Benton Physical Therapy and Pro-Active Physical Therapy

For residents of Saline County and surrounding areas, receiving physical therapy care can be a breeze thanks to Benton Physical Therapy and Pro-Active Physical Therapy in Bryant. Owned by partners and friends Rick Lee and Dan Myers, the locations have provided top-notch care to local patients since 2006.

“I am from Hot Springs and earned my degree in physical therapy from the University of Central Arkansas,” Lee said. ““I moved to Benton in 2001, and we started the clinic in 2006. We have been here for going on 19 years and have grown every year since.”

Lee remembers the early days, including when there were “zero patients.”

“We started with one clinic and no patients but now have four clinics total in Benton, Bryant, Malvern, and Sheridan,” Lee said. Lee and Myers are proud the company has grown to 14 therapists spread among the four locations.

All the locations offer a wide variety of therapy for any physical limitation affecting patients ranging in age from 12 and older, including back, neck, knee, and shoulder pain relief, hand and foot pain relief, and balance disorders.

“If you find yourself in pain and need help, you can call our clinic and schedule a consultation,” Lee said. ““Once you come in, we will do a full evaluation and determine if you need physical therapy.”

Lee clarified that most private insurances do not require a referral from a physician, but Medicare does. 

The clinics also offer specialized therapy, spinal mobilization, manual therapy, dry needling, Kinesio taping, laser and vestibular therapy, and fall prevention.

“One of our taglines is restoring your health for a new day,” Lee said. “We are here to get you back to where you were physically, or even better. We treat everything, from neurological to orthopedic conditions. We train our therapists in manual skills to treat any major joint or major part of the body to get the proper alignment or positioning. We really get the body moving.”

“People often leave here thinking a miracle happened,” Lee added. The business prides itself on its manual, hands-on therapy for its patients. 

While Lee and Myers manage 14 therapists and several staff, the road has not always been golden.

“I was the first therapist,” Lee said. “That was a journey. Within the first couple of years, we had grown up to a couple of therapists. Starting a business is always difficult. There were some tough times there.”

Lee said that between years five and seven, things began to click.

“Our reputation was getting out there and we had seen enough people where we were known in the community and word-of-mouth was working. We just took off from there,” Lee said. 

The growth to Bryant, Malvern, and Sheridan was rather organic, Lee said, after residents in those areas began asking if a clinic could operate there.

“We haven’t tried to grow, it’s been organic. People were driving from Sheridan and Malvern and Bryant to us and would say, ‘You need to be in our town.’ We went there because they asked us to.”

The Malvern clinic opened in 2017, followed by Bryant and Sheridan a couple of years later.

“It is all a blessing,” Lee said. “We feel integrated in the communities we serve and have had the opportunity to get to know a lot of people in 19 years. It is a family. When I step back and look at it, as a healthcare provider you truly want to help people, and it is a people-first endeavor. 

“We have a passion for each person we treat and all the people we work with. We care for our patients and for the people taking care of our patients. We invest in each other and in the people we treat. We believe this has been the key to our success.”

While his professional life has revolved around therapy for the better part of three decades, Lee’s achievements are firsts for his family.

“I am first-generation college educated, really,” Lee said. “I came from blue-collar, hard-working people. Dan was my first clinical instructor as a student thirty-four years ago. We met and clicked and had a very similar philosophy and stayed in touch over the years.”

Lee said he went his way after college, gaining the education and knowledge skills he could, and Myers already owned his own business at the time before the two formed an even stronger bond as partners years later.

“In 2006, we were in a place where we wanted to make a transition because we weren’t really liking what we were seeing with therapy in the organizations we were working with, so we decided to do it our way and started a clinic with our approach. We started on a wing and a prayer, and it has worked.” Lee added that their team is focused on “very high values.”

“We hire people on their values and train them on their skills,” Lee said. “We always look for people who are aligned with us from a values standpoint. Our team is very passionate about what they do and about doing it right. Everybody on our team has high character and it shows every day. We greatly treasure our team. They give it back, too.”

While Lee and Myers handle the ownership of the business, several others help keep things rolling smoothly, including Michael Johnson, Director of Clinical Operations, Krista Adams, Bryant Clinic Director, and Mackenzie Simon, Benton Clinic Director. 

For information regarding Benton Physical Therapy or Pro-Active Physical Therapy (Bryant), visit www.proactivephysicaltherapy.health or call (501) 778-4960 (Benton) or (501) 847-3320 (Bryant).

All four clinics operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.