Physical Therapist

HealthWell Physical Therapy is looking for Physical Therapist in Outpatient Orthopedics, Hypermobility & Complex Care

📍 San Francisco, California
💼 Full-time 
💰 Compensation: $40–$50/hour 
🌱 New graduates and soon-to-graduate DPT students are encouraged to apply. Employment begins following completion of applicable California licensure requirements.

About HealthWell PT

HealthWell PT is a physical therapist owned outpatient practice focused on individualized, one-on-one care.

Our clinicians work with patients for a minimum of approximately 45 minutes per visit, allowing time to listen, examine movement carefully, teach, problem-solve, and adapt treatment around each patient’s goals.

Our patient population ranges from people returning to sports and recreation to people managing complex chronic conditions. Common presentations include:

• Hypermobility spectrum disorders and hEDS
• Joint instability and chronic pain
• Dysautonomia and POTS
• Cervical and lumbar spine conditions
• CCI-related concerns
• Orthopedic and post-operative rehabilitation
• Vestibular and balance disorders
• Neurologic conditions
• Gait and fall-risk impairments
• Return-to-work, recreation, and sport goals

Our treatment philosophy integrates evidence-informed physical therapy with individualized movement approaches including therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular re-education, manual therapy, Pilates, yoga, Feldenkrais principles, sports medicine, stabilization-based programs, and patient education.

HealthWell values community wellness through programs addressing balance, Parkinson’s disease, fall prevention, osteoporosis, healthy movement, and accessible physical activity.
 

Why Begin Your Career at HealthWell?

We give early-career clinicians more than caseloads.  In this clinic, clinicians receives mentorship, continue education opportunities, round table discussions, and enough time with patients to learn from each encounter.

At HealthWell, you can develop those skills while treating approximately six to ten patients per day, depending on self-selected pace, scheduling, and clinical complexity.

You will have opportunities to:

• Build confidence performing independent evaluations and treatment
• Develop clinical reasoning with complex, multi-system presentations
• Learn hypermobility-informed rehabilitation
• Develop stronger differential screening and red-flag recognition
• Practice individualized exercise progression and regression
• Improve manual therapy and movement-analysis skills
• Learn autonomic and exercise-tolerance considerations for dysautonomia
• Develop vestibular, balance, gait, and neurologic screening skills
• Strengthen patient education and motivational communication
• Collaborate on difficult cases with experienced clinicians
• Develop efficient, defensible clinical documentation
• Build long-term relationships with patients through individualized care

We value curiosity, thoughtful reasoning, adaptability, humility, and willingness to learn more than arriving with every specialty skill already mastered.

What You Will Do

Evaluate

• Perform comprehensive initial evaluations and re-evaluations while connecting: symptoms → impairments → function → treatment plan
• You will review relevant medical history, precautions, medications, imaging, referrals, activity goals, and systemic factors that may influence rehabilitation.
• Examination may include assessment of:
  • Strength and mobility
  • Joint stability
  • Motor control
  • Proprioception
  • Balance and gait
  • Neurologic function
  • Vestibular function
  • Exercise and autonomic tolerance
  • Functional movement
  • Participation limitations

Treat

• Develop individualized plans of care based on patient goals, examination findings, symptom irritability, tissue tolerance, and response to treatment.
• Treatment may include:
  • Therapeutic exercise
  • Neuromuscular re-education
  • Functional and therapeutic activity
  • Balance and gait training
  • Motor-control and stabilization training
  • Manual therapy
  • Patient and caregiver education
  • Activity modification
  • Pacing strategies
  • Home exercise programming
  • Graded return to meaningful activity
• For patients with hypermobility, treatment frequently progresses through:
  • motor control → joint stability → graded strength → function

Educate

• Help patients understand their bodies and participate actively in their rehabilitation.
• Education may address:
  • Joint protection
  • Pacing
  • Symptom management
  • Exercise progression
  • Recovery strategies
  • Habitual end-range loading
  • Activity modification
  • Flare management
  • Home exercise technique
  • Return to work, recreation, or sport
• We value clinicians who can translate complicated concepts into language that patients can understand and use.

Screen & Coordinate

• Recognize findings that warrant medical follow-up, imaging, specialist involvement, or modification of physical therapy.
• You will develop skill in identifying orthopedic, neurologic, vestibular, autonomic, and systemic findings while collaborating with healthcare professionals such as PCPs, neurologists, specialists, PTs, PTAs, and OTs.

