What does "fellowship-trained" mean for a physical therapist?

Fellowship training is the highest level of clinical education available in physical therapy — a formal, mentored program completed after the doctorate and after residency, focused on a single specialty.

The usual path looks like this. Every physical therapist practicing today holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and a state license. A subset then complete a residency, a year of supervised training in one area such as orthopedics, which is what typically leads to board certification as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS). A much smaller subset go further and complete a fellowship in orthopedic manual physical therapy: additional years of one-on-one mentored practice, with a senior clinician directly observing hands-on examination and treatment and correcting it in real time.

Graduates become fellows of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists, which is where the letters FAAOMPT come from. Only a small fraction of practicing physical therapists in the United States hold it.

Why it matters to you as a patient: manual therapy and differential diagnosis are skills with a wide range in practice, and the visible difference between a competent clinician and an expert one is mostly in what gets noticed — which structure is actually driving the pain, and which of several plausible explanations is the right one.

Basimma Hammonds is PT, OCS, FAAOMPT, and treats every patient herself for the full hour.

Call (512) 772-3196 or book your free consultation.