We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kim Bell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
My parents did a lot of things right!
First of all, when I was in high school – and as soon as I was legally old enough to work, my dad took me to a shopping center to look for employment. We literally started on one end of the shopping center and walked down the row of stores, stopping in each store to ask if they were hiring.
That’s how I got my first real job. While I was still in high school, I was working multiple jobs, which included working in a retail position at that shopping center.
Eventually I also got certified as a lifeguard, working year round for a pool company who placed lifeguards at outdoor pools during summer and indoor pools during winter months. I even took a course at a local community college to become a certified pool operator, so I could get a pay raise as a lifeguard.
So the importance of hard work and a good work ethic were instilled in me at a young age.
My parents also enrolled me in a lot of team sports. I played field hockey, softball, and basketball for most of my childhood and high school years.
The opportunities I had to play on competitive sports teams taught me about the importance of developing my individual skillset on my own time, as well as strategy, teamwork, and communication.
My parents set very high standards for academic performance, which stayed with me all through college, graduate school, and my doctorate program – most of which took place well after my father had already passed away.
One more thing my parents definitely did right was making sure we spent time together as a family. When I was in high school, my dad made me and my siblings stay home every other Friday night.
On those Friday night family nights, we would make homemade pizzas, turn on music, and have dance parties! Sometimes, we would watch a movie or play a game. We always laughed, joked around, and had a lot of fun together.
At the time, my high school friends made fun of me because I missed out on a lot of parties and social opportunities with my peers, but I have to say those Friday nights are now some of my most precious memories of my high school years.
Kim, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Ever since I was a child, my dad encouraged me to become a doctor. While I was a child, he must have told me over 100 times that he wanted me to become a doctor so that I could take care of him when he was an old man.
When I initially enrolled in college, I signed up for the pre-med track for my studies with the idea of going to medical school. However, my dad passed away from cancer after about six weeks after I started my college studies, at only 45 years old. As you can imagine, a lot changed for me after that.
I explored a few other college majors in the caregiving field such as social work. Ultimately I chose the profession of physical therapy, since I had always been into sports and fitness and I wanted to be a healthcare provider.
After three years of undergraduate studies in the pre-physical therapy track, I applied for early acceptance into a Masters of Physical Therapy program at University of Maryland, Baltimore. Even though it was really competitive, I was accepted!
I began my Masters Degree studies in Physical Therapy at only twenty years old and earned straight A’s throughout the entire three-year program. I was also voted to be the co-president of my physical therapy class, so my peers naturally viewed me as a leader among them.
When I graduated, I started my physical therapy career working at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. They had tuition reimbursement program which allowed me to go back to school to earn a doctorate in physical therapy while I was working there full-time. Once again, I earned straight A’s throughout my doctorate studies.
I also started a personal training company during that time and was teaching as an Adjunct Faculty at University of Maryland Baltimore after I graduated from their program.
I can see clearly that the work ethic, the value of hard work, and the commitment to academic excellence that my parents instilled in me created a strong foundation for my career – and where I am today over 21 years later.
In my late twenties, I got divorced from my college love and decided to relocate across the country in San Diego, California. I have now lived in the County of San Diego since 2005.
It just so happened that my very first day of employment at my new home health PT job in San Diego was spent at a vestibular physical therapy continuing education course. My new employer was launching a specialized program for physical therapists to provide vestibular PT to homebound older adults.
Vestibular PT, also called vestibular rehab, is specialized physical therapy for treating dizziness, vertigo, balance problems, and chronic falls. That course was my first professional experience learning and practicing my current specialized physical therapy skills, which are evaluation and treatment of patients with dizziness, vertigo, balance problems, and falls.
For five years after moving to San Diego, I worked for that employer, first as a home health PT, then as the therapy team leader mentoring my peers, and eventually as the program director. In my role as director for three years, I was teaching the vestibular continuing education courses myself, as well as onboarding, training and supervising all new physical therapists, and overseeing the whole program of vestibular physical therapy delivered to hundreds of patients each year by a team of about thirty physical therapists.
I eventually became disillusioned with insurance-based physical therapy practice for many reasons, such as the delays, limitations, and restrictions imposed on patient care by insurance companies. I wanted to do better.
In June 2014, I opened my own private physical therapy practice, so that I could focus entirely on this population of patients with dizziness and vertigo in a private-pay model of care.
I now only accept new patients with one or more of those complaints: dizziness, vertigo, imbalance, or falls.
Through dedicated practice, ongoing studies, and multiple mentorship opportunities, I have developed my skills to the level of a master clinician within my field.
I now have patients who travel here to work with me from across the USA, and many foreign countries, so I see some of the most complex, difficult, and mysterious cases in the world.
I love it!
My specialized physical therapy services are unique within healthcare because I have developed my own comprehensive, detailed – and now trademarked – methodology for root causes analysis and treatment of these problems, The Bell Method®.
Since I work outside of the traditional insurance-based system, I am able to spend a lot of time evaluating and analyzing my patient cases to maximize the results.
My initial consultation with a new patient is a total of 3-4 hours long, including a history taking phone call and a 2-2.5 hour initial in-person visit.
That is very rare in healthcare but I find it very necessary to solve these cases!
I see a lot of patients who have already attempted to resolve their dizziness and vertigo within the traditional healthcare system, many even having completed twelve weeks of insurance-based physical therapy without satisfactory results.
Other patients come to me first in order to save time, hoping to fast track their recovery process.
