Blooming Steps Pediatric Physical Therapy

We love and miss Pam. We were taking our son to her for about 2 months before she became private and no longer accepted our health insurance. During our short time we were under her care, she was amazing. So knowledgeable, thoughtful, caring and patient. She hugs and kisses our baby as if it were her own. We are so sad!

My wife and I took our daughter to Pam at Blooming Steps after we had a horrible experience at another physical therapist in Santa Monica. Although it was a fairly long drive from Santa Monica to Sherman Oaks, we found the trip well worth it. Pam was amazing with our daughter!

Just to add to the great reviews. Our 11-​month-​old had several gross motor skill delays caused at least in part by torticollis. Pam was great with him, and he was caught up to his milestones by the time he was crawling. She gave us specific skills to work on at home and the difference was remarkable. We highly recommend Pam’s great work and sweet spirit.

Absolutely amazing place, Pam is the sweetest therapist and you feel how much she cares and want to help, my daughter loves to go to PT

My 9 month old who was not even anywhere near crawling was diagnosed with mild gross motor delay. Our HMO physical therapist was nice but our daughter wasn’t connecting well with her. With Pam it was instant connection. In just under 2 months, with Pam’s gentle guidance, my baby went from sitting only to competently crawling, changing positions to seated, pulling up to stand, and almost cruising. Wow! Thank you, Pam!!! My coworker also has a baby who sees Pam for PT and concurs with this experience. Absolutely the best!!!

I was referred to Pamela by another physical therapist that ended up being outside of my network coverage. her office is very clean and has a lot of versatile equipment. Being that my baby is only about 6 months old we were mostly doing mat work. Pamela was very patient with my baby when he would come in cranky from a nap or just not in the mood to crawl. she was also very patient with me while I asked dozens of questions to try understand what was wrong and what I could do better as a new mother to help my child develop physically. Not only is she a great doctor but she is a great teacher and showed me a lot of ways I could help my son outside of her office. I have seen a big difference in his development and I would recommend her highly to anyone else with similar concerns.

Pam is an absolute Godsend! Our baby was already 18 months and not yet walking. Thanks to the very helpful Unilocalers I found Pam and made an appointment for an initial consultation. Pam was able to assess that our daughter had some weakness in the trunk area of one side, which was causing her to feel wobbly when using the opposite leg. From the very first visit she already opened our daughter up to a higher level of comfort when walking, and gave us some very helpful exercises to do at home. Once we started strengthening the weak side, Pam really worked with our daughter to give her the confidence she needed to walk on her own.
Pam is incredibly knowledgeable, flexible if the baby gets fussy about a certain exercise, and uses fun toys/​games to really engage the child. There were many times when our baby got frustrated or tired, and Pam was swift in changing up the routine and getting our daughter right back up!
The day we saw our daughter get up and take off on her own was truly magical and tear-​inducing! We can’t thank Pam enough for all of her help, compassion, and patience.
Thank you Pam!!!

