Irvine/Lake Forest Clinic

While at NAU, Anna studied the connections between connective tissue disorders, hypermobility syndromes, and dance injuries for her capstone project, sparking an ongoing interest that she has carried into her current practice.

Anna attended Aliso Niguel High School and danced at the Maple Conservatory in Irvine. She continued her training and performing in the dance department at UC Irvine. For her senior thesis at she choreographed an original dance concert inspired by a class she took in neurobiology of learning and memory.

In her freshman year of high school, she developed an interest in biology and wanted to find a career to combine that with her love of dance. UCI, which has a highly regarded dance program, offered her that opportunity with a double major. She has always been fascinated by the movement of the human body and began learning more about physical therapy as an aide during college. After graduation, she knew for sure I wanted to be a PT to help people decrease their pain, learn more about their bodies, and return to doing the things they love.

She says her favorite discipline is ballet, but she has also been trained in modern, contemporary, jazz, tap, and musical theatre. A highlight of her training was attending the Radio City Rockettes summer intensive program in New York City. She continues to take dance classes when able. During her time in Flagstaff, obtaining her DPT she was able to teach dance classes and hopes to continue that effort with lectures and instructions on dance injury prevention and rehabilitation.

In addition to dance, Anna will provide treatments for orthopedic and sports injury rehab, chronic pain, SI joint dysfunction along with neurological rehab for movement disorders. With a teamwork approach to her patients, she feels it’s important to understand their goals in the rehab process and designing personalized treatment plans.

“I believe in listening to a patient’s story and treating them as a whole person, not just their impairment,” she said. “I see the patient and therapist as a team, working together to identify the problems and then finding creative solutions. It’s important for the patients to feel better and understand their pain and how they can take an active role in their recovery.”