Provider Spotlight: Ben Benesh PT, DPT, SCS

Sometimes you have to push people to get out of them what is needed.

When you interview a physical therapist with numerous specialties, advanced certifications, and the broad range of experiences that 20+ years in the profession provides, you know you’re talking with someone who can treat just about anyone who walks into his clinic.

“I love working with all my patients and getting them back to full function,” said Advanced Physical Therapy’s Ben Benesh. “It’s very rewarding.”

Yes, I understand, but is there a type of patient that is your favorite to work with?

“Well, I do love working with athletes,” he said.

BAM

“Those are probably my favorite patients and it's a pretty wide variety and wide age variety of athletes. But I do love the high school athlete, and those are the patients that often stick out in my head over the last 20 years, those kids that had ACL injuries, a reconstruction, and then they come to me,” said Benesh. “And working with them, getting them to that sports performance phase over the last few months, moving them into a guarded progression and then getting them back to their sport.”

Here Benesh discusses a local high school athlete who suffered ACL tears in back to back years.

“About 18 months of rehab, a huge commitment,” Benesh said. “She was so strong, maybe the strongest patient in my 20 years.”

We discussed the high school athletes he’s treated and the emotional toll wrought by such devastating injuries. Those patients, said Benesh, are the ones who often end up becoming physical therapists.

So was that Benesh’s path?

“Well, I played sports and was injured a lot, but I didn’t receive a lot of PT for it.”

For Benesh, it was an opportunity as a college student to work with a physical therapist from his hometown that was the catalyst. This “one man show” of a physical therapy practice influenced Benesh in more ways than he could count.

“I loved his life, his family life, his demeanor with patients,” said Benesh. “The whole experience was fantastic. And he wrote me a really nice reference letter for my PT school application.”

Nearly a quarter century and a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree later, Benesh’s special interest in sports continues unabated. He’s received additional sports medicine training in a number of areas including advanced treatment of the shoulder, concussion management, and performance running video analysis.

He’s also a Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Sports Physical Therapy (SCS), a certification that identifies those who are experts within their branch of PT. It also provides enhanced opportunities to use those skills working with local sports teams, high-level athletes, and youth feeder programs (Benesh provided on field coverage for UW-Oshkosh football as well as for the Oshkosh Flyers, a competitive youth football club for fourth through eight graders).

And it’s a commitment with rigorous requirements.

“It’s a beast of an exam,” said Benesh. “There aren’t that many of us in the state of Wisconsin with the SCS certification, but it’s worth it. Keeps you up to date on the latest on sports performance, nutrition, emergency medicine, coverage on the field, a wide range of specializations.”

Benesh is used to seeing highly motivated patients ready to take on the physical challenges of rehab, but mental and emotional components must be addressed. This is where Benesh the dad, the coach of his children’s sports teams, and the clinician all meet.

“I think that the honesty that I can have with these patients is important.” Said Benesh. “I feel like it's a positive thing for injured athletes to talk to somebody other than their coach or their mom or dad. It’s also good for the parents to have a sounding board to have a thought process. I try to keep it as objective as I can, but I have daughters and a son. I feel I'm in a good spot to understand and empathize in these situations.”

Benesh has three children, all involved in sports. And at one point he was coaching all three at the same time. That’s no longer the case, and you’d think that would result in a more stable work-life balance.

“Oh, no, it’s way easier to make schedules work for me when I’m coaching all of them,” said Benesh. “Otherwise, things conflict.”

Working at the Oshkosh YMCA location affords Benesh the opportunity to utilize facilities with his injured athletes. If he’s working with a swimmer, there’s the pool; a hockey player gets to use the ice; the soccer player is on the pitch; the hoops player is on the basketball court.

“It's really nice to have that ability to see them at this location,” said Benesh. “Usually, I'll see them weekly for three to five months, whatever it takes to get them back, and then I do a return-to-sport testing with them before I release them back to their sport.”

Sometimes you have to push people to get out of them what is needed.

That’s what physical therapists do.

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Dr. Ben works with patients and athletes at both YMCA locations in Oshkosh, WI (Downtown, 20th Ave). 920-305-7910