Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Proctor.
Kathryn, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born and raised in Newberry, SC. I went to Wofford College for undergraduate where I received my B.S. in Psychology. After a couple of years off and a few pre-requisites at USC, I decided to become a Physical Therapist. I graduated from Columbia University in 2012 with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT). The first 10 years of my career as a Physical Therapist I worked in Northern Virginia, Washington DC and Boulder, CO. During this time I took advantage of as many educational opportunities that I could – I went through two orthopedic residency programs, received my Orthopedic Clinical Specialist certification, dry needling certification, lymphedema therapist certification and explored many different components of Physical Therapy. In addition to outpatient orthopedics I have found myself drawn to three subgroups of patients: patients with hypermobility/Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, those struggling with Temporomandibular joint dysfunction and endurance athletes.
In 2022 my wife, daughter and I moved back to South Carolina to be closer to family. Much about South Carolina had changed in the 15 years that I was gone, but the heart of the south was the same. Over the past two years that I have been treating in SC as a clinician I saw components that were working well for patients and components that could be improved to better help the patient. With the goal of helping to improve that standard of care I opened Spiro Physical therapy in November of 2024. The company’s name, Spiro – or “to breathe” in Latin – is a nod to our love and appreciation of South Carolina. It is borrowed from South Carolina’s motto – “Dum Spiro Spero” – “While I breathe, I hope.”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
All along my journey I have been privileged to be surrounded by people who support me, people who are smarter than me and willing to share their insight and people willing to be patient and help guide me. The first challenge was deciding to take the path to becoming a Physical Therapist – when I first heard of PT I had no idea what they did. I came to recognize it as a practice that would allow me to fuse my love of anatomy/physiology with that of psychology. It is more than just exercises, but an opportunity to truly dive deep and help people to unwind the puzzle that is the musculoskeletal system intertwined with the neurological, cardiac, endocrine, etc systems.
The other biggest challenge has been one of my own creation. When I chose to work with hypermobile/EDS patients as a speciality, I knew that having a strong network of practitioners was going to be critical. With moving to the upstate, I am now having to build that connection for a third time – once in D.C., once in Boulder, CO, and now here. It is work, but as those connections grow, it is beyond rewarding to be able to work as a team to best help your patient.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Spiro Physical Therapy opened in November 2024. The drive that pushed me to start Spiro was the misunderstanding of what Physical Therapy is and the role it can play in an individual’s life. Spiro Physical Therapy is a clinic designed to raise the expectations that patients have of their clinician. Patients deserve individualized treatments, creativity in their treatments and a clinician who is able and willing to listen and adapt their approach when necessary. When treatment is approached in this manner, patients improve more quickly and are able to maintain functional improvements independently after finishing physical therapy. “Spiro” in Latin means “to breathe” or “to live.” Injuries, pain and the resulting daily restrictions create a pause in our lives. This “pause” impacts our function, our interaction with others, our happiness and our grounding. Our goal at Spiro is to help patients breathe through the pause and challenges to help you return to living your life in its fullness. This is fundamental to our vision for the clinic, our vision for our patient, and our vision for our purpose.
Any big plans?
Our current plan is to continue to build Spiro. I want to continue to connect with the community in a meaningful way. There are brilliant patients, practitioners and colleagues that I want to continue to be able to learn from. Over the next five years we will work towards growth in adding new clinicians at Spiro, growth in our ability to understand new tools that maximize patient improvement and growth in a community of practitioners who work together to support our patients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.spiro-pt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spirophysicaltherapy
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567416680147
