Carrie Hall and her fellow physical therapists call it movement medicine.
“I truly believe that movement is vital to a healthy lifestyle,” said the president and founder of Movement Systems Physical Therapy, which is located on the south end of Mercer Island.
They take a caring and safe approach while developing relationships with their patients, combining the science of movement with the art of healing, Hall added.
The 22-year Island resident opened her business in the city about four and a half years ago, adding to her already established main location in Seattle and satellite clinic in Gig Harbor. It’s been 25 years since Hall “hung up her own shingle,” she noted about unveiling her practice in Seattle.
Hall wanted to attain the autonomy of controlling the messaging with her patients and being involved in the evaluation and treatment as well. As a single owner, she makes the decisions to offer one-hour sessions and doesn’t have to answer to shareholders.
“I was always drawn toward medicine, but also really knew that I wanted to have the time with my patients, to be able to establish a really strong working relationship,” she said. “I felt the physicians didn’t really have that amount of time to spend with their patients and I knew that physical therapists did.”
After graduating from high school in 1979, Hall became the first female in her family to attend college. She received a bachelor of science degree in physical therapy from St. Louis University in 1983 and a master of health science from Washington University in St. Louis in 1987.
While in St. Louis, Hall received mentoring from trailblazing teacher, researcher and clinician Dr. Shirley Sahrmann, who developed the movement system approach. Hall soaked up Sahrmann’s knowledge and soon created a process for evaluation diagnoses and treatment of movement impairment.
The Crystal Lake, Illinois, native later moved with her husband to his hometown of Seattle and stretched her business plans into shape.
It’s been about 10 months since COVID-19 hit, and Hall said they’ve kept their doors open the entire time. Patients and staff have stayed safe during the pandemic, during which Gov. Jay Inslee declared that physical therapists were considered essential health care workers.
Movement Systems’ numbers dropped significantly during the stay home, stay safe mandate, said Hall, adding that within 10 days they pivoted to a Telehealth platform in tandem with in-person visits.
“We’ve pulled out every single aspect of keeping people safe in our environment,” said Hall, noting about personal protective equipment, disinfectant, plexiglass, physical spacing, temperature taking and checking people’s sense of smell.
Masks work, Hall said about keeping physical therapists and patients safe during in-person visits, during which they provide the same contact prior to the pandemic.
Setting up shop on the Island was one of the best business decisions Hall has ever made.
“We were growing and I had a large Mercer Island contingency of patients who kept saying, ‘I wish you would open up on Mercer Island,’ because they didn’t like having to go all the way into Seattle,” she said.
The timing was right as they were massively busy in Seattle and had thoughts of expansion on their minds. Now they’re bursting at the seams on the Island, Hall said with a laugh.
Movement Systems Physical Therapy is located at 8435 SE 68th St., Ste. 100. Visit https://movementsystemspt.com/
