Amy Atmore on the Mental and Emotional Impact of Long Term Rehab
[Music] Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show here today. Really excited to have you on. Could you start by just telling us a little bit about yourself? Sure. Um, I’m uh I’m from Oregon. Uh I I grew up uh in Beaverton, Oregon. I was there for uh most of my life until I had to go to graduate school for physical therapy. Okay. I went I went to USC for physical therapy school and uh and since then I’ve I’ve just been practicing. Um this is my 15th year. I can’t believe it’s been that long. But uh in a in a nutshell, I love it. I love it. I love it. What inspired you to be a physical therapist? I always love getting people’s like background stories and what got them in the field. So what inspired you to become a PT? Sure. Sure. I I know everyone has uh their own unique story. Mine actually started with uh just a a fascination with the human body. Um I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I got to college. In fact, I changed my major like nine times. Are you 69? Yeah, that’s a lot. It was a lot. I I was very wishy-washy. Um, but eventually I I I tried to go into an area that I thought I not only enjoyed but also could succeed from an academic perspective cuz I wasn’t great at school either. Um, I had I had to retake a lot of those core science classes like physics, biology, chemistry. Um, so I I knew I wasn’t going to go into, you know, medicine per se. But but yeah, I love the human body. I loved the mechanics and learning about that. And uh I had a u a bad injury towards my last year in college. Uh I fell off a cliff when I was doing a a black diamond ski trail. Oh wow. And um kind of had the triad uh ACL, MCL, uh had a really bad bone bruise and um went to PT. It was not a positive experience, but I learned more about it. Uh, and long story short, I I found a physical therapist that I was able to shadow, learn more about it. Um, I became like a an aid at a clinic and then just looked at different settings of physical therapy, looked at schools to figure out what what are the requirements to go into physical therapy school and then um went from there. I love it. I love it. And then talk to us a little bit about your career path because obviously you said you’ve been doing this for a little while and you’ve had some pretty cool positions. So I know people would love to know like kind of the steps along the way. Could you share that with us just a little bit? Sure. Um like a after physical therapy school. Yeah. Yeah. Once you finished up, what what were the steps that got you from then to now? Yeah. It it’s funny how the the interest kind of goes through an evolution. So I I had an orthopedic injury that got me my initial interest but after school I was very uh into the neuro setting. Um I really uh I I my grandmother had passed away from uh stroke and uh I I really enjoyed working with brain injuries. So that was my initial setting. I worked at a brain injury rehabilitation institute and then um pretty much like the inpatient hospital setting for like 3 4 years. uh I I developed some uh skill sets in the orthopedic uh uh uh particular orthopedic patients and then um from there that started to branch out into outpatient orthopedics and then from there outpatient orthopedics to more like private clinics and uh sports med clinics. Uh I uh ended up uh making lots of friends with athletic trainers and um I everything just kind of uh funneled in organically. I I I just kind of followed interest and made friends and um one thing led to another. Um eventually I I think I had been practicing about 8 years or so when I got my first uh um interview uh with the NBA. Uh that was uh with the Phoenix Suns and uh I’m extremely grateful for that first door of opportunity. Went through the whole interview route. Um and that’s where it started in pro sports. So uh that was 2019. Yeah. Um and and did you know you wanted to be in pro sports? Was that like on your radar or was that just something that you said like kind of just happened? Uh it was I would say it wasn’t something that I said I’m going to to to be doing, but it was on my radar. I knew that I enjoyed working with uh this particular uh population of um individuals, higher level athletes. I got very good at uh knees and ankles. Uh high school ACL’s were just through the roof back in the day and they still are. Um Uh, and I I I think that I just really wanted to be uh the best clinician that I could be and following that growth. Um, it kind of led me to I think where I am today. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Well, I would love to start kind of like big picture and then we’ll drill down on a couple specific topics. But I always love to know when I’m interviewing a strength coach or a physical therapist, I always love to know kind of like your philosophy. So would you mind sharing with us just your big rocks when it comes to physical therapy? What’s your foundation? Foundation is teaching the tools for my patients to take care of themselves. And I think I I uh you know can bring the best uh care, the best advice to those that I’m working with, but uh if they they can’t take those u clinical pearls home and and use it um on their own without reminding I I I don’t feel like I’ve been able to do a successful job. Um so that’s kind of my main philosophy and rock rocks of everything. I