It is difficult to reflect on the past because we are always thinking forward...on our next adventure, plan and goals. But it is extremely important to reflect. Reflecting gives us the opportunity to decide on if we achieved the goals we set for the year. Reflecting allows us to be proud of our accomplishments. In the busyness of our lives, it is important that we take the time to stop and assess all the great things we have done each year. These things may be small, or they may be big. No matter what the size, they matter. We need to take time to be proud of ourselves. We also need to evaluate if we missed the mark somewhere so we can improve going forward! This Blog is going to highlight all the great things we accomplished in 2023 at Physical Therapy San Pedro. The BIG things we achieved, the small things we do every day, and the areas that we want to improve on for next year. Come along on this journey with us and then once you have finished, go and do the same for your 2023!
So! Where do I start??
First, can I just say that I have the most AMAZING team! One thing about a business like ours is that employees change frequently. For some, we are a footprint on the journey towards becoming a physical therapist. For some, we are a place to grow, but not plant. And for others, we become home. Regardless of which place each team member falls, employees at PTSP have specific values and traits that align with our vision. They are kind, compassionate, friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, and supportive. I have chosen people who are passionate about our clients and our profession, and who are experts in getting our clients better! For this reason, I will say that every employee that has been a part of our team this year, from the front desk to the doctors, has made a significant impact in the lives of our clients. For this, I am truly grateful and proud of our team! We have had over 200 successful discharged patients this year. This means that 200 people got back to running, jogging, lifting, dancing, working out at the gym, playing soccer, returning to football, and so on. Some of our athletes won competitions, others went on to play collegient sports. Many were able to participate again in dance recitals, auditions, and performances. This is at the daily work of our team. Pretty amazing what we get to do each day!
I started the year by being a guest on the Hello San Pedro Podcast! This is a local podcast hosted by Amanda & Jess that focuses on the community of San Pedro. We kicked off the year discussing the importance of health & fitness and discussing the journey that led me to opening Physical Therapy San Pedro and growing a succesful business in San Pedro. This, for me, was amazing because I had a goal in 2023 to start a podcast. Being a guest on the show I publicly declared I was going to do this and for that reason I committed to it. Thank you Amanda & Jess for having me on your show. You are doing amazing things for our community in San Pedro!
We began our 2nd year supporting the USA track cycling team in their training camp in preparation for a competition in Indonesia. As a team, we provided injury support and rehab for the USA team at the Velo Center in Carson, CA. We were invited to be on the Sports Medicine team between camps the previous year by Dr. Ethan Kreiswirth, a well known ATC in the community the previous year. He put together a great team to support these athletes. This continued to be a really fun experience for our staff, and we continued to support them in camps between their competitions throughout the year. The coach, Erin Hartwell, and team, were just really amazing and we loved helping them. Go USA!
We kicked off our First Blog Discussion of the year in January, discussing Fantasy Football Injuries and continued to provide you, our AMAZING followers and readers with monthly content on our website and Social Media pages. Our expert team has committed month in and out to discuss injuries that we beleive you all can learn about and benefit from on your rehab journey. We have brought you all the Knee Series and Ankle Series this year! We discussed the most common injuries we see daily for the knee and ankle. If you have not checked out that content, or you are looking for some help with a knee or ankle injury- go take a look!
In mid-February, Dr. Sandoval and I attended our annual Americal Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections Conference in San Diego, CA. This conference brings together Physical Therapists across the country to learn and grow together. We had a great time learning and brought back some new tools as it related to meniscus, ACL, hip, shoulder and concussion injuries. A great PT continues to learn and grow over time :) While Dr. Sandoval and I were learning and growing, the rest of our team was having a Ball at the San Pedro City Ballet Annual Auction and Gala. We love supporting this amazing company each year!
In March, we released our Podcast on YouTube and all listening platforms. This was a great HUGE accomplishment for me. Soon after I realized I needed some help managing our Digital Marketing and I hired our first Digital Marketing manager, Grace Dyer, with Grace Dyer Digital. Grace was instrumental in getting our Social Media sites & email marketing looking professional. I will be forever grateful to her as my first! Ha! Grace and our team parted ways and since then I have brought on a phenomenal Digital Marketing Manager, Christina Mobley, with Digital Content Solutions, who has carried on the work of Grace but also helped us with our website and adding new social media platforms to our business. Thank you Grace & Christina for your impeccable work! I hope all you followers are enjoying our content!
We also celebrated 2 years in our New 5,500 sq ft center this year. We had a celebration with our team and our space mates ALL Fit Gym. Both of our businesses have grown a lot over the last 2 years. We have continued to deliver Physical Therapy & Personal Training Services, and teach kickboxing, strength training, mobility and Strength and Conditioning Classes. It has been a fun ride!
In April, I provided injury support for our favorite Boxer, George Navarro in his first Fight of the year. The fight did not go as planned but I was able to ensure he felt good for it in preparation. Supporting professional boxers and has become one of my passions over the past few years.
