At Cheshire Fitness Zone (CFZ) our goal is to help children and adolescents of all ages feel confident in growing their abilities through therapeutic programs that strengthen and teach new skills for use in everyday life.
Services include: Physical Therapy (PT), Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech Therapy (ST).
Our monthly, “Employee Spotlight Series,” offers a chance to meet members of the team and learn about their experience working with children.
For this month’s spotlight, we spoke to Caitlin Kearns, PT. Caitlin has been with Cheshire Fitness Zone for two years and in her spare time, enjoys being with her family and friends!
Can you describe a typical day working at Cheshire Fitness Zone?
A typical day at Cheshire Fitness Zone…the PTs usually start in the schools, working with kids in the school system and then in the afternoons we usually are in the clinic and I love that part of the day because getting back to the clinic as soon as I walk in the PT office, everyone’s talking, everyone is collaborating, bouncing ideas off of each other, we love to get each other’s input. It is just such a team approach. If you are struggling with something with a kiddo, everyone is there to give you ideas and we are just all about collaboration.
How did you know you wanted to work with kids?
I knew I wanted to work with kids from an early age. My mom is a teacher and I’ve loved seeing that growing up, but also I am the oldest of four. So I have three other siblings that I am a lot older than. So I feel like growing up, I was their older sister but kind of like a second mother figure. I absolutely adore them so I knew, you know, being the big sister that was taking care of them so I knew I wanted to work with kids from early on. I was actually toying with the idea of being a teacher but I loved the medical field. It’s the place to be so I was like that would be so great to put the two together. To work with kids in the PT setting. So that is how I decided, I wanted to work with kids.
What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is seeing kids make a new gain or meet a new milestone. In this setting, our population, it takes time to hit certain milestones. Seeing a child hit a milestone or do something that they have been working on for such a long time and not only the child, but the family to see the family’s reaction and the look on the parent’s face. That’s just the best part of my job.
What is something you wish to achieve over the next 10 years?
Over the next 10 years, I’d like to obviously continue to be a PT, working with kids and be at Cheshire Fitness Zone. It is just the most amazing environment to work in, great family environment and I would love to continue to be apart of it. Also to grow professionally and to continue to learn from continuing education but from all of the therapists around me. And I would love to continue to stay involved with Cheshire Fitness Zone.
What are three words to describe you and why?
Three words to describe me…this is a tough one. First, I guess I would say, first word is caring. Obviously you get into this profession, you’re caring. You care about your patients, you care about your families or you wouldn’t be in PT. So I would definitely say caring. I go to bed at night thinking, okay this patient, they’re kind of stuck so what can I do differently to get them to the next level so I would say caring. The next one, I would say dedicated, you don’t care about taking the extra time or going the extra mile, to make sure something is done right. Whether it is staying after, talking to families that pull you aside because they have other questions or if they need something for school like a recommendation or a letter for equipment. You want to make sure it gets done no matter what, so you go the extra mile. When you love what you do, its no problem. So I would say dedicated would be another one. Third word to describe me, I would say is creative. I say that because in my sessions, I don’t want the kids to feel like they are working, you want them to just be here, having fun and building that relationship with them- you get more out of them when it is like that, when they feel like they are there to play. You work things in that you need to get done in your sessions without them realizing they are working so I would say creative.
Stay tuned for more Employee Spotlight features to get to know the staff at driving the results at Cheshire Fitness Zone.
Interested in learning more about our services? Request an appointment using our simple online form.
