Many clients have asked what led to us to setup M3 the way we have. Answering this question requires an appreciation of lessons learned from failure. We say failure because we failed to ask the right questions during the first part of our professional careers. We spent time how to treat injured clients
and got really good at solving physical therapy problems. Early on we focused simply on evaluating and treating but looking back we were only giving people a band aide. Yes, our clients felt better and got back to their lives but we weren’t really sure that we were makes meaningful changes. We began questioning the approach we were using and felt that clients deserved more and that they should hold the keys to their own wellness. Globally we wanted move forward from the idea that clients had to see us every week to be able to live the best life.
Several years ago we asked a client if she would have made time for therapy if she could run 4-5 days per week with some hip pain; her response was that she wouldn’t have made the time because she would still be able to do something that helped give her a stress outlet. Her response highlighted a point that a physical therapy problem or medical diagnosis was not the real reason why most people chose to seek our services. Our initial session now focuses on learning each clients “why”. Most often their reasons are tied to what they can’t do or would like to do and not pain. Starting a session with this understanding has helped us create a better pathway for serving clients. Learning became more important once we started focusing on more than the diagnosis. We added several different certifications and began looking at how we could better connect our experience and knowledge to help clients. Pilates for example added a new perspective that fit really well with our idea that movement is more of an experience than a task. We also looked at how yoga, tai chi, early childhood development and mindfulness practices impact lifelong wellness. Pulling out ideas from these areas that both challenged and support our practice philosophy helped us land on the concept of designing care just for “you”.
Today we look at each client relationship as a journey with three check points; move well, live well and do amazing things. Moving well is the first stop because we feel it is the foundation for the other two areas. Living well is step number two whether you are an athlete trying to develop skills or someone getting ready for retirement and want maintain health. Doing amazing things captures our feeling that life should be impactful! We look at goals from playing with grandchildren, traveling, wining a sports championship or just being better today than yesterday all as amazing things.
