Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriela Van Sickle.
Hi Gabriela, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I became interested in physical therapy when I was a patient in high school. I had been to several physicians who did not help me, and even told me that there was nothing wrong with me, and started with a physical therapist who figured out what was going on during the first visit and I knew that was what I wanted to do. After physical therapy school, I completed a residency in Functional Manual Therapy through the Institute of Physical Art (IPA) which laid the foundation of how I approach treatment. During that time, I had several patients who had chronic back and hip pain, TMJ and recurrent injuries so I decided to take a pelvic floor class as this was the one area of the body I had not been trained to treat. I immediately loved working with this population – pelvic floor issues have such a negative impact on quality of life, not many people know how to treat it and the Functional Manual Therapy techniques and philosophy are so applicable.
I met my husband, Matt, while I was in PT school – I had an internship at the clinic he was practicing at. We went through the IPA classes together so we have the same treatment philosophy. Through the years, we have experienced multiple settings and became frustrated with insurance restrictions, short treatment times, and the emphasis on profit over quality care. In 2017, we opened Functional Physical Therapy to provide high quality, one-on-one care and we haven’t looked back. Our practice grew, especially for pelvic health and in 2023, we hired a physical therapist as well as a client care coordinator. Due to our training and niche specialty, we see a lot of complex cases as well as people who did not improve at other physical therapy clinics. We are proud to say that we provide treatment not many other PTs provide, which is why we can help so many people that traditional models cannot.
In 2021, Matt and I had our son and in 2024, we welcomed our daughter. Being a business owner with my husband, learning to be a parent, and juggling the two has been rewarding and challenging. I am so grateful to have such a supportive and patient partner. It helps that we are in the same field, treat with the same philosophy and we each understand our strengths. We both still treat and we share mentoring our employees, but we divide and conquer business tasks. Matt is very good with finances, numbers and strategy and I enjoy marketing, networking and community events. Being a business owner is hard and non-stop and we are constantly learning new things, but we wouldn’t trade it for the world. We are able to be there for our kids and we feel good about providing exceptional care to our community.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Anything but smooth! But I think that would be the same answer from any business owner. There are so many things you cannot possibly know about running a business before you start one, and that may be for the best. If you knew how hard it was going to be, I think a lot of people wouldn’t even start. That being said, I would do it all over again.
PT school does not prepare you to open a business so it was a huge learning curve figuring out establishing an LLC, all the taxes, marketing etc let alone creating standard operating procedures, contracts, job posting, interview processes etc. We hit another bump when we hired our first physical therapist and how to change talking to patients calling to have them schedule with the new therapist, not Gabriela or Matt who their friend saw. As we learned, it was a very different conversation from what we started out as. We also realized we had to change our marketing strategy from promoting to what we as owners do to promoting us as a clinic. The best thing we did was start working with a business coach to help us grow – our coach helped us improve work flow, create standard procedures, identify specific metrics to track and helped us as owners more efficiently use our time.
As we grow, we also realized that while we love treating, as owners with employees, we need more time set aside for mentorship, marketing and networking to keep our employees’ schedules full. That can be a hard shift as our identities up until that point had been tied to treating providers, and not employers responsible for supporting our staff and building our patient network. While we still provide quality care ourselves, we now have the added responsibility of teaching our therapists how to do this as well so we can help even more people in our community.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Functional Physical Therapy, we provide highly specialized care for people struggling with pelvic health concerns and complex or chronic conditions. Our approach is different from traditional physical therapy because we look at the body as a whole system. Whether someone is coming in for pelvic pain, pregnancy-related discomfort, postpartum recovery, or chronic pain, we evaluate how the pelvic floor, orthopedic system, nervous system, and movement patterns are all interacting. Our goal is not just symptom relief, but helping people resolve the root cause of their issues and return to activities they never thought possible.
Equally important to us is the environment we create within our clinic. We believe that exceptional patient care starts with a team that feels supported, valued, and excited about the work they do. We are very intentional about building a culture where clinicians have the time, resources, and mentorship needed to grow in their skills and truly connect with their patients. By fostering a positive, collaborative workplace, we are able to deliver the level of thoughtful, one-on-one care that our patients deserve.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Being a mom and business owner brings me so much joy and drives me day after day. Functional Physical Therapy was our first baby – a lot of time and hard work went into learning how to start and grow a business, how to hire, what were we looking for in employees, define our culture as a clinic, develop our mentorship program, the list goes on and on. Not only are we providing quality treatment without restrictions, we are able to pick who works with us and provide mentorship so more therapists can provide exceptional care. Right now, my kids are too young to fully grasp that their parents are business owners, but I love being able to show them how career and family can meld. Work is never done as a business owner, but having the flexibility to control my schedule so I can still be present for them is priceless.
I love treating people with pelvic floor issues and chronic pain because this population’s quality of life is so negatively impacted and they are often stereotyped as “difficult.” Stigma prevents us from talking about pelvic pain, pain with sex, urinary incontinence and anything to do with our pelvis – so these people (which is a large group), suffer in silence and isolate themselves. We can talk to people about our backs or shoulders hurting, but it is generally not accepted to say, “oh I’m not feeling good today, my vagina hurts, or I pee every time I laugh.” Even if someone said that to a medical provider, most have not had this training/education and do not know where to send them. The same thing happens with chronic pain – we have very little patience for those with a condition we can’t see and then blame the person. Our training has taught us that everyone has potential, the body wants to heal and working with people with these conditions has shown us that. Every person with pelvic floor dysfunction and chronic pain, has something we can address to help them. Seeing these people who have completely given up their social life, are sad and depressed, feel guilty for not being able to see their kids’ play, sport, etc is so rewarding. As their pain decreases and their function improves, their true personality comes out and they can be engaged in life again. Nothing is better than that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.funcphystherapy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/functional.pt.llc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funcphystherapy/
