Joint and muscle pain affects a large portion of Sailors due to the strenuous job requirements most of us face. When it comes to relief for those pains, Sailors on board Naval Station Everett and their family members now have a new physical therapist to turn to.

Denise Blackwell has joined the health care team at the branch medical office and has begun seeing patients for all orthopedic physical therapy solutions.

“The great thing about coming here to work with these Sailors is just how great of shape they are in,” said Blackwell. “The amount of exercise required by the military really shows.”

Blackwell graduated the Loma Linda University with a bachelor degree in physical therapy and has worked at the Cascade Rehabilitation LLC in Everett as a staff therapist, Sunrise Rehabilitation as an on-call therapist, at Fankhauser Physical Therapy as clinic manager, Enumclaw Physical Therapy (now HealthSouth) as a staff therapist, Kaiser Rehabilitation Center as senior staff therapist, and the California Children’s Services as staff therapist.

“My job here is to treat the whole body, not just a specific area,” said Blackwell. “Even if the focus is to ease pain in the hip area, for example, I still need to ensure the overall health of the patient and create an atmosphere of confidence for long-term quality of life.”

Appointments with Blackwell can be made by either contacting the physical therapy schedule desk at (425) 304-3936 or by calling TRICARE.