Berkeley Physical Therapy

I was immediately impressed when I called to make my first appointment at Berkeley PT and a very friendly woman answered the phone. Impressed because every time my doctor has sent me for PT in the past at other therapy centers, it had been a nightmare trying to get through to the scheduling department of any of the previous therapists to make an appointment. Once I was able to finally see someone at those places I felt like I was on an assembly line.
That was not the case at Berkeley PT.
They do a great job of making you feel that you matter. The two women at the front are AWESOME. I wanted to hang out after my appointment just to enjoy their vibe. I am so tired of surly, disenchanted receptionists and medical assistants. My experience here was delightful. Sorry I forgot their names. They know what they are doing and seem to enjoy their jobs.
After completing my new patient stuff my therapist, Negeene came into the waiting area with a warm introduction before taking me into the exam room.
Negeene spent a lot of time asking important questions and gave me an exam before we got started on the actual PT. I am so excited about the goals we set for improving my physical and mental well being. She gets the whole picture.
Gotta mention the ladies at the front again. My great experience began on the phone when I made my appointment and continued when I walked through the door. Keep up the good work.

I started post-​knee replacement PT here 2 months ago and am very happy on all levels. My PT, Negeene, balances hands-​on and exercise/​education, so I feel all my needs are met. I also have some serious back issues and she has shown a lot of ingenuity and caring in dealing with a complex and perplexing problem. One of the things I like the best is that Negeene seems genuinely curious and committed to diagnosing the source of my problems. I often show up and hear that she’s been thinking about how to treat my irritable back; it makes me feel like she’s as invested in my wellness as I am.
The administrative staff is also excellent; professional, yet friendly and extremely efficient.
Highly recommend Berkeley Physical Therapy.

Allan Horowitz. That’s all you need to know about BPT :)) Upon the recommendation of my husband who was one of Allan’s grateful patients, I decided to try him too. I just finished my 4^th appointment and it was like the other weeks: informative and healing. I’ve seen about 5 physical therapists in my life– because of sports injuries & because I like to do manual labor, Allan is the best I’ve had the privilege of working with. Apart from his PT expertise & depth of knowledge regarding the human anatomy, he’s a talented photographer (as well as a world traveler & film buff). From the looks of previous Unilocal it seems that Berkeley PT has several fine therapists. (Yes, I had to wait 3 weeks to see Allan – probably could’ve seen another BPT person sooner – but he’s worth the wait IF your pain will allow.) The front desk women are friendly, funny and efficient. BTW: Please hold up your end of the bargain by showing up on time, doing your at-​home exercises, cancelling per guidelines, etc. (BPT is an easy walk from ‘downtown Berkeley’ BART station, though parking on Bancroft has been a breeze)

Have gone to Berkeley PT for several injuries over the last 3 years, great experience and solid recovery every time. Always worked with Scott Smith, and keep coming back to this clinic for him. He pushes when necessary, keeps you accountable for your exercises and recovery, plus has a great dry sense of humor.

I have seen great results and am very happy with the progress in working with Negeene as my physical therapist at BPT. She has been using new techniques she’s learned through her ongoing education and they have been very effective. My knee was crushed in a motorcycle accident 20 years ago. Multiple surgeries left my leg full of scar tissue, misshaped and with a great loss of flexibility. After working with Negeene my leg has taken on a much more normal shape and greatly improved flexibility. Just got back from a grueling bike ride. I never expected to see such a great change, so happy to be back doing my favorite things again.
I would give 5 stars except for one thing. BPT is not well managed. The front desk seems to be too over loaded with work to be fully effective.

I have never been a patient here, but I am going into the PT profession. Part of the requirement for getting into a doctorate program is that you have to obtain «observation hours» under the wing of different PTs in different settings, and I completed some of my hours with the folks at BPT (followed DK).
What a busy little place! And after a few days of observation, I could see why! The physical therapists there are all extremely knowledgeable and passionate about their profession, and they really do care about ALL of their patients. As a student, it was truly inspirational and a wonderful learning experience.
Thank you DK, and thank you BPT!!!