The results of the initial consultation with me may include any combination of follow up visits with me for vestibular physical therapy, instruction on self-care strategies or exercises to do at home, and referrals to other specialty healthcare providers that I trust.
In addition to providing expert level patient care for people with dizziness, vertigo, and imbalance through my private practice, I am also an outspoken advocate for this tragically underserved population.
I create content and many free educational resources to promote recognition of the prevalence of undiagnosed vestibular (inner ear) problems that are often overlooked in this population. I do a lot of blogging, writing, and public speaking on these topics to educate my community and other healthcare professionals.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Understanding, Compassion, and Empathy
Patients with dizziness and vertigo are all under a significant amount of stress.
Their lives have most likely been disrupted in a variety of ways, which includes even the basics of daily life. Activities like sleeping, showering, driving, working, reading, parenting, and exercising can all be affected.
Many patients with dizziness or vertigo have gone from doctor to doctor with no answers or relief, sometimes for months to years. They often feel dismissed, disregarded, misunderstood, frustrated, confused, and hopeless.
Therefore, in addition to my clinical skills and knowledge within my specialized field of vestibular healthcare, I believe that understanding, compassion, and empathy are important to successful outcomes with my patients.
Many of my patients do not feel understood and do not think their healthcare providers have spent adequate time to listen or investigate their complaints.
That is one reason my initial consultation is so extensive. I want to get the big picture right up front, so I can create a comprehensive, multifaceted treatment plan to optimize their outcomes.
I want to make sure my patients feel heard and understood by me. Many of my patients comment and thank me for the level of detail with which I investigate their case.
Compassion is a deep desire to remove the source of suffering for someone. That is how I approach my patients. I see them through the lens of compassion.
My goal is to identify and resolve the root cause of their suffering to the best of my ability, along with acknowledging and addressing all the secondary effects of what they are going through such as sleep deprivation and emotional impact.
Empathy is also a key to successful outcomes with my patients.
I can empathize with my patients because I have myself been suffering with intermittent and debilitating spells of dizziness and vertigo since I was in first grade. These unexplained health issues have landed me in the emergency room many times throughout my life, causing major disruptions to my work and my personal life.
It took me about twenty-five years to figure out the root causes of my own issues with dizziness and vertigo, so I can now live an active and full life.
I really feel for patients who are feeling lost and uncertain where to turn for help, or who they can trust. For many years starting during my childhood, I was in that exact same position myself.
You could say that my specialized physical therapy practice is the golden rule put into action – to treat others the way I would like to be treated.
Many of my patients read my personal bio online before we work together, but not all of my patients are aware of my personal health issues as a vestibular patient.
However, my own personal experience of suffering with inadequate healthcare for so many years creates a deep well of understanding, compassion, and empathy inside me which I can draw from when I work with my patients.
In addition to my work with patients who are suffering like I have, my own personal experiences of suffering have inspired me to compose over fifty original songs. I have discovered that writing and playing music helps me channel those emotions into a healthy outlet.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
That’s a great question! A few different ideas come to mind when I reflect on your question.
I think most of all, my commitment to hard work and relentless pursuit of clinical excellence has helped build my reputation in my market.
Within the field of vestibular physical therapy, I have attended the highest levels of advanced practice training and conferences to develop and maintain my clinical knowledge and skills at an expert level.
I have also pursued multidisciplinary mentorship by professionals well beyond the scope of vestibular physical therapy, so I am a well-rounded healthcare provider who can look at a patient case more holistically.
I have often told younger physical therapists that doing a good job for your patients is what builds your reputation, one patient at a time. I think that is the case with my practice.
Many of my past patients pass along my contact information to their friends or family members who complain of dizziness or vertigo. A lot of my referrals come from word-of-mouth.
I also get a lot of referrals from my professional colleagues, including many physical therapists, doctors, and chiropractors in southern California, who have reached the limit of what they can offer and wish to send their patients to me for a second opinion.
Over the years, I have developed and instructed over sixty-four hours of innovative clinical content for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who have attended my continuing education courses and completed my accredited mentorship program. The photo-enhanced training manuals I created for many of the courses I developed have exceeded 200 pages in length.
When you understand a topic well enough to teach it to your peers and colleagues – and offer a clinical mentorship program, I think that does a lot to build your reputation.
Regarding community outreach, I have been an active leader on the San Diego Fall Prevention Task Force since 2006, previously serving a total of eight years in the role as Co-Chair. In that role, I have been able to offer over 100 public speaking events, throughout the county and online, on the topics of preventing falls for older adults, as well as balance, dizziness, and vertigo.
One of my most popular UCSD Stein Public Lectures, “Dizziness and Vertigo: Research on Aging, Part I,” was televised on UC-TV and YouTube. It now has well over three million views, prompting calls and emails from people all over the world who are desperate for answers and relief.
As a response to those calls for help from outside my immediate service area of San Diego County, California, I am currently working on writing a book on navigating the healthcare system as a dizzy patient.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.betterbalanceinlife.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimbelldpt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimBellDPT
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-bell-dpt-6b3522ab
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/kimbelldpt
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kim-bell-dpt-encinitas
- Other:Website (additional) – which is now a blog and will soon be the site where I promote my forthcoming book: https://
vertigodetective.com Google Business Page: https://www.google.com/ search?ludocid= 14835046984521279360&q= Kimberley%20A.%20Bell%2C% 20DPT%20Encinitas&_ga=2. 42531621.1235349545. 1517080229-1598060787. 1508864550