National Physical Therapy Month: Meet John Colville

October is National Physical Therapy Month, which recognizes the physical therapy field and therapists who work with patients of all ages and abilities to help them heal from injuries and chronic issues and to restore, maintain and improve mobility and function.

OrthoCarolina employs more than 80 PTs.

John Colville, DPT, CSCS is a Physical Therapist at OrthoCarolina University. Originally from Kansas City, he received his BS in Exercise Science from the University of Kansas and his DPT from The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. John and his wife Tonya, who is an Occupational Therapist, have two wonderful kids, Emily (7) and Will (5).

John shared some of his personal reasons for choosing Physical Therapy as a career and what he gets out of his day-to-day experiences working with patients:

How long have you been a PT?

• 12 years (9 with OC).

What made you want to go into Physical Therapy?

• Getting injured playing sports in high school and college landed me in the PT clinic a few times. I found it to be very interesting work and appreciated the efforts of the therapists who treated me.

Sports injuries, huh? What was your sport?

• I played collegiate rugby for the University of Kansas for 5 years and then club rugby for 10 years. I have coached the UNCC men’s rugby team since 2005. In my spare time I also referee local high school rugby matches.

So why do you think physical therapy is important?

• I enjoy the opportunity to educate my patients on the specifics of their condition or injury and what will be involved in the rehabilitation process. As therapists, we frequently have the advantage of being able to spend more time with each of our patients. Much of that time I use helping each patient understand how they came to be injured and what steps need to be taken in order to restore their mobility to their pre-injury level, or perhaps even better. I believe that if you understand a little about how the body works in response to injury, it helps motivate you and makes the rehab easier.

What’s one thing people might not know about you?

• I played the drums in a garage band in college.

What’s your favorite sports team?

• Kansas Jayhawks, South Carolina Gamecocks, Kansas City Chiefs.