Physical therapist Dereck Steffe has a unique approach to working with patients. He specializes in working with active people who want to resolve an issue that is causing pain or limiting their ability to perform at their best in their chosen sport, whatever that is. “I treat the full spectrum from the 12-year-old soccer player with a sprained ankle to an 83-year-old birder who wants to be able to get out and walk,” he said.

He has been a personal trainer since 2002, and is an avid outdoor enthusiast.

“I ski, hike, bike and do yoga, all of which is reflected in my practice and my approach to treating people,” Dereck said. “I look for the underlying cause of the problem—complex movement-based dysfunction, over-training, or simply adding existing stress to hard-core exercise.”

He began his PT career in various clinics where he saw multiple patients in an hour. He envisioned a different kind of practice—one that allowed him to give each patient lots of personal attention. He founded Return to Sport Physio and developed his model of one-on-one treatment sessions specifically for active people dealing with chronic pain and injuries, rather than post-op patients.

Dereck sees only three to four patients per day, which gives him the luxury of spending more time—an hour to an hour and a half—with each one. The rest of the time, he is researching and developing programs for his patients’ recovery.

“I want people to be able to listen to their bodies. If they get up and run that day, I encourage them to take some time to reflect on how they feel. What is your body versus your intellect telling you? They need to adhere to exercises they performed while seeing me, but really I want them to reflect on how they feel and prescribe their own fitness routine that day,” Dereck explained. For this reason, he says the model he’s created is well-suited to people who are willing to take charge of their own health and fitness.