Leah Harris, PT, DPT is a Southern Oregon native who spent the better part of her childhood playing soccer, running, riding horses, and generally sustaining some sort of athletic-related injury. This early experience with physical therapy gave Leah an appreciation of the human body and an innate curiosity for rehabilitation science.
Leah graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Biology. During her undergraduate career, she ran cross country and track, specializing in the 1500m. Leah feels that her experience as a student athlete gave her a strong personal connection to patients who seek to return to their passions, maximize their performance, and prevent future injury.
In 2009, Leah moved across the country to pursue a Doctorate of Physical Therapy at Duke University. During graduate school, Leah dabbled in long distance triathlon competitions, completing her first half-ironman. She also put her Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) education to use as a personal trainer. After graduate school, Leah took her first job as a physical therapist in Nashville, Tennessee. She became certified in Astym, a soft tissue therapy technique which aids in the reabsorption of dysfunctional tissue and restoration of normal, pain-free movement patterns. She became a teaching assistance for Astym courses and continues to act as a writer and teaching assistant to the Astym program. Leah also became a Certified Lymphedema Therapist (CLT) and has taken her first steps towards beginning her North American Institute of Orthopedic Manual Therapy (NAIOMT) residency which she continues to pursue. In 2015 Leah opened up her own cash-based PT practice treating a diverse patient population and focusing on one-on-one care. Leah firmly believes in this method of treating patients and is proud of Jackson County Physical Therapy’s commitment to this same model of care.
In 2017, Leah, her husband and their three cats moved to Southern Oregon. She is ecstatic to be home and even more appreciative of the natural beauty and gentle pace of life in Southern Oregon. In her free time, Leah enjoys remodeling her 1950s home, gardening, swimming, cooking, reading, rock climbing and exploring the beautiful state of Oregon. She also enjoys spoiling her cats and wonderful husband, in that order.
As you may have seen during the Superbowl, Opioid use is spiraling out of control in the United States, and those suffering from pain conditions need an alternative. Some are heralding physical therapy as a safe and effective alternative to treating pain, without the threat of addiction.
To spread the message that conservative, nondrug approaches can effectively manage pain, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has joined others in the federal, state, local and private sectors to address the prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic. They collectively advocate that a multidisciplinary clinical approach—including physical therapists serving on the care team alongside physicians and other healthcare providers—can improve quality of life for patients with acute and chronic pain.