Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Lisa Folden.
Hi Dr. Lisa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Detroit, MI…the oldest of six children to a single mom. Life was never easy but I always had a desire to dream and achieve. So that’s what I did. I worked hard in school and was able to attend one of Detroit’s premiere high schools (Renaissance). There, I learned what it meant to be committed to the plan and process for greatness. I graduated with excellent grades and secured a full academic scholarship to Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI.
College was a culture shock but a very necessary one. I became familiar navigating professional settings that I had not previously been exposed to. I completed undergrad and continued at Grand Valley where I became the first Black woman to earn a Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2007. Following graduation, I got married and worked one year in Michigan before relocating to Charlotte, NC.
After six years of professional experience as a physical therapist working in hospitals, school systems, outpatient clinics, long-term acute care settings, skilled nursing, assisted living and home care, I decided to open my private practice. Healthy Phit Physical Therapy & Wellness Consultants was born September 2013 and is now a fully operational clinic in which I work full time. My practice focuses primarily on adults with muscular or neurological injuries and general aches and pains. However, in addition to helping patients recover from injuries, I offer coaching services targeted to busy moms who have trouble prioritizing their own health and wellness.
As a wife and mom of three, I understand the complexities of life during motherhood so it is my personal goal to help other women create a sustainable and healthy lifestyle for themselves from which their families will also benefit. I hold a certification as a Behavior Change Specialist from the National Academy of Sports Medicine that I utilize for this role.
My focus as a health coach has recently become as much of a passion as physical therapy, mostly because of the non-traditional way in which I practice. I believe that fitness and health will look different for each of us and to that end, my practice is very much anti-diet and all about weight acceptance. I do not encourage or facilitate weight loss as I believe in the Health at Every Size (HAES®) movement and am a member of the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH). I know that health can be achieved at any size and that higher body weights do not always correlate with worsening health. I am also very much aware of the heavy influence that diet culture (and with that, weight stigma and fat bias) has on our healthcare system and society as a whole, so I realize that to some, my opinions are radical. Despite this, I continue to encourage positive health behaviors without regard to body weight or size because the unbiased research proves that those habits matter most in the long run.
Coaching other women has breathed fresh air into my practice and honestly, into my life in general. As someone who has often had to struggle…I left out some details about my life up until this point, but let me just mention that I’ve experienced financial challenges and hardships, lots of death and grief, many sleepless nights, discrimination and imposter syndrome and so many other negative forces hell bent on slowing me down and stopping me altogether. But here I am, still standing, still trying, still working and still resting. Therefore, it is my goal to help other women (and anyone who chooses to work with me) recognize their power and their worth before making any big changes to themselves. I want them to see what and who they are before adding to or taking away. We can spend our entire lives on the hamster wheel of life trying to make more, do more, live more, be more and sadly, weigh less without ever respecting who we already are and what we’ve already done. And in my opinion, that is a sad way to live.
I find great joy in helping others and also in learning from others. I would argue that some of my greatest accomplishments have come from slowing down, sitting still and taking a breath. And these are tools I have only gained within the past few years. When you are so used to juggling a million things, multi-tasking all day and working so hard that you forget to come up for air, these lessons are life-changing. I turned 40 this year and I am proud to say that I am still learning about myself and about the world. And I feel honored to be able to help others in any capacity. Thankful, grateful and blessed…all understatements, but the best I can do to explain it all.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it hasn’t been smooth, but I think that’s what makes me appreciate it so much.
I lost my dad when I was sixteen. He died in his sleep from what I later learned was due to recreational drug use the night before. My mother also struggled with drug abuse for the majority of my childhood. In my adult life, she developed an affection for opiods prescribed to her after a car accident.
As the oldest child of six in my home, I often felt the need to help mother my siblings and as a result, my childhood was not typical. Despite this, I was able to have a loving and positive relationship with my mother until her untimely death in 2019. Also, I cannot exclude the love, prayers and presence of so many others from our “village” that helped encourage and inspire me. Those included some teachers and extended family, but mostly, my aunt Kim and my grandmother, Olivia. Those two women stepped in every time my mother was unable and they always made things better. I’m grateful to still have my aunt with me, though sadly, just nine months before my mom’s death, we also lost my grandmother in April 2018.
Loss and grief have been a recurring theme for me, but I recognize this as a part of life and while it does not take away the sting of death, I do feel better able to cope. This ability serves me in other areas of struggle, especially as a business owner. I know social media shows the glitz, glamour and glory, but if you only knew the story.
My business has been near collapse a few times in its short nine years of existence. Missed rent payments, difficulty obtaining insurance reimbursement, a severe shortage of patients and don’t even get me started on COVID-19 and its impact. Imagine all of this while trying to maintain a marriage and raising three children. It has been A LOT, to say the least. So when I say grateful, I mean it.
I have managed to maintain a profitable business through a global pandemic, loss of loved ones, struggles in family relationships and internal stress and chaos. I am very proud of that.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Healthy Phit Physical Therapy & Wellness Consultants is a privately owned practice in which we help clients recover from injuries, restore mobility and function and assist them on the road to better overall health and wellness. As mentioned before, my practice is weight-inclusive, anti-diet and focused on seeing our patients/clients as whole individuals. We work with each client one-on-one, for an hour or more. We create individualized care or wellness plans to address specific needs.
For physical therapy services, we provide in-person care and are in-network with a few major health insurance companies, but primarily bill out-of-network and accept cash and credit (including HSA, FSA).
For health coaching services, we focus on busy moms/women. We provide virtual care (though for local clients who are interested, we can arrange in-person sessions). We offer courses that span up to six weeks, coaching packages for up to one year and individual sessions as needed.
The Healthy Phit brand is about empowerment and recognition of your worth as we work toward our individual health goals. We don’t believe in putting you down to build you up over here. That is important to me and makes me very proud.
In addition to these services, I have a digital book available for purchase on Amazon called “Meal Prep Made Easy: 6-Month Meal Planning Workbook.” It is a tool to help those who want to make cooking for themselves or their families less of a chore and stressor. In it, I have outlined six months worth of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) with direct links to recipes and a weekly grocery list. I think it will help make meal planning a much more feasible task for all who partake. And of course, there is no focus on weight loss or calorie-counting with this book, so you know the food will be good and flavorful.
Lastly, I am enrolling clients for my Help Me Find My Healthy wellness course that will begin mid-January and rerun every six weeks. In this course, we meet weekly via Zoom to discuss a module each week aimed at helping you determine what health looks like for you and create (and trial) and plan that works best for you. We discuss intuitive eating, stretching, exercise modifications, self-care, positive affirmations and more.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The biggest shift I see for physical therapy and healthcare in general is more related to the venue in which it is delivered. I think COVID showed us that we were capable of doing so much from a virtual platform…and while virtual is not the best option for MANY of my patients, it is nice to always have an interface in place that makes it possible and feasible from time to time.
I also see PT shifting away from the healthcare insurance model. With reimbursements declining rapidly and premiums rising with inflation, it will just make much less sense to accept insurance eventually.
Pricing:
- $497 Help Me Find My Healthy wellness course (6-week)
- $29 Meal Prep Made Easy book (on Amazon)
- $175 Physical Therapy or Wellness Evaluation
Contact Info:
- Email: info@healthyphit.com
- Website: https://www.healthyphit.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthyphit/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthyPhit
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealthyPhitPT
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCSDX7y9KgBMhEyfQWcDo7g
Image Credits
Cordelia Ansah Wyeth Augustine Luguzy Atkins Dr. Lisa Folden
