Mirrors: Maryam Javanbakht, Physical Therapist
The AdaMarie Mirrors reflect back to us the many roads (often winding, never smooth) to success! Real stories of real women to see yourself reflected in. At first, you’ll see Maryam in this mirror, but eventually, we hope you’ll see yourself.
Welcome, Maryam Javanbakht!
Read all about physical therapist Maryam Javanbakht’s zigzagging journey, from dreaming of PT to unexpected research adventures, and how life's twists have led to a rewarding career.
Getting to Know You:
Field of Work: Physical Therapy, for 20 years now.
Your STEM letter: S
Major/Minor: Undergrad - Exercise Science, Minor in Chemistry; Graduate - Doctorate in Physical Therapy
Expertise In: Soul Practioner, Chronic Pain - Nervous system pain, Autonomic Regulation
Current Company: My Own! Clearbody
Job Title: Physical Therapist and Founder
One-liner about what you’re working on: I just finished a 2-year fellowship in pain science and so my big area of interest is that kind of pain education component. I named it Mosaic of Healing because if we look at pain management, it's probably the area that's least served and it's one of the most important areas in terms of what research research is showing.
Currently geeking out over: Pain Science; Post-Concussion Syndrome and Treatments
STEM hero (alive or dead!): My current mentor, Jessie Podolak. I also look up to Shirley Sarhmann, and Clare Frank.
Tell us about your professional journey – how did you get where you are now?
When I went to school, I initially studied exercise science and wanted to be a PT. I had done a summer internship in high school at a muscular dystrophy camp for Jerry’s Kids – it was a telethon, I’m not if anyone remembers that – but it would be for this camp. I was interested in working more with kids at the time and so I go and do my undergraduate and decide that I am not ready to go to graduate school right away, I knew I was still kind of immature, and I also thought maybe I would just go and do research. I did research in undergrad, and I loved it. So, I took a year off and traveled, and then I did a fellowship with NIH, and it was wonderful. It was very tough, I lived in Baltimore in 2001, right around 9/11 but I learned a lot, specifically that I did not want to do research. So, I pivoted back and went into PT. I loved PT school, and I am pretty happy with the profession because I’ve gotten to weave my way through different elements and different phases of my life. At one point I was really into the profession and learning and doing stuff but then I had kids and that took some more of my priority and time, and I was able to navigate my profession around my overall life.
We’re also curious to know your personal story and upbringing. What has made you “you”?
I am a first-generation immigrant, I moved here at the age of 5. My family is from Iran. And it was not a planned immigration, the revolution happened, and we had to move here. So learning how you navigate a new culture with parents that don’t really understand that new culture and how you immerse yourself in American culture while still being Persian. And that is a huge part of who I am.
I have gotten to take all the things I love about Persian culture and all the things I love about American culture and bring those together to make me. It has made me very resilient and very compassionate about others and their struggles whether they are seen or unseen. And that has been such a pivotal part of who I am.
We know that real life isn’t a smooth and linear journey. What was your initiating moment that led you to your calling - can you tell us about that moment, what helped you move forward, what you learned/discovered?
Phases change you.
I’ll give you one quick story that was pivotal for me. I had moved away from LA to Orange County and I had just had my second son. I was working at a private physical therapy clinic. Their expectations of my time didn’t match mine. Or rather, they matched my old expectations for myself: work, work, work, yes I’ll come in early, yes I’ll stay an hour late, yes I’ll see this extra patient and do my documentation. And then I hit a wall and realized I wasn’t meeting my family’s responsibilities and I wasn’t there for them. That was the first time I went, “Oh this doesn’t work anymore”. The kind of drive that I had, no longer fit what I needed. So that is when I decided I would just see private patients and I’m going to create my vision of how want to see patients. I began seeing patients for an hour and a half a day and was very flexible with them, and they are very flexible with me. I understand it’s a luxury because I have a husband, a partner that is also bringing in income and allowing us to live our lives, but I think it’s a powerful point. To know you can always tweak your work to yourself.
You’re a working woman in a performance-driven industry. Where do you find balance?
Being comfortable with not necessarily being accepted by your mainstream peers. The work I do is tailored around the bio-psycho-social component. And I take the social and the psycho very seriously in terms of emotions and memories and ideas driving us. And this isn’t always popular in the current day biomedical version of physical therapy or medicine in general. We would have occasional dinners with my PT friends when I was performing outpatient orthopedics and I got all the fancy specialties that other PTs geek out on but no one else cares about. And we’re having dinner and I’m telling them about this visceral manipulation and connecting to the energy of the body and the emotions that the body holds so they’re all teasing me, “Oh Maryam talks to the liver, what does the liver say?” Fast forward 3-4 years later, they’re taking the same class. They’re now understanding how important that mind-body connection is.
It’s standing with your integrity even when other people might not get it. They’ll come around, you’re just ahead of the ball game.
If you were a part of the human body, what would you be?
I got so excited about this question! I would be the fascia. The reason I would be the fascia is not only because it’s my area of greatest interest in what I do manually, but it is really the embodiment of mind-body-spirit. You have the body component: a living tissue. It is a multi-dimensional spider web that has glistening dew and it stretches, expands, and is just amazing. Then you have the fascia which connects the energetic flow of our body. It is the transition of taking information from our neurons and spreading it into the cells. And finally, it houses our emotions, our memories. It connects us to everything and is such an overlooked tissue.
We’d love to feature your work! How can we spread the word about what you’re doing?
It’s just me and my little company Clearbody!
But the thing I am most proud of is the Mosaic of Healing. It is a 4-week course, it is live on ZOOM – because going back to the bio-psycho-social, I want that social aspect. We talk about pain science and how it works, how pain works in the body, and how pain works when it gets too overzealous and overprotective in the body. We do some tools and techniques for when that happens and then some meditations to bring it back down again. And I am really excited about growing that and sharing that in all different avenues and communities.