Physical Therapist Discovers the Healing Power of Active Listening

For Matt Roth, physical therapy isn’t just about fixing the body. It’s about getting people back to what they love.

“What keeps me coming back every day is when the patient comes in and says, ‘I don’t have that knee pain anymore,’ or ‘My back doesn’t hurt,’ or ‘I did something that I didn’t think I was ever going to do again,’” Roth says. “Those are big wins.”

Roth is co-owner of U-District PT Clinic in Spokane, Washington, where he’s worked as a physical therapist since 2019 after graduating from George Fox University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program.

“Some patients come in and don’t know if they should even be here,” Roth says. “They say they almost canceled because there’s no point to it. It’s hopeless. Then we get that patient and we build trust, we build rapport, we build confidence, and they start improving. Down the road, they’re doing things they never thought they would be able to do again.”

Making an Impact One Patient at a Time

After playing basketball as an undergraduate at Whitworth University, Roth knew he wanted to pursue a career in the health sciences. But it wasn’t until he began learning about physical therapy that the light bulb switched on.

“The impact you get to have on people’s lives is profound,” Roth says. “We get to change people’s lives for the better. We get to see them light up.”

His work goes beyond physically healing the patient. Roth loves to listen to his patients and learn from their life experiences. One particular patient who stood out to Roth was a father who didn’t speak much English, so one of his daughters usually came to translate. Roth was able to learn about the patient’s experience growing up in a different country, and it provided a bonding moment for father and daughter as well.

“His daughter loves coming because she gets to hear stories too, and she’ll say to her father, ‘You’ve never told me this story,’” Roth says. “We get talking about things that he’ll tell us from back when he was 20 years old. It’s fascinating to learn about things I never would have heard about, whether it’s living in a different country, a sport or activity I’ve never played, or different occupations or hobbies. It’s so exciting to learn the things that make them excited too.”

From Cohort to Family

Being able to listen and relate to his patients is important to Roth, and he approaches these conversations with confidence because of skills he learned in the DPT program.

“Something we learned in the program was motivational interviewing tactics,” Roth says. “We learned how we can communicate well with our patients, how we can engage with them well and get even a better outcome without doing anything different with them physically. We were taught to ask, ‘Why do they have these mental barriers or fears, and how can we work on motivating them and communicating with them?’”

It was this focus on connection that first drew Roth to George Fox to pursue his DPT degree.

“When I came on my visit for my interview, it felt like a family,” Roth said. “I don’t know how to even describe it, but it felt right. When you walk in the door, this place is special. This place is a family.”

The feeling of family continued throughout his time at George Fox as Roth built relationships with his professors and peers.

“The professors were some of the best ever, and the relationships they were able to build with us were so incredible,” Roth says. “I still have amazing relationships with a number of the professors. We’ll text numerous times throughout the year.”

The DPT program is centered around cohorts, forming each group into a tight-knit community.

“There were 40 of us, we had every single class together, and we became a family,” Roth says. “On the first day, I was thinking, ‘There are so many students to get to know.’ But it didn’t take long before I knew everyone really well. It was fun to have this really rigorous journey that I could walk through with those classmates every single day.”

As co-owner of U-District PT, Roth has worked to cultivate a positive environment for his employees and co-workers where they can be excited to come to work every day.

His hope is to create a team-oriented community that’s encouraging and focused on development.

“In any profession, we’re gonna have good days and bad days,” Roth says. “What keeps us going during the bad days are those big, big wins where we get to rock people’s worlds – those huge wins of getting them back to doing what they love.”