Please welcome Dr. Theresa Larson BACK to the PT Entrepreneur Podcast! She’s my first repeat guest and I have to give her and her husband, Per, huge credit. Early on, they were able to give my wife and I such support and information on building our business and were a huge part in our success.
Dr. T has been able to start a successful Physical Therapy business, have a child, move into corporate wellness and online programs, and now still have the ability to take a step back from her practitioner work as much as she needs to.
For her, that stemmed from hitting a major burnout from working one-on-one with patients and all that came with that. She then brought her husband on board, who is e very methodical and intentional business man. He took over the systems side of thing, but through that, she learned that she wanted to help people, but not just work one-on-one with patients 8 hours a day.
From that moment, she began to explore ideas of how she could build her company to reach more people, but also take a step back from her patient load. And was able to detach her self-worth from how many patients she was seeing a day.
Dr. T began to find her confidence in board rooms and the corporate environment, speaking to people about corporate wellness programs and everyday health.
And that’s barely scratching the surface!
In this episode we’re talking about:
Removing yourself from the day to day of the clinic in order to avoid burn out and expand
The process of moving from the clinic to the corporate stage
Getting in the federal biz op game
How to get into the corporate wellness game
The trials, tribulations and victories of being a mom and PT Entrepreneur
Listen to the podcast below, or on your favorite platform!
Trigger Warning: This episode contains conversation about eating disorders.
Welcome to The Sisu Way, Episode 32, Finding Strength in Struggle! Today I’m welcoming Dr. Theresa Larson, DPT (Dr. T) who is a mom, wife, sister, friend, and TEDx Speaker who happens to be a former Marine Corps Engineer Officer, combat veteran, and professional softball player.
Dr. T and I are breaking down the war zone that is our mind. And answering questions like: What happens after an injury, loss, or major change? How do you adapt to this new normal state? How do you find strength in the face of adversity? How do you accept this new change without always wishing to be like before?
While Dr. T’s resume sounds like that of someone who knows no fear and oozes strength, she credits moments outside of her career performance to building true strength. Moments such as losing her mother as a child, losing her father in adulthood, and suffering with the internal war of an eating disorder while serving during an actual war.
In those moments, Dr. T found her calling to serve and help others. Not only that, she developed true strength, figured out how to adapt in the toughest of circumstances, and learned the importance of speaking up.
When she spoke up and asked for help, in a moment some might view as weakness, she found her greatest strength. The circumstances following that moment were anything but easy, but the path was the one that Dr. T was meant to forge.
In this episode we’re talking about her journey and her passion for helping those who need it. From the adaptive community, to people who are suffering silently, to those who have gone through a loss or a trauma. Dr. T may be a Physical Therapist, but her mission doesn’t end at movement.
Trigger Warning: this episode contains discussion of eating disorders.
Dr. Theresa Larson (Dr. T) is the president of Movement RX, host of the “My New Normal” podcast, author of the book “Warrior: True Strength isn’t always what it looks like,” former Marine Corps Engineer Officer and combat veteran, physical therapist, Mobility WOD Speaker and a former All- American division-one softball player.
This conversation focuses a lot on transitions and finding your new normal after changing careers, having a big life change, or having a traumatic injury.
Dr. T went from playing softball straight into the Marine Corp, so her transition was one of elite physical activity to another form of high performing activity, but with much higher stakes. But the transition out of the Marine Corp wasn’t as easy.
During that transition, she felt like she lost her identity. Her whole life had been so wrapped up in physical performance, structure, and teamwork so the transition out of that was extremely difficult.
When Dr. T got out of the Marines, she was offered a position playing softball overseas in Italy. During that time, she actually broke her big toe and was sent to see a sports medicine doctor to help the healing process. In addition to the language barrier, Dr. T felt there was a level of disconnect between the doctors understanding of the injury and the path to actively healing.
Back then she didn’t know enough to develop her own program, but she knew what she was being taught and prescribed wasn’t right. And that she wanted to bridge the gap between strength and conditioning and medicine.
So, Dr. T decided to go back to school and design her own future.
This is an amazing episode and if you’ve ever considered a career change, or are struggling with finding a new normal, I’d highly encourage you to listen!
In this episode we’re talking about:
What it was like for Theresa to participate in ROTC and Division 1 Softball while attending Villanova.
Why the transition from the Marines to Civilian life was tough
T’s unique approach to Physical Therapy
How Dr. T was able to overcome disordered eating
Why being a warrior means taking ownership of your health
Dr. Theresa Larson (Dr. T) had a variety of pain issues from playing softball and the marines and knew that movement would help people. Dr. T knew that she didn’t want to be a medical doctor, but she knew that she wanted to help people through movement. So, she went back to school and got what she needed in order to be a doctor of physical therapy, but she knew the field was broken and that she had to change it.
We’re talking about how Dr. T broke out of the mold of the normal physical therapy world and started re-writing her own rules in her own practice. She was approached by Dr. Kelly Starett, of Mobility WOD, and asked to teach seminars. Through that, she started recording videos, which are now a huge part of the teaching models at her company, Movement Rx.
The educational side of movement and rewiring the human body is so important and hardly anyone is addressing the root cause of the problem. Dr. Theresa Larson and her team are dedicated to shifting that paradigm and giving people that information they need in order to fix their bodies, rather than just putting a band-aid on the problem.
Dr. Kate left the Marine Corp in 2008 with big plans to transition to “normal” civilian life, not knowing just how hard that would be. Her whole family, life, and identity were wrapped up in the Marines, so she stayed in the Reserves and started working on her Master’s degree.
As a result of an injury her brother suffered in Iraq, Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas knew she had a passion for public health and wanted to work with the Veteran community, specifically Adaptive Veterans. She started studying Health Promotion and Public Health, with an emphasis on yoga, and how the mind and body function while dealing with the actual cause of the problem.
Because of Dr. Kate’s struggles with leaving the Marine Corp, she volunteered with a Veteran’s service organization called Team Red White and Blue where she finally spoke to someone else about what she was dealing with in her relationships and life and discovered that she wasn’t struggling alone. It was that moment that she credits with inspiring the passion for finding out how to prevent and help that struggle for other Veterans, like her brother.
SHOW NOTES:
Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas (aka Dr. Resilience) is a dear friend and mentor and I’m so honored to have her on my podcast! She is someone who helps eliminate suffering for others and helps them live better lives, specifically the Veteran community.
Nursing the flu can be hard and sometimes it disables us from doing our normal routine. Now, imagine having a stage 4 cancer and the doctor has put an expiration date on your life. Wouldn’t that be discouraging? Dr. Kate was diagnosed with cancer but it did not put her down.
As a former Marine Corps military police officer, she had a hard time in transitioning to the private citizen life. Dr. Kate struggled and faced challenges that would eventually lead her in helping people with their mental fitness. She’s an author, speaker, and professor among other things.
In this episode Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas is telling her story of facing life, motherhood, and cancer with positivity and resilience.
In this episode we’re talking about:
How a person can cultivate resilient traits
What steps she took in transitioning from the Marine Corps
Why is mental fitness training important
How Dr. Kate came to know that she had cancer
What things did she change in facing her diagnosis