try to try try to figure out how how to strategically provide those tools that are specific and individualized to the person that I’m working with, which differs from one person to another. Yeah. And have you found is that easier in the professional setting or does it just depend on the athlete? You know, because I met some really like motivated high school kids, but when there’s money and contracts on the line, that’s a good motivator, too. So, yeah. No, that’s a great question. it uh one can easily generalize working with professional athletes versus non-professional athletes, but it really it it it depends on the person cuz I’ve I’ve I’ve been fortunate to work with very um uh very uh receptive high level athletes and some that are not so receptive. Um but it it just gets it it takes getting to know the person. um how do they like to receive the communication, who they are as a person, got to get to know them and uh figure out what works best for them. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I think people are always shocked and I’ll speak from my experience cuz I don’t want you to have to say anything on this topic, but there’s always uh exceptions, right? And and some people are shocked when they hear this person that’s played in the NBA maybe 10 years or they played pro football, whatever, that they don’t like love their job. And I’m like, well, hey, just happens their job is really high value and they make a lot of money doing it, but just like anybody else, just like the accountant maybe doesn’t like showing up and you know, some pro athletes don’t love their job, but you know, they’re just really good at it and they make good money. And so it it’s hard for like uh I I would describe it as just like a a common lay person to understand that. But hey, not everybody loves it. And so just like you said, sometimes those high school kids, they’re ready to lock in and do the rehab. And you know, it just depends on the person that you’re talking to. Absolutely. It it really does. Yeah. So, one thing I’d love to know too is just I’d love to learn more about your process. So, could you just kind of give us an overview of what your assessment process might look like and then how you would use that to drive a more personalized rehab plan because like you said, everybody’s different. For sure. Well, in the current setting that I’m in, I I work in a team setting, a professional team setting with the Pelicans and uh Yep. We have a a phenomenal staff of 12 people in our performance training um group and so we have an algorithm if you will. Uh when I eventually uh get my hands on the athlete and player, I do a a head-to-toe evaluation and it always includes what are the athletes goals and from there I I like we were talking about individualize the plan. Um because a return to play program for an ACL will be different for athlete A and will be different for athlete B. Uh so um I’ll I’ll uh strategize the plan uh based on the clinical findings, get objective measures um typically like a three-phase program depending on how severe the injury is, what type of injury it is um and uh uh starting from acute midphase and then return to play. Uh, and I collaborate collaborate heavily with our performance staff. Daniel Boove, uh, might have heard of him. I might have heard of him. Yeah, someone you may know. Um, collaborate with him heavily uh, with that return to play process. So everything is uh very uh seamless and we have KPIs uh key performance indicators or specific measurable goals on a weekly basis uh to make sure that we can safely progress forward and have it more criteria based uh and some some patients will advance sooner and some will advance slower. Um, but it’s a a way to uh have more of a criteria based uh plan as opposed to like timeline based plans. Although you do have to sometimes respect the biological uh tissue timelines as well. For sure. For sure. Yeah. I love that. And I I I love seeing that we’re moving in that direction. Obviously, tissue healing is a thing. You can’t fast track that, but you also can’t just say, “Well, at six months or nine months, you should be doing this, right?” Because like you alluded to, everybody’s different. So, I’m curious, you know, you mentioned ACL’s a couple times now. What are some factors that might determine if it’s maybe on the shorter end of the timeline versus the longer end? What are some like confounding factors or things that not even with the Pelicans, but just over your years? What are some things that may slow up or speed up slow down or speed up that process? Great question. Uh, loaded answer. Oh, I love it. I love it. I’m here for it. Um, I mean, the the the research now says that uh you don’t want to come back sooner than seven months. Um, so you could come back at 7 months, but you the there’s a higher risk for a reinjury if you come back sooner than that. So, uh, trying to make sure that you’re reaching all your KPIs uh by that time. Um, I think as long as every that the programs have in place everything to check the boxes off, uh, you know, range of motion is probably the first thing before you should start running. Probably one of the commonest, uh, common, um, issues is not gaining full knee extension. Yep. Um, so just making sure you’re working through the those small details, getting adequate strength symmetry indexes before you start running and jumping. Um, so