Next, as a center, we did some continuing education to grow individually and as a team!
We started the year with taking a Snatch course at a local crossfit gym, the Torrance Training Lab, with Personal Trainer and owner Jamie Joyce. This was a goal for our physical therapists this year because we wanted to be able to properly train our clients how to Barbell Snatch. Obviously, this is a tough movement to perfect in just one day, but the course gave us the tools to teach and correct basic snatch form as a prerquisite to transitioning a client back to this movement. This was so fun! I think all of us Docs really enjoyed getting a little dirty and learning Barbell Snatch. Over the summer, we hosted a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach Certification at our center. We sent two of our team members, Rachel & Jazmine to this course to get certified as strength coaches. What I loved about this course was that we even had a few clients who decided to take this course and get certified. This tells me that we are doing our job as a team to instill the love for strength training in our clients. Woot Woot!
This year we began supporting local Powerlifting competitions! Dr. Sandoval was the one to initiate this, and he took the lead on it! We were able to provide injury support for 2 competitions this year! Dr. Sandoval also got our team involved on the sideline with supporting Injury support to a local high school football program which also happened to be my Alma Mater- Bishop Montgomery High School. In addition, Dr. Sandoval and Jillian, one of our PT Aides and assistance coach for PV high school's varsity soccer team, together went out to several practices and instructed the team in strength and conditioning exercises, warm ups and cool downs to reduce risk of injury in season. Dr. Sandoval was busy this year trying to get sideline hours for his Sports Certified Specialist certification, which he will soon sit for!
Dr. Bay continued to teach monthly Dance Strength and Conditioning classes at our local dance studios, San Pedro City Ballet and The Dance Factory. She also began working with a new studio this year, Dance Tech. Dr. Bay has been busy growing her dance clientele and providing injury support to our dance community. They are so Blessed to have her!
In May, we had our first Media Day of the year! We took team shots for our website and social media pages. Media day is always fun for us, and we enjoy our 5 mins of fame on these days.
We continued to support the Invictus Women's Soccer Club in their WPSL season with sideline support this year. As a team, we provided injury support for their home games at Cabrillo High School. We love supporting these women on the sideline and ensuring they feel good in their games.
We did a lot of fun challenges and created several fun posts for our social media pages. Our PTSP Stand Up Challenge went viral and hit 1.4 million views on Instagram. That was pretty cool. What was not cool was that Grace and Dr. Daisuke were the only two members of our team that could stand up! Some other fun challenges we did were the Toilet Paper Challenge and the Lean On Me Challenge. We are a competitive group, so challenges are fun for us!
We also brought a local Sports Psychologist and colleague, Dr. Jason Von Steitz, to our clinic to do a team building event for our staff. He led us in an activity that helped us understand ourselves and each other better. We even created an ancient proverb together "Never bend the wrong way or you will hurt yourself. Progression leads to successful rehabilitation which will improve functional strength. Patients will improve when you communicate with them and that positive reinforcement will bring them happiness. " I am not sure we truly know the meaning of this, but all ancient proverbs are supposed to be a bit of a mystery, so I think we succeeded! Ha!
This year we also developed Free Injury Resources for the knee and ankle to go along with our series. Those resources can be found on our website and YouTube Page!
We had our second Media Day together as a team in October. We took our Staff Christmas picture at this media day and some fun shots for the rest of the year.
We celebrated lots of the holidays together this year as a team! We dressed up as professional athletes for Halloween! Dr. Bay and Rachel tied for first as Megan Ripinoe and Misty Copeland. We had some fun team outings including ...wine tasting, dinners and a pool party! We ended the year with Dr. Bay's #12daysofEXmas and the SPCB Nutcracker. Dr. Bay does a great job planning a daily exercise for our followers to do with our staff, clients and local teams and dance companies we support. This is always fun during the holidays. As a team, we provide injury support for the dancers in The Nutcracker for each show during the weekend of The Nutcracker. We all love doing this, and it is amazing to see these dancers perform during the show.
Well. That was a very long list! We did all these things while daily providing excellent care and rehabilitation each day for our clients, providing 1-1 Strength & Conditioning services and teaching Strength and Conditioning classes to our high school athletes.
As I was recalling all the things we did, it became evident that we did A LOT this year. We achieved a lot this year! There were a lot of lessons learned, a lot of tough days, and a lot of growing pains for us all. Personally, we all also had some exciting things happen. We had staff get engaged and married. Several of our PT Aides got into PT school this year! It has been an exciting year, to say the least.
I am extremely proud of us as a team and all we do together to provide excellent care and injury support to the San Pedro community and beyond, and I am so excited to see the great things we do as a team and individually next year in 2024! I hope this blog inspired you to reflect on your accomplishments this year!
Thank you for tuning in to our content in 2023! We wish you a Happy New Year and Amazing 2024 :)
Blessings,
Dr. Ja'nae Brown