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

Fellowship training is one of the highest levels of accredited, post-professional training 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.