About Therapy Beta: The Beta to Overcoming Injury, PLLC

(In order to better understand this page, I recommend that you first read “Meet Snezhana.”)

What is Therapy Beta? And what does “Therapy Beta” mean?

Therapy Beta is my Wholistic Physical Therapy Private Practice. In the dictionary, “therapy” can have many definitions. A simple, but effective definition of “therapy” is: “the treatment of an illness or injury.” In the rock climbing world, “beta” can be described in many ways. I like to describe beta as “advice and/or recommendation on how to climb a particular route." It is important to practice critical thinking when accepting another climber’s beta. Someone else’s beta might not work for you due to differences in strength, flexibility, mobility, overall health, and so forth. Similarly, one should practice critical thinking when receiving advice and/or recommendation from a health practitioner. It is extremely important to always ask questions. Yes, that means you should practice critical thinking with my advice and recommendations as well. Simply translated, Therapy Beta means: Advice and/or recommendation for how to treat your illness or injury.

Why do you call yourself a “Wholistic” Physical Therapist instead of a “Holistic Physical Therapist?”

In all honesty, I have hesitated to describe myself as a “Holistic” Physical Therapist because the word “holistic” is often incorrectly used by the “trendy mainstream culture.” It feels like it has become a trendy buzz word, and I am very much not into trends. This frustration led me on a search to find the root meaning of the word “holistic.” During my investigation, I learned that both “holistic” and “wholistic” actually mean the same thing, but “holistic” is the word that has become most adopted by the American culture. “Holistic” and “wholistic” mean: “emphasizing the importance of the whole thing, not just the part.” Another helpful definition is: “characterized by the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole.” When translating this to the world of Wholistic Healthcare, it means that it is important to look at the whole person, not just the one part of them that appears to be injured. I have chosen to adopt the word “wholistic” because I am looking at the WHOLE person as I aim to get to the root cause of their symptoms. I have also chosen to adopt the word “wholistic” because as I write this sentence in 2025, the use of “wholistic” is NOT common. So if one day that changes in the future, let it be known that currently in 2025, “wholistic” is very rarely used. :)

The Inspiration Behind Therapy Beta

The birth of my business was inspired by two main experiences: 1) My personal healing journey and 2) My frustration with the allopathic “healthcare” system in America. To read about my personal healing journey, visit the “Meet Snezhana” page.

My frustration with the allopathic healthcare system in America started to develop while I was working at a fast paced outpatient Physical Therapy Clinic. I would like to clarify that my co-workers and boss were extremely kind to me, they truly were. I have no animosity towards any of them.

Due to how the current allopathic American healthcare system is set up, the clinic had specific rules and guidelines they needed to follow to be able to make a profit and stay in business. We were strongly suggested to see up to 3-4 patients per hour because we made more money for ourselves and the clinic when we saw more patients. I was trying extremely hard to take care of every individual that was "assigned to me," but in all honesty, I was run ragged! No matter how hard I tried, and believe me, I REALLY tried, someone ended up falling through the cracks. I was simply unable to provide exceptional care to EACH of the 3-4 individuals every hour in an 8-9 hour shift. I saw many of the patients in our clinic falling through the cracks because they were treated in a rushed manner, and on a superficial level. No one was asking the critical questions regarding the patients’ nutrition, daily habits, stress levels, mindset, pharmaceutical drugs, and so forth. Sure, we had questionnaires where the patients listed their medications, but none of the practitioners actually had the time to put in the proper effort to review these lists. I felt like I was working in a human factory, where people were funneled through the same cookie cutter hallways, and no one’s health was TRULY optimized. As my awareness and frustration regarding this grew, so did my burn out.

Around this time, quite a few climbers at my local gym were approaching to ask me questions regarding their climbing injuries. The majority of these climbers were expressing how they were feeling let down by the medical doctors they were seeing. Many of the medical doctors were recommending that they simply pick up another hobby because "rock climbing is strenuous." Additionally, many finger injuries were being misdiagnosed as pulley injuries, when they actually had different structures that were injured in their finger. I was experiencing a large influx of climbers who were feeling stuck on how to recover from their injuries. At that time, I had been a climber for about 10 years and had successfully rehabbed several of my own injuries, as well as my husband’s. But I had never considered specializing in treating rock climbing related injuries up until this point.

