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Meet Sally Fryer Dietz of Integrative Pediatric Therapy in North Dallas

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Sally Fryer Dietz.

Sally, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started my practice in 1994 when my son started showing signs of ADHD and the only option presented to us at the time was medication. After three “second opinions”, all of which yielded non satisfactory options, I decided to open my own therapy clinic to help my own son, along with others like him. Twenty-three years later, with my team of talented physical and occupational therapists, we have helped thousand of children with mild to moderate learning differences, to severe Autism, find greater success in their lives without medication being the first, and/or only, option.

We now have two clinics (Dallas & Plano), and two school based practices (Shelton & Temple Emanu-El), and a staff of thirty. Our physical and occupational therapists are all have specialties in pediatrics and sensory integration at a masters or doctorate level, and most importantly have a gift for working with and motivating children, no matter what the age, disability or obstacle.

We just opened our “latest and greatest”, “ahead of the art”, 10,000 sq. ft. facility in Dallas (Hillcrest & LBJ) which includes not only our progressive pediatric therapy facility, but also a comprehensive concussion rehab program (Integrative Concussion Therapy) aimed at a safe and complete recovery following concussion.

Dr. Sally Fryer Dietz is also the author of the book “When Kids Fly – Solutions for Children with Sensory Integration Challenges”

Has it been a smooth road?
I have been a physical therapist for the past 37 years, and have always loved my profession and working with children. I started as a staff physical therapist at a private hospital and Learning and Development Center, in San Francisco. After moving to Dallas in 1990, the hardest part was taking the plunge into private practice and balancing being a busy engaged mother while independently running my own private practice. I have always been fortunate in that I love what I do though, and my kids both loved coming to the clinic to “play”. One of my little patients said it best when he asked me what I did for a living and I told him I got to “play with great kids” like he was. He looked at me with his big beautiful 6-year-old blue eyes and exclaimed “then you never have to work a day in your life”. He was right! Creating this space to help my son along with other children & families, has been more of a joy than a struggle, every bit of the way!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Integrative Pediatric Therapy story. Tell us more about the business.
Integrative Pediatric Therapy helps children with mild to moderate learning differences to severe autism and any other sort of developmental disability. We use a multi-disciplinary, integrative approach that is tailored to the individuals needs. This means…we do NOT DO use cookie cutter approaches. Our tag line is “where kids really do get better!”, and they do! We offer a multitude of services from specific physical & occupational therapy treatments with a sensory integration approach, to developmental therapy, feeding therapy, scoliosis treatment, gross and fine motor therapies and injury prevention.

We also have an integrative concussion rehab program. When a person suffers from a bad concussion, or from multiple concussion, their symptoms are often similar to a child with sensory integration processing problems…vestibular (balance & coordination) & vision challenges, sensitivity to light & sound. This can lead to headaches, sleep disturbances, fuzzy thinking and more. Our therapists are additionally trained in vestibular rehab and vision therapy to help in a safe and complete recovery following a concussion. We offer baseline and post injury imPACT testing as well as complete rehab services.

We never settle for the status quo, but are always staying current or ahead of the curve when it comes to evidence based practice and doing what works for our patients! We are professional and compassionate and take pride in what we do. We all LOVE our “job” and are passionate about working with children and families!

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think people deserve high quality treatment that works! Unfortunately for all of us, this comes with a price, and the matter of what “insurance will vs. should pay for” can make this more complicated than it should be. Part of being on an insurance plan as a “provider” means that a practice agrees to only deliver what the insurance company will pay for, not what is prescribed based on what an individual actually needs. We elect to NOT be “in network” for exactly this reason. Because we are independent, we are able to keep our rates down compared to other insurance driven practices, and are able to provide higher quality services based on what works, not what an insurance company says they will pay for. Services are still covered, but at an “out of network” rate.

Insurance driven practices have to increase their treatment price to offset the deep discounts they have agreed to take based on their contracts and to cover the expense of additional billing staff needed to collect their money. As an out of network provider, we are able to keep our prices lower and services are available to more people. We also get to provide what a patient needs, not what someone else has previously negotiated what they will pay for. I predict that within the next 5-10 years this will be the standard reimbursement model for all medical private practices.

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Image Credit:
All images are owned by Sally Fryer & IPT.

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