At First Colony Aquatic and Rehabilitation Center, owner Sean Hayes has your back—along with your hips, knees, ankles, shoulders and neck.
With two locations—one in Sugar Land and another in Rosenberg—First Colony Aquatic and Rehabilitation Center offers a variety of treatment options for its patients, including manual therapy, functional dry needling, vestibular therapy, aquatic therapy, joint mobilization and more.
Vestibular rehabilitation focuses on vertigo, and functional dry needling is a scientific-based practice similar to acupuncture, Hayes said. However, First Colony focuses on primarily orthopedic, outpatient rehabilitation, he said.
“If you hurt your back, neck, knee, what have you—we can help you fix all those things,” Hayes said. “If you've had surgery, we can help you fix all those things.”
According to Hayes, treatment starts with a recommendation based on a free consultation. Some patients, however, struggle with the consultation—making aquatic therapy a good next step toward healing.
“There are people that you can't even tolerate doing much against gravity,” Hayes said. “Let's start in the pool for maybe a half hour and see if you can tolerate that. Deconditioned people—or people in just so much pain that they can't tolerate movements against gravity—could benefit from aquatic therapy.”
While patients will eventually need to get a doctor’s recommendation for physical therapy, First Colony Aquatic and Rehabilitation Center offers a free consultation and a 10-day trial for patients to see if they would like to seek a recommendation from their doctor. For patients seeking therapy who do not have a primary care physician, Hayes and his team can help connect them to a physician in their area.
“Everybody gets their evaluation and their individualized treatment plan,” Hayes said. “We evaluate you, create an individualized treatment plan, and then take you through whatever that is—if it's manual therapy exercises, the dry needling or what have you.”
The biggest barriers to treatment, Hayes said, are time and money. To aid with time, First Colony Aquatic and Rehabilitation Center offers flexible hours and easy scheduling processes. To alleviate the financial burden, the facility offers payment plans and financing through CareCredit. Additionally, if a doctor’s recommendation is not aligned with a patient’s bandwidth or finances—Hayes said his team will work with a patient to meet their needs.
“I'm not gonna force you,” Hayes said. “We always discuss everything with the patient, you know, I tell them, ‘I'm not the boss here. This is us working together.’ I don't know anything that makes you better or worse until you tell me. ... So with that being said: It's a group effort in physical therapy when it's done right.”
Editor's Note: This story was originally published with the use of the word "evaluation" instead of "consultation". In accordance with the law, First Colony offers free consultations and a 10-day trial, known as direct access—meaning patients can see a physical therapist for 10 consecutive business days without a doctor’s referral. They will, however, need a doctor's referral after that 10 day period.
