to do was create a space that allowed me to still love being a physical therapist and not get burnt out with a patient after patient.

Speaker 1: 5:23

And so we actually get to spend time with our patients and we know them, and we know if their grandkids won their soccer game and that their dog is sick and then, and then we remember it because we got to spend time with them, and so we get to follow up on that with them, and so I just think it's, and selfishly, it makes me not hate going to work. You know like you spend a lot of time at work and so I think selfishly, if you can create a space that you don't hate going, then you enjoy being there, and so then that trickles down. And so I tried to create that, because then I can hire staff and therapists that also don't hate going to work, and then that trickles down and then the patients are like this therapist actually likes being here, and now I like being here, and so it just kind of organically allowed me to make a space that was just a little more sparkly than some of the clinics that I had been in, that you didn't feel even noticed, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 6:14

Yeah, I love that Sparkly vibes, sparkly essence. I do I love sparkle, I do. Yeah, well, it sounds like you've built something exceptionally sparkly.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Thank you. You treat a wide range of patients, from young athletes to those navigating Parkinson's disease. How do you ensure every person receives personalized, compassionate care?

Speaker 1: 6:35

disease how do you ensure every person receives personalized, compassionate care? So we've got an incredible array of therapists and so we've got some that specialize in a variety of things. So, for example, I don't specialize in women's health, but we have two therapists on staff that do specialize in women's health. So we may not all have the skill set to do all of those populations but under one roof. I tell people that we're kind of like a little Swiss army knife of skill sets, because we do have therapists that love pediatrics, and I love I'm one of them that loves the pediatric population, but I also love our seniors and our geriatrics. So it also lends to a really fun work day because you don't get again burned out on just seeing total knee after total knee after total knee.

Speaker 1: 7:16

I love total knees, but then it's nice to see a pediatric patient that we got to work on gait and balance and in-towing. And then I've got an athlete that is just ruptured their Achilles tendon, but she's a collegiate gymnast, and so to get to really work somebody out at like that peak performance level is also like a really cool thing to get them back to doing amazing things that the normal person's body doesn't flip around like that. So it's really cool to be a part of kind of such a big shift of populations, and so the short answer is we just have a lot of therapists that are passionate about one of those areas, and then you've got a couple myself included that just really love and thrive on the diversity of it and just get excited about the mix. So my staff will tell you and my patients will tell you, I crave the chaos and I love the diversity and the energy of that, and so that kind of fuels me just being able to see diversity, many different things in one day.

Speaker 2: 8:15

Yeah, I'm the same way. I mean, I'm not like in your position, of course, but I do better when I'm seeing a lot of different things I'm exposed to a lot of different things? Yeah, because that's why it's so fun doing this, right? Right, because I have different business owners who do completely different things and I'm diving into each thing and it's just. Oh, I know I love it, it's great.

Speaker 2: 8:36

Yeah, what is one way your team celebrates breakthroughs, whether it's a patient taking their first steps post-surgery, or someone regaining the ability to garden without pain?

Speaker 1: 8:46

We celebrate everything, and so I was just mentioning when I came in I actually carry confetti in my purse and so I give little packets of confetti to patients when they and I keep threatening when some of them see this, they'll laugh to install a confetti cannon over the bike so that when they get that first rotation because post-op total need that first rotation is such a huge win. And so we celebrate that we have birthdays, we have graduations and they get certificates and the whole clinic comes out and we're seeing the pomp and circumstance. So we have a lot of fun and we're definitely a lively bunch, and then we just take time to celebrate with one another. We had a ribbon cutting and then actually this coming weekend I'm doing a getaway retreat with all of my staff and so we're doing like a girl's spa day because my staff is all female not intentionally, but that's just how it worked out right now and so we're having just a celebration because I love them and I love their again.

