If you go to Jen Ratner for physical therapy, don’t be surprised if she asks questions about much more than what hurts.
Ratner says she tries to treat more than patients’ physical symptoms — she wants to treat the whole person at her Fort Worth clinic, Ratner Center for Physical Therapy and Wellness.
“Here, you’re not a number, you’re a person,” Ratner said. “We take pride in taking care of each person as an individual and working toward their own individual goals.”
Ratner said her goal is to treat each patient in all aspects of life. Physical and emotional health often overlap, she explained, and therefore the therapists at her center want to get to know their patients in order to help them to the best of their abilities.
“Every person is on their own journey,” Ratner said. “My saying that has gotten me through opening the clinic and doing this whole process has been ‘trust your journey.’
“I firmly believe that people need to trust their journey, and part of trusting their journey is trusting their therapist,” Ratner said.
Ratner Center for Physical Therapy and Wellness opened in November 2018 in Fort Worth and has been growing rapidly since.
Ratner says what makes her practice different is that she combines a multitude of different treatments, including soft-tissue therapy, dry needling and laser treatment, to help her patients back to health.
“The more tools you have in your tool box, the more things you’re able to offer people to get them better,” Ratner said. “When something doesn’t work, you go to another tool, you pull that out of your tool box and you continue to move forward until you find the right thing that’s going to help that person heal.”
Ratner’s passion for her work is apparent in the way she speaks of her patients and her practice.
“There is no better feeling at night than going home and knowing that you impacted somebody’s life for the better,” Ratner said.
Ratner’s own health and fitness journey began after she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. This diagnosis inspired her to treat not only her patients’ physical needs, but also their overall wellness.
“When I decided to open up this clinic, I decided very quickly that we needed a wellness component,” Ratner said.
Ratner has brought on a certified strength and conditioning specialist to ensure her patients who finish treatment will continue their health and fitness journey. Ratner also hopes to integrate nutritional services into her practice in the future.
“The idea of this center is to really work on the whole person,” Ratner said.
“My goal is to help people get back to life,” Ratner said. “It’s to help people that can’t do something that they want to be able to do and to be able to accomplish that goal.”
Ratner said there hasn’t been any step of that way in which she hasn’t prayed that everything goes as planned. She said the Jewish community has supported her every step of the way.
“The Jewish community has been a tremendous support for me,” Ratner said.
Ratner Center for Physical Therapy and Wellness will host an open house with wine and hors d’oeuvres from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31. The center is located at 5500 Overton Ridge Blvd., Suite 228, in Fort Worth. For information, call 817-295-1255 or visit ratnerpt.com.