Diamond Physical Therapy Associates featured in PT Magazine

An Entrepreneurial Spirit

There are people who ask themselves “Wouldn’t it be nice to do X,” all the while resigning themselves to the idea that X is a dream they will never pursue. Then there are those to whom that phrase is usually a prelude to action. Such a one is Laura Diamond, PT, MSPT, who diverged from an aquatic physical education career in mid-stream to pursue a physical therapy degree and build a practice that is now, she says, exactly what she wanted when she made that decision.

In 1984, Diamond was working as an aquatics consultant, using a warm-water pool at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. Her undergraduate degree had been in physical education, and to that she had added credentials as a Water Safety Instructor Trainer and experience as an aquatics director at the Boston YMCA. Branching out as an independent contractor, Diamond offered aquatic consultation and physical education to clients such as the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation and Perkins. When she found that she very much enjoyed working with a population of clients with mild to severe disabilities, Diamond sought a way to make that the primary focus of her career.

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[This article originally appeared in the March 2000 issue of PT Magazine – an American Physical Therapy Association publication entitled “Building a Practice: Niches in Fitness and Aquatics”]