Speaker 1: 9:40

The heartbeat of my clinic and balanced physical therapy doesn't exist without them and without their hard work. And so just celebrating and we love on everybody else in the community, and so I just wanted to have a minute to just love on them. So I'm really that's actually this weekend so super excited to get to have a girls' day with my team to celebrate this weekend. So that should be fun. I hope you guys have so much fun. Me too.

Speaker 2: 10:02

I'm really really looking forward to some R&R for sure. Yeah Well, kind of shifting towards like patient care philosophy and your expertise as a Parkinson's disease specialist with LSVT-BIG certification. How have you seen targeted therapy transform a patient's mobility and confidence?

Speaker 1: 10:22

LSVT-BIG is special. It is something that I've been doing for over 15 years now, and so I am incredibly passionate about the Parkinson's population. 20 years ago, when you got diagnosed with Parkinson's, it was a really big blow, and it still is. But there was just not the research and the technology and the literature to support how truly important exercise is. And so I see so many patients that come in on their first appointment with me either them or them and their spouse they're just so depressed and so sad because it is a really I mean, it's a chronic, progressive neurological disease and so it's a heavy cross to bear. But there is so much that we can do to take over again and for the patient.

Speaker 1: 11:06

And so I tell them if you don't take anything from your first visit, take hope, because I see it every day and I literally feel like LSVT Big has kind of given me. I say it's a fairy wand and I feel that it's my magic fairy wand to take these people and transform them. And so we've got a guy right now on caseload. I tell him he's my poster child. He could not do five sit to stands when he came in. He's doing 20 sits to stands now and he is walking laps around the clinic, and so he's just truly a testimony to what hard work will do for you and how, if you come and you work hard and you commit that, it transforms your life.

Speaker 1: 11:45

And so just to get to be a little stepping stone in that is a really cool. Like I again, I've been doing it 15 years and I'm never tired of that win and seeing that hope come back in their eyes and seeing their independence turn a corner and then regain things that were important to them. You know they they're still strong and most of them are still young. They're in their 70s, late 60s, and so they've got a lot of life left to live and to be able to make them do that independently and without being in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives is a really cool. It's a really cool job to get to wake up every day and help people live their best life. I mean, that's what we do every day, is help people live their best life.

Speaker 2: 12:27

It's really cool. That sounds like a dream job.

Speaker 1: 12:29

I'm telling you, like I said, that's what I when I walked into that clinic that day and I had that moment. I feel like every time I go to work I get to live that moment and so it's a different, it's a different goal. It's that they, their child, couldn't walk and we were part of their first steps, or that they were this great. You know, had an astronaut that was there and he was part of the chimpanzee putting the chimpanzees in space years ago. And so, like these incredible humans that are in tears when they walk into your office, and to be part of giving them that back is a really, really, really cool moment, I bet.

Speaker 2: 13:06

Yeah, I wanted to touch also on advanced dry needling. You're also certified in this. How has this skill helped patients overcome chronic pain or regain range of motion faster?

Speaker 1: 13:19

So this is my most favorite modality. I have been nicknamed the happy harpooner lovingly, because I literally would dry needle everybody that came in our office. I think it is the most incredible. Again back to my magic wand. Like truly a magic wand, it is transformative.

Speaker 1: 13:36

I started receiving dry needling again about 15 years ago for headaches and then the relief that I got.

Speaker 1: 13:44

I was just amazed and I'm like I cannot believe that this is possible without the side effects of the pharmaceuticals and without just the buildup of all the negatives and all the side effects and all the the risks associated with some of the pharmaceuticals.

Speaker 1: 14:00

And so to be able to give people that with with no pharmaceutical side effects and no health risks is incredible and it doesn't mask it. So it's with opioids and with steroids. They're great, they're wonderful drugs, but they are temporary and as soon as your body synthesizes those, the pain returns because it didn't actually do anything to resolve what caused that inflammation or that bursitis or tendonitis in the first place. And so when you dry needle, you're actually going in and you're creating a cellular change and so physiologically things are happening in the cell and so you're getting that accelerated turnover of that cell life and that cell growth, and so you're seeing instant results. Oftentimes and it does take a couple of sessions I don't want to mislead that one session is all you need. But people leave and they feel better than when they got there, and so I would literally needle all day long every patient if they would hold still.

