Founder and head Physiotherapist of PhysioRelieve Physiotherapy Clinic in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. Specialized in treating
C3, C Wing, Satyam Shopping Centre, Ghatkopar East, Mumbai – 400077
It is definitely tough to decide between your dream on one side and a high paying job on the other. The night I landed India in 2014, I was welcomed by an offer from a prestigious spine institute which is also a business giant with branches all over India. They were looking for highly educated physiotherapists and had found my name on Mulligan website.
During that period, some previous patients contacted me for treatment. Accepting this job would mean leaving them again as I had done few years ago for my MSc degree in UK. I always rate job satisfaction above everything. My heart made me go back to my patients suffering from chronic diseases like Parkinson. I regretted this decision immediately in a day a two. I thought that one day my work will become monotonous and I will be short of new cases. This regret was short lived. One led to another and soon I was packed whole day with at least one waiting patient in my living room which was the first location of my clinic.
Thus PhysioRelieve Physiotherapy Clinic was born, one close to my heart with a vision of relieving all ailing. My clinic ensured my personal attention to every patient. Giving each patient the justified time they deserve for their treatment gives me immense satisfaction with my work. Within ten months we had crossed the mark of 100 patients and within sixteen months we crossed turnover of 200 hundred patients annually. Right now, these patients advocate for us. I have a team of four working for PhysioRelieve. We hope to relieve many more people of their pain each passing day
32-year-old female with bilateral knee joint fusion due to Rheumatoid arthritis
It seemed like a bare routine phone call when I first spoke to Komal (name changed) in my hurry entering the driving seat of my car. She said that she was diagnosed with arthritis (not mentioning the type) asking for a home visit. Being reluctant for a home visit I replied “Arthritis is commonly a treatable condition and we treat it in clinic regularly.” I subtly hinted her a clinic visit. The call was long forgotten and the next evening my assistant came to me saying that she can’t get a patient in because she cannot walk. I asked her to repeat her sentence. She said the new patient can’t walk. While my mind went through all the possible reasons of disabilities I managed to arrange for a wheelchair. As this lady came in my cabin, I learnt that she was a young and beautiful woman who had not walked for about 2 years which further raised my curiosity about the reason for her disability.
Diagnosis: Komal was suffering from a chronic case of rheumatoid arthritis with fusion of both her knees in flexion positon, the chair sitting position to be precise. Her legs could not be straight in spite of all the efforts of many doctors in Pune city. Finally she was suggested a surgery. Komal had outright refused for a surgery and came to Mumbai for seeking another opinion.
Treatment: I started her treatment with gentle manual therapy of Mulligan. Slowly releasing her stiffness from knee joints. I expected that pain would be my biggest constraint. Rheumatoid arthritis is usually considered as a relative contraindication to manual joint glides therefore many doctors fear to explore further joint range. But my knowledge and experience with knees did help me to explore further, which turned out to be a challenge worth taken. Slowly and steadily we could bring her joint to 90 degrees (which felt impossible at that time). This first milestone gave us encouragement to proceed further with strengthening exercises and knee mobilization.
Results: Within a month’s time Komal could stand on her feet with support. She went back to Pune with this result and in a few days she messaged me that she is managing to take a few steps with a walker. Komal has continued her knee rehabilitation program and now walks with braces.
A highly qualified and experienced physiotherapist with specialities such as musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, Dr. Ketaki is a dedicated healthcare professional. While she pursued a Master’s degree from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, her drive to serve people in her country brought her back to India. However her foray into the field of physiotherapy was motivated by her own personal experience that she gained while taking care of her grandfather.
Pursuing a specialized degree from England was a very exciting as well as a challenging experience. Managing to get a job in this odd situation of a foreign country was a feather in the cap.
I started with voluntary work at Leonard Cheshire disabilities (Sheffield), an organization which incidentally also has a branch in India. As patients started liking my work and as the staff appreciated my sincerity I was appointed a position in that organization. To my surprise, if I compare my experience with all the stories that I had heard in the past, I find myself lucky to be surrounded by friendly people everywhere. Right from my project guide at the University everybody were kind enough to allow me to do my best in every situation I encountered. My project was on the effects of nerve mobilization on hamstring tightness. My guide, Mrs. Sarah had worked with Mr. Butler who is none other than the founder of this wonderful technique.
