We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Yoav Suprun recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Yoav, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, we would like to take a moment to introduce you to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Dr. Yoav Suprun, DPT, OCS, Dip.MDT, CSCS, is highly sought after for his expertise and innovation in assisting people who deal with common discomforts and pain.
He has been lauded by audiences who have expressed that his presentation of the “McKenzie Method” of self-treatment has produced life-changing results. Dr. Suprun’s simple, yet highly effective tips to self-treat and prevent pain, have created a strong following of devotees. His finely honed, engaging and entertaining speaking skills enable him to easily explain neck, back or extremity problems – all while educating his listeners to self-treat these common orthopedic issues without medications, injections or surgery.
After serving in the Israeli Air Force for 4 years, Dr. Suprun moved to NYC in 1995. He started his career as a personal trainer while studying for his undergraduate degree at Hunter College where he graduated in 1999 (Magna Cum Laude).
In 2003, he earned his clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT) from New York University (NYU) and continued his postgraduate education, receiving a diploma in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) in 2007. He carries the prestigious Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS) certification, and is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS).
In addition to his busy Miami Beach based practice and his corporate training schedule, he is on faculty with McKenzie Institute USA where he trains healthcare professionals about self-treatment and prevention strategies.
Dr. Suprun is the Founder and CEO of South Beach Spine Physical Therapy (“SoBe Spine”), a concierge physical therapy clinic in Miami Beach, Florida. He has been featured in multiple media outlets including CBS, NBC, The Huffington Post, as well as Redbook and Shape magazines. For more information, please visit sobespine.com.
When he moved to the United States in his early 20’s, he started university at Hunter College and worked as a personal trainer to help pay his tuition. It only took him a couple of weeks to become a trainer, which he did simply by reading a book, taking a CPR course, and then passing a test. He admits to being a trainer with minimal training and education, working with high profile clients. Little did he know that unknowingly he made some of his clients worse because he was focusing just on their muscles and not on holistic body alignment. He knew how to build and stretch their muscles, but never knew what to do when a client was dealing with back pain for example. So when a trainer learns that his client has back pain – they often stretch that client and some of the stretches he did were simply NOT appropriate. As is evident today, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared back pain as the number one cause for disability. Some stretches can injure one’s back! So Yoav decided he needed to learn a better way to help people, and began a doctorate program in physical therapy at NYU.
After graduating PT school, he learned about the McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) which focuses on patient education, movement, and placing the empowerment back in the hands of patients. The McKenzie Method taught Dr. Yoav how to understand pain instead of fear it, and that the spine is the secret to a holistically healthy body. Dr. Yoav is passionate about educating others about healing their mechanical pain. An example of mechanical pain is pain or stiffness in your lower back when transitioning from sitting to standing, or pain in your neck that one feels when turning their head. Mechanical therapists like Dr. Yoav teach patients how to move properly, and he is passionate about empowering individuals to heal themselves correctly from the inside out.
Dr. Yoav, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.
When I moved to Miami Beach from NYC in 2008, I knew I would like to own my Physical Therapy practice one day. What I have done right was to connect with Canyon Ranch who then opened an integrative wellness center in Miami Beach at the Carillon Hotel and I joined them as their physical therapist. I was treating both residents as well as guests of the hotel. It was a super exciting period. THe medical director was a brilliant integrative doctor named Karen Koffler MD, who masterfully built an integrative medical team. we CHANGED people’s life for the better.
Simultaneously, I opened my private practice “SoBe Spine” in the sunset harbor neighborhood. In those days, the area wasn’t as great as it is today, the streets would often flood and at times it was hard to enter our building. My friend and gifted healer, James Rohr, found our office space on Craig’s list!
We both worked for Canyon Ranch and simultaneously built our name and reputation on Miami Beach.
What worked for my practice in terms of marketing was to provide the public with free educational talks on what mechanical back pain is, what Sciatica is, How to prevent neck pain, stiffness etc.…Those free talks always allowed me to stay connected to the community and when someone had a mechanical problem, they would know to contact me.
I rented my office for 12 years and then, just before the pandemic hit, I purchased it from my landlord. A few months passed, the pandemic was at full force and people didn’t want to come to the office from fear of Covid-19. I had a mortgage on my office and was getting nervous that I may not be able to pay it.
Then one day, I get a call from a former client of mine who said that since he has so many employees at home, many of them are not working in an ergonomically correct home office environment and that he wants to hire me to present a few zoom training webinars on prevention strategies of mechanical pain (the most common pain we feel as individuals).
That has started another incredible chapter in my career of online virtual consulting that manifested into my now growing list of companies I consult to at www.DrYoav.com
In concert, I contacted the Florida SBDC – who connected me with a fabulous business consultant named Sonja Bogensperger. Sonja, together with my team at Dr.Yoav, helped me stay focused on my business goals and directed me into exploring new speaking opportunities that I haven’t thought of before.
Lastly, In January of this year, I published my book “Aging Without Aching” where I share from my knowledge on prevention strategies of mechanical pain, workout tips, posture and ergonomic advice and much more. The book is selling on OPTP.com and Amazon.com
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Free educational talks to the public. I have always presented on different topics in a variety of settings. Always explaining what mechanical pain is, how NOT to fear your MRI findings, when stretching is actually harmful for you etc. Public education events always end up with people asking for my business card and wanting to see me in person. When you do what’s right by the patient, people tell their family and friends. Word of mouth has been my number one channel of patients into my practice. To all my patients I say “The faster I can help you solve this problem, the more you will tell your friends about me…”
My average I would say is 5 visits. I teach my patients the secrets of self care.
This idea of patient education and empowerment puts pain management and prevention back into the hands of the people. We shouldn’t have to rely on external fixes, drugs, or expensive specialists to live pain free. By shifting our perspective on pain, we can make system-wide changes in our physical alignment and mechanical functioning to alleviate pain as well as prevent it.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
As a personal trainer I always told people to stretch their lower back if they had back pain or Sciatica. Only after graduating NYU with my doctorate in Physical Therapy is when I started to learn the McKenzie method and understood I was wrong. Often, stretching INTO the pain and not AWAY from it, is the answer. Obviously one should have a mechanical assessment done by a trained MDT (Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy) clinician first. To find a therapist near you please visit https://www.mckenzieinstituteusa.org/index.cfm
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DrYoav.com and www.sobespine.com
- Instagram: @dryoav
- Facebook: South Beach Spine Physical Therapy
- Linkedin: Yoav Suprun
- Twitter: AskDrYoav
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/sobespine/videos
- Other: https://www.mckenzieinstituteusa.org/faculty.cfm#fac135
Image Credits
“Dr. Yoav Suprun, DPT, OCS, Dip.MDT”,
http://optp.com/