Carrie Hall, PT, MHS has been a physical therapist since 1983. In addition to her role as a business owner and clinician, Carrie has served on several faculties and taught Continuing Education on the movement system. She is a co-author of Therapeutic Exercise: Moving Toward Function and a contributor to 2 Monographs for AOPT.  Carrie is also a longtime advocate for physical therapy with past and current state and federal board, committee, and delegate roles.

Candidate Statement

From the moment I entered the field of physical therapy, I have been driven by a passion for movement as a pillar of health and healing. Over the past 42 years, I have served in many roles, including clinician, educator, author, researcher, business owner, board and committee member, and advocate. Each role has enriched my understanding and deepened my dedication and commitment to the profession of physical therapy. Today, having sold my private practice in 2021, I am proud to continue this journey as the founder of SISU Physical Therapy and Mentoring Services. Here, I provide concierge physical therapy services to a limited patient base and mentoring services to small business owners and practitioners.

Currently, I serve as a delegate for the Washington component of APTA and on the APTA Private Practice Education Committee. Having recently concluded my term as Chair of the Nominating Committee for APTA Private Practice, I am well-versed in the requirements for each elected position. This experience, alongside my diverse background, uniquely positions me to serve as Secretary for APTA Private Practice. I feel particularly well-suited for this role due to my organizational acumen, attention to detail, collaborative leadership approach, attentive listening, and extensive experience across many physical therapy private practice domains.

In 2021, I sold my company and retired as President/Owner of Movement Systems Physical Therapy after 27 years of growth and development in the Seattle market. Contemplating my next role and the name of my new company, I came across the term "sisu," a Finnish word meaning “gentle power,” denoting inner strength in the face of adversity combined with compassion, empathy, and grace toward oneself and others – the perfect name for my new company. Sisu embodies how I have modeled my teaching, clinical practice, leadership, and advocacy—valuing understanding over accomplishment, collaboration over self-proving, and integrity over accolades.

Throughout my career, I have grown to embrace a “sisu” approach, shifting from me to we, and working to empower my patients, colleagues, students, and teams in everyday pursuits and on a grander scale. I have persistently recognized and advocated physical therapists' unique role in guiding our patients toward healthy behaviors grounded in movement and physical activity with a lens on healing, health maintenance, and disease prevention. We stand as the experts in the movement system. With determined leadership, our profession is prepared to serve as valued professionals on a primary care team. Our unique contribution is to optimize health through movement-based interventions, enhancing physical activity, providing customized exercise prescriptions, and elevating athletic performance across the lifespan, serving diverse populations with varying physical abilities.

I believe the public will increasingly seek our expertise for our knowledge and skills of the movement system from the cellular and subcellular systems to complex function and participation in society, including attention to contextual factors and social determinants of health. As our role in prioritizing healthspan over lifespan is recognized, payment will shift to value our clinical expertise, making us integral to primary care teams and respected specialists in multiple domains.  Leadership, education, advocacy, policy, and legislation will move in lockstep to achieve these goals, positioning physical therapists on the front line of experts guiding patients toward healthspan through optimizing movement, physical activity, and exercise behaviors.

My extensive experience has given me a unique perspective on the evolving landscape of physical therapy. I have seen firsthand how critical it is for our profession to adapt and grow, ensuring we remain at the forefront of healthcare innovation, lean practice grounded in both qualitative and quantitative data, and ethically integrating AI to enhance care and patient outcomes. I am committed to leveraging my experience and skills to support the mission of APTA Private Practice.  As Secretary, I will work collaboratively with the Board to ensure our organization continues to thrive and advance.

Through united efforts and the cultivation of our collective “sisu,” we can affirm that our patients receive outstanding care, achieve healthy outcomes, and that private practice continues to flourish and prosper.

I express my gratitude as I am considered for the role of Secretary and eagerly anticipate the opportunity to contribute to the continued success of APTA Private Practice.