I had registered 30 participants to conduct my experiment and I never knew that it could tough getting an approval from the ethics committee. After rephrasing three times and four whole weeks I finally managed to get a green signal. The ethics approval had already exhausted my time and energy before facing the actual practical hazards. Learning statistics was another challenge. In India, sadly these are not the topics concentrated on for gaining a doctor’s degree. My completion of degree was a combination of self-study and tremendous hard work along with right guidance from my teachers. I was thankful to my colleagues at work to understand me on my tough situations and helped to sustain in a foreign country.
Having a passion for knowledge gain, I had enrolled for an Australian course soon after my degree completion. This was the first time that I was introduced to manual therapy in detail. With practice I acquired proficiency in even the most difficult techniques. My patients started giving good results to my treatment in the hospital that I was working in. I felt like somebody had shown me the way of Midas touch. I learned that gaining more knowledge beyond the textbooks can sharpen my skills. Therefore I went on to achieve an international certification in Mulligan technique of manual therapy.
The challenge was to perform in front of an Australian external examiner. Many had failed multiple times and the biggest challenge was fear of nonperformance. At that time I was holding on to a dream of international postgraduate education. So I said to myself, “Either perform today, or forget your dream”. And the result clearly highlighted higher marks in practical which helped me push this stepping stone to success.
On the woman’s day on 8th March 2016, Jagruti Dave the honorable corporator of Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar has organized an event to recognize influential women in Ghatkopar. I was nominated by my former patient who also got me an application form. A day later I got a phone call confirming my nomination. The final round included an interview at the rotary club, Rajawadi Ghatkopar. Going over there was an experience in itself, I met many entrepreneurs’ especially self-made ladies from various business streams.
When I went in front of the panel of judges I was interviewed on some of my challenging cases, but they seemed to be more impressed with the number of social service camps arranged by me. Lastly I could see the appreciation in their eyes when I narrated the case of a Down’s syndrome child who started reading and writing after undergoing my treatment. The judges awarded me a participation certificate. I believed that was the end of my encounter with the team of Udaan Nari 2016. I was completely unaware that the event which went on for two days and that they would announce the winner on completion of the event. I was pleasantly surprised when my former patient gave me a call requesting me to collect my trophy for the Best Professional of 2016.
~ Physiorelieve was a partner during all 4 years ( 2017, 2018, 2019-20) of ICPL , Cricket tournament .
~ Physiotherapy was undertaken for whole 4 days attending to injuries with a team of 30 physiotherapists rotating in batches.
~ Physiorelieve physios took warm up and stretches before every match.
~ Physiorelieve won the recognition award for distinguished performance during the tournament.
~ Cricket tournament with 85 teams across Mumbai
~ SBi Women’s day – (2022)
~ SBI Women’s Day Felicitation as Chief Guest
~ Kenya and Anchor College Felicitation as Chief Guest – (2020)
~ Ultra Marathon – Disability Race ((2014)
~ Ergonomics event for Grand Hyatt with Magic Rise – (2019)
~ Interview with I Love Nagar on increasing Lung capacity
▪ How To Increase Lung Capacity | Dr Ketaki More – YouTube
~ Interview with Lokmat on Low back pain and sciatica
▪ https://www.facebook.com/lokmat/videos/2107400956232246/
~ Rotary Club- Decimal Foundation for Maids – (2012)
~ Vikhroli Church Camp on health checkups – (2015)
~ Lions Club camp at Siddharth Nagar – (2014)
Dr. Ketaki conducted health drives at many NGOs like Rotary Club- Decimal foundation for maids, Lions Club, Magic Rise – Women’s day at Grand Hyatt, Ultra Marathon – Disability Race.
Over a period of past 10+ years of clinical practice she has been associated with major corporates in various capacities like BPCL, AMBIT, Godrej & Boyce, SIDBI, Tata Chemicals, Hungama TV and many more.
Dr. Ketaki has led drives for fitness in marathons, wellness in office and home, importance of ergonomics in life and wellbeing.
