Alina earned her Pennsylvania PT license in 1991 while she was working in a hospital setting, inpatient rehab, and home care. She became a physical therapist because she loved helping people. As much as she loved her job, especially building relationships with her patients, she always thought that there was a better and more personal way to provide patient care. She was getting more and more frustrated with a lack of empathy and inflexibility of a corporate environment, realizing that it was not the place where she wanted to be long term.
What she envisioned was a practice with not only excellent care but also a great environment for the patients and employees alike. She wanted to make the patient experience unique and special because many people who come to physical therapy are in pain and need help not only with the physical ailment but also with the emotional one.
Paul spent the previous 20 years leading a variety of IT projects in marketing and finance for several top-tier corporations spanning publishing, insurance, finance, and healthcare industries. He knew exactly what Alina was talking about. There was a certain rigid corporate way of doing things that did not allow much for individual creativity and entrepreneurship. At that particular moment, he was without a job due to the corporate downsizing of the last one. Paul knew that whatever he was going to turn his attention to next, was not going to be that type of environment.
In 2004, Alina and Paul decided to take a leap of faith and do things their way – create a private physical therapy practice with a singular goal of getting their patients back to doing things they love and enjoying their life without pain. All the while creating an awesome personal and emotional experience in a supportive environment!
What they had going for them were Alina’s enormous physical therapy work experience, breadth of knowledge, love of the craft, dedication to her patients, as well as Paul’s creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, vast work experience, and… complete lack of understanding of the enormity of what they were about to embark on!
Alas, Action Physical Therapy was born. It has been growing steadily over the last 15 years, carefully selecting, expanding and educating our team, building on our success in providing the best possible physical therapy to their dear patients.
