Passing the Torch: A Mother-Daughter Journey in Rehab Therapy Business Ownership

My journey to rehab therapy

Like a lot of rehab therapists, my path to becoming an occupational therapist wasn’t a straight line. I started out working in oil and gas marketing—which, if you’re not aware, can be a highly volatile industry with layoffs depending on the price of gas at any moment. After eight years of that, I decided I wanted a career change to find a more stable livelihood. So, at the age of 33, I decided I wanted to become an OT. After finishing my education I started out working in a few different settings—hospital, nursing homes, travel assignments, outpatient, and home health. Then, I had an experience that ultimately led to another major decision: starting a business. 

I had a shoulder injury that brought me into an outpatient practice for treatment, and I was disappointed by the experience, to say the least. I was mainly treated by the PT techs, and the various PTs I encountered in my sessions I only saw for five minutes. It just so happened that my husband Randy, an outpatient PT, was looking for more autonomy in his work at that same time. I realized that with our expertise, we could open up an outpatient clinic of our own where we could provide PT and OT as well as specialties and give patients excellent treatment and results. So we opened up Therapy Coverage, a home health staffing agency, and eventually City Park PT. 

There are definitely challenges to being a business owner and juggling the other roles that women are expected to manage, like being a wife and a mother. I was running Therapy Coverage from out of my home at the same time as I was working as a stay-at-home mom. When we opened our outpatient clinic, I had to adjust to being a manager and running the day-to-day of the clinic — in addition to running Therapy Coverage, being a working OT, and being a mom! Even this many years on, balancing being a mom, wife, and business owner is a constant struggle. But I think these challenges have shaped me into the leader I am today. I learned the importance of never giving up, and more importantly, I learned how to prioritize family and work to create a good balance between the two. 

I’ve also brought that perspective to our businesses. We’re a family-owned outpatient clinic, and so we have a family-first mentality with all of our employees.  We’re empathetic about personal situations our employees might be experiencing from time to time and provide support and time off as needed. We encourage our employees to be open and honest about their struggles at work, and we’re ready to listen to any suggestions to help create the most pleasant and friendly working environment possible. And because I value work-life balance in my own life, it’s very important to me that our team is able to have that as well.   

Passing the torch: Our family succession story 

People are always curious to hear about how we ended up with our daughter Sarah as our succession plan for taking over our business. Like me, Sarah took the roundabout way to the world of rehab therapy; she graduated from Tulane in 2021 with a degree in Public Relations and Marketing and was looking for event planning jobs—which was pretty difficult during COVID, as you can imagine. She rethought her career goals and started to look into teaching, eventually getting a job at a daycare—until that daycare shut down temporarily when one of the children got COVID. At that time, we were transitioning to WebPT Billing, so I asked her to help out to make sure that the transition went as smoothly as possible. It was quickly evident how proficient she was in business and technology. She helped out with that transition and so much more, even after she went back to the daycare, to the point that I suggested to my husband that Sarah take over the business when we retire.

Once we had those conversations with Sarah, we came up with a plan to get her ready to take over. She already had extensive knowledge of technology and marketing, and brought progressive, refreshing ideas that were beneficial to advancing the clinic, but she needed to get to know the day-to-day. 

• The front desk was a great place to start. We started her out at the front desk for two years, where she learned insurance, interacted with the patient population on a daily basis, and got a strong understanding of clinic operations. 
• We moved on to hiring and management. From there, we added hiring and management to her plate, letting her hire PT techs and manage their schedules.  
• Then, we were ready to hand over control. Eventually, she progressed to fully managing the clinic once she learned my job of managing insurance contracts and understanding billing as well as hiring and handling day-to-day operations of the clinic. 

It’s been incredibly rewarding to see her grow into these roles, and it’s satisfying to keep the business we had worked so hard to build in the family rather than sell it to someone we didn’t know. 

Lessons learned during my time in rehab therapy

I’ve certainly seen some changes over my 20 years in the profession. I’ve watched our ranks shift from male-dominated to women outnumbering men. I’ve also noted the shift from the bachelor's degree to the doctorate, which I think has been a positive for the profession in creating bright, well-trained professionals.