Steve Foster had practiced physical therapy for 26 years when he decided the profession was drifting from what made it work. Care was consolidating into larger operations with busier schedules, and the therapist who evaluated a patient was not always the one who treated them. So in the summer of 2006, Foster opened a clinic of his own and built it around a single promise: hands-on care, close to a patient’s home or work.
Twenty years later, TherapySouth operates more than 50 clinics across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with a clinical staff numbering in the hundreds and a footprint that runs from the Shoals to the Gulf Coast. It has grown into one of the largest physical therapy practices in the region while remaining what it was on day one, a private practice owned by the therapists who work in it. Foster, a 1980 graduate of UAB’s physical therapy program, continues to lead the company as chairman and chief executive, alongside Doug Cole, president and chief operating officer; Nathan Click, chief clinical officer; and board partners Josh Steed, Allison Fowlkes, and Alan Spooner.
The company that now spans three states began as a single clinic and a conviction. Foster’s model asked therapists to build careers in the communities where they practiced, treating the same neighbors through injuries, surgeries and the long project of staying active. Twenty years is long enough that some patients have come back with their parents or their kids in tow.
The growth strategy reads like a contradiction. TherapySouth got big by staying small, multiplying modest neighborhood clinics instead of building regional hubs. The reasoning is clinical rather than commercial. Physical therapy typically requires two or three visits a week, and outcomes depend on patients showing up. A clinic five minutes from home tends to see completed treatment plans. A clinic 40 minutes away sees cancellations. In this model, convenience is a medical outcome, and location is part of the prescription.
Patients tend to notice the difference before they can explain it. The clinics are deliberately informal, closer in feel to a neighborhood gym than a medical office, and new patients are welcome to walk in and look around before booking an appointment. The front desk greets returning patients by name. The therapist who performs the initial evaluation stays with the case, pairing skilled manual treatment with a home exercise program and coordinating with physicians along the way. No referral is required to schedule a first visit. And the specialty menu runs deeper than many expect, from dry needling and sports rehabilitation to certified hand therapy, pelvic health, balance training and post-surgical recovery.
Every clinic hangs the same sign, listing eight core values with faith at the top, followed by family, integrity, service, compassion, fitness, perseverance and giving. The company backs the words with TherapySouth Gives Back, a nonprofit that provides therapy equipment to people who cannot otherwise obtain it and lends support after natural disasters, and with mission work that has reached Guatemala, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Honduras and China. Closer to home, it funds scholarships at UAB and Samford and partners with groups like the Birmingham Track Club.
The anniversary story in these pages promises 20 years of getting you back to what you love, and the company can point to two decades of first steps after surgery, finish lines and everyday victories behind the claim. The founding test remains the simpler one. TherapySouth enters its third decade the way it entered its first, with a therapist at the top of the organization and a standard anyone can check at the front door: when a patient walks in, somebody knows their name.
Mountain Brook's door is in Crestline Village, at 205 Country Club Park, and in Liberty Park at 3800 River Run Drive. Appointments are available at 205-871-0777 for Crestline and 205-970-2350 for Liberty Park.
