On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Dr. Gina Kim, PT, DPT to talk about making the move from a physical therapist assistant to a physical therapist. Dr. Gina Kim is the owner of Maitri Physiotherapy, LLC in Central Ohio, the producer and host of The Medical Necessity Podcast, is certified in Integrative Dry Needling, is pursuing certification in MDT, and also uses her 10-year background in Tibetan Buddhism to educate her clients in mindfulness meditation. In this episode, we discuss: How to transition from a PTA to a PT What is a bridge program for PTAs The benefits of being a non-traditional physical therapy student The ups and downs of physical therapy school while juggling work and life commitments.  And much more!  Resources:  Maitri Physiotherapy, LLC Dr. Gina on LinkedIn Dr. Gina on Instagram Dr. Gina on Facebook A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about the Redoc Patient Portal here.  More about Dr. Gina Kim: Dr. Gina originally wanted to play the trumpet when she grew up. Performance anxiety in high school changed her mind. But what was more worrying was the low back pain that began around that time. She endured that pain for years, but X-rays and muscle relaxers didn’t help. She was fortunate to work with a physical therapist.  Being free from back pain was so dramatic that she decided that’s what she wanted to do with her life: Help people change their lives by treating pain, especially back pain, without drugs or surgery. She stated at the bottom as a rehab aide. Next, she earned her license as a Physical Therapist Assistant and worked for years in settings ranging from outpatient orthopedics to acute care to home health. While working as a PTA, she completed her Doctorate through the University of Findlay Weekend College Bridge Program. Dr. Gina is certified in Integrative Dry Needling, is pursuing certification in MDT, and also uses her 10-year background in Tibetan Buddhism to educate her clients in mindfulness meditation. She is also the producer and host of The Medical Necessity Podcast. Read the Full Transcript below: Speaker 1 (00:01): Hello, Gina. And welcome to the podcast. I'm so happy to have you on, Speaker 2 (00:06): Well, I'm happy to be here, Karen. Speaker 1 (00:08): So you've got two podcast hosts here. So now you're on the other side of the mic. Speaker 2 (00:15): Oh goodness. It's great to be. Speaker 1 (00:20): So today we're going to talk about sort of your non-traditional route to becoming a physical therapist. So as, as a lot of people know, or maybe some listeners don't know the physical therapy profession, we're now a doctoring profession. So people are going to school for an undergraduate degree and then usually going right into physical therapy school as their graduate school of choice. But Gina made a definite detour from college through to where she is now as a physical therapist. So I will throw it over to you, Gina, and just kind of tell us your story, because I'm sure it will resonate with a lot of people. Speaker 2 (01:04): Oh my goodness. So my bachelor's is in computer science and I won't say how long ago, but let's say windows 95 was the hot new thing. Everybody was getting a computer science degree. I was even, I was even a company's webmaster for a time. So here's the thing, here's the thing. I have zero patience for technology longstanding low back issues. Okay. And especially sitting at a desk job, you know, we all, you know, PTs, you know, now I, now I know well when I was working one particular job, you know, and couldn't take the back pain anymore. And what do I do? I go to see my, go, to see my family doctor and it's x-rays and muscle relaxers, and guess what? Didn't help shocker shocker. And I can't tell you how many years passed between then. And finally, someone I remember I had hired a personal trainer who was himself, a physical therapist, and he said, Oh, you need to see someone who really specializ