Physical Therapy U Opens On Main Street In Buzzards Bay
A new physical therapy center has opened on Main Street in Buzzards Bay.
Kelly Duggan, owner and physical therapist at Physical Therapy U, is excited to open a second location in Bourne that will supplement the company’s existing facility in Bridgewater.
“I’ve been a physical therapist for 12 years,” she said. “Six-and-a-half years ago, I was nine months pregnant with my third child and sort of hit a wall. I said to my husband, ‘I’m either done with physical therapy for good or I’m opening my own place; I need to treat patients how I want them to be treated.’”
Five months after the birth of her son in January 2016, Ms. Duggan officially opened her own business, the first Physical Therapy U in Bridgewater, where she lives. What started as two employees—herself and her sister working part time—has grown to upwards of 20. Now, six years and one pandemic later, she is ready to expand, and Bourne felt like the perfect fit.
“When 2020 hit, we were still pretty small,” Ms. Duggan said. “I felt like I was playing Jenga and was terrified that everything I had just sacrificed the time when my kids were super little for was going to crumble in front of me. It was really difficult.”
After closing for three months and pivoting to telehealth, Ms. Duggan said she decided it was time to put her business cap on and figure out how to make things work. She and her team started looking for a second location in 2020 and found themselves continually drawn to the area of Buzzards Bay and its surrounding towns.
“We’re definitely outside the box; we don’t look like the traditional physical therapy facility, so I wanted something that matched what we were doing in Bridgewater,” Ms. Duggan said. “This location on Main Street in Buzzards Bay just sort of screamed at me. When I walked in, I was like, ‘Oh, this is it.’ The look of the place, the feel, looking out at the canal right there, it was just absolutely incredible.”
Located at 85 Main Street, Physical Therapy U has been open part time for a few weeks and is open full time as of its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, August 25. While their target demographic is young and adult athletes, Ms. Duggan said her staff takes on all patients regardless of age or ability. She and her team felt that the Upper Cape was an underserved area, and supporting the Upper Cape’s athletes as well as the general community is a big part of their goal, she said.
“We’ve got 6-year-olds, we’ve got 99-year-olds; we run the gamut,” she said. “We do treat everything, but if you’ve got that athletic mindset or are an athlete in any way, shape or form, then we’re definitely the place you want to find. But we don’t want people to think we wouldn’t treat them just because they’re not an athlete.”
Stocked with brand-new equipment, Physical Therapy U has everything patients will need—sled push, curved treadmills, weights, squat racks, Ms. Duggan said. Physical-functional exercises are great for all patients regardless of athletic ability, she said, and are something most clinics are moving toward.
“We’re a little ahead of the curve in that area in terms of our facility really meeting the need of the strengthening that people are requiring,” she said. “Instead of having to boot people out and saying ‘Okay, now try it in a gym somewhere,’ we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s do it together, let’s make sure your form is correct.’ We’re meeting the needs of people where a lot of clinics right now, they’re just not there yet.”
Physical Therapy U also plans to use the large grassy backyard area of its facility for outdoor strength and conditioning classes during the spring. Through these classes, patients nearing the end of their treatment will be able to build a stronger foundation before returning to their normal exercise.
“We really want to support the community as best we can,” Ms. Duggan said. “That’s another part of being on Main Street. A lot of new businesses are going in there. We’re really trying to build up that location in Buzzards Bay, so we’re happy to be a part of it, and any way we can support the community. We’re trying to do that.”