Speaker 2: 14:54

Wow, we should name this episode Conversation with the happy harpooner the happy harpooner.

Speaker 1: 14:59

I know I had a patient she's near and dear to my heart. That actually made me a fanny pack that says the happy harpooner, and so I keep all of my little needle supplies in it. So that's a lot of fun. So I do very much love dry needling.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Yeah, I love that. That sounds like honestly something I should try. I've heard about it, but I never looked into what it was.

Speaker 1: 15:22

It's amazing, truly amazing, because I heard about it for like TMJ.

Speaker 1: 15:30

I know that's something that I don't feel like. The physical therapy profession does a great enough job at advocating what we can help with, and so TMJ and vertigo are two of the diagnoses that we can help with, and so I think that's something that I would love to hear from you. I would say, weekly, we have someone in our office that's like I had no idea that PT could help me with vertigo, I had no idea that you could help me with TMJ, and so we see tons and tons of people for both of those. We fix them weekly. So it's incredible. So find your local PT.

Speaker 2: 15:53

I know yeah, people know yes. Thanks, Happy Harpooner. How does your ongoing collaboration with leading orthopedic surgeons benefit your patient's outcomes?

Speaker 1: 16:04

So they're incredible.

Speaker 1: 16:05

Obviously they're the ones doing the surgeries, and so I've got several docs that are just Washington top 10, incredible, incredible physicians.

Speaker 1: 16:14

And having skill with the scalpel is the majority of that battle, and so when they pass off this perfect post-op patient, it does make me look better because they've done a lot of the hard work.

Speaker 1: 16:26

When you've got like the robotic assist for a total knee, for example, they come in my office with zero degrees of knee extension. Well, for a decade they would come in with 15 and 20 degrees lacking extension, and so we would spend countless hours trying to straighten their knees out. Well. So with these docs that we're seeing, that are doing these robotic assist replacements, they come in and that range of motion is perfect for extension, and so it just makes the recovery less painful for the patient, because at the end of the day, you know I don't want to be in there manhandling and hurting our patients there. You know physical therapy is uncomfortable sometimes, and we acknowledge that, but it does make it a little more pleasant for the patient when they come in and they've already got that desired extension. So, teaming with those surgeons that have the skill sets and that consistently, are winning those again, washington Top 10 Awards really makes the recovery much more optimal.

Speaker 2: 17:24

Yeah, it sounds like it too, shifting gears towards community and connection. What role does community education, like injury prevention workshops or Parkinson's awareness events, play in your mission?

Speaker 1: 17:36

A lot.

Speaker 1: 17:37

We actually just did a speaking engagement at Park Valley Church in Haymarket and it was for a senior summit, and so I was asked to be one of the keynote speakers at that summit, because it's the population that's falling, and so I did a presentation on fall risk and just letting people know that if you're shuffling through your house and you're looking for the next piece of furniture, to take two steps and land, you don't have to walk like that, you don't have to live like that, and so many people are under the impression that that's just natural part of aging, and so I'm shuffling because my mom shuffled and her mom shuffled, and so it's just this is what getting older looks like and that's wrong.

Speaker 1: 18:13

And so you can walk better and you can function better if you will go see a physical therapist, because we work on, specifically tailored to you, what is your balance and what are the things that are hard for you and what are the challenges, and then we correct that and so we make it safer for you. And then later this month, actually in September, I'm doing at one of the 55 and older communities in Haymarket. I'm doing a fall prevention conference for them as well, just to reduce their fall risks, and so preventing falls is a little bit inevitable. So I don't know if I love that terminology, but just the reduction of falls is the goal.

