Ask Amy Smith why she wanted to open her business, and she’ll tell you she didn’t.
“I [didn't] have a business bone in my body. I’m a clinician, but it was almost not a choice,” she said. “It had to happen.”
Today, she owns Roots Physical Therapy and Yoga, which she says this year will gross more than $1 million for the first time.
Roots offers specialized physical therapy and pelvic health physical therapy, as well as massage therapy, yoga, Pilates and strength training, among other services. The 20 employees include a strength coach and Pilates instructor.
Initially, physical therapy and entrepreneurship wasn't exactly part of the plan when Smith was young.
"I thought I’d go to medical school,” she said. “I volunteered at Kent Hospital and learned I didn’t like it. I realized this wasn’t for me. There wasn’t enough personal interaction.”
Smith grew up in Coventry in a family that had an open-door policy.
“As a kid, I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now,” she said. “We were in the pool and camped all the time at Strawberry Park just over the Connecticut border. I did karate and soccer. I was always super active, and my mom was very supportive.”
At the same time, Smith knew after she graduated from high school that she wanted to move away for college and try something new. Her dad was a machine operator, her mother a medical transcriptionist. They had done the same work for decades.
Her mom encouraged her to pursue a career that she loved.
Smith headed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York and graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in biology and psychology. From there, it was on to Duke University School of Medicine, where she earned a doctorate in physical therapy.
It was a wonderful program, Smith said.
“I loved the clinical rotation. I got to spend six months in [Oakland, Calif.], for example,” she said. “It was awesome to travel and get my feet wet in different areas.”
Smith came back to Rhode Island when her stepfather died, and that’s when she met her now wife, Emily Smith, who is a speech-language pathologist. The two dated for three years, then hit the road, eventually settling in Nashville, Tenn.
Amy Smith worked as a pediatric physical therapist and Emily Smith moved into management. They finally came back to Rhode Island in 2013.
For the next seven years or so, Amy Smith worked at what she calls her big-girl job, where she served as both director of rehabilitation and director of pediatrics at Elite Physical Therapy in North Smithfield.
Smith didn’t see herself running an organization. At the same time, she wanted autonomy and was ready to build her family, and she had the time to prioritize that. She also wanted financial freedom and the opportunity to give her clients personalized treatments. She’d practiced for 10 years and was starting to see the same complaint repeatedly.
“People with chronic pain who weren’t responding to treatment, and we couldn’t do what we wanted for them,” she said. “Insurance dictates what you can do and how much you can treat. I like people with complex situations. I may see a patient who’s angry. They don’t want to be here but need to [be here] … or to get surgery. They’re sad or depressed, but these people are for me. I can listen to them.”
Smith finally took a big breath and opened Roots in February of 2020, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a countrywide shutdown. She calls the timing a blessing in disguise.
“I might not have taken the leap if I’d waited,” she said.
The Providence business was open for a short time, then closed for in-person sessions. At the same time, she was able to launch online yoga lessons and offered 12 specialty yoga classes a week including prenatal yoga and chair Yoga.
“It helped me connect with the community. By using movement and breathing, among other techniques, it’s where physical therapy meets yoga to offer a new kind of healing,” she said.
The business reopened for in-person sessions later that year and has grown exponentially since.
Smith says the most common treatment both male and female clients ask for is help with pelvic, hip or groin pain.
“It’s typically connected to something else, like incontinence or pain during sex,” she said.
The practice also helps people who are transitioning.
“We hold space for those in the queer or trans community. All our providers have training in trauma-informed care,” Smith said. “The best part is the relationships we develop with clients and the community. It’s very rewarding.”
Smith says the most challenging part is remembering that it is a business and keeping it separate from her home life. With three kids, that’s not easy. Smith credits her wife, who is a co-owner of the company and its chief financial officer, with providing the support that keeps the practice moving forward.
“If I’m being fully present with my family, then there’s something at work I’m not doing,” Smith said. “I like to say yes all the time, but I have to remember there’s a bottom line.”
(Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrection occupation for Amy Smith's wife and business partner. Emily Smith is a speech-language pathologist.)
