Elley Bennett

When she sits down to chat with us, Elley Bennett is fresh off an interview with the chairwoman of the University of Evansville’s Physical Therapy department. Evansville is the closest locale that hosts a doctoral program that lives up to Elley’s standards, and she hopes to join after her requisite undergraduate training. “I want to be in a clinic and help people recover from surgeries or stress or just everything they’re struggling with,” she says. Joining the highly accredited program at Evansville will enable her to assist people in dire need of directed reacquaintance with new, unfamiliar scenarios for their bodies. She considers this compassionate service a personal quest: “I want to be able to help them and make them feel better in their own body.”

The cost of a world without physical therapists in the making, like Elley, is not one we want to pay. Imagine you’re in a severe car accident, resulting in a broken leg, dislocated shoulder, and injuries to soft tissue. When you don’t have anyone to guide you through recovery from a disabling injury, you rely on what’s available. For instance, you may follow unvetted advice that you find online or depend on a general practitioner’s assessment. The level of rehabilitation found in physical therapy wouldn’t be there. The pain would add up and eventually manifest as chronic, impacting not only your wallet but your peace of mind.

Are you adequately afraid? Great! It’s important you understand what’s on the line. Thankfully, Elley is here to ensure this bleak future for her patients never sees the light of day. Even though she’s still a high school student doing high school student activities, she’s already received hands-on PT experience through her career practicum class. The class has allowed her to observe therapists on the move at the Rehabilitation and Performance Institute, where beloved locals perform the lifechanging work she hopes to do herself. In fact, she says the community was instrumental in inspiring her career choice: “I definitely would not have found out about college and becoming a therapist without people recommending it to me.”

Elley finds a healthy serving of community in her athletic pursuits as she participates in track and volleyball. Her focus on exercise science and the innumerable benefits of structured therapy is one of the more obvious by-products of being an athlete, but she’s picked up on empathetic strategies for managing psychological stress, as well. “I’ve definitely learned that people react to things way differently,” she emphasizes. “You realize how short-tempered people can be.” Her degree of emotional intelligence works wonderfully in concert with her knowledge base of the musculoskeletal system. The awareness of how we feel under pressure augments Elley’s ability to motivate patients, manage pain, build trust and rapport, and approach patients with a holistic view of their health.

She’s already a reassuring presence, which goes a long way when someone is on the road to recovery. “Don’t dwell on the bad things” is the message she’d deliver to her younger self. “It will get better. It never stays bad for long.” We hear these words as an inspiring gift to those Elley will no doubt go on to treat, and we believe it’s in Evansville’s best interest to accept this rehabilitation apprentice and further mold her already spirited resolve.