those those basics is I feel like if you check those boxes and you really get to the point where you can start to uh work through your athletic uh progressions, um, you should be you should be good. Yeah. Yeah. And then one more followup on that cuz I’m I’m so interested in this. I work in basketball too obviously and so I don’t see them acute like you do but I’ve seen people that are you know hey maybe they’re 9 months out or I’ve seen them hey they had an ACL 7 8 years ago now. What are some of the objective tools or maybe technology that you guys use or that you’ve used in the past that you’ve had success with that helps you kind of be objective about that process so it’s not just like oh yeah I feel like they’re ready you know like what how how do you like objectively kind of check some of these boxes and feel like no I think they’re good to go. Yeah. you know, coming from the background of prior to working in pro sports and working in a clinical setting where we had more basic resources and using like a leg press machine to assess like a 10 rep max. You know, the I’m I’m honestly full transparency still learning about all the new technology that keeps on coming every single year. Um but we’re we’re blessed to have uh you know force plates that we can measure someone’s uh countermovement jump. Um looking at so many aspects of that takeoff and landing um and symmetry and absorption. Um we can look at not only just the strength of the left and right leg, but we can look at you know power and uh it’s just it’s incredible how much uh resources we have in the in the team setting. Um, but uh I I I love collaborating collaborating with uh Daniel Bove uh and our other strength coaches on staff that can assist me with that using um uh the the VA uh resources. Um we have uh the ability to look at force production, the velocity of force production. Um it’s great. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s kind of what I was getting at too is everybody that listens is in a different situation, right? So maybe it’s a leg extension or a leg press cuz that’s what you have access to or maybe you have access to really cool, you know, force plates and all the other technology. But I’m always interested in what people are doing. So that’s really valuable. Something else that you mentioned was was patient education and I’m really interested in that. And so I’d love to know number one, how do you keep people focused over the course of a 6, 9, 12 month rehab? And also, how do you keep them focused on your plan? because inevitably now we’re just flooded with information and so with that information it’s like a blessing and a curse. There’s a lot of noise too. So how do you educate your patients and how do you kind of keep them focused on the end goal? I I would say it starts at the beginning when you uh with with your uh rapport and relationship uh with with your with your athlete with your patient and when you ask them what their goals are your your plan and your um your 6 month 12 month plan was uh extrapolate from their goals and so it’s it’s uh something that they have invol have have been involved in the process. So, I think uh one of the strategies is just to start from the from that beginning and then of course you’re going to check in with them and remind them uh where they’re at. Um as a PT, we do uh re-evaluations every 30 days. So, every 30 days we’re not only reme-measuring and uh taking more uh uh objective measures, doing some more tests, but we’re checking in with them. Where are you at with your goals? Are these goals still the same? Do you have new goals? Do you uh do you have anything that you want to do differently? And just kind of keep stay involved in the process because as if you if you are on the other side as as a patient and they never check in with you, what’s what’s the point? It’s like they feel like they don’t care about you. Um so definitely keep them involved in the process. Yeah, I love that. And and one of the things too that I don’t think people understand if they’ve not gone through a long-term rehab is yeah, you’re evaluating every 30 days, but you’re also seeing these people almost every day of the week, right? I would assume, especially in your environment, it’s those daily check-ins, right? And just keeping them, you know, it’s easier almost in that sense because they can’t get too far off the path. It’s like, hey, you know, let’s come back here. Let’s refocus. Um, but yeah, just I think I always come back to if people know that you care about them and that they want you genuinely want them to succeed, everything is so much easier and the buy in comes naturally. You don’t really have to force it, right? Yes. Yes. And some sometimes uh they’re uh not totally bought in and you do the best that you can and you uh provide the uh best information that you can. Um, everyone has different uh uh environmental uh challenges around them. Um, so so you just do the best that you can and uh some athletes have uh people that work for them as well. And I’ve been there before and you just want to be very communicative with the entire uh group uh to help help maintain that uh rapport and know that your intentions are uh the same as theirs, which is to get back. Yeah. Yeah. that I think that’s a great point too is you know the higher levels you go there are just more people involved right from the surgeon uh the