Physical therapist combines skill, business sense

GALLUP, March 6, 2008

Two years ago when he started his business, Anthony Arviso never thought he would be as busy as he is today.

A physical therapist, Arviso sees up to 21 patients a day and often works until 6:30 p.m. to accommodate them all. But as he said in an interview between appointments recently, the path to his own practice was never a clear shot.

Arviso is the only physical therapist in private practice in Gallup. Other physical therapists are associated with local hospitals, but with such a provider shortage in the area, Arviso receives patient referrals from many physicians.

Originally from Crownpoint, Arviso is Kinlich’i'nii (Red House Clan), born for Tl'‡‡shch’'’ (Red Bottom Clan).

Enchantment Physical Therapy is located in the Butler Business Plaza (1900 E. Route 66). Aerobic machines such as treadmills and stationary bikes are set up in the main room, along with massage tables and a TV.

Here patients can re-familiarize their bodies with daily activities such as walking, or ease back into more strenuous activity such as running after an injury.

But Arviso, 37, is putting a new spin on physical therapy in Gallup by incorporating the relatively recent practice of manual therapy as a core component of his approach.

Some call it 'torture' (subhed)

Manual therapy involves adjusting the muscles and bones to get the patient's body back into alignment, Arviso explained. The goal is to get the individual's body movements to work more efficiently.

He sees rapid improvement in patients on whom it is applied, but it does not come without a bit of work, and maybe even pain.

"My patients sometimes call it 'torture,'" Arviso said.

Arviso may use considerable amounts of his strength and body weight - strategically maneuvered - to achieve proper joint alignment or ease muscle tension. This means he cracks backs, grinds muscle "pressure points," and other things that elicit intense sensations in the patient.

"With this technique I've made huge changes," he said. "I see the changes (in my patients) right in front of me. There's a lot of effort and hard work involved, but you see them get better faster."

Once the adjustments are made, Arviso usually prescribes a series of stability exercises designed to help hold the alignment in place.

Arviso was introduced to manual therapy in 2000 while working a short stint at Four Corners Physical Therapy in Farmington.

"I realized there was a whole world out there I wasn't tapping into with physical therapy," he said.

Growing up (sub-head)

Growing up in Crownpoint, Arviso spent time at the IHS hospital, as his mother was a nurse.

He thought of becoming a doctor, but decided against it while doing an internship in college. He was assigned to shadow a doctor, and noted the great responsibility that comes with the job.

"He was always on call," said Arviso, whose easy-going demeanor is evident in his quick smile. "And he was having to make these drastic life-and-death decisions."

Translation: The life of a doctor wasn't for him.

But physical therapy had been in the back of his mind for some time, he said.

So after earning a bachelor's degree in biology from Eastern New Mexico University, Arviso studied physical therapy at the University of New Mexico.

Upon completion of his bachelor's degree in physical therapy in 1996, Arviso practiced at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital in Gallup for eight years.

Then he tried the Farmington position for a "change of pace." It was around that time that Arviso began to think seriously of starting his own business.

Now that his business has been running successfully for two years, Arviso is feeling good about his life - if considerably more busy than he'd expected.

"We've been really blessed," he said.

"We were hoping for 6-8 patients a day when we started, now we have 18-21," added his wife Patricia, who manages many of the business aspects of Enchantment Physical Therapy.

"At the time (opening my own business) seemed like the hardest thing ever," said Arviso. "But now I wish I opened it sooner."

It wasn't always so easy.

There were times early in Arviso's career, he said, when patients would come into his office and say, "Where is the physical therapist? I'm here to see the physical therapist," not realizing that the therapist was standing right there - and yes, he was Navajo.

"That used to bother me," he said, "but now it's not really like that - and people recognize me now, that I am a practicing physical therapist."

"There aren't so many Native professionals doing work like this," he added.

Arviso admits he has experienced firsthand the difficulties that come as a Native person trying to start his own business off the reservation, but he also wanted to give thanks to the doctors and businessmen who helped him to get his practice up and running.

"The biggest compliment we get is when the chiropractors send us their patients," Arviso said.

Today Arviso's patients are divided about equally between Navajos and non-Navajos. Many of his employees and physical therapists-in-training also are Navajo.

Now Arviso wants to instill in his children the understanding that it is possible to be your own boss, make a living, and do what you love.

"With my parents it was, 'Go work for the government!' - not that that's bad," he said. "But I think you can do good things with a business."

By learning to be entrepreneurs, Arviso said, people "can have the opportunity to find what they love and take it where they will, where they want, and make a living out of it."

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