Speaker 2: 18:53

Yeah, absolutely Sounds exciting. Thank you, yeah, what's one movement or daily habit you wish everyone adopted to protect their long-term joint and muscle?

Speaker 1: 19:03

health Stretch. I think that there's so much imbalance with there's weakness and there's tightness, and with weakness there's other muscles that can help compensate a little bit, but when things get tight it throws everything. And that song the knee bones connected to the ankle bone really is a true song, and so it really does just travel down the kinetic chain. And so I would just tell people if you have time for nothing else, stretch.

Speaker 2: 19:28

Yeah, I need to do that myself. I'll go put the barbell on my back and then I won't stretch, I'll do a little mobility, so something gets angry Yep, yep. So thanks for that reminder. So that is your little tidbit for the day too I'll be doing it. That was my sign. I just needed to share it.

Speaker 1: 19:47

Here's your sign yes.

Speaker 2: 19:49

Serving Northern Virginia for over a decade. What's one lesson this community has taught you about resilience and recovery?

Speaker 1: 19:57

I just see so many active adults. I think that this community is really great with lending to the activities and the incentives and just lending itself to help you age gracefully and age in place, and so I think that is a movement that I love, because our seniors are important and they're full of stories and treasures and the reason that we have the todays that we're having is because they've helped put those in place, and so I think, honoring them and giving them the support that they need as they age and being able to do so gracefully and in place and I think Northern Virginia does a really phenomenal job at facilities and opportunities to allow that to happen- yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 20:40

After earning your doctorate in physical therapy in 2013 and dedicating your career to both specialized and general care, what do you think still inspires you to learn and grow?

Speaker 1: 20:51

I think that I'm just a nerd at heart and so I just I'm. So I read research studies for fun. I think that's such a nerd thing to do, but I really do. I love it and I never get old of, you know, technologies coming out and so dry needling again, two decades ago it started, you know, in the 60s, really popular here in the Western hemisphere. But now we've got ultrasounds and so we can see real time what's happening physiologically at that cell when we dry needle. And so I think that really kind of makes my nerd come out, because you can see with the new technologies and the new images truly physiologically how you're making an impact. And I think that's incredible.

Speaker 1: 21:34

And I think I love students. You know we've got students in every phase of their academic career and they're still on fire for it and they're hungry for it, and so I particularly love having them because they want to talk about bones and muscles and that's what my brain does all day long, and so I love that they don't, you know, kind of glaze and get bored when we're talking about the biceps, because it's a really cool muscle, and so I love that they're still excited about it and passionate about it and I think that fuels my fire with it too just being around other people that are excited about learning about the body and again, getting to be a part of that, because they're the future of physical therapy, and so getting to be a part of you know, I just had a student graduate from the University of St Augustine, that had started with us when he was in high school. Graduate from the University of St Augustine that had started with us when he was in high school, and so getting to be a part of him being a physical therapist now and being part of his internships and his mentorships, and now he's going to go make a difference in hundreds of lives and so, in a small way, each student that we help, we're a part of that ripple effect, and so that's really cool to me. Yeah, payinging it forward.

Speaker 2: 22:41

Yeah, yeah, they're very lucky to have you. Thank you, your patience as well, thank you. Is there anything else I didn't touch on that you want to share today?

Speaker 1: 22:49

Just we're excited We've got the two locations that we can serve Northern Virginia and we just want to be a place of comfort for people. We want to be a place where people who need refuge for uncertainty with their bodies or what the future looks like. Am I going to be independent? I don't want to fall, I don't want to have surgery or I want to be better so that surgery I can recover easier after surgery. We just want you to know that we're here and that just to reach out to a physical therapist If we're not close to you, call a physical therapist that's close to you because we make magic happen every day. So absolutely find your local physical therapist.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Yeah, thank you so much, dr Brittany Elkins, for coming in and making the time to talk to me today about balance physical therapy. Thank you so much for having me.