Future of Athletic Therapy: Ashley Phommarath

Ashley Phommarath “Helping people brings me joy”

Ashley Phommarath (fondly referred to as “little Ashley” by our patients) has been interning at the AC clinic for 1.5 years now. She started with us during her clinical practicum her knowledge and clinical skills continue to grow as she continues in the clinic collecting her hours for certification. Ashley’s passion for athletics, injury prevention and rehabilitation continues to flourish as she is in her  practices for the third season with the Fort Gary Twins (MMJHL) and Churchill High School Bulldogs as their student Athletic Therapist.  As a true believer in off season training and injury prevention, she puts her heart into the clinical and field application of AT. This is evident with her commitment to her teams, from bringing her foam roller and lacrosse balls to all her hockey and football practices, to setting up mobility and off season hockey training for the Twins. She has become very involved with the AC family, expanding her knowledge of strength and conditioning by mentoring with Devon Lyon while he did the off season hockey training for the Fort Gary Twins.

What got you into AT? – I was always physically active growing up, involved in dance and sports. I always had an interest in the medical field, after getting injured I found out about Athletic Therapy and knew it was the right fit for me.

What inspires & drives you? – “Helping people brings me joy”. Educating them on their injury, how we can fix the issue by getting to the route cause; seeing them begin to understand their body and seeing the results gives me satisfaction that my job is making a difference in their lives.

What have you learned? – That chasing the pain will never fix the problem, injuries are almost always the result of muscle imbalances (muscles not firing properly or over working) and to look at the body as a whole is key. Foam rollers and lacrosse balls will change your life.

What do you want to do in the future? –  Open a training facility that teaches individuals how to stay fit and keep their bodies strong, that is targeted towards the general public to athletes. Secondly, I hope to work within the school system educating children about injury prevention and learning how to take care of their bodies at a young age because in the end children are the future, we want to create a world of physically functional individuals.