I recall calling my husband during one of my lunch breaks, in tears, telling him how I wanted to just walk out of the clinic and not come back. It was during this phone call that I finally broke and expressed that I couldn’t continue being a Physical Therapist at this rate. I was 31 years of age at that time. How in the world was I supposed to keep this up until the “approved” retirement age of 65?? This was not the kind of life I wanted to live. I was done doing the grind. I was done not having enough time to be with my husband, and I was done not having the time or energy to prioritize my health. Additionally, I wanted to have the time and energy to take care of my patients in a way that provided wholistic healing. I wanted to create my own Physical Therapy Practice that was not a human factory. Without any hesitation, my husband said: “Do it! You have my full support.” This phone conversation took place in May 2022, and Therapy Beta was officially taking patients in June 2022. You never know, you might be just one decision away from changing the whole trajectory of your life. 😊

The Values, Beliefs, and Principles of Therapy Beta

As a Wholistic Physical Therapist, I believe it is unethical to prescribe rehabilitation exercises and movements for an injured individual, without addressing their diet and lifestyle habits. Your musculoskeletal or neuromuscular injury is not separate from your diet, nor is it separate from your lifestyle habits. What you consume, and the daily lifestyle habits that you choose to develop, are either creating an environment of healing within your body, or creating an environment for disease, ailments, and injuries to manifest. Some of the lifestyle factors I am referring to include: the food and drink you consume, time spent on social media, quality of sleep, stress levels, news consumption, training, the thoughts you choose to dwell on, and so forth.

I can understand how it can initially be difficult to see a connection between the food and drink we consume and what seems to be a “physical injury.” In our current allopathic “healthcare” system, we are taught that if you have a muscle or ligament tear/sprain/strain, or a fracture, then you have a “physical injury,” and you might “need” an MRI, a steroid shot, over the counter medication, surgery, or all of the above. But how many health practitioners in the allopathic “healthcare” system are educating individuals regarding the importance of creating a restorative internal environment, as these “physical injuries” are very much occurring on the INSIDE of the body? Very few health practitioners are doing so.

Think about it. Under normal circumstances, are your muscles on the outside of your body or on the inside? Are your ligaments on the outside of your body or on the inside? Under typical circumstances, these structures are on the INSIDE of your body. (We have a serious emergency if these structures are hanging outside of your body.) So if you have experienced a strain, tear, or sprain of these structures, this has actually happened on the INSIDE of your body. Meaning, the internal environment and the health inside your body is crucial for the ability of these structures to heal. So how do we influence the internal environment and the health inside of our body? Through what we consume via food, drink, our thoughts, exercise, sleep, managing stress levels, spending time in nature, and so forth.

Additionally, what you eat and drink plays a very important role in the integrity or lack of integrity of the structures in your body. Our cells, which are the foundational building blocks of the various structures within our body, such as our muscles, ligaments, nerves, and so forth, are influenced by what we put into our body. The ideal fuel for our cells are wholesome ingredients that are pure, and not toxic, comprised of vitamins, minerals, fiber, phenolic compounds, complex carbohydrates, various nourishing fats and fatty acids, as well as high quality protein. Keywords being: pure, and nontoxic. That might seem like common sense, right? You might say: “Well duh, why would I put toxic things into my body?” That’s a very good question. Unfortunately, the standard American diet is comprised of “food” that is filled with synthetic ingredients such as preservatives, artificial food colors, lab created chemicals, pesticides that are used on produce, and an assortment of synthetic flavor enhancers. This is NOT ideal fuel for our cells. In fact, evidence has shown that these are actually toxic to our cells. But they don’t seem toxic, because they don’t come with a “biohazard” symbol, they are hidden in the form of “food.”

So if you are consuming these kinds of ingredients, your cells are now being made up of these toxic components. And since cells are the foundational building blocks within our body, this now means that the integrity of your tissues, ligaments, muscles, and bones are being compromised and weakened. When these structures are compromised, your baseline or threshold for how much load your structures can tolerate before experiencing a strain, tear, or break is lowered, thus predisposing you to more frequent injury. Additionally, the time that it takes to heal from such injuries is increased if your body is being fed these kinds of ingredients as your body’s systems and communication signals become less efficient and compromised. The body will often times end up staying in a chronic state of inflammation, which affects the healing process, leading to nagging injuries that linger and/or a very frequent cyclical state of reinjury.

I say this over and over again, because it is not said enough: What you put into your body either creates an environment for healing and restoration, OR it creates an environment for injuries and sicknesses to manifest and linger. Simply put, your diet and lifestyle habits are either fighting disease and injury, or fueling it. I go into more detail regarding the specific types of food and drink that are nourishing, healing, and nontoxic when I work with patients directly. The choice is up to you, but I do hope that I can inspire you to nourish your body and treat it like the blessed gift that it is. 