rehab maybe for the team the strength coach for the team if they have outside people an outside PT or strength coach there’s just a lot of people and a lot of voices and so the better that team communicates and maybe kind of removes their ego from the the situation and just lets the athlete know like hey look this is not about me or my ego this is about getting you pack, then again ultimately it best serves the athlete, right? Agreed. Yeah, I love it. Okay, so keeping this kind of theme of like long-term rehabs, how do you address the mental and the emotional side of that? Cuz you know, I mean, you came off a a pretty serious injury yourself and unless you’ve spent either yourself or with an athlete going through like a 6, n 12month rehab, the mental piece is really hard. So, how do you go about kind of keeping them like focused or happy or you know like how do you keep them emotionally and kind of mentally satisfied throughout that process? Yeah, that’s that’s very important. Uh I think any any rehab whe how however short or long requires that that mental piece, mental uh discipline if you will. Um I I just I just try to stay uh on that motivational side like a cheerleader and um try to involve uh as much uh of their interests as possible. Try to find other interests. You know, I’m working in basketball. They can’t play basketball. That’s their job. That’s how they make a living. And um you have to uh if you put yourself in their shoes, you have to figure out what else can they do to keep um uh themselves motivated. Uh so we figure that out from the beginning. You know, I had a guy who he loves DJing on the side. So Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What mixes do you have this week? Come on, let’s share it. Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah. You know, every everyone has their their own um way to go about it. Some people need a little bit more motivation. Some people uh don’t need very much at all. And sometimes space is the uh uh more preferred than me trying to get in and motivate the individual. So knowing who you’re working with is important. Yeah. And how much of that for you is just feel? You know, you’ve done that for 15 years now. Like how much feel comes into that of, you know, is this is this just a bad day? Is it me? Like how much feel comes into that on your side? a little bit of feel, but I as even though I’ve been doing this as long as I have, I I I find it still it’s always challenging working with a new uh athlete and and a new uh uh rehabilitation journey. Um, everyone has their their own challenges and uh uh I’m learning constantly. Yeah. Yeah. Put it that put it that way. Yeah. No, that’s very fair. And and one thing that I don’t think a lot of people respect either is that when you get to the professional ranks, not only in in most cases are you working with a very sophisticated person in the sense that they’ve had a lot of PTs or strength coaches, trainers, um they’ve had a lot of influences, but they also have just a lot of people in their ear. And so your job is to try and like hey be like this calm rational voice of reason and not just you know another piece of noise that they have to listen to and that can be hard. Um because the other piece it takes time to build trust and you know that like you know so many people are coming at them for money or whatever. And so for you to just be like hey I don’t care about any of that. My focus is on you even if you have the best intentions sometimes those relationships and that trust building it just takes time. Yes. Yes, it does. Yeah. Um, one of the things I always like to think of, uh, I’m not like what I would describe as a, uh, a super motivated trainer. And not in the sense that I’m not motivated like, but I’m not like the rahrrah kind of guy. Um, but when it comes to the rehab, I feel like a lot of times I have to like put that hat on and sometimes you have to bring a little bit more energy to the session uh, just to cuz generally their energy is lower, right? like their body’s stressed, they’re healing, recovering. So sometimes I have to like bring that up. But no, I like that and I like that idea of hey, sometimes though you do need to just step back and let them have their space and that’s what they need to process it and move forward. So I love it. I love it. Um, in your experience, what are some of the biggest issues or maybe sticking points that people have when they’re going through one of those long-term rehabs? I think the sticking points happen when people start accomplishing um small goals uh like the early KPIs or even like the mid-phase KPIs and it’s a su it’s it’s a feeling of success and accomplishment but and then getting uh uh comfortable with that but you don’t want to get comfortable uh yet and in fact I would encourage you to never feel comfortable you know you got to challenge yourself to to change yourself in a positive manner and get to where you need to be from a rehabilitation standpoint. So, um getting comfortable is easy to do when you’re just checking off the boxes. Hey, you’re doing great. You got your full knee extension. You got your strength. This looks great, but we still have this to, you know, this to go. Um some some players like to see their entire rehab plan like up front. Some people like to just get reminded this is what we have next. Uh, so depending on who who uh I’m working with, I’ll