We were lucky to catch up with Darci Pernoud recently and have shared our conversation below.

Darci, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

I reunited with a client that I had been his occupational therapist in his early days of spinal cord injury after 15 years. He was injured in a car accident as a teenager. I was his inpatient therapist and had the great fortune to teach him how to be independent and prepare to return to his life in a different way after paralysis and as a new wheelchair user.

I host an annual disability fitness festival at my gym, Back to Independence(BTI) Rehab and it focused to offer access to community resources and focus on health, wellness, and disability lifestyle. As I reconnected with my past client, he offered to bring some outdoor wheelchairs to share with the community to trial. As we spoke, he shared about his decade plus long struggle with back pain. Doctors had just prescribed medication and he was unable to find relief. I invited him back to the gym on another date and was able to greatly reduce his chronic back pain with proper assessment, intervention and education on how to continue his back pain relief. He was shocked that it had taken so long to find someone who could help him and in one session we developed a pain free plan and wellness routine.

Darci, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always enjoyed working with people from a young age and found myself in a caring role whether it be older sister, older cousin, babysitter, swim team coach etc. So once I discovered Occupational Therapy(OT) that focuses on helping others as well as empowering a person to be the best they can be, for what is most important to them, I was hooked! Occupational therapists evaluate and treat people who have injuries, illnesses, or disabilities. They help clients meet goals to develop, recover, improve, and maintain skills needed for daily living and working.

As I graduated from OT school, I had the opportunity to work at a widely known specialty rehab center, Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA. I started my career working with those who had a catastrophic injury that typically consisted of those with spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke and other neurological conditions. I practiced throughout the rehab continuum from ICU, inpatient, day program, inpatient and post surgical interventions. As I moved away from Atlanta, I learned that specialized rehab clinicians are difficult to access outside of large cities and as well as after the traditional therapy model utilizing insurance, persons with catastrophic injuries are very limited to continue there recovery journey, health and wellness afterwards. As the pandemic was affecting other businesses in 2020, a specialty disability gym was closing thier doors. In order to continue the much needed services, I relocated it to the Charlotte, NC area in order to fill the need for our disability communities assess and care for health and wellness.

We offer specialized training called Activity Based Therapy which aims to target neuroplasticity and address health and wellness needs of those after paralysis. Neuroplasticity is the ability for our central nervous system(brain and spinal cord) to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks. Our goal is to help others maximize thier physical abilities after paralysis and neurological injury/disease.

We are able to welcome our community members into our gym, guide them through exercises, stretching, and training to continue on their recovery journey no matter how far they are from their injury. We do this both in the gym and the pool for aquatic therapy. With a physical disability, it can be very challenging to find an accessible location that not only you can access but that also has trained professionals that can progress and keep you safe in a customized way specific to your abilities. Even though there are common presentations of diseases and injuries, every person has unique needs that need to be considered and addressed to best empower them. Even though we focus on physical training, our gym serves as a community to help find comfort, education on other resources and safe space to be yourself. There is no stigma to requiring medical assistance or have mobility equipment since everyone at the gym has had a need at some time in thier life that brings them to us. As one of our clients stated at a event, it doesn’t matter if you talk funny, walk funny… everyone is welcome at BTI rehab!
We also offer a monthly peer support group where we provide a sense of belonging, support and care for those with physical and mobility disabilities.

After 1.5 year of being open, I recognized the barrier to specialty wellness services for the Parkinson’s Disease(PD) community and became trained in PWR!Moves that aims to help our PD community members move better, feel better and live better! There is so much research on exercise and it’s importance for all populations, but it isn’t widely offer at this time on a large scale. There is awesome evidence that you can slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease with enough exercise intensity and proper movement utilization. At BTI rehab we aim to help provide these services so that no matter your physical or cognitive abilities, we can guide you on your exercise journey and implement the research evidence on exercises into real life.
There is nothing better than delivering a great workout session and seeing your client walk or roll out the door taller, with improved posture and happier than how they came in. I’ve had several clients report they know they need to be performing what we do for the physical benefits but the social and community aspects to our gym as what motivates them as well.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Having past experience and expertise in my unique field had definitely helped with clients who do not know us but I think our customer service is what best built our reputation. When our clients give us complements I request that they help share those complements with their other healthcare providers in order to allow us to help serve others who could use our unique services. I also work hard to connect with other healthcare professionals and ask how we can best complement their care and maximize their efforts toward common clients training in order to work as a team.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

I think as with any customer service area, clients want to be listened to and acknowledged. So many times our clients have had medical visits and due to traditional medical timelines and/or allowances their service providers are unable to spend as much time with them as they would want. Having a more accessible space to speak more freely without the limitations of medical billing time allowances, we can hear move about our clients struggles, wins and desires to help target what is most important to them with where they are in their injury or disability as well as help them understand any medical information or jargon that could be confusing to grasp at first. Having an open gym space allows our clients to observe others, get to know each other, and have caregivers or spouses visit in the waiting space to learn, grow and commiserate with.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.btirehab.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btirehab
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BTIrehab
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darci-pernoud-otd-5107a9131/
• Youtube: BTI Rehab