DeWitt Physical Therapy

I have an old shoulder injury that has resurfaced. I am no expert but I do have an education in exercise science, was once a personal trainer, am a trained massage therapist and have been to a couple of PTs in the past… so I thought I could save the money and rehab it myself. After spending 3+ months in pain, enough was enough.
I started my therapy with Ryan DeWitt last week and I am already on the road to recovery. Simply put… he is the best. He is thorough and precise with a warm and friendly mannerism. He was able to identify the main problem but also look at my body mechanics holistically and work on the auxiliary muscles to help get my body back on track. He is excellent at communicating the issues, the goals and his strategy. It motivates me to do the homework exercises which are a crucial part of rehab.
His staff is also friendly and supportive. I look forward to my follow up appointments and healing my body. Thank you, Ryan!

I have nothing but praise for Nikki & DeWitt.L.M.

Hands down the best physical therapy I’ve had. I was walking 40 days after a pretty bad injury and it’s only getting better. Thank you guys.

I went see Ryan after working with a PT that was afraid to work with me. Ryan was very helpful in bringing back to doing crossfit, surfing, cycling and doing yoga. I really felt it was gonna be a long road. I had knee and back problems as well as a weak foot. Ryan worked with me, taking baby steps initially, but eventually setting me back on a path of safe guided exercise concerned with great form and exercises for life! Ryan and all of his office staff are wonderful!

I cannot speak highly enough of the people and work done at DeWitt Physical Therapy. They are absolutely amazing. Six months ago I was hit by a car while biking home from work. I fractured two vertebrae and dislocated my hip causing a tear in my labrum and hamstring. This was on top of a longer term hip impingement issue that has been limiting me for years. I saw four orthopedic surgeons in the bay area, all of which said that the surgery I was facing was very complicated and challenging. I opted to try physical therapy first to see if I could avoid this complicated surgery. As a scientist, I can’t help but conduct extensive research before I do anything. All signs pointed to DeWitt Physical Therapy as the place that would give me the best chance at a full recovery while avoiding surgery. Three months later and I feel absolutely amazing. I am back to climbing, playing volleyball, mountain biking, running, CrossFit (shout out to CrossFit Up right next door), and all of the active things that make me happy and healthy. Ryan is hands down the best physical therapist with whom I have ever worked (and unfortunately there have been a lot!). He is incredibly knowledgeable, proactive, and adaptive. I really love his hands on style that seamlessly blends a variety of manual therapy techniques with corrective and strength building exercises. I am so much stronger now than I was before my accident. In fact, I was so pleased with the progress we made with my hip and back that I had Ryan work on a torn labrum in my shoulder that I have been dealing with for 10 years (and no one else seemed to be able to help). For the first time in 10 years I feel like I can use that shoulder without fear of injury. It’s honestly a feeling I never thought I would have again. The amazing work by Ryan DeWitt is supported by a tremendous staff that was so helpful and supportive. I cannot thank Ryan, Taylor, and the rest of the crew at DeWitt Physical Therapy for how much they have improved my quality of life. While I hope to not need lots of PT in the future, I will always go to DeWitt Physical Therapy.