I believe that in order to truly experience restorative healing, the root cause of the issue must be addressed. I do not believe in simply placing a band-aid on symptoms, which is unfortunately the common practice in the current allopathic American healthcare system. In my private practice, I do my very best to utilize an all-encompassing and completely natural approach to get to the root cause of my patients' injuries. This means that I assess the whole person; their mind, spirit, and both the internal and external environment of their body. When we experience pain, muscle strains, nerve injury, and various other musculoskeletal and neuromuscular injuries, it can be easy to overlook the fact that MANY components of your body are impacted. Your nervous system is impacted, your immune system is impacted, the synapses in your brain experience changes; your entire body is recruited and affected in response to your injury. If I were to address a musculoskeletal or neuromuscular injury only through the lens of: “What kind of exercises does this person need?” and neglected to provide education on diet and lifestyle changes to support the extremely vital components of their nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and so forth, then I would be doing the patient an extreme disservice. This is why I choose to practice in a wholistic manner.

Unfortunately, I regularly witness surgery being over prescribed, and thus my goal is to guide each patient towards healing without the need for it, as much as possible. I have witnessed significant harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs, and thus my mission is to educate each patient regarding the healing and medicinal properties of herbs, mushrooms, nontoxic food and drink, exercise, and other various forms of natural medicine. No injury or person is ever exactly the same. As a result, every person that I work with gets an individualized program specific to their needs. I mean that 100%. I also do not see multiple patients per hour. With both the Telehealth and in person appointments, the appointment time is reserved for just you and I.

I believe the allopathic American healthcare system is doing a poor job of teaching people how to heal through a natural lifestyle, and how to stay healed. It is however, doing an excellent job of assisting in degrading people’s health through the prescription of synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, lack of education regarding the harmful effects of synthetic ingredients in food and drink, and through the over prescribing of surgery. My goal is to educate and empower as many people as I can to flourish naturally. I will help you learn about your body, and how you can support your body through movement and exercise, spending time in nature, slowing down to rest, and through restorative sleep. As well as through the healing properties found in pure nontoxic food and drink, herbs, and mushrooms. Processed foods that are heavy laden with chemicals, preservatives, and artificial food dyes are not part of my healing protocol.

Am I promising that you will become immortal and will never have any more inuries or sicknesses in your life? Absolutely not! That would be utterly preposterous. However, what I am saying, is that I hope to provide each patient with long lasting tools and skills to advocate for themselves, practice critical thinking, become more in tune with their body, and learn how to ask questions such as: “Is this injury or illness stemming from something I am eating or drinking, or from a lifestyle habit that I currently have?”

Helping Those Who Want to Be Helped

I’ve been in a dark valley of sickness, and now that I am on the other side of that, I would like to provide hope and guidance for people who want to experience restorative healing. The kind of healing that inspires you to dance out of bed because you’re so thankful for another day. That is my mission with Therapy Beta, as well as with Dr. Snezhana’s Kitchen (launching in 2026).

However, in my personal and professional experience, I have learned a hard lesson: I cannot help those who do not want to be helped. I have learned that I can tell a person over and over again about the detrimental effects of synthetic ingredients in food, and particular lifestyle habits, but a person won’t listen until they are ready. I have learned that I can tell a person over and over again about the powerful healing and medicinal prorperties of natural medicine, but a person won’t listen until they are ready. This has inspired me to adopt the wise recommendation by Hippocrates, who is believed to have said: “Before you heal someone, ask him if he’s willing to give up the things that make him sick.” If you are not willing to give up the things that make you sick, then I am probably not going to be the health practitioner for you. I am not talking about giving up your sports or hobbies. I am referring to making necessary diet and lifestyle changes to encourage a healing environment, and flourish naturally.

If you are not ready to make health your priority, then I would suggest that you do not schedule a session with me. You would be wasting your time, energy, and money. I am not here to get rich off of you. Additionally, you would be taking away a slot from a person who is ready to make health their priority.

Some people might interpret this as me being harsh. I am not being harsh, I am simply telling the truth. There’s an anonymous quote that I believe applies very well here: “Most people prefer to hear a convenient lie, instead of the uncomfortable truth.” I am here to tell you the truth, always, even if it’s uncomfortable to hear.

You get ONE body. You get ONE life. Don’t wait for a life threatening injury or diagnosis to start prioritizing your health. The choice is yours.

Trusting a Healthcare Practitioner is HARD (at least for me it is)

It is extremely challenging to know who to trust these days, I do understand that. I encourage you to take some time to read through the testimonials. I think you will find hope and reassurance. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions that you might have about me, my values, my principles, and how I practice. I will absolutely take the time to listen to you, and I will answer each question with complete honesty and transparency. Just in case you haven’t noticed, I do not beat around the bush. ;)