Hidden Gems: Meet Will Duncan of Southeast Physical Therapy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Duncan.

Hi Will, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started out my career in Human Performance and Wellness as a Sports Performance coach in 2004. In 2008, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Exercise & Health Science from Kennesaw State University and upon officially entering the work force as a degreed Sports Performance coach, I quickly realized that I only knew just enough to be dangerous. This realization further revealed that more education would be necessary. As a result, I applied to and was accepted into Mercer University’s (Atlanta) inaugural Doctor of Physical Therapy program in 2010 and received my Doctorate in 2013.

After completing graduate school, I worked at several corporate physical therapy groups and, in early 2016, got the entrepreneurial “itch” to go out on my own. The primary driver of this was a desire to provide a higher quality of care to my patients/clients than the corporate & insurance model would allow. I wanted to be able to treat the whole person standing in front of me from top to bottom rather than only treating what an insurance company would permit. I also wanted to get away from the corporate, “mill” model of care where patients are forced to share their PT with 3-4 other patients in the same hour. Neither model, insurance throttling care or high volume, is conducive to a steady outflow of good outcomes for the patient and I felt like the methodology and approach I use would enable people to recover faster and more thoroughly, while also mitigating the chance of re-injury after recovery.

I started Southeast Physical Therapy in 2017 in a small 90 sf room (we affectionately refer to it as the ‘broom closet’) in the corner of a CrossFit gym in Historic Roswell. In 2019, we expanded into a 1000 sf office in Historic Roswell and in 2023 we were invited to set up a “satellite” office inside of CrossFit Dwala in East Cobb. My wife, Jamie, also decided to leave her full-time job and join me with administrative and marketing support in 2023. As a testament to our growth and continued support from our patient base and referral partners, we’ve maintained our presence within CF Dwala and, as of September 2025, moved our Roswell office into a larger 1800 sf human wellness & performance hub. This expansion allowed us to hire an additional Doctor of Physical Therapy, Dr. Kyle Hinton, in the fall of 2025.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has been smooth at times and woefully unpaved at others. Some struggles are typical and expected, whereas others don’t allow you to plan for. The phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know” held a special place in my heart for a time. Early business ownership was a lot of trial and error, lots of wasted time and dollars on what I thought I needed to do. Customer service, scheduling, and follow-up with patients/clients and referral sources were the most common initial struggles – just a simple, “Am I getting good outcomes for clients and is it easy for them to see me?” Ultimately, I opted to join a Mastermind/business coaching group (PT Biz Mastermind) and several years of coaching resulted in a lot of refining and polishing to my the back end/administrative side of the business.

After several years of business ownership and going “all in” on full-time, self-employment in 2019 the struggles shifted. The common struggles mentioned remained important, but then the deeper professional struggles began to interweave with personal struggles. Not to mention the world shut down literally 6 months after declaring myself 100% self-employed. The personal silver-lining that came from it was that it was a boon to a fledgling business that was built on one-on-one personalized care – people still needed Physical Therapy despite the world shutting down. People were still getting surgery and for a brief time, people became more active than I’d ever seen before. I saw more people out walking and being active around Roswell than I’d ever seen – and through their increased activity, they figured out that they needed Physical Therapy. As people avoided the high volume, mill model of PT where they share the hour and room with multiple patients, they called seeking “true one-on-one care”. As people came in and experienced what we had to offer, they never looked back. They frequently asked “What is THIS?” because they were so surprised at how different and better of an experience they were having. They became believers in the Southeast PT model of care and helped us survive the craziness that was Covid.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
At Southeast Physical Therapy, our mission is to create positive change in the community by providing a standard of care for the athlete and active adult that breaks the mold of what the population at large has come to expect of Physical Therapy/Therapists. We help the athlete and active adult move better, feel better, and perform better while they pursue their health and wellness goals throughout the course of their life. We accomplish this with one-on-one treatments that are focused on treating the whole person rather than an injury, continuous patient & community engagement and education and an atmosphere of care that is based around a proactive, preventative healthcare model rather than reacting to problems as they arise.

We treat everyone regardless of level of activity. If you have a body, you’re an athlete. We also specialize in working with strength & endurance athletes. We’ve found that barbell athletes (CrossFit, Weightlifters, Powerlifters, Strongman, etc.) and endurance athletes (runners, cyclists, Ironmen/women, etc.) often fall through the cracks of the healthcare system. Typically, when those athletes sit before an MD pointing at something that hurts or reporting an activity that hurts, they’re often met with the advice of “well, just don’t do that anymore”. Our follow-up to that advice is, why? What if we find the reason why that activity hurts, fix it, and then you can get back to doing whatever it is you love doing?

Over the years, we’ve established relationships with a lot of trusted referral partners. This allows us to get patients in front of the appropriate healthcare providers who treat in a style similar to Southeast PT when needed. Our body is a system of systems, and you need different “mechanics” for each system who are willing to collaborate with other providers to establish a well-rounded plan of care. If a patient has an issues with their sleep, I provide them with easy-to-implement strategies to help and also screen them for sleep apnea. If the findings lean towards sleep apnea or other sleep issues, I refer them to an ENT who is a sleep specialist to perform a deeper dive to determine the next steps.

I/we are most proud of the experience we’re able to provide for patients. We’re able to provide great outcomes to patients while also remaining casual & fun vs. overly clinical. We strive to remove as many barriers to care as possible. One of these is insurance, which is a barrier to care more often than not; from red tape, denials of care, discharging clients when they’re “good enough” but not resolved, etc. insurance removes the clinical decision making from the clinicians and places it into an algorithm that does two things: provides the minimum level of “care” to the insured while maintaining a good profit margin for the insurance company. As a result of not accepting insurance, we’re able to treat the whole patient for as long as we need to (if we need to) and not just the body part labeled on the insurance claim.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I’m a Roswell native. I grew up in Brookfield. I have very fond memories of Roswell growing up – which, upon sharing, results in surprised stares from people who have only been here for a few years. Folks assume Roswell has always looked like it currently does. From Greenway grocery, where the Wells Fargo now resides to a destination farm where horses, cattle (and owners) would stop for a few days where Outback and Walgreens now reside. I love the historic charm of the town – Canton Street is one of my favorites.

My least favorite thing about the city is the development going on. We’re running out of space to put things and people, so rather than build out, they build up. As a healthcare provider and business owner, more people mean more potential needs for my services, but as a Roswell native, it’s sometimes tough to watch my hometown disappear in various ways.

Pricing:

• Our single visits range from $129-$259 depending on the type of physcial therapy needed
• We also offer package rates (brings down the single rate)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.southeastpt.net
• Instagram: @southeastpt
• Youtube: @southeastphysicaltherapy333