Physical therapy practice now open

Published 9:33 am Thursday, July 12, 2018

The human body is strong and capable of self-healing. It is resilient.

Dr. Chris Sharrock said that is the premise behind his new private practice, Resilience Physical Therapy.

“The definition of resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity,” Sharrock said. “So, when you look at our logo, you see that arrow in the orange. That’s our symbol for what we believe to be true about the human body and its capabilities.”

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Resilience Physical Therapy opened at 1932 Bypass Road in Colby Plaza July 2.

Sharrock has been in the sports performance and rehabilitation field in Winchester for about 13 years. He has practiced as a doctor of physical therapy for eight years.

He opened Resilience because it was the right time, he said. He said also wanted to add a different model of physical therapy to Winchester.

Sharrock said Resilience has a three-tiered approach: restore, recharge and reclaim.

“Most people come to us with an injury after some surgery or something like that, and our primary focus at that point is to restore the function from there,” Sharrock said. “Our second level is to enhance that function and their performance, with the main goal being reclaiming whatever it is they enjoy doing or like competing in.”

The traditional medical model is a reactionary model, Sharrock said. However, he hopes Resilience will set an example as to how to be a proactive model.

“We wanted to take a more preventative type of approach where we focus on health and wellness by incorporating strength conditioning and wellness and performance-related programs in addition to our rehabilitation services,” Sharrock said. “So, we want to be much more proactive with regards to the health of the community.”

Resilience takes patients with or without referrals. Sharrock said certain insurances require referrals, but most people can come to the clinic without a referral.

Resilience is a full-scale outpatient clinic that mainly specializes in orthopedics, spine conditions and sports medicine.

“We do treat a wide variety of things that you might not think of when you think of physical therapy,” Sharrock said. “We treat things like vertigo or dizziness. We treat all types of work-related injuries. We treat headaches … folks after they’ve had strokes, or some neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s, anything related to muscular, skeletal or neurological conditions we can treat, and we treat the full spectrum of ages from young kids all the way up to the elderly population.”

Sharrock’s experience with physical therapy and rehab started as an athlete in college.

“I had a variety of different surgeries while I was playing football, a variety of different injuries,” he said. “And I was fortunate enough to work with some talented clinicians that guided me and helped me to kind of find what my passion and niche was.”

Sharrock said he uses his personal experiences in the rehabilitation field and the injuries he had to work through and come back from to help other people, especially the young athlete population.

“(I like) helping them to make good decisions on taking care of their bodies and preparing themselves properly for competition so they can prevent injuries and not go through many of the things that can be avoided if they take care of themselves,” he said.

Resilience plans to grow its preventative services within the year, Sharrock said, to offer sports performance sessions, wellness groups and other specific communities for people to develop a support system.

Sharrock said it was time to open a private practice because of the continued growth of patients he had been seeing while working under contract with the Clark County Physical Therapy in conjunction with the Clark County Health Department and Home Health services.

“We grew to the point to where we needed to expand into more of a preventative model,” he said. “And also we wanted the capability to continue to grow and spread our offerings and services that we can provide to the community. So it was just a natural progression and natural growth of our business to the point to where it was time to do that.”

Sharrock said he has a great team at Resilience. He is working alongside Dr. Blake Jackson, front office manager Sarah Condley and technicians Michala Ridener and Cody Hisle.

Resilience is open Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to noon.

Sharrock said Resilience is one of the first physical therapy practices in the area to offer dry needling. Resilience also has a strong focus on foundation and strength conditioning intertwined with rehabilitation, he said.

“We’re certainly, in our model, not a traditional physical therapy facility,” Sharrock said. “When you walk through the door, I think you can tell. When you see this place, it is not your traditional type of clinic. We use a lot of things like barbells and kettlebells, free weights, much more than what most people think of with traditional physical therapy, where they go and lay on a table.”

Just in its few short weeks of opening, Sharrock said Resilience is staying busy.  

“It’s overwhelming — the support that we’ve had from the community,” he said. “And I’m just extremely thankful that I’m able to practice in my hometown and give back to the many, many different people and organizations that have supported me for many, many years. So, it’s a blessing, and I feel very fortunate to be able to have that opportunity to take care of the Winchester and Clark County community.”

About Lashana Harney

Lashana Harney is a reporter for The Winchester Sun. Her beats include schools and education, business and commerce, Winchester Municipal Utilities and other news. To contact her, email lashana.harney@winchestersun.com or call 859-759-0015.

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