Dr. Ryan Spano, PT, DPT

He owns the clinic, and he still runs the evaluation himself.

Ryan is the clinic director and owner of Alpha Physical Therapy in Slidell. He grew up on the Westbank in the New Orleans area and graduated from Holy Cross.

From there, a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at LSU. Then the University of St. Augustine, where his doctorate carried a concentration in manual therapy. That concentration shows up in how a visit with him feels. He puts hands on the joint and finds the restriction before he decides what to do about it.

What he is certified in

• Functional dry needling, for muscle that has been guarding so long it no longer knows how to let go.
• Weight training, which is why his plans move into real load instead of stopping at bands and a printout.
• Aquatics.
• Run analysis. He can watch your stride and tell you what your mechanics are doing to your knee, then rebuild it from there.
• WorkSteps testing. He is a certified administrator, which matters when your injury happened on the job and someone has to say whether you can safely do that job again.

He is a member of the Louisiana Physical Therapy Association and of the American Physical Therapy Association, Orthopedic Section.

If you work with your body for a living

Offshore, on a crew, under a truck: you already know the routine. You work through it because the shift does not care, and the family behind the shift does not care either. That is not weakness. That is you carrying the thing you have always carried.

But another six months of favoring that shoulder does not stay a shoulder problem. It becomes a back, then a knee, then a job you cannot hold. Ryan handles workers’ compensation cases and the return-to-work testing on the other end of them.

What your first hour with him looks like

He listens first, then he tests. You leave knowing what is wrong, what is causing it, and how long the fix takes.

You can ask for Ryan by name when you request a time. No physician referral needed in Louisiana, and we run your benefits before your first visit so the cost is not a surprise.