Meet Dr. Alicia Bertoni-Hickey
After receiving her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Simmons College, Dr. Hickey worked as an acute-care therapist in a large Boston teaching hospital. In this setting, Dr. Hickey developed extensive medical knowledge and experience in treating complex conditions across a variety of diagnoses. After many years working in a hospital environment, Dr. Hickey, transitioned to providing services within a home health setting where she learned to adapt client's' treatment plans to their own personal environment and available tools. During this time Dr. Hickey also began a family of her own and as a result, noticed a void in available professionals, who were trained to treat women’s health conditions.
This lack of readily available, evidence-based treatment became increasingly apparent to Dr. Hickey as she met and interacted with other mothers across a range of ages, stages of life, and physical health. Furthermore, Dr. Hickey recognized that many women often put the needs of their family and other responsibilities ahead of their own physical health and well-being. Women frequently cited the inability to “fit in” time for to take care of themselves as a barrier to pursuing physical therapy or health and wellness services, even at the expense of living with chronic pain or limited functional movement. These factors all contributed to Dr. Hickey pursuing graduate level training specializing in women’s and pelvic health and her commitment to designing a health and wellness practice that would circumvent the challenges of other clinic-based practices.
This lack of readily available, evidence-based treatment became increasingly apparent to Dr. Hickey as she met and interacted with other mothers across a range of ages, stages of life, and physical health. Furthermore, Dr. Hickey recognized that many women often put the needs of their family and other responsibilities ahead of their own physical health and well-being. Women frequently cited the inability to “fit in” time for to take care of themselves as a barrier to pursuing physical therapy or health and wellness services, even at the expense of living with chronic pain or limited functional movement. These factors all contributed to Dr. Hickey pursuing graduate level training specializing in women’s and pelvic health and her commitment to designing a health and wellness practice that would circumvent the challenges of other clinic-based practices.