Dr. Stephanie Johnson received her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She completed her undergraduate studies in Kinesiology and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Dr. Johnson has training in advanced spinal manipulation and manual therapy through her schooling under Dr. Carol Courtney at UIC, is Dry Needling certified through the Spinal Manipulation Institute, has taken pain science courses through Prof. Lorimer Mosely and Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD, and has taken concussion courses through the nations top rehabilitation hospital, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab as well as completing the practitioner certification course at Complete Concussion Management, Inc. She previously worked at Manual Therapy Associates with Dr. Sandra and Tien Do, both fellows of manual therapy that have provided great mentorship and friendship over the years.
Dr. Johnson’s patients often say about their experience:
“This is so much different than ‘regular’ physical therapy I had before“.
While it is a great compliment, it’s so triggering! So many great clinicians are stuck in the physical therapy model that is focused on profit over high quality delivery of individualized care. Stephanie will never compromise her value of one on one, high-quality, evidenced based physical therapy for her patients, and insurance began getting in the way of that value. The way forward was through moving to a cash pay service model. Current insurance models reimburse in a way that would require many clinicians to see multiple patients at once or use an unskilled aid. There is no part of the treatment process that Dr. Johnson would want to pass off to an aid or have to see more than one patient at once. She values each patient relationship, and deeply respects the relationship between pain and emotion, thus having one-on-one treatreamt in a private room is invaluable.
Your treatment program with Dr. Johnson will stand out as she employs the best of evidence-based practice with novel manual therapy techniques. She will then provide you with individually catered mobility exercises and progressive loading exercises to maintain the effects of treatment and lead to meaningful long-term change. This program will empower you on your path to a full recovery!
“I can’t fix you, but I will use every tool in my toolbox to empower you on your journey out of pain and back to the things you love to do”.
Outside of the clinic Steph enjoys hiking with her two dogs, Lemon and Ellie, following her husband on epic backpacking treks that sometimes lead to helping her finish climbing all the 14ers. She’s always ready or winter and skiing fresh powder. She loves to talk about all things gardening and loves her perennial garden full of flowers from patients.
