Thursday, 06 December 2018 12:54

Goodemote PT: Growth & Development

By Matt Goodemote | Families Today

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE another year is coming to an end. I love this time of year and love the holiday spirit that seems to swell up in people. Over the last several years I have taken the time to reflect on where I have been and where I am hoping to go. For some reason this process started a few months early, so for the last several weeks I have been contemplating the lessons I have learned and the direction life is taking me.

I opened Goodemote PT in Saratoga about five years ago. I was determined to have a clinic that was patient focused. My wife and I talked about how if I was not able to make it work financially with this as my main focus than it simply wasn’t worth doing PT anymore. I am happy to say that we survived and are continuing to grow. The staff and I talk regularly about making decisions that help keep this intention at the forefront of our decisions. 

Most recently this has developed into a “growth and development program” that my entire staff and I participate in. We are all learning and growing and it is now part of the way we do business. 

It is something I had bits and pieces swimming around in my head for years, but after a series of interrelated events, I realized that we simply had to implement a continuous, continuing education program for every therapist and every administrative team member. We are focusing our efforts on improving our interactions with our patients and our community to have the greatest impact we can have. 

I have, for the first time since starting my own practice, started sharing the insights I have had treating patients in a formal way. It is a requirement of the current staff and any new staff to participate in. This idea is not new, in fact, I spent the first part of my career being mentored by incredible therapists and prioritizing honing my skills. It seems only right to share what I have learned and to push myself to continue my development as a clinician and business owner. I also still have a lot to learn and this process helps me reflect on my own lessons which in turn has motivated me to push my understanding beyond my current level.

I know this is not unique and there are a lot of people/clinicians that do this already, but for me, it is more about a reflection of where I started and intentionally contemplating the path that I hope to follow in the next several years.

Let me share an example. I met Dan Smith, the physical therapy assistant and massage therapist that works for me currently and has worked with me for the last 10 plus years. I had recently opened my former practice in Gloversville when I met Dan. Prior to meeting him, I had focused my treatments on using the McKenzie Method almost exclusively. I honestly hired Dan for the business potential. I would tell patients they can have a professional massage paid for by their insurance company! Little did I know he would completely alter the way I do physical therapy. 

Dan influenced me in multiple ways and has been a great friend. Clinically he mentored me and shared with me the value of a great manual therapist. He taught me that the impact manual therapy can have on a patient is beyond what I ever thought possible. The first time I witnessed a patient he worked with getting up off the table with a look of complete relief,  I literally thought it was impossible. 

The patient had sciatica and I had been using my McKenzie training to alleviate her pain. Although she was having some positive results I thought I would have Dan demonstrate what he could do to help the patient...thinking maybe she would be a bit more relaxed. Honestly, I was skeptical he would have much of an effect at all. But when he finished, the patient said “WOW! That was amazing...I feel so much better!” I couldn’t believe my eyes. He not only alleviated some tension, but a large part of her pain was better!

Over the years that response has become commonplace at the clinic. A few years ago, when I first started in Saratoga, Dan worked with me for about 6 months before leaving to work on building his private massage practice and about a year before he returned and has been with me ever since. Anyway, the patients he had helped those first 6 months wanted more manual therapy...which I had not done myself...because I had Dan.

So, I asked him to help me and he guided me and directed me to some “effective” areas to focus on. He is truly unique and I can never truly duplicate what he does, but with his help and hours and hours of practice and mimicking what he did I started to see results myself. This encouraged me to practice more and hone my skills. 

It was Dan that showed me how to effectively get the muscles to “release” and relax using firm and consistent pressure along the meridian lines used in acupuncture. He also helped by pointing out key muscles that he noticed were more tense when I was trying to figure out what “Runner’s Hip” was all about. His insight proved invaluable and has helped me guide dozens of patients through a typically frustrating condition. I have been teaching the rest of my PT staff the key areas to focus on for the best results in the shortest amount of time and I continue to do workshops in the community to educate people about what to do and how to do it. I will be doing more workshops in January. 

Dan also showed me a very common technique for calming down neck and upper back pain. He showed me how to calm down that knot a lot of us get in the shoulder region. He directed my hand placement and recommended specific locations for the most impactful relief. I applied what I learned in McKenzie to zero in even more directly. One of my favorite things to do now is to show patients that despite the intensity of their pain and/or the length of time they have had pain they can feel better quickly. 

It is even something I teach my patients to do on their own. All you have to do is lie flat on your back and apply a firm pressure to the area that is most tense and/or most painful in your shoulder and then while holding this pressure simultaneously, side bend to the painful side. Since meeting Dan and using these manual techniques, we are able to immediately alleviate some of the tension/pain which in turn has made the exercises even more effective and in a lot less time!

As I reflect on how differently I am now then when I started in Saratoga I am grateful to Dan (and many others) and how they have taught me and influenced me to be a better clinician. I can see how important it is to take  time to remember those who have taught you life lessons...good and bad...because ultimately they are the things that shape who we are. 

I am grateful I have been blessed with so many great teachers like Dan. He has been an inspiration in more ways than one to me. I can promise you that at Goodemote PT we are doing everything we know how to help our patients and grow as a staff. A big reason I started FysioFIt PT and will be seeing patients starting in January 2019 was to fulfill my intention of putting patients first. For years I was complaining about how difficult it was dealing with the limitations insurance companies were imposing on the physical therapist (and others in medical professions) that are most interested in helping their patients. 

FysioFit will be where we return to PT the way I started my career. All sessions are one-on-one and one hour in length. The patient will stay at the forefront. We will continue to work on our skills to improve the quality of our care and we will also be providing services that are simply not offered at this time due to the insurance-based model. In the upcoming weeks you can read more about it on my website: FysioFitPT.com 

As always, if you have any questions or would like to speak to me please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call my office at 518-306-6894.

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