History - Vision - Mission - Core Values

 
 

DeWitt Physical Therapy is Santa Cruz’s premier health, wellness and rehab facility, supporting athletes of all levels with cutting-edge services and expert, individualized and compassionate care. Our model was created to provide the level of care that each of us would want for ourselves and those we care about, building strong partnerships with our patients and community to support your active lifestyle.

 

Vision

To Inspire a stronger, healthier community

 

Mission

To provide exceptional physical therapy and wellness care to help our patients get back to being awesome while improving the rehab experience for patients and PTs alike.

 

Core Values

  • Respect - for our team, our patients, the profession, and the healing potential of the body.

  • Excellence - in our understanding of PT, our performance and utilization of techniques and principles, in our delivery of customer service and the overall patient experience

  • Curiosity - Being curious feeds learning, growth, development and innovation. 

  • Engagement - with our Team, patients and community. 

  • Integrity - doing the right thing for our team, patients, community and ourselves. 

  • Innovation - always looking for the best way to deliver amazing PT outcomes and experience.

 

It all started when…

Ryan was 11 years old and playing little league and he developed elbow pain as a pitcher. At that time, he went to the local PT and Sports Medicine Clinic, Fleming II, run by Rod and Murray Fleming as second-generation physical therapists in Santa Cruz. After an evaluation, Ryan was given some exercises, the “Throwers 10,” to help strengthen his arm and rotator cuff for pitching. After a couple of weeks the pain resolved and he was able to pitch the rest of the season without symptoms.

From that time forward, Ryan was drawn to the analytical experience of the evaluation and the way physical therapists use exercise and hands-on treatments to help people feel better and get back to the activities they want to do. At 13 years old during a junior high project, Ryan said he wanted to be a Physical Therapist - and it stuck.

Years of interest in physics, anatomy and physiology, body mechanics, sports injuries and being a gym rat culminated when Ryan graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 2004 with a Masters in Physical Therapy. He was fortunate to get his first PT job with Alves and Martinez PT in Elk Grove, being mentored by both Jeff Alves and Billy Martinez for the first 2 years, while also attending two year-long manual physical therapy courses including the notorious Folsom Long Term course in 2006.

But the ocean and Santa Cruz were calling for him to return home, so in late 2006, Ryan moved back to Santa Cruz and established himself at Ronning Physical Therapy in Aptos. During that time he rekindled his love for surfing, met and married his wife, started a family, and got introduced to CrossFit through a friend. All of those influences led him to want to create a space for athletes, coaches and physical therapists to grow and help our community feel, move and perform better.

And in 2011, DeWitt Physical Therapy was established.

DPT was given the opportunity to begin within Rocky’s Fitness Center, and in April Ryan began seeing patients out of their newly expanded location. The team led by Fitness Trainer Rocky Snyder included Joey Wolfe (owner of Paradigm Sport) and Aaron August (now Director of Training at DeWitt PT/CrossFit UP) amongst others, and it was here that Ryan was able to learn more about fitness and performance programming and integration with rehabilitation, and work as a bridge to help those with injuries get back to training and their sport.

This inspirational time was foundational to building the framework that our rehabilitation and training systems are based upon.

In Fall 2013, DPT moved to its current location and also opened CrossFit UP a few months later to have a truly integrated health, wellness and fitness facility.

Now, DeWitt PT is the second largest private practice in Santa Cruz County with a 3200 sf clinic and 1600+ sf gym, and has been named “Best PT in Santa Cruz” 3x by the Santa Cruz Sentinel.