Here’s the TRUTH…
I didn’t always want to be a travel therapist.
Once upon a time, I was content with the monotony of the “9-5” and conforming to the social norm of “settling down.”
I was (what I considered to be) thriving in a permanent job and running a private practice clinic on my own (yes, as a new grad) . By “thriving” I mean, documenting during lunches, skipping bathroom breaks, and working 10+ hours a day…
Like many new grads, I was overworked and underpaid as a bright-eyed, ambitious new grad in an over-saturated PT market.
But other classmates were buzzing about this “unicorn” called travel therapy.
At that time, I was scared to death to leave the comforts of my hometown and the consistent security of a sub-par paycheck. I was, what some might consider to be, a “homebody.”
I was fearful of failure, loneliness, vulnerability, and venturing into the unknown. And the thought of leaving the comfort of friends and family was paralyzing.
But my boyfriend at the time really wanted to travel, “Lets just try it for 13 weeks, and if we don’t like it, we can come back…” he proposed.
I figured I can do anything for just 13 weeks, and so I decided to give it a try.
And while it was one of the best decisions I ever made, when we started out we were not good at it.
We struggled initially…HARD.
We didn’t know how to find the good jobs, good recruiters, housing, what questions to ask on the interviews, etc. As a result, we ended up in a less than ideal situations, shed a few tears, headaches, made a LOT of mistakes…You get it…
And learned from our mistakes experiences along the way.
Had I known THEN what I know now, I could have made and saved thousands of dollars more and saved ourselves time and headache, during our first assignments!
I started getting a lot of questions from aspiring travelers and new grads, like yourselves, who wanted to learn how to do it too – about what to do, how to do it, and what to look out for..
And I quickly realized that the wealth of knowledge I learned through my mistakes was invaluable, and I needed to share this knowledge with others who want to pursue this type of traveling lifestyle too –
So in 2016, I established a blog, WanderlustPTs , which has since grown into a resource for aspiring travelers with webinars, downloads, a job board, and online courses to share this lifestyle and make your journey into travel therapy a smoother one.
Since launching WanderlustPTs, I’ve have mentored thousands of students on how to become traveling therapists, and have had the honor of being a featured speaker at colleges, universities, student conclaves, and conferences across the US.
Becoming a travel PT is one of the BEST decision I’ve ever made. It’s helped me to build financial freedom, allowed me to take time off when I want, travel all over the US and world, I’ve met amazing people, grew professionally and personally, and it’s allowed me the freedoms that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. Now, I’m addicted to this nomadic, wanderlust lifestyle, and I want to share it with any therapist interested in trying it.
And I wanted to share my story in case you are like me: scared, fearful, a homebody. And in case you needed to hear that it’s still possible, even if you are those things. When we step outside of our comfort zone, it is there that we grow.
We learn and adapt. And that is where we live fully. I wanted to share this in hopes that it might inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and maybe into one of the best decisions of your life too.
I’ve coined the term “Wanderlust PT” as meaning a physical therapist with a strong desire to travel and explore and have built a community of like-minded PTs who share this passion, WanderlustPTs! Are you one of them?!
Your (once) homebody,
Jess
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