I’ll I’ll try to keep reminding them what’s next so there’s still something to chase after and and that we don’t get too uh complacent with. Yeah. You got to have the the carrot to dangle, right? Yeah. Well, and I think sometimes too it is helpful because especially early, right? When they see a 12-month calendar, like that can be really overwhelming. And so that’s where it’s like, yeah, we need to have that as practitioners, right? And you’re probably more on the front end and I’m more on the back end. We need to have that, but they need to just kind of like one foot in front of the other, right? Like, hey, here’s what the next two to four weeks looks like and then like you alluded to, hey now, but here’s the thing after, but let’s just focus on these two to four weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Do you get any athletes that are uh this probably comes along with the complacency a little bit that uh air on the uh timeline side of the equation? And here’s what I mean by that. When somebody tears an ACL, right, they figure I’m out 9 to 12 months. Do you have any or have you had people in the past where they just assume that, hey, at 9 to 12 months once I have surgery, I’m going to be good to go regardless? Like they just don’t check the boxes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And um you know I uh for the most part I’m I’m a pretty nice individual, but sometimes You seem nice. You seem nice. Sometimes I have to be stern and and let them know that uh where they’re at, even though they’ve met a timeline uh uh criteria, their risk for reinjury is what’s going to hold them back if they’re not meeting certain objective criteria from a strength perspective. Um, so, uh, that’s just a discussion that you, uh, you have to have with your athletes, especially if you’re trying to make sure that they get back in a safe manner and not, uh, start over a process that they’ve worked so hard to get to. Yeah, that’s such a great point. And again, that’s where like having the objectives and having the KPIs in there, you know, very clearly, are they meeting the objectives and the criteria along the way? And if not, it helps you in that sense. If you’re having if you’re being stern and you’re having this discussion of, hey, look, your whatever limb asymmetry is 30% or 35%. Yeah. Now, it’s not you just being a bad person or you holding them back. It’s like, no, there’s like real data there that supports they’re not ready to go back and play their sport yet. Yeah. That’s I feel like that’s that’s probably one of the best things that you can do as a clinician and coach is to be a straight shooter when it comes to to uh letting them know where they’re at. Um and you you want to um do it in a a manner that they’re receptive to, but al also it’s it’s your job to give them the transparency so then they can uh do what needs to be done to help themselves succeed. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Okay. So, you alluded to this and I think this is an incredibly fair point. This field, just physical therapy, strength and conditioning, it’s evolving so quickly, right? Like, every time we pop up, there’s new tech, right? Or there’s new techniques, whatever. How does somebody like yourself self who’s in a high-profile position, obviously, you work for a professional organization. I’m sure every day you’re seeing even more stuff than I do, right? How do how does somebody like yourself stay up to date on like the latest trends and the best practices in your field? Um continuing education in all its forms, all its glory. Continuing education in the didactic form. um you know that that you can find through journals and research and then also continuing education that’s more practical in person and having conversations practical conversations with your colleagues doing things practically uh uh integrating them at the at the clinic. Um so that that whole uh spectrum and and tying it together I think is what helps uh me stay current cuz it’s always changing. the things I did 10 years ago are completely different than what I’m doing now. Yeah, you feel archaic, right? Even like five years ago, sometimes you’re like, “Oh my gosh, that was the stone age. Why was I doing that?” But but but it’s such a great point, too. And I think finding that balance between, hey, yeah, like there’s value in reading the research and understanding, you know, all of the underpinnings and the wise, but then there’s also a lot of merit in going out and in your case, you’re surrounded by great practitioners, but going out and seeking out other great practitioners, watching them work, having these conversations, just being curious. You know, sometimes I don’t think like it’s not hard. It’s just like keep asking questions. And if you keep asking questions, ultimately you get better answers over time. Yes. And also allowing yourself to uh to uh fail if you need to and be okay with learning from that is making mistakes. It’s going to happen along the way. Uh allowing yourself to to learn from those uh areas. Yeah. Okay. So, this this kind of brings me to a question I just thought of when it comes to evolving, right? And we talk about, you know, I’ve been doing this 25 years, you’ve been doing this 15. I think anytime you’re over the 10 year mark, you’ve had enough time to like come full circle on some things. Is there anything like here recently that