Hands down, the best PT I have ever been to. Janet, is very through and genuinely cares about her patients. She is very knowledgeable in what she does. Her front seat staff rocks in that they great you by name when you enter and they can answer all your questions. Great place and I would strongly recommend.

4.5 stars — I’ve been receiving physical therapy from Scott for a broken right humerus since mid June. When I first arrived, I could barely lift my arm, but now, just three months later, I have basically full use of my arm back. All of the exercises Scott has prescribed have been incredibly helpful in increasing both strength and range of motion, and he has also helped me with some back pain issues that past physical therapists at SOL were not able to adequately address.
Also, I’ve found the desk staff to be extremely courteous and helpful — Lorelei was able to help me quickly resolve several insurance and scheduling issues.
All in all, my experience with Berkeley Physical Therapy has been extremely helpful and professional, and as I lead an active lifestyle and will probably need PT again in the future, I certainly plan to return as needed.

This review is so past due.
This place doesn’t care about your health and only dose what their benefits dictate them. And, shamefully they lie to you right and left. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE IF YOU NEED URGENT CARE. AND HAVE THIS IN MIND, WHEN YOU START WITH ONE PROVIDER AND YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH THAT PROVIDER, YOU CAN’T SWITCH TO THE PROVIDERS.
So, here it is my experience:
I had a car accident and my doctor recommended me to see a physical therapist. So as usual I Unilocaled the close-​by therapists. I found Berkeley physical therapy with some good reviews. So I visited the their website and based on Allen’s credentials on the websites and his good reviews I decided to book an appointment with him.
I called the office and I was told that if I want him I have to wait a month but Daren Shimara is available. I looked at the website and I couldn’t find him on the website! I was told he recently joined the practice and that’s why he is not on the website! (that was a lie) So because I didn’t wanted to wait a month to receive my therapies, I decided to give Daren a try.
They usually give multiple appointments for a month at once to make sure you have all the required appointments before their therapists get book for your next visit. The first visit is usually 1 hour for evaluation and therapy itself and the rest of the appointments are only 30 min which I found it minimal for my problem. Most of the time I found my therapy was unfinished and I have to come to finish it in another visit. So I rather to have an one hour appointment instead of multiple unfinished 30 min appointments! Apparently they make more money this way.
When I visited Daren, he told me that he is working there temporarily in place of Scott for only one month! SO FRONT DESK STAFF LIED TO ME. Now, I knew after Daren leaving I had to see somebody else?!! too late now and I had no choice.
I liked Daren’s service, and after he left I saw Scott and he continued the job based on Daren’s notes, no new evaluation which i didn’t care. And nobody mentioned about 1 hour evaluation visit with a new provider! however, I didn’t like his service and I asked the front staff to see Allen whom I originally came to that place. The receptionist told me they usually don’t switch providers and it means if you stuck with one provider it’s forever and no choice to change! I told her I already, against my wish, saw 2 different providers and now you don’t want to switch me to the other. After lots of back and forth she finally told me that I have to wait 1 and half month for Allen. This time I agreed! She gave me some appointments in advance.
After waiting that long time few days before my first appointment unfortunately, something happened that I needed to go out of town on day of my appointment. I called them 4 days in advance to see if I can come little bit sooner on my appointment day or if I can reschedule it for other dates. I was told I can’t because Allen’s schedule is booked, make sense. I told her that’s fine and I will come for my next appointment on the list. BUT, SHE SAID, SHE HAD TO CANCEL ALL OF MY OTHER APPOINTMENTS, because the 1^st appointment is 1 hour with evaluation and the rest are 30 min and I can’t skip the
” first appointment”, moreover she said she can’t give me 1 hour appointment for the next one because Allen is booked! So she needed to cancels all the appointments and I had to wait another month or so. I was shocked, I waited this much long and now they were telling me this. I told them why there was no evaluation session when second therapist Scott came after Daren left! I told her if Allen can just follow the notes like what Scott did. They said no this is the rule that starting any new provider 1^st session is for evaluation and it should be an hour. SO IF THIS IS A RULE, IT SHOULD BE CONSISTENT! moreover, I told them ok, I only would come for the evaluation for 30 min and pay for that session. again disagreement! There were no way for them to make it a way to make their customer happy after this much inconsistency and lies and so called one side rules. Anyways, she was so rude and I asked for the manager and after being on hold for 15 mins the manger repeated the same thing. So they canceled all of my appointments. I waited this much and postponed my care and no results. I didn’t make any more appointments with them. Such a waist of time. I was VERY DISAPPOINTED.

