Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Vander Linden.
Hi Amy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I became a physical therapist in 2000. I worked in several settings earlier in my career. In 2009, I took my first course in Barnes’ Myofascial Release and felt this was my true calling. As I deepened my skills and took more courses, I became increasingly passionate about women’s health. Having had my own two children, I could see how deeply underserved this population is.
As I focused more training in this area, I knew that to provide the level of care in the manner that seemed best for my client’s truest healing, I should open my own practice. That happened in 2012 while I was still doing home health work. Eventually, I had to take the leap and fully commit to growing my own private practice. This would not have happened without the amazing support of my husband!
I took several steps along that journey, eventually adding staff and growing and in 2018 began seeking out my own space to truly provide the community wellness center that would have many services for women and their families here in the west valley of Phoenix. In July 2020, we finally opened Moment of Truth Healing Space, complete with our PT and massage services but also adding a beautiful yoga studio, a midwifery practice, holistic nutrition coaching and more! It’s a lot of work and also my dreams come to life! We’ve been able to help reach our community more with events such as an art auction fundraiser to benefit The Phoenix Dream Center and are set to host our 2nd Birth Expo in early November. We have such an incredible team and are passionate about helping as many find true authentic healing as we can!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Wow. I think I could write an entire book about 2019 – the year that tried to take me out. We purchased our building in December of 2018. It was supposed to be a grey shell ready for buildout with a completion goal of May 2019. It’s honestly not worth rehashing the entire ordeal that I often refer to as a boring Lifetime movie. The villains of this story don’t deserve any more of my breath or energy and you wouldn’t likely believe it all anyway. It was a truly bizarre set of circumstances and many, many lessons were learned along the way. Probably the biggest lesson for me was a depth of faith and patience related to things out of my control. I truly believe that time prepared me in ways I couldn’t even comprehend for the other challenges that were to come with the pandemic, hiring lessons and what would really be required of me to create the space I had the vision for.
God is so good and my family and support system are extraordinary as, despite tremendous odds, not to mention a pandemic, we opened our space in July of 2020 and are growing and helping so many people as well as bringing more resources to the west valley, something I’m tremendously passionate about. Now I’m learning more lessons about people, leadership, community and so much more. If we’re not learning, we’re dying and I try to focus on the belief that everything is happening FOR me and not TO me – that in itself is often a challenge.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We help women have healthy, active pregnancies, optimal deliveries and recover more quickly to regain their confidence in their bodies and get back to activities they love. To do this, we specialize in John Barnes’ Myofascial Release and Visceral work. What does that even mean right? Well, it’s manual therapy that helps get to the fascial layer – the connective tissue which is literally connected to every cell in our bodies. This is perfectly suited to pelvic issues because it is gentle, naturally takes into account the mind-body-spirit connection and trauma. When you consider the statistics around infertility, miscarriage, rape, molestation, abortion, and birth trauma, the chances that someone is coming into our space without trauma is fairly unlikely and this is rarely discussed or addressed, which is NOT ok. We also treat men or issues outside pelvic health, but our primary clientele are pregnant and postpartum women. We are a cash-based clinic which means we have a lot more flexibility in services and time we can offer clients. We still provide invoices to submit to insurance for reimbursement and offer packages and payment plans so our clients have several options for scheduling and payments. This model allows us to spend 60-90min per session with clients providing direct care as physical therapists. Everything is customized with emails sent at each session with videos for their home programs. This also means that even if we are helping a woman with postpartum recovery and focusing on pelvic pain, if she comes in with a major headache and neck pain from how she slept or was nursing in the night, we can address her neck and head that day without her going back to her doctor, getting a separate prescription for PT to her neck, which saves time, money and a lot of pain and energy! We LOVE helping clients with what they need most.
I’m very proud of the variety of services we offer within our space. The yoga studio was at the heart of my vision for finding my own space because we truly want to help people find deep and lasting healing, not just for their bodies but for their souls. Fascial work helps address mind, body and spirit from within and can help release subconscious holding patterns. Yoga is the perfect compliment to that because the breath, movement and awareness enhance that process by keeping us in the present moment and helping us identify and truly know what our bodies need next for healing.
We are a family, wanting community and safety for ourselves and our clients. We provide connection and a space to gather and want that experience to be just as impactful as the treatments we offer.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Love listening to worship music to keep my focus right and head on straight. I also love Brene Brown’s podcasts Unlocking us and Daring Greatly Leadership. Our whole staff is actually reading the Gifts of Imperfection and listening to Brene’s podcast on that. I also love Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness Podcast. My business mentor has a podcast called Paul Gough Audio. I actually have a podcast as well – Bellies, Babies and Birth where I interview other practitioners, mostly from our own local community, who have relevant insights for moms related to all things Babies and Birth!
The books would be too many to count. Definitely the Bible, Chop Wood, Carry Water and The Alchemy were all pretty impactful for me. Also Leaders Eat Last.
Contact Info:
- Email: amy@momentoftruthpt.com
- Website: www.momentoftruthpt.com
- Instagram: @momentoftruthpt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MomentOfTruthPhysicalTherapy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGdUT5NgdaCPz7mkwS9Ksg
Image Credits
Angel Martinez with Social Connections