comes to mind where maybe you’ve come full circle on or something that you didn’t believe in in the past and now you found a place for in your training? Are there any things like that that you could share with us? Oh, that’s a that’s a tough question. Uh jeez, anything that I’ve found in my Rep. Can you repeat that one more time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, just I mean, is there anything you’ve kind of uh evolved in your line of thinking over the last, you know, fiveish years, right? Like something where you’re like, uh, maybe I didn’t understand it or I didn’t see the value of it and now you’re like, no, like this I I get it now or I understand how to use this better because sometimes that’s it, right? It’s not that it’s a bad technique or a bad idea. It’s just you didn’t have a place for it in your philosophy. I think uh probably the the biggest thing that sticks out on my mind uh that I’ve developed over the last five years is the patience of working with your athlete and really getting to know what their individual uh preferences are. And that’s what that’s really like the the the secret to having success with your athletes. I think prior to that, maybe if I rewinded my clock uh 10, 15 years, in my head, I was like, I knew the recipe for success in terms of rehabilitation. Okay, I just need to do this, this, this, and this. Um, but it’s it’s not always that easy. And uh you can bring the best resources to someone, but if they don’t um they’re not sold on that that they’re not going to use that information no matter how uh excellent of you know of high quality uh evidence that you have. Um so I think just having the ability to be patient and listen to the individual, get to know them, um and figure out what what their individualized uh preferences are. Um, yeah. Uh, is is probably the biggest thing I’ve learned over the last five years and still it’s still improving. Oh, yeah. Still working on and learning. I I don’t think we ever to truly hit the nail on the head with that one, right? It’s like you can know you could do a thousand ACLs and like you said, no two are the same. Yeah. Hey, the KPIs and the criteria and the things you want to see, that’s pretty static, right? But every person’s unique and how they approach rehab and you know their body and their physiology and like you said there’s just so many things that make it individual. So yeah, you can have all the the criteria and algorithms but at at the end of the day there is like a little bit of art to it like you alluded to and knowing the person and and how to push the right buttons at the right time with them. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I love it. Okay, big question time. Amy, if you could alter the space-time continuum and give young Amy Atmore one piece of advice, what would it be? Oh my. Young what time of my life? Uh, anytime pre college or shoot. Uh, shoot. I would say uh don’t be afraid to uh leap out on your own uh to go for what you want. I think I’ve always been a little on the shy side, hesitant, apprehensive to try uh uh to do things outside of the box. uh I I I think that that first period of uh you know my first eight nine years of practicing as a PT um I learned a lot but I I I think uh when I eventually took a leap of faith and kind of started to um challenge myself a little bit more that’s when I grew the most. So I would tell my younger self to not be afraid to um jump off board to try try new things. Yeah, I love that. Uh, so I recorded it yesterday. It’ll go up the previous week, but I had Steph Grubs on. Um, and she said something very similar to the effect of, “Hey, I got the best things in my life happened when I got comfortable being uncomfortable.” Oh, yeah. It’s it’s such great advice and it’s it’s much easier said than done cuz when you’re in it and you are uncomfortable, you’re like, “Oh, why did I do this?” But at the same time when you reflect back you’re like yeah but that’s that that like hockey stick my growth hockey stick I don’t know if that’s a there was a hockey stick curve in my growth right and it’s like all of a sudden you go from being yeah huge spike because you go from being very comfortable and complacent to you’re uncomfortable but now you like unlock this cheat code of getting better and growth and Yes. unc uncomfortable but good. Yes. Yeah. Uh def definitely it’s it’s um it it’s a it’s a very difficult thing when you’re uh constantly in a comfortable zone. But uh definitely encourage it for anyone listening who wants to do something but are a little too afraid to do it cuz the worst thing that can happen is you it doesn’t work out and you can try again. Absolutely. Life is short. That’s right. I love that. I love that. Okay, last but not least, we’ve got our lightning round. Okay, so four fairly short questions, but your answer can be as long or short as you like. All right, number one, how do you balance being a mom and working in pro sports? Child care. Oh, I didn’t expect that answer. I like that. I like that. It’s hard though, right? Being a parent, fulltime gig, it’s hard. And I don’t have my family here. working in pro sports, I think 90% of people do not live next to their uh family. Um so you just have to find um find some good people that can help you and um it’s it’s a sacrifice, but if if you are able to do that, you can do both. