We are wired to connect. While online community has transformed us, allowing us to find each other across space, being in the physical presence of each other connects us, heals us, and rejuvenates us like nothing else. Jennifer Anderson, PT, DPT, NCS, the owner of Root Physical Therapy and a PMD Alliance Board Member, recently emceed our in-person Renew! Retreat® in Mission Viejo, CA, and she found herself unexpectedly—and joyously—invigorated.
For the past three years, Jennifer has been immersed in motherhood (she gave birth to her fourth child, a son) and her work. After years of online meetings during the pandemic, the Mission Viejo Renew! Retreat® was her first PMD Alliance in-person program in three years. She told me, “I saw a gentleman there. We recognized each other, but I couldn’t place him. Then we remembered: we met during an exercise break I led at a PMD Alliance event three years ago.” She went on, “Getting to connect, whether it’s people you’ve known for years or people you’re meeting for the first time, there’s nothing like it. And the Parkinson’s community is always the best group of people.”
Jennifer never expected to work with people with Parkinson’s. She didn’t know anyone with Parkinson’s. Growing up, she was an athlete and played tennis in college. “I had physical therapy as a kid [for sports injuries],” she said. “I thought I was going to go into sports rehab.”
But when she started her clinical rotations in school, her instructor was known as the “Parkinson’s therapist.” “That was my first real exposure in pretty high volume to working with people with Parkinson’s,” she said. And it surprised her: together with her patients, they made big gains and had a lot of fun.
Years ago, when Renew! Retreats were just forming from an idea in our founder’s mind to a real, live event, Jennifer implicitly understood their value. As she helped the team bring these full-day, one-of-a-kind events to life, they intentionally designed them with two simultaneous tracks: one for care partners and adult children, and one for those with movement disorders. While Jennifer, given her expertise in supporting people with movement disorders through physical therapy, ended up focusing her time on the track for people living with the disorders, she was passionate about making sure that care partners, who have their own experiences on this journey and who deserve their own support, could feel at ease being able to attend an all-day event.
To do this, they decided to build in extra support. To this day, at each event built on this model, PMD Alliance enlists the support of Physical Therapy students who help the attendees with movement disorders feel physically safe in the room, whether that’s help getting up and getting down, walking across the room, getting to the bathroom, or fully enjoying the immersive movement breaks that are central to the retreat. Knowing that their loved ones are fully supported and safe, care partners have the chance to let down their guard and delve into their own workshop.
As Jennifer explained, “Anyone who is a care partner of any kind knows it can be difficult for care partners to carve out space for themselves. This retreat is a chance for them to do that, to connect with others who truly understand, and to learn from expert providers, all while feeling at ease. It’s a special event for both sides.”
The people living or loving someone with a movement disorder aren’t the only ones who benefit from an event like this. As a healthcare practitioner, Jennifer has found herself returning from PMD Alliance workshops reinvigorated. For her, it’s a chance to network with other providers. Interacting with participants also deepens her awareness of their needs and challenges her to better support them. “You always pick up something new when you’re working with a group like this and someone asks a question. I learn to reframe my answer or re-see the situation. I carry that back with me into my practice, integrating it into my care with my one-on-one clients in a new way.”
Jennifer also sees these events as a potentially life-changing opportunity for the physical therapy students who volunteer their time. “It’s a learning opportunity for students to get hands-on experience outside the didactic classroom,” she said, “and to see a real-life community event instead of just a clinic. In fact, they get the chance to interact with the whole Movement Disorders Ecosystem, not just their physical therapy colleagues. They get to see everybody—care partners, healthcare providers, the PMD Alliance staff, treatment and device representatives. They always seem to have a really great time and report that they learn a lot.”
Just as Jennifer never imagined herself working with people with Parkinson’s until she got serendipitous hands-on experience in college, she hopes that, for some of these students who may not have considered this population, that this event offers them a new perspective. Maybe they, too, will venture into working with the movement disorders community, a blessing they never expected. More than that, Jennifer finds that doing these events is another chance for her to be and move alongside a community she cares about, a community she has built her life’s work around.
Jennifer believes in the power of exercise for the movement disorders community. She’s seen the science. And she’s experienced it for herself with each client she works with.
The people Jennifer works with come from a wide range of exercise backgrounds. “Whether they’ve never exercised a day in their life or they used to run marathons, they tend to be willing to work.” The secret to that, Jennifer said, is teaching them “the why.”
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, “By the time Parkinson’s is diagnosed, most people have lost an estimated 60 to 80 percent of their dopamine-producing cells.” But Jennifer works with each person, seeing and treating the whole person, to show them why exercise can be crucial to their wellbeing. They can make progress.
“Of course, medication is important,” Jennifer said. “But as we’ve learned in the past 20-30 years, exercise is one of the best treatments.” According to her, small changes add up. When people begin to see themselves make progress, “it lights a fire in them to keep doing it.” And it reminds each of us: “it’s never too late to make improvements.”
Despite having a full plate—managing her own practice and raising four children and a couple of dogs alongside her husband—Jennifer remains committed to serving the movement disorders community and, in particular, doing so with PMD Alliance. “I’ve basically been there since its inception,” she said. “I am so proud of everything that PMD Alliance has done from the start till now.” In fact, she loves the way they provide a web of support for the entire community. “PMD Alliance offers so many opportunities to learn and to access meaningful resources,” she said. “These resources make a big difference. And a lot of it is totally free. That’s pretty incredible for such big value.”
“If there’s one thing I can leave people with,” she said, “it’s that this community is amazing. Not to say other diagnoses don’t have wonderful communities, but there’s something very special about the Parkinson’s community.” Her biggest piece of advice? Get involved. Join the community. Life with a disease like Parkinson’s can feel uncertain or lonely or out of your control, but gathering with others who “get it” will buoy you through unsteady waters. And it will bring joy.