I’ve known Ryan a long time long before he has his own practice.
As friends, I thought I knew Ryan as one of the nicest, coolest guys I have ever met but I didn’t understand how that translated into his professional passion as a physical therapist.
I wish I came to him pre-​emptively and just looked at my body mechanics to correct physical inadequacies that I had. If I did, I would probably not have gotten injured playing basketball.
I probably grew up like most kids who are fairly active and start sports at a young age. I never really got instruction on how to do compound lifts correctly. Around a bunch of guys, it’s less about correct mechanics and more about being big and bad. Injury prevention. what’s that? I could do iron mans, I could dunk, I could serve a tennis ball anywhere, what did I know or care about taking care of my body when you’re 20?
Well, now that I know better, any healthy active person should see a physical therapist, especially Ryan just to get squared away mechanically to train for physical literacy. My future kids will definitely be doing this.
That said, I’m grateful to have him in my corner to help me come off ACL reconstruction surgery as well as improve my hip/​back/​squat techniques. He introduced me to rollers as well.
What’s been huge as well is his guidance in getting a 2^nd opinion on my knee. I have a lot of ligament laxity (loose ligament) that shouldn’t be there. The opposite ligament that pulls counter to the ACL is the PCL and I seem to not have one. I’m not sure what happened in my surgery if it was damaged or just if I didn’t have one. This is not conclusive yet, but I was getting nothing but green lights from my Kaiser physical therapist and my ortho surgeon until I saw Ryan who was diligently asking questions about the situation. Even his other staff came to the same conclusion. Overall, not conclusive yet, but I’m just glad to have someone tell me I’m not crazy and just gloss over what I feel and have to deal with.
So, in summary, I cannot say enough about Ryan’s professionalism, his extensive knowledge, his kind, didactic nature and his commitment to his patients. I’m really proud of him to do well and find such a great way to live his bliss in seeing the progressive success of everyone that walks through his doors.
I drive an hour and a half to see him (one-​way) and pay out of pocket because hey, it’s only my health. ;)

I started going to Dewitt after a double knee replacement. They were recommended to me by several different sources. Now I understand why. They are results oriented and have a very friendly and knowledgeable staff.
I’ve been coming here for two weeks and am already seeing major improvements in strength and mobility.
My PT is Dr Ashleigh Lyman. She is new to the clinic but has the perfect upbeat attitude for getting the most from her patients.
I wholeheartedly recommend this physical therapy clinic and specifically Ashleigh.

My family all go to DeWitt and we all have enjoyed the staff and appointments. Ryan helped my sister rehab her knee from a surgery to fulfill her college softball scholarship and Nikki has helped me for the past month rehabbing my back from an injury.
Thanks to Nikki for helping keep me going forward in my FF academy!
Would easily recommend these folks all day!

I had a knee replacement surgery in October. DeWitt physical therapy was critical in my recovery. I’m so glad I worked with them. Jenny Putt was my physical therapist. She is very professional and motivating. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing physical therapy.

This is the place to go in Santa Cruz for PT. I went here after reading the favorable Unilocal reviews. I had shoulder and «tech neck» pain from hunching over a computer at work. Ryan measured the angles I could turn my neck and rotated my arm various ways to figure out what joints were not moving. Then he pressed down and moved the joints like a chiropractor does to get them moving again, all the time being careful not to inflict pain. He also gave me several exercises and stretches to do that helped immensely. He has his own top-​notch handouts showing photos of him doing the same exercises so you can keep reviewing them at home. After 6 appointments I feel great and have exercises I can do whenever I feel stiff to prevent the pain from coming back. The doctors can diagnose you, but Ryan can fix you.

Wow! My college baseball pitcher son is back from school for just 3 weeks with an arm injury and has to be off to summer college baseball shortly. Ryan and his staff came in to work two hours early just to see him, diagnose the problems with his shoulder, and and provide him with a summer training schedule. THAT was pretty awesome.

Finally, I found a physical therapy place that seems like they are professional and they care. Ryan was great. He really explained things well and gave me a few tips on how to work with this sprained ankle I’ve had for 6 months now and not getting better. He seemed quite versed on the inner-​workings on the foot. He taped my foot today which I wish I did a long time ago. He explained many different ways to go with this foot problem I have had long term. The last place I went to was so awful, that I can see there is a world of difference between these places.

Just had my first appointment with Jenny Putt. I was SO impressed. Jenny was friendly, personable, and EXTREMELY knowledgeable. She quickly diagnosed my injury and suggested a treatment plan that seems totally manageable. I am really looking forward to going back to work with her. The office is very clean, all the staff are friendly, and they have everything you need. Highly recommended.