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay, number two. I’m excited about this one. What’s your best advice for picking a PT school? M because I know there’s people listening to this, young people that want to go to PT school. What advice would you give them to find the right one? Do the research and look for uh uh what you want in a PT school? So look at look look uh for PT schools that you can see yourself going into geographically and then um go on to their websites and start creating uh you know pros and cons of all these schools and maybe some other columns like the cost for tuition which varies dramatically from one school to the next and uh maybe look at their uh success rate uh uh for uh passing the board exam. Um, and just compare those. I I and help help that’ll help you choose the one that you want to go to. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay, number three. What’s your best advice for somebody who wants to be the next Amy Atmore and work in the NBA or be a director of rehab? What advice would you give to somebody that wants to uh follow your career path to some extent? Oh my uh I I would say, you know, follow follow your your career path. It’ll take you where you want to be. Follow your uh your interest. Um be the best uh practitioner or clinician that you can be and it will take you where you want to be. Don’t give up. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Okay. And then number four, what’s next for Amy Atmore? What are you working on? What are you excited about? Anything? Oh my. Uh, I’m uh, shoot just trying to do the best I can to to take care of my current team and um, trying to help the next generation. Uh, I I uh, have a wonderful team that I’m currently working with and trying to share the knowledge. Uh, just want to try to help everyone get to the next level. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, Amy, it’s been amazing catching up with you today. I really appreciate your time. Where can my listeners find out more about you and all the great work that you’re doing? Where you said? Yeah. Oh, shoot. Well, I’m I’m not too active on social u but you can always uh send me questions. Uh I I always respond to my emails. I like emails with specific questions. If you have them, email me. Um drmore.com. I love it. I love it. Yeah. I think that’s just good life advice, too. Uh, I’ve had numerous people where they’re just rambling for like 3 minutes and then I’ll have to like be like, “Hey, is there a question in there?” You know, like you said, if you want to ask somebody something, especially somebody at Amy’s level, have a specific question. And you’ll probably get a better answer than if you’re just rambling. And we’ve all had those emails, right, where they’re like this long and I’m like, I’m not really sure what this person wants or needs, but I appreciate the time that it took, but come up with a real specific question. So, yes, Amy, again, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you coming on, Mike. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you having me. Thank you. [Music]
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As a physical therapist, how does your assessment drive personalized rehab programs?
How do you educate your patients, especially with all of the noise they get from social media?
And last but not least, how do you keep someone locked in, engaged and focused over a rehab that could take 6, 9 or even as long as 12 months to come back from?
Well if any of this sounds interesting to you, you’re going to love today’s show!
Dr. Amy Atmore currently serves as the Director of Rehabilitation for the New Orleans Pelicans. She has worked in both the NFL and NBA sectors and in her 15th year of practice.
And in this show, we’re going to talk about what it really takes to rehab athletes at the highest level!
Quotable Quotes:
My foundation is teaching the tools so that patients can take care of themselves
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I think having the ability to be patient and listen to the individual, get to know them and figure out what their individualized preferences are is probably the biggest thing I’ve learned over the last five years.
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Don’t be afraid to leap out on your own to go for what you want.
This Week on the Physical Prep Podcast:
* Amy’s journey from Beaverton, Oregon, to NBA physical therapist.
* Her initial indecision in college, and why she changed majors multiple times before settling on physical therapy.
* How a significant injury during a ski trip led Amy to explore physical therapy as a career.
* The importance of individualized care and teaching patients to manage their own health.
* Amy’s career path, including working with brain injury patients and transitioning to sports medicine.
* Her experience working with professional athletes, including her role with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans.
* How the mental and emotional side of the equation impact long-term rehabilitation.
* The importance of continuing education and staying current with evolving practices in physical therapy.
* How she stays patient and works to understand individual preferences to achieve success with athletes.
* Her advice for aspiring physical therapists and the the value of stepping out of one’s comfort zone.
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