If you’re in residency, OCS prep, or a performance clinic and still feel like the guidelines don’t match real patients, this is your episode.

Rachel did everything “right” academically and still felt like she was missing a real clinical system, especially for spine and shoulder.

In this conversation, you’ll see how she:

Went from Ohio State, residency, and OCS-focused training to feeling underwhelmed clinically.

Realized traditional residencies mainly prep you for a test, not for complex, real-world reasoning.

Used PRA to confidently call a neck-driven shoulder case and prove it to her skeptical mentor.

Became the go-to “spine person” in a performance PT clinic using a non-traditional framework that actually gets results.

Stopped trying to force patients into buckets that don’t fit her neurodivergent brain.

Started selling large plans of care without feeling “salesy,” just by making the problem and plan obvious to patients.