I saw Ryan after hurting my back. We worked together for about 4 months, and his help made all the difference in the world to my recovery. Whether we were working on exercises, modifications to my car, reviewing my MRI, or discussing my re-​entry into Crossfit, he was so supportive and knowledgeable. Ryan is a «jocky nerd» in the best sense of the expression, and has a huge heart. While I am relieved to be cured, and back at the gym, I miss his ongoing encouragement and expertise. If you are reading this, see Ryan as soon as you can.

Simply put, Ryan and his team are rock stars. I came to them with a difficult foot injury and they have been with me every step of the way. I highly recommend Ryan and his team!

Physical Therapist Dr. Adriana Mesa helped me recover from a very severe ankle sprain. I thought I must have broken it because it was in so much pain… but after going to Doctors on Duty and not getting much meaningful help, I ended up going to urgent care at Dominican for x-​rays a couple days later. I was told it looked just a very bad sprain and given some pain meds and general «stay off it and ice it a lot etc.» advice. As I was leaving the Doctor mentioned some Physical Therapy might help rehabilitate it too. Thank god for the pain meds because I was dying! But other then that I wanted to get better and back to surfing asap and I knew that rest and pain meds were necessary to a certain extent but to really get healthy was going to take more then that. All I could think about was when I would be able to surf again. After about 1.5 weeks I could walk but I could tell I needed a lot of help and again someone recommended Physical Therapy and told me about the DeWitt clinic. I still couldn’t stand on one leg and stabilize well and little things would make it hurt like hell! I was definitely scared I would re-​injure it surfing and just never get better. So in retrospect I made the best decision I could have by starting Physical Therapy for my first time.
I didn’t know a whole lot about PT and how it really works for something like this so when I started my sessions with Dr. Mesa I didn’t really know what to expect. But I knew it had the best chance of getting me back to normal which was all I wanted. What I loved so much about Adriana’s help was her patience and ability to explain the relevance and importance of everything we did so concisely and clearly. When I would say out of ignorance «my ankle is what is injured, why are you having me do core and hip strengthening exercises??» She would explain the connections and that a lot of muscles that help support my ankle had lost a lot of strength since I have been pretty inactive due to the sprain. They are all connected and my ankle needed more support to heal and get stronger which started with strengthening up the chain.
I am sure that with out Adriana’s help I would not have the range of motion and strength back like I do now! The professionalism and depth of her knowledge were so impressive and I cannot thank her enough!
I was back in the water within a couple weeks of starting with Adriana (just long boarding on small days and taking it easy as first) but over the next 2−3+ months I got stronger and stronger and was able to start short boarding again and doing everything I used to do. I am sure that if I hadn’t gone to DeWitt and worked with Adriana I would still be struggling an in pain…

Ryan is an amazing physical therapist. My old injury was taken care of faster than I ever expected. This is the best that it gets.

I went to see Ryan 9 days before my first half-​marathon. We did three things (1) try to figure out why I was having shin splints and knee problems and (2) what I could do to resolve those issues and (3) improve my stride to help me get through the run (and improve on future runs).
Ryan was absolutely terrific… I’ve been to various physical therapists and none of them spend the extra time like he did. I was also impressed with what he does outside of work to improve his knowledge. The guy is a master.
I got through my half-​marathon and actually experienced ZERO pain through the run… this is after only 9 days of stretching and conditioning my muscles correctly. It was the best I could’ve hoped for.

I am so happy to find competence and intelligence in an area that we can find ourselves at critical times of our lives. I don’t mean to be so ‘over the top’ but quality PT after surgery or an injury can have a huge effect on the ultimate outcome.
Ryan is patient and listening, knows what he’s doing and takes the time to tell you the ‘how and why’ …so much more than just «going thru the motions»!!
Nice facility, good location and parking… but most important: totally SMART MOVE!

I had a knee issue for 20+ years that prevented me from running more than 2 miles without experiencing significant pain and several days of limping around.
A visit to DeWitt Physical Therapy changed my life. Through Ryan’s accurate assessment and physical therapy program, I am now able to run long distances completely free of any knee pain.
I recommend DeWitt Physical Therapy if you’re looking for an accurate assessment and comprehensive PT program that delivers RESULTS.