CityView Magazine

62 | March/April 2015 Beth Carpenter, founder of Scarf It Up feature BY MELISSA GOSLIN Laura Schindler has always done things her own way. As a physical therapist, Schindler was frustrated with standard protocols and letting other people make decisions for her. So, in 2004 she opened Advanced Physical Therapy Solutions with nothing more than an exercise ball, a piece of PVC pipe and a clear vision. "I wanted to treat patients the way I wanted to treat patients," Schindler said. She did not want to assess patients and then pass them off to an assistant. She also did not want to juggle multi- ple patients at a time. Instead, Schindler was intent on building relationships and treating them one at a time. "I took out a small home equity loan and hung up my shingle," Schindler said. "I think most people just waited for it to tank." Instead, it evolved. Aer a year, Schindler was able to add another full- time staff member to join her in their 800 square-foot space. In 2011, Schin- dler and her team of over 20 employees moved into their current 7,000 square- foot Executive Place facility. ey've also got a lot more bells and Photography by Michelle Bir Forward Movement whistles now, but Schindler keeps a hands-on approach at the center of the practice. Although the machines and tools are extremely useful, Schindler said the most important thing is mak- ing sure patients understand how to go home and work on their issues without benefit of a professional facility. Her therapists see one person at a time, with most appointments lasting sixty minutes. is model not only al- lows therapists to build relationships, but also helps them pay attention to every aspect of the patient's recovery. "We concentrate on digging deep to find out what's causing a patient's difficulty moving," Schindler said. "I like to think of myself as a movement specialist." e practice adopts an eclectic ap- proach that isn't focused on one par- ticular school of thought. Instead, they pull from all available methods to best serve the patient. Schindler is also open to listening to her employees and allowing them to add new programs. One such program, the restorative yoga class, had a waiting list within days of being announced. "When you run a small business, you never know what's going to happen," Schindler said. In ten years of running a business, Schindler had learned to focus on her patients, oen pushing her own needs to the background. Her work defined her; she had always wanted to be a physical therapist. During a respiratory illness, she developed a golf-ball-sized lump under her arm and blew it off as a swollen lymph node. She casually men- tioned it to her primary care provider, who wanted to keep an eye on it and urged Schindler to return if it didn't clear up soon. "I went back to work and kept doing and doing and doing," Schindler said. Aer a few months, Schindler's com- fort level was noticeably affected, so she made an appointment. A diagnostic mammogram led to immediate ultra- sound then quickly turned into a diag- nosis of inflammatory breast cancer, an incredibly aggressive and rare form of the disease. Schindler did what she knew—she went back to work. Schindler slipped into a therapy room and cried. As she'd done many times before in different situations, she made her way upstairs to her office to form a game plan. For the first time in over twenty years, though, Schindler felt lost. She had no idea where to start. She didn't know what questions to even ask, much less how to answer them. "I did what most people would do in my situation," Schindler said. "I got on the phone and I called my mom." Soon, her mother, a breast cancer survivor herself, arrived from Chapel Hill and together they took action. Schindler spent two months flying back and forth from Dana-Farber Cancer In- stitute in Boston, the only center in the northeast with a specialized program in

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