Heather Kimzey, PT, DPT earned her bachelors degrees in Biology and Psychology from Northwest Missouri State University in 2008. She went on to earn her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri in 2011.
Heather has worked in multiple PT settings over the years, with her greatest passion for the outpatient setting with 12 years of experience. She has significant manual therapy skills and pain education and loves to treat complex patients. She also enjoys working with vestibular and concussion patients and currently enjoys working at LifeMotion Balance Center.
Heather’s Story
He was paralyzed from the waist down and told he’d never walk again. When Heather Kimzey saw that happen as a teenager while watching a movie and witnessed the power of physical therapy in restoring his ability to walk, she knew: physical therapy would be her path.
“My goal in life was to do everything I needed to do to get into physical therapy,” She said.
Heather grew up in central Missouri and graduated from Northwest Missouri State University before earning her Doctor of Physical Therapy from Rockhurst University in Kansas City.
“I initially did some contract work right out of school and discovered a passion for outpatient therapy,” She says. “So I did twelve years of outpatient therapy in a variety of in several different clinics in the Kansas City area.”
Family is a passion of Heather’s as well. Because her husband’s four grown children live in Oklahoma, they decided to move here and be closer to them, and they could be closer to her two-year-old son.
“I had a hard time getting pregnant, and so we had to go the IVF route,” Heather said. “We were lucky enough to get a little one—he is our miracle baby.”
Upon arriving in Oklahoma, Heather worked in home health for the flexibility it allowed her. But she wanted something more. Exploring online, she found LifeMotion.
“I did quite a bit of research since I had some history in the outpatient world and knew the things that I liked and the things I didn’t like,” she said. “I read their Google reviews; everything I found was great. They had an amazing rapport, which was super important to me.”
“I love the vibe at LifeMotion,” Heather said. “It is all about taking care of patients and having a good life-work balance, which, with having a two-year-old, is important.”
In the end, though, her burn for this work goes back to that movie in middle school because she’s seen physical therapy have that same kind of life-changing impact.
“I worked at a neurological-based clinic fifteen years ago, and I had the chance to work with a young lady who had had a spinal surgery where the surgeon accidentally nicked her spinal cord, and it paralyzed her from the waist down,” She said. “I got to go through the three-month process with her just like that movie: She was barely walking with braces from hips to ankles, and at the end of three months, she was down to one ankle brace. We had to teach her everything: sitting, standing, stairs, everything. I don’t think I’ve cried so much in my life because it was such a moving experience, and the fact that it followed my movie situation just seemed like a God moment. It told me I was doing the right thing. This is where I need to be.”
We’re happy Heather has now found LifeMotion’s Balance Clinic is her place to be.
“Most of our patients really like to come,” Heather said. “It’s one of those things where they show up, and it’s a party, and they know they’re coming to get good care, and they know that we care about them.”
