Gary M Souza Pt & Associates

This review is specific for Liz Souza, who is a Certified Hand Therapist, which is rare and challenging to find, even in Southern California. If you don’t know that that specialty is, then you probably don’t need to know. Understand this though, Liz is also fully capable of therapy to other body parts as well. My injury was severe, involving a pulverized distal radius (wrist bone), that required a bone graft, plate, scars on both the top and underside of the arm, and 13 prongs/​screws in the plate to keep everything together. Liz Souza was recommended by the upper extremity specialist, and when I came out of the casting and specialized exo-​skeleton, my range of motion in my wrist was about zero degrees, while my grip was almost non-​existent. To say that was depressing is an understatement — anyone who has had a severe arm injury where you can’t even use your arm will immediately understand the fear associated with not being able to use an arm. To echo other people on this site, Liz was extremely friendly, and jumped right in to getting me back to my «new normal». I feel especially capable of being able to offer an opinion, since I was involved in therapy for over 5 months, and was able to work with Liz and her staff on over 30 occasions. Like all productive therapy, mine was brutal — with the early stages involving Liz’s magic hands working on moving my bones, since I was incapable of such. She focused on the 2 rows of carpal bones first, which she characterized as «set in concrete» at the initial evaluation. Did my therapy hurt? Yes. Did my therapy ever «injure» me? NO. And that is where many people get lost in the PT process. They think therapy is all butterflies and unicorns, warm massages on a cool day. When you body atrophies and goes into «freeze» mode, it hurts when you start using the muscles again. My tendons had all shrunk, resulting in the need to «lengthen» them back to their original length so that I could use my hand, turn my wrist, etc. Therapy absolutely sucked — I want that to be clearly understood here — but it would have sucked two times over to not be able to use my hand just because I wanted to avoid some short term necessary pain. Liz has a great bedside manner, and that is not only me speaking — I came across at least 10 other patients of Liz during my time at their group. Liz’s ability to put you at ease, and her astounding knowledge of the human body, its limitations, and her encouragement to keep pushing for our own benefit was a sentiment echoed by all. I wasn’t the only person going through the «necessary pain» to accomplish recovery — while all of the patients (me included) were just happy to be blessed with someone who cared to go through the journey with us, explain everything along the way, and get us to a point that didn’t seem possible prior to Liz’s healing hands. I can’t thank them enough, but offer this review in the event anyone is looking for a miracle worker. Your time won’t be wasted with Liz, because I have no doubt, she will help you to rebuild your life, rebuild your physical abilities, and get you back into your active lifestyle. Thanks Liz!

Just want to give another shout out for Link. We have been back for more injuries to my athlete children, torn ligaments, hip flexor strains, sprained ankles, etc. Watching Link diagnosis them is amazing. He knows their history, and patches them up for their sport. This is definitely the Rolls-​Royce standard of care. Thanks Link!

Steve is the best and the bomb. Highly recommend!

I like this physical therapist place in Diamond Bar. The physical therapists here are professional, friendly and social. They treat their patients with respect and always socialize with each and every patient like they’ve known them forever. The staff here is amazing as well. Liz is friendly and always has a smile on her face. She helps answer all your bill and insurance questions and she goes above and beyond to help you understand your insurance policy on physical therapy. Also, Steve, Shirley and Link are some of the best physical therapists I’ve ever seen and I highly recommend them. I’ve been to another physical therapy place in Orange and it just doesn’t compare to all that I’ve seen at Gary Souza’s physical therapy.