Physio Sports Center

I am very pleased with Physio Sports! The staff is very accommodating and the facilities are great! Dawn Utstein is an absolutely amazing physical therapist. She’s very attentive to her patients’ needs. What I love most about Dawn is the fact that she pushes you to improve, yet you feel comfortable with her. She’s strict with what you need to do, but she knows when to back off (i.e. there’s a difference between «pushing through pain «in your recovery process and «pushing through pain» that could be damaging.) Dawn knows where to make that distinction. My family happy with our improvements. I also enjoy the fact that I have a place to work out apart from my therapy. The gym is nice, big, and well equipped. Everything you need is there!

This is my first Unilocal review. I was very disappointed with my experience here, especially in that they were recommended to me by my surgeon at Hospital for Joint Disease.
Facility is quite old, dark and NOT at all cheerful. I agree with another reviewer that some of the staff are very nosy, and much to talkative.
Some of the staff are not generally pleasant or welcoming.
I found them to be very aggressive about payment — and some of the fees that they charge are inflated and indefensible.

I came to Dawn per a rec from an ortho I trust. However this wasn’t the experience I wanted.
As a lifelong athlete, I’ve had physical therapy several times over the last decade, and therefore sort of had an idea of what I was looking for in a physical therapist.
However, while very pleasant and chatty, Dawn did not give me the sense that we were working hard to get me better. She often seemed unfocused, tapping away at her blackberry during our sessions — which were expensive, yet incredibly short, by the time she actually sat down to begin working on me. Over and over, she talked about how I’d need therapy for a long time to correct my relatively minor back problems, which I found suspicious. Instead of starting a light strengthening regimen right away, as other PTs I’ve worked with have in the past with me, she kept me on an ice/​heat/​light massage treatment pattern for weeks that, frankly, began to feel useless.
Overwhelmingly I felt as if she were preoccupied with money. All of our conversations had to do with her side-​ventures into real estate (money) and a partner of hers who was leaving to open another practice (money). Similarly I felt as if she were trying to squeeze me for every dollar.
So when my insurance company made an error and didn’t submit my payment checks correctly (they sent them to the wrong address and they bounced back), it didn’t shock me when, without my knowledge, Physio went ahead and charged the debit card I had left on file with them for over $ 1500 — despite my very clear explanation of what had happened with their (albeit late) payments.
I was very disappointed with my experience there. Physical therapy can be worth the cash (although take a look at the recent New York Times story on Tara Parker Pope’s blog on pt, which makes some excellent points; unless you have a major injury, in a few good sessions, your therapist should be able to show you some things that you can do at home yourself). But you really ought to find a good therapist before you shell out for it. I wouldn’t recommend Dawn to anyone.

This place is the absolute most unprofessional place in all of physical therapy. First there’s Juan, the young receptionist who leaves the reception desk unattended for up to 15 minutes at a time, while he jokes around with all the physical therapists running around the office like a child. Then there’s Heidi, the billing person, who fights with patients when their insurance companies don’t pay what she’d hoped. She’s gone as far as cancel patients’ therapy sessions in the middle of treatment, and actually has yelled at patients regardless of their condition, blaming them for any insurance discrepancy. The director of the center is never to be found. Other physical therapists, though nice, are incredibly nosy about their patients’ private lives and some even get busy talking about how they prefer Caucasian nannies over Hispanic ones.
In short, the experience is usually very unprofessional and uncomfortable, it leaves one with a very sour taste in the mouth and a semi succesful therapy. Don’t go here, please, there are many better places out there.

So… this is review is important to me. Almost 5 years ago, I just about destroyed my shoulder due to weightlifting. In that time, I saw 3 therapists and 2 orthopedic surgeons (none could effectively help me, and all that was concluded was that I was a poor candidate for shoulder surgery) before being recommended to Physio Sports Center.
Sam, a therapist at Physio, saved the effective use of my shoulder. After feeling hopeless about it for years and eventually settling on the idea that I’d never be able to be really active again, Sam was able to bring back the functional use of my right shoulder with a combination of therapy and therapeutic weight training. It took about 6 months before I saw real improvement under Sam’s care and I only dischargeded after 9 full months of therapy under Sam’s supervision.
So why the three stars???
Well, after giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided not to go into too much detail. I’ll only say that the first therapist I worked with was extremely unprofessional, said things to me that were unethical and inappropriate, and, worst of all, left with me with a scar on my shoulder, about 1 inch by 1 inch; thanks to gross negligence, she managed to rip off a patch of skin when attempting to treat me. And yes, it was as painful as it sounds.
Given all of this, was it worth it? Yes. I have the functional use of my shoulder back, and you can’t put a price on that. But Sam is now opening up his own physical therapy center in Bensonhurst and cutting back his hours at Physio, so beware. If you’re lucky enough to have him as a therapist, I assure you, this unassuming guy from the neighborhood is a physical therapy genius, and I give him all the credit in the world for helping me.

If you’re in need of physical therapy or a personal trainer, this is the place to go in NYC. I was recently referred here due to a disk injury in my lower back. Sam is my therapist and he’s done wonders in the 4 weeks since I started going to him. He’s given me great massage therapy as well as stretching to re-​align my spine. He’s also taught me the correct exercises to do in order to help myself maintain my disk & spine health once my therapy sessions eventually end. He’s knowledgeable, pleasant and attentive. The office hours are good, so it’s fairly easy to schedule your appointments here as well. They accept most major medical insurance, which is also a plus!
You’re in good hands here with Dawn Utstein and her expert staff of therapists and trainers!