Holly Thompson, PT, NCS is the Director of Physical Therapy at our dedicated Balance Center. She is a Balance and Vestibular Specialist, bringing 25 years of experience to treating patients with dizziness and balance disorders. She also specializes in concussion management and treatment including baseline screenings, post concussion rehabilitation, and return to play testing. Holly holds a competency-based certification in vestibular rehabilitation from Emory University. She holds a specialty certification as a Neurodevelopment Treatment (NDT) therapist, utilizing techniques to help people who have had a stroke to regain maximum, optimal function. And she recently received a Board Certification as a Neurological Clinical Specialist (NCS) from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties.
Holly works with a wide variety of patient populations including pediatrics, geriatrics, multi-factorial balance impairments, post-concussion syndrome, inner ear disorders, and neurological disorders. Holly is currently on the medical management team for the Childhood Concussion Coalition of Oklahoma (through the Oklahoma State Health Department), University of Tulsa athletes, University of Oklahoma Sports Medicine patients, and West Side Alliance Soccer Club helping athletes who have sustained a concussion return to play.
Holly graduated from The University of Oklahoma in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy. She spent the first 14 years of her career working in all areas of rehabilitation at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, OK. She has been with the LifeMotion team since 2011 and truly enjoys helping people meet their goals!
Holly’s Story
Holly Thompson’s story is one of balance, purpose, and faith. It began in her teens while serving as a Summer counselor at Make Promises Happen, a summer camp for individuals with special needs in Guthrie.
“I just really enjoyed helping the campers have fun,” Holly says. “Seeing the experience of camp through their eyes started me thinking about how I could be of service helping people.”
Those early thoughts ultimately led her to study physical therapy at OU and gain certification in Neuro Development Technique. She also went on to earn Vestibular Certification from Emory University.
By 1999 Holly was a physical therapist at St. John, finding satisfaction working to help people prevent falls and working on balance. She recalls one patient in particular.
“She had stopped living,” Holly says. “She didn’t go out with her husband; she just went inside herself because of balance issues.”
Holly pieced together the woman’s problem and developed a treatment program. Slowly but surely, there was progress.
“I told her, ‘you will get better—I’m here to support you,’” Holly remembers.
It took time, but her patient did get better. She began exercising and ultimately became a yoga instructor. It was a big moment for both her patient and Holly.
“I remember writing HOLLY’S BALANCE CENTER across the top of a legal pad one day back then,” she recalls. That legal pad proved to be a launching pad that would bear fruit about a decade later.
“I’d been working with Ryan about ten years,” Holly says. “He asked, ‘what do you want to do?’ I told him: ‘I want my balance center.’”
He challenged her to spell it out. That’s all it took. Holly poured it all out in detail: the treatments, the equipment, the staff, even color schemes. That’s how it is when a dream long harbored is set free.
“After sharing it with Ryan,” Holly remembers, “he said, ‘Okay, it’s all you.’”
The result is LifeMotion’s Balance Center. But, Holly politely disagrees with that “all you” part.
“I give everything that’s happened to the glory of God,” she says. “He had a purpose for me. I’m fulfilling it every day. He has blessed me with an amazing staff. Everyone who comes in seems to enjoy it. We build special relationships.”
And that legal pad? While moving things to higher ground in 2019 when floods threatened their home, Holly came across a box where she found that pad still bearing her prophetic statement of purpose grounded in balance, purpose, and faith.
