Many people think of physical therapy, or PT, as “rehab”, or something you need after surgery or an injury. There are many misconceptions when it comes to PT like you need a referral to see a physical therapist, or it’s only appropriate for people who have had surgery or seriously injured themselves, or physical therapy is only exercise based. I admit, before meeting Ryan I had the misconception that physical therapy doesn’t work because it hadn’t worked for me in the past. 

Ryan Godfrey with Change the Game Physical Therapy is literally changing the game when it comes to managing pain, healing injuries, and getting people back to doing what they love. Ryan believes PT empowers individuals to take a pro-active approach to their health. He also believes Physical Therapists should be seen as the experts in musculoskeletal health, providing clients with a holistic alternative to medications, injections and surgery. Physical Therapists can also educate clients on the importance of lifestyle modifications, like nutrition, exercise, and sleep, to aid in rehab and athletic performance.

It is clear when listening to this interview that Ryan truly loves what he does but that wasn’t always the case. Ryan was working in a traditional clinic setting where his job was to see as many patients as possible in a day. However, Ryan wanted to work with patients on a deeper level, and have one on one time with each individual client. He wanted an opportunity to educate them on their injury, have adequate time for treatment and educate them on home exercises and lifestyle modifications to help them heal long term. In the traditional clinic setting, Ryan’s focus was on quantity of patients not quality. His job was to document and move on. The clinic didn’t care about quality as long as volume was high. Ryan had no real motivation to increase his productivity nor did he receive any praise or recognition for his work. The effort level to get clients better was low because there wasn’t enough time to spend with each person. Ultimately led him feeling that he wasn’t helping people improve in timely manner and he wasn’t able to follow his passion which is to get them back to the activity or sport they were doing before.

As an athlete I recently found myself dealing with a chronic issue that no amount of band-aid fixes could help. I had tried it all: massage, cupping, topicals, foam rolling, stretches, chiropractic care; all to no avail. I thought this was something I was going to have to “deal” with the rest of my life. I had heard about dry needling through my CrossFit Coach, Marissa, and I admit when I first heard the word needle, I was apprehensive. After doing research and talking to my extremely knowledgeable chiropractor, Dr. Dave Russ, I finally made the appointment to see Ryan. And I’m so glad I did.

Listen to this podcast to hear my story of healing, my journey of how I got better, and how Ryan’s journey has changed from unhappy employee to happy entrepreneur.

You can find Ryan @ChangethegamePT on Instagram and Facebook and learn more about his practice at www.changethegamept.com.

Hourglass YouTubeVideos from our therapy session: https://youtu.be/hxQylszDzOo |https://youtu.be/–Dk4xLzdrM | https://youtu.be/wk0cNAUt75s