Live4 Physical Therapy & Wellness Advising

sarah@live4pt.com

@live4_pt

Where he is located:

Acton, MA

What is a non-negotiable for you in ACL rehab? 

For me, the most important factor is psychological readiness. The athlete must demonstrate (through performance, patient-reported outcome measures such as ACL-RSI, TSK11, IKDC, and objective testing) that they are confident in their ability to return to play. Among many other factors, research has demonstrated that lower psychological readiness increases athletes' risk of second injury. Of course, there are so many other factors that play into this state of readiness and my clinical decision making (i.e. evidence-based return to sport testing measure such as hop testing, objective lower extremity strength and peak torque measures, limb symmetry index, performance with incorporation of neurocognitive and dual tasks, and so much more).

Why do you support THE ACL CLUB? 

Prior to starting my own practice, I worked in collegiate athletics and had the incredible opportunity to work with athletes across all D1 sports. Through this experience, my clinical practice began to really evolve - placing a greater focus on shared decision making, establishing a strong therapeutic alliance, addressing wellness (e.g. sleep, nutrition, etc.), education about long-term health and wellness, and recognizing/managing the psychosocial aspects of injury - a truly biopsychosocial approach. I began to notice that identity loss (as well as many other psychosocial factors) was almost always present across all athletes and sports. Before I was aware of the ACL club, we created our own community of athletes with a history of ACL injury to address this - These individuals allowed me to connect them with other athletes who were going through the ACL recovery process to share experiences, make new friends, talk about fears and frustrations, and so much more. This helped so many athletes and I was so inspired by their willingness to support one another. Now that I have my own practice, the community I serve is more spread out, diverse, and in separate "worlds". It's more challenging for me to create that sense of community, but still just as important. The ACL Club is a great way to accomplish that!