Meet the faces of our staff PTs who dedicate their lives to treating CORA patients right every day. These are their stories!
Each week we’ll feature a few of our Faces of CORA right here on our blog. So many individuals have been sharing their personal stories, we simply can’t tell them all! To read the entire collection head on over to our dedicated Faces of CORA landing page, a place for sharing and a space for making community connections. New stories are being added every day!
If you haven’t already heard it, the CORA story is unique. If you haven’t already experienced it, the CORA experience is different. Each employee, at every level of the organization, has an important role to play in upholding our core values.
Every October we celebrate National Physical Therapy Month, an annual opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits of physical therapy; but, rarely do we showcase the personalities of those responsible for keeping our patients healthy. Those faces responsible for keeping our wheels in motion. And those voices responsible for telling the CORA story with a certain authenticity and conviction in everything they do, every single day.
The Faces of CORA you will meet throughout this month have dedicated their careers to helping others through physical therapy. Of course, we know what they do, but their “why” tells the full story and is what helps write ours!
Meet Brett Kolnick from Knoxville, Tennessee
Why Did You Become a PT or PTA? What/Who Inspired You?
The reason that I became a physical therapist is because of my brother Ryan. I was 7 years old when my brother was born. He was born perfectly healthy but after several months of being alive he started have terrible seizures due to spinal meningitis. The spinal meningitis caused decreased oxygen to his brain which resulted in my brother having cerebral palsy. As a child and older brother, I would do so many activities with him involving walking, stretching, coordination and balancing activities while we were just simply playing and spending time together.
The entire time I was playing with and taking care of my brother, I had no idea that I was actually doing physical therapy with him. Not until Ryan got involved with the Special Olympics as a teenager, I was privileged to be around so many other amazing special children and adults. At this moment, I realized that I wanted to become a physical therapist. I learned the impact that I had on my brother and more importantly the impact that he had on me.
Ryan has now passed away but through his spirit is the reason why I am a physical therapist and how I am blessed to have an opportunity to impact other people’s lives through my career as a physical therapist.
Who’s Next? More Faces of CORA Physical Therapy Coming Soon!
Thank you for following along with our blog as we share insights, personal narratives, pictures, and inspirational anecdotes about why CORA teammates pursued the PT profession.
Are you a patient that has your own personal experience to share? We’d love to hear how Faces of CORA across different regions have positively impacted your life, how our PTs have helped write your story. And the PT or staff personnel responsible for treating your aches and pains would love to hear it too!