Like the other reviewers, I am also giving it a 5 starts. I really appreciate what Pam has done for my son. Without her advices, I think I am still in a depression mode now. I wish I could have found her earlier so that my baby didn’t have to go thru so much.
EXPERIENCE WITH BLOOMING STEPS
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When my son was 13 months, he still couldn’t pull himself up, he couldn’t even sit up from laying down position without my assistance, not to mention about clawing. When he sat at one spot and see his favorite toy away from him, he had no motivation to get it. He would just look at it or called me to get it for him. I was getting more and more concerned with his development. People around me continued to tell my that he will be okay, I just worried too much. However, my instinct was telling me that something was not right, I know boys develops slower than girls, but he was REALLY slow. The pediatrician told me that he may have the condition called hypotonia — low muscle tone. He referred me to see a PT that is affiliated with Holy Cross Hospital, but turned out I didn’t go there because that place was sooooo pushy, they care about money more than anything else. Since I have PPO insurance, I decided to look for another one on my own.
So, I started researching the pediatric physical therapists in the Valley. To my surprise, there are tons of physical therapists out there, but I could hardly find a PEDIATRIC PT. Thru Unilocal,I found Blooming Steps with good reviews. I guess I had no other choices — I was very desperate looking for help.
I called Blooming Steps, Pam picked up the phone. Over the phone, I told her about my son’s situation, she was so nice spend time listening to me. She advised me to take him to her office for a consultation. The other excellent part of it was that she is in-​network PPO with Blue Cross Blue Shield. It worked out just perfect.
Basically, Pam is the only person running the business. The office is very clean. She is so nice and she knows how to play with kids, although she is tough. From the one-​hour consultation, Pam already pointed out my baby’s weaknesses. She confirmed that my son has the condition, hypotonia. His motoring skill was equivalent to a 7-​month baby. I was like… oh no!!! But she said that it is not related to mental illness or nervous system. He just needed to do exercises to tone up the muscle. I was quite skeptical about how exercises can be done on babies, but I had to trust her professionalism as I had no other choices. She wanted us to take him there 3 times a week because he was so behind. Both my husband and I are working parents, but Pam would work around with our schedule. It’s a BIG HELP!
At each session, Pam would tell us what exercises my baby needed to work on. The good thing is that my son goes to pre-​school and the teachers there are willing to help out. I have the teachers following Pam’s instruction to force him to do the necessary exercises. After a week, my LO already learned how to sit up by himself. The other good thing about Pam is that she is not the type of provider keep making you to go so that she can bill the insurance. She doesn’t waste your time. After only a week that she saw my LO improving, she told us that we could drop down to 2 times a week.
Of course, there was a lot of crying throughout the process. After 3 sessions, I almost wanted to give up because it was so torturing to see him crying for the whole session, and didn’t see much improvement. She said that it would take about 4 – 6 weeks to see some big changes. While I was so frustrated and debating whether I should continue to go, My LO started to crawl after 4 weeks of PT, and cried less and less. She was right, I saw the big change in 4 weeks. Following Pam’s advices and teachers’ pushing, my LO improved so much that I couldn’t even believe. After another 4 weeks (2 months with PT in total), Pam started to push him to walk from crawling, and she reduced his PT session to once a week. Now he is 15 ½ months, he started to walk by himself a few days ago. We’ve been there for only 2.5 months so far, I really see the miracle. I really appreciate what Pam has done for us. To a lot of parents, it may not be a big deal, but to me, it means a lot.

My son was 16 months and not yet walking, so our pediatrist recommended taking him to see a physical therapist. We called and scheduled a free 15 minute evaluation with Pam but lo and behold, my son started walking the day before his appointment. My wife wanted to still take our son for his free evaluation but to be honest, I was skeptical, thinking that Pam would still recommend treatment for our son as a way to increase her business.
Boy was I wrong. Pam greeted us with a smile when we walked in and my son, who normally takes some time to warm up to strangers, had absolutely no problem warming up to Pam immediately. She evaluated him by making him do different tasks, and afterwards gave us some great tips about activities we could do at home to help his further development. Pam came across as somebody who is in her profession for the sheer joy of helping children, and while I hope that my son never needs her services, I wouldn’t hesitate taking him there for treatment if the need ever arose in the future.
There’s a pay parking lot in the back of the building but you can also find parking on the side streets if you’re lucky.

I cannot say enough amazing things about Pam Vartanian. Not only is Pam an amazing physical therapist, she is so sweet, warm, loving and amazing with children. I was so excited when Pam said, «as much as I would love to see your daughter for the rest of her life, she really doesn’t need me anymore. » She then handed my daughter a little «graduation» bag of goodies but my daughter insisted she wasn’t ready to graduate. She continued to cry the whole car ride home and that evening, saying she «didn’t want to be graduated» and that she really missed Pam and wanted me to call first thing in the morning to set up another appointment! That’s how amazing Pam is!

If your looking for the best you’ve found it! Blooming Steps is the best in pediatric PT! (trust me I’ve worked with many therapist) Pamela Vartanian is amazing, I saw major improvements in my son in 3 wks of working with her and on top of it my son totally loves her! Pamela is extremely wise, professional and gives 110 percent every session. I can honestly say I have no regrets and will definitely recommend Blooming Steps!

Pam is a miracle worker! She «fixed» my son with love and patience! She is so thorough, caring and helpful. She goes above and beyond to take care of the children. Her facility is clean and well taken care of. I would recommend her 100%.

What a beautiful place for kids to receive therapy! Pamela Vartanian excels as a Therapist in her field and really gives the maximum amount of comfort to each and every patient while guiding them. She’s extremely thorough with parents as well and shows parents how to continue aiding their children as home as well. Blooming Steps is an enviroment that any child will feel warm and happy in. Congrats!