This place rocks. The staff is so helpful and Janet was the best PT!!! (I had to move so do not go there any more)
The staff has helped me 2x with cross country medical record issue.
Janet was very thorough and compassionate. I always felt ‘seen’ by her.

I would not send my worst enemy to BPT. unless you are able to get an appointment with Allan. He is the only therapist whose patients rave about him. 4 years ago, my doctor referred me to BPT for cervical spine problems that were affecting my arms, as well as my spine, making it impossible for me to even hold a gallon of milk in my right hand. I also had ribs popping out of place and wrapping around my spine and neck, leaning on nerves and causing me unbelievable pain. I saw Scott Smith for 4 yrs, weekly and worked so hard to overcome my pain. 3 months’ ago, he commended me for doing such a good job, adding that he didn’t think I could do it when he first met me. Scott’s way of «popping a rib back into place» is by using a chiropractic move — that applied a lot of pressure to my rib cage. I always protested this treatment; it rarely worked cuz I would be so scared that it often caused me more pain rather than alleviating it. When he was able to pop a rib back into place, it usually popped back out again in the car on my way home.
Scott went on vacation this summer for 5 weeks. He suggested I see a woman named Nageene (sp?) while he was gone. I arrived for my first appt w/​her, only to notice her definite attitude about having to treat one of «Scott’s patients.» 10 mins after my appt time, she brought me into a treatment room, telling me that my chart was too long for her to read (my MRI report might have taken 2 minutes). Apparently she didn’t respect her colleague enough to follow his lead, even tho he had been treating me for 4 years and I told her I benefitted from his treatment. Rather, she forced me to do exercises that caused me EXCRUCIATING pain. After 18 minutes of inflicting pain on me, I could hardly stand up. I called BPT 3 times, leaving messages for her to call me so I could ask her about the pain & advice for making it feel better. She never returned one phone call. Then I wrote her a note, explaining what I hoped to tell her on the telephone, and again asked her to call me. Still, no returned phone call. Instead of talking to «Scott’s patient», she went to her boss and obtained permission to cancel my remaining appts with her! I bumped into her once at BPT & she said that my problem was that I was talking to the «girls» at the front desk. Since she doesn’t answer phones or return calls, I had no choice of who to talk to. I don’t believe the overworked women at the front desk had anything to do w/​it.
Before Scott left, I was doing things I never dreamed I would ever be able to do again — water aerobics, hikes, the elliptical. When he returned, I told him I was in pain after 5 weeks of no PT. Again, he insisted that his terrifying painful chiropractic move was the only way to get relief from the rib which was leaning on a nerve. Since he does this in such a way that I can’t see what he is doing, all I can say is that it felt like he jumped on me, or sat down hard on me –he is over a foot taller than me. For the 500^th time, I told him I did not want him jumping on me or popping ribs so violently; I figured out too late that he was using me as a guinea pig so he could practice learning to be a chiropractor and the fact that I said NO only made him angry.
He applied so much pressure to my back that something deep inside of me cracked, knocking the wind out of me. It made a horrible noise and I went into shock. I was shaking uncontrollably & tears were shooting out of my eyes. He looked me in the eyes and asked: «Are you okay?» He insisted I return 2 days later for a check up. My last image of Scott Smith is of him insisting I needed to be «cracked» again, despite the fact that I was crying and yelling «NO.» I knew I would never go back there after that. Of course no one from BPT ever called to check up on me after that.
This «treatment» left me with a very serious rib cage injury. Ruined my upcoming trip to NY since I couldn’t even breath without a lot of pain, let alone walk. 2 months later I am going 2x a week to Lafayette Physical Therapy to recover from the injuries I sustained at BPT. Stupidly, I took