How Much Can I Make? - Career Insights For Your Job Search
Jobs & Career Insights with Mirav Ozeri
Your inside scoop on the job market. Whether you’re chasing your first job, switching careers, or dreaming of being an entrepreneur, this podcast gives you the career advice you actually need.
We go beyond the job titles—breaking down what careers are really like, how do you brake in, how much you can earn, and the skills it takes to succeed. From career insights to real-world job stories, you’ll hear from people who’ve navigated the in and out of the job market and came out on top.
If you’re exploring new career possibilities or just want practical, straight-up job advice, this is the podcast for you.
Nominated for 2025 Women Podcasters award.
How Much Can I Make? - Career Insights For Your Job Search
Physical Therapist Career Insights: A Journey to Improve Lives
Physical Therapist
Seven years of school to become a physical therapist? Yep—you heard that right! Trisha Groff, Director at AccessPT in Woodstock, NY, spills the beans with her career insight on what it really takes to break into (and thrive in) the demanding yet rewarding PT job.
From helping weekend warriors bounce back, to witnessing jaw-dropping recoveries—like the 70+ man who learned to walk on two prosthetic legs. Trish’s stories will have you rethinking what’s possible.
Warning: this episode might just make you want to book a PT appointment… or start a whole new career.
AccessPT website - https://accessphysicaltherapywellness.com/
To start your career at AccessPT - https://accessphysicaltherapywellness.com/careers/
Want us to cover a specific job? Shoot us an email!
Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation
So there's a lot of tendonitis like forearm elbow area. We get a lot of that Achilles tendonitis, acl, from skiing and snowboarding. Rotator cuff tear is very common too, I would say.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to how Much Can I Make the podcast about jobs and earnings. I'm your host, merav Ozeri. Today we're talking with Trish Groff, the director and a physical therapist at AccessPT, about her job, about her career and what it takes to succeed in this field and the realities of running a really busy clinic. Funny thing, or the sad thing, I should say that after we finished recording, trish mentioned something that I must share here, and that is physical therapy can actually treat vertigo. I was so surprised I had to call friends of mine that I know are suffering from vertigo, suffered in the past many times, and I asked them did you know about it? And nobody knew about it. So there's a lot to be said about physical therapy, but let's hear it directly from Trish all about physical therapy and what it takes. Thanks, trisha, for doing it. I really, really appreciate it. Physical therapy is an important thing. Yeah, I want to start by what drew you to that field.
Speaker 1:So I've always been really interested in the human connection and how the brain works. So I actually first went to school for psychology and then I'm so like empathetic towards others that I realized being a psychotherapist might not be the best idea for me. I think I would take it home with me, you know. So I was like what else can I use in this way? Or like what's in the healthcare field? And I was really into fitness at the time and it just came together. I started to learn what physical therapy was and I worked in a physical therapy clinic as an aid. So I was grabbing their hot packs and cold packs and stuff and I was like in the environment and I realized that that was what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:So you said something interesting you were interested in the brain is physical therapy connected?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, a lot of it comes from the brain, absolutely in many different ways. What do you give me an example? Yeah, like patients think they can never get back to something that they love ever again, like they think they're doomed or something you know. So physical therapy gives them that hope of being able to return to the things that they love and it improves their quality of life. But then there's also neurological conditions that someone can suffer from right, like a stroke or something. That's all the brain, that's all how the brain works. So how?
Speaker 2:many years did you have to study?
Speaker 1:Seven.
Speaker 2:Seven. Yeah, what I didn't think physical therapy is going through. I thought I know doctors go through. You have to get your doctorate.
Speaker 1:What yeah? So it's your undergrad, so it can actually be six or seven, depending on the program you're in. Yeah, but you have to get your bachelor's degree in something, usually biology or psychology or the combination or whatever, and then you go into the doctorate program. Oh, wow, yeah, they call it DPT doctorate of physical therapy.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, I had no idea. Good to know you started as actually treating people?
Speaker 1:right, I started as an aide. You can't treat people. Is that what you mean? When I was the aide in the clinic?
Speaker 2:No, but after that, after you did the aide, then you started with actually treating, because I know now you are the director of the facility.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, so I still treat full time. Oh you, the admin is on top of it, oh my God. So it's sprinkled throughout the day and there's more things I have to do than the others. But, yeah, I still treat full time.
Speaker 2:Why did you take the extra? Is it extra pay also?
Speaker 1:It is a little extra pay because it comes with more responsibility, but, like I'm just someone that always wants more, like what's my next move, what's my next step? And so that was the next step for me.
Speaker 2:So what are your responsibilities as a director?
Speaker 1:So I manage the staff and the clinic right, making sure everyone has what they need, making sure everything's flowing right. How is the schedule looking budget? Making sure it has what it needs in the clinic, like machines and equipment wise and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:I saw that you have a lot of rooms. Yeah, so you can treat how many people at the same time.
Speaker 1:So we do have rooms here. Not every clinic does. It's typically like an open gym with tables. Sometimes they have curtains you can pull. We work out of an old house.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So our clinic's a little different than most. But this area loves that, like they love that it's not a commercial building the people in this neighborhood. They love that it's a house. So we do have rooms and we take advantage of the rooms when it's the patient's first day. So we bring the patient in for their evaluation, we close the door, talk about what they're going through, how long it's been, take measurements of everything, look at how they're moving, and then usually all the follow-up treatments are out in the open, unless for some reason the patient's uncomfortable with it, or maybe we have to, or maybe we have a therapist that does pelvic floor. She's obviously always in a room with the door shut because she's doing an internal exam, so we're not always in the individual rooms. A lot of times we're out in the open because there's multiple people working at a time. But we do have that availability here, which is nice.
Speaker 2:What are the most common cases that come to you?
Speaker 1:I would say it depends where you are, but overall I see the most back pain, whether it's acute or chronic. Yeah, I would say back and necks. You know people suffering with back or neck pain like a lot during the day.
Speaker 2:Is it injury or things over time deteriorating?
Speaker 1:There's both, and acute injury is a little quicker to treat, typically because you know something just happened and you can name it and they know what they did or whatever. But chronic can take a little bit longer. Maybe they waited forever to come in, maybe their posture is really awful, so but both are treatable and usually they are referred by a doctor to you, or people just decide.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of the time they're referred by their doctor. Like they go for their primary checkup visit and they're complaining about discomfort somewhere and the doctor writes them a script. But a lot of patients come in and they're like, hey, I went to my doctor and I asked them for a PT script because they didn't even bring it up and so patients have to advocate for themselves. I think once, like a family member starts PT and spreads the word, or friends start PT and spread the word, more and more people understand what it is and it's honestly good for everybody. Like I feel like everyone has something that they could work on, so, but most people wait until they're in pain and then they show up.
Speaker 2:I take it that there are more than one treatment.
Speaker 1:It's few treatments right, you're seen like twice a week, typically twice a week, yeah, however many weeks like six, eight, what do you think is the average to solve a back problem?
Speaker 1:Is it acute or chronic, chronic Chronic it depends on the patient, their personality and if they do their stuff at home. So if it's someone that sits all day long and they're only moving when they come here for PT, they could take seriously forever. I mean it's like a fight between the two and I always have the conversation like this is team effort and if you're not doing your end, I mean you know this is pointless. I would say that eight weeks is pretty good eight to 10 weeks and they're on a good exercise regimen if they're walking and doing their stuff. For chronic.
Speaker 2:So the main culprit for back pain is sitting too long and sitting too much I'd say that's the most common.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah, whether patients are elderly and they're just kind of sitting around, they don't have much to do, or it's people that sit at a desk all day.
Speaker 2:So do you get also sports injury?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we do.
Speaker 2:What's the most common? Is it like a weekend warrior or is it like actual athlete?
Speaker 1:We don't get a lot of like avid athletes, but you know people play pickleball, tennis, golf around here. We get skiers and snowboarders because we live by the mountain so you have like sprains, strains, tendinitis, you know, repetitive we also. We live in an area here, or we work in an area, where there's a lot of artists, whether they paint or draw or they play an instrument, so there's a lot of tendinitis like forearm elbow area. We get. They play an instrument, so there's a lot of tendonitis like forearm elbow area. We get a lot of that. Achilles tendonitis, acl from skiing and snowboarding, rotator cuff tears very common too.
Speaker 2:I would say so. I'm a tennis player and a pickleball player, so I'm very curious to ask you about that. Yeah, first of all, can you treat tennis elbow Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Really, absolutely. Yeah, that's a repetitive strain.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I had it and I didn't know that's physical Really.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:What's the most common injury you see from pickleball?
Speaker 1:I would say back pain from the rotation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, my God, who knew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it became this fad recently. Like people that didn't play any sports or didn't exercise at all, they just like started pickleball. They don't know how to warm up or cool down or anything, so we got a good amount of pickleball people in the past year.
Speaker 2:When you say cool down, you mean like stretches and stuff. Is that really important? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Oh, I have to start doing it, I can give you some points. Yes, I would definitely would like to.
Speaker 2:So I have. It's almost a personal question, but somebody can sneeze and get a back pain. Yeah, how long a treatment for something like this will take.
Speaker 1:That's a disc issue. Pts are pretty good at treating that. Oh really, yeah, that can be quick. Oh really. Yeah, depending on how intense it is and if it's off to the side or straight back, but yeah, what would you say is the difference between a PT and a chiropractor, for example?
Speaker 1:So I can't really speak for chiropractors, but from what I know from chiropractors, they more do. They are doing it to the patient, so it is a quick manipulation of movement that they're doing to the spine. We have the patient work with us, so we do some things, passively stretching, moving them this way or that way, but they're actually exerting the effort most of the time to make a change, whether it's through strengthening exercises or muscle energy technique or something like that oh interesting.
Speaker 1:And PT you you do it more often like a chiro you kind of check in with, but PT it's like all right, let's be twice a week for six weeks. Let's get these muscles strong. You'll probably meet your goals. If you need us in the future, come back. But you set them up with a whole regimen and I don't know. I think some great chiropractors do that. They'll give a couple exercises and stretches, but not all do. They'll just do their mobile manipulations and I would assume I may be wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that it's a very physical job.
Speaker 1:It is yeah.
Speaker 2:Explain yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's even in the name, right. So, like I said before, I'm all over the place, I'm grabbing equipment for this one or I'm doing joint mobilizations on this patient. So it's manual in a sense where, or physical in a sense where we're working on the patient, we're stretching their leg or their arm or doing joint mobilizations to improve a certain motion, or we're just running them through their exercises and we're back and forth between the other patients. So I would say a combination of pacing the clinic, actually having your hands on the patient. There's also things that we do where, like the patient resists us, so like we'll have the patient work with us physically, so they're pressing up into our hand, we're pressing down with our hand to kind of like move things into different positions.
Speaker 1:So, resistance exercises. Resistance can be manual therapy to reposition a part of their body like the actual bones, or it can be resistance where they're doing an exercise and you have like a band or a weight on them.
Speaker 2:You said you know you press on the, on the patient. You do exercise and all of that. How do you build the trust with a and as a woman, when you work on a man, is there a problem?
Speaker 1:I mean building trust is huge. I do that from day one. So when I take that patient in the room on that first day and I shut the door, I kind of sense like what their attitude is, what they're going through, how they're feeling and like you just know personal professional judgment, how to speak to that patient. What does that patient need in particular? Sometimes they need their handheld and all in the beginning. And then you're like all right, we're getting independent now you know whatever, but definitely getting their trust is step one.
Speaker 2:Before you said if people don't do their work at home, do you follow up on that? How do you know if they do it or don't do it?
Speaker 1:Oh, we know, we know, and sometimes they tell us that they do it and they don't do it. Oh, really For sure. And how do you know? Absolutely Well, first of all I asked them to do what they do at home. They'll say oh well, first of all I ask them to do what they do at home, they'll say, oh well, usually I have the paper by me, or what was it again, or something. You know, that's like a simple one. But also, you just know, by how their body's looking, you know if you gave them the right things to do and they're still not looking very well, either you didn't give them the right exercise as a PT or they're not doing their stuff at home. So, and then others are truthful. They're like listen, I'm super, I know it's important, I'm very sorry I haven't done it.
Speaker 2:Tell me some a story that comes to mind of a success story with a patient.
Speaker 1:I would say one of my biggest successes. And he actually passed away recently, which is sad, but my one patient. He had suffered from diabetes most of his life and then for 10 plus years he had controlled his diet. He was doing so well, but because he had that sugar issue for so long he had controlled his diet he was doing so well, but because he had that sugar issue for so long he did end up losing one of his legs. And he was such a hard worker, he was so motivated, it was unbelievable. I mean, the effort that he put in the clinic and at home was like you would cry watching him. It was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1:We got him back to driving and stairs and doing all these things he was doing so well. Couple months go by and he calls me up and he says I can't believe I'm telling you this, but now I have to lose my other leg, so we had to start all over again. So now he had two prosthetics yes, they were both um below knee and we got him back to driving and stairs and walking and curves. Yeah, it was unbelievable. He did it all over again. So and how old was the patient? Oh, man, I want to say he was in his 70s. I really don't remember for sure. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, when you got him back. Yeah, that is a success story.
Speaker 1:It really was For sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah no-transcript and I think she just wants to try something else. When you lose somebody and you do have such a wait list and such a caseload, it's tough because you know All these patients need their care and sometimes you have to tell them like I'm sorry, you're only once next week instead of twice or I can't get you in. Luckily we're big company. So even though we have this clinic in this town, we do have neighboring towns with clinics in them, so we can be like are you comfortable going over to this town for your visit just for next week, so you're seeing twice and then come back. I think that's the most stressful thing for me right now is hoping that everyone gets the sessions that they need.
Speaker 2:And your job is from eight to four, nine to five.
Speaker 1:Everyone has a different schedule. Here I am 7.30 to 4.30, monday through Thursday, and Fridays I'm 7.30 to 1. I have two therapists that do the evening shift, so I start at 7.30 for those that can come before work and they work later in the evening for those that have to come after work. Okay, so we try to be open for the public for when they need it.
Speaker 2:When you said paperwork, is it for insurance? Do you accept?
Speaker 1:insurance. It's the worst part of our job. Any PT would tell you that the documentation it's tedious and it takes time, and if you don't finish it during your day, you're doing it at home. A lot of PTs end up burnt out, and it's not just from the patient care, it's from having to do this documentation. Oh my, it really takes time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is a beginner's pay in PT.
Speaker 1:So when I first started, I think I started at like how long ago was that 2017. I think I started at like 60, something mid 60s, and now people that have just graduated, they're making 85 to 95 in outpatient. In the outpatient world it's different if you're in a hospital or a rehab setting and I don't know what the I've only been outpatient. They started 85?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you started at 60? Even though you have a PhD? Tell me about it. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is my fourth job yeah, I went from 60 to 73 to, like you know. Oh my God it's definitely higher now, but could be higher.
Speaker 2:When you hire somebody as a physical therapist, what are you looking for? What are the credentials you're looking for? What do you want? How do you make your decision higher or not higher?
Speaker 1:I want them motivated. I love when they're eager to learn and just give the patients the best care that they can, and you can tell their personality, you know you can it? Matters.
Speaker 2:But you also look where they studied.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I don't mind what college they went to. They have to get their doctorate in PT or they have to be a physical therapy assistant and whatever school you go to, you get your degree and certificate. So I don't really mind what school they went to. I'm interested. I'll ask like where, where you've been living, whatever. But I more care if they want to continue learning, because things change over time and I want them to want to learn throughout the whole time. They're a PT, continuing ed and different techniques and not use the same thing on every patient.
Speaker 2:It's terrible when people when you say things change all the time. Yeah, totally leads me to technology. Do you use technology in treating people? Do you see it coming?
Speaker 1:I mean, we're on our laptops all day typing, but as far as like some fancier clinics, we don't really have the equipment. But some other clinics they'll like attach things to patients and that's how they know how strong they are and stuff, and they have things they can stand on and test their vestibular system and they have all this technology like that. We don't really have any of that in this clinic. The only technology I see increasing in our clinic that's to come is like dictation, so probably helping us with our notes, being able to just talk into something and it types something up. Oh really, yeah.
Speaker 2:What advice would you give somebody that want to get into PT?
Speaker 1:I think, test it out like I did. Go be an aide somewhere and submerge yourself in the environment and if you feel like you love it and you're truly passionate about it, go for it. But if you're not sure I mean the schooling is a lot, it's super expensive. So if you don't think you're going to like it, don't do it. But if you feel really passionate about it, it is so rewarding. Can somebody start by internship somewhere? Yeah, they can shadow things like that. And then if you do end up going into the doctoral program, you have months at a time where you do like a clinical rotation. So a PT is your teacher and your hands on. But that's part of the curriculum once you're in it. Yes, you can observe prior to that.
Speaker 2:I can see in your eyes that you love this job.
Speaker 1:I do love it. Yeah, what's the thing?
Speaker 2:that makes you love it the most. I love this job. I do love it, yeah. What's the thing that makes you love it the most?
Speaker 1:I think, just like giving patients hope and then seeing them achieve their goals that they set, especially when they don't think they can, that's like that's a game changer. It's just as rewarding for the therapist as it is for the patient, for sure.
Speaker 2:Totally All right. Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you, this was fun. I hope I will never need physical therapy, but it sounds.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to know that I have such a good place in my town. We're here for you, excellent, Thank you. Thank you, okay. That's a wrap for today. If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know. Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo. We would love to hear from you. And, on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job. See you next time. You.