Document

• Complete timely evaluations, treatment notes, progress reports, and discharge documentation that clearly connects:
  • findings → skilled intervention → patient response → functional need
• HealthWell values documentation that demonstrates clinical reasoning while remaining efficient and readable.
• Specialty documentation skills you can develop at HealthWell
• Depending on patient needs and clinician mentorship, learning opportunities may include:
  • Hypermobility
    • hEDS and HSD management
    • Muldowney/ADaPT-style stabilization principles
    • Mid-range and end-range stability training
    • Proprioceptive retraining
    • Joint protection
    • Graded tissue loading
    • Flare management
    • Bracing and activity-modification concepts
  • Dysautonomia
    • POTS and orthostatic-intolerance screening
    • Autonomic response monitoring
    • Exercise-position modification
    • Pacing and recovery strategies
    • CHOP/Levine-style graded conditioning concepts
  • Manual & Movement-Based Care
    • Muscle energy techniques
    • Strain-counterstrain
    • CRAC/PNF principles
    • Pilates-informed rehabilitation
    • Yoga-informed movement
    • Feldenkrais-informed movement exploration
    • Individualized stabilization and motor-control strategies
  • Vestibular & Neurologic Care
    • Neurologic screening
    • Dix-Hallpike testing
    • Epley and BBQ-roll concepts
    • VOR and gaze-stabilization training
  • Balance progression
    • Gait retraining
    • Fall-risk management

Minimum Qualifications

• Graduate of an accredited physical therapy program by employment start date
• Current California Physical Therapist license or eligibility for California licensure by employment start date
• Current CPR/BLS certification
• Foundation in outpatient orthopedic examination and intervention
• Ability to develop patient-centered plans of care
• Commitment to safe clinical decision-making
• Clear interpersonal communication
• Willingness to ask questions and seek consultation when appropriate
• Commitment to evidence-informed practice and continued learning

Skills We Value

Successful HealthWell clinicians demonstrate:

• Clinical curiosity:
  You want to understand why a patient presents the way they do.
• Pattern recognition: 
  You connect examination findings across orthopedic, neurologic, autonomic, and functional systems.
• Adaptability:
  You adjust treatment according to irritability, fatigue, autonomic response, delayed symptom response, and patient goals.
• Communication:
  You listen carefully, explain clearly, and meet patients at their level of understanding.
• Collaboration:
  You value interdisciplinary care and communicate relevant findings effectively.
• Patient-centered reasoning:
  You connect treatment to what the patient wants to regain, whether that means walking comfortably, returning to work, fencing, dancing, cycling, hiking, exercising, or participating more fully in daily life.

Preferred Background or Interests

Experience in these areas can strengthen your application:

• Hypermobility, hEDS, or HSD
• Chronic pain
• Dysautonomia or POTS
• Outpatient orthopedics
• Neurologic rehabilitation
• Vestibular rehabilitation
• Balance and fall prevention
• Pelvic-health-related concerns
• Post-operative rehabilitation
• Manual therapy
• Pilates or yoga
• Diverse and culturally varied patient populations

Early-career applicants can develop many of these specialty skills through clinical practice, mentorship, independent study, and continuing education.

Growth at HealthWell

We want clinicians who continue developing throughout their careers.

Growth opportunities may include:

• Complex case consultation
• Specialty skill development
• Student mentorship
• Community wellness programming
• Clinical protocol development
• Quality-improvement projects
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• Future mentorship or leadership responsibilities
• Experienced clinicians interested in mentoring junior therapists or helping shape clinic systems are also encouraged to apply.

Compensation & Benefits

Pay range: $40–$50/hour 

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement contribution
• Continuing education stipend
• Licensure/CPR reimbursement
• Dedicated Mentorship time
• Flexible scheduling
• Competitive compensations 

Application Process

Apply through Handshake with: Resume and cover letter/short statement of interest

Application review: Within 2 weeks

Interview process: introductory interview → clinical conversation/case discussion → final decision

We aim to communicate expectations clearly throughout the hiring process and respect candidates' time.

Who May Especially Enjoy This Role

HealthWell may feel like a strong fit if you want to:

• Practice in a lower-volume, one-on-one outpatient environment
• Spend enough time with patients to understand complex presentations
• Build deeper therapeutic relationships
• Develop beyond traditional orthopedic rehabilitation
• Learn how musculoskeletal, neurologic, vestibular, autonomic, and psychosocial factors interact
• Treat patients as active partners in rehabilitation
• Think creatively while grounding decisions in clinical reasoning
• Grow into a thoughtful, independent clinician within a collaborative practice

HealthWell PT welcomes clinicians from varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives who share our commitment to respectful, validating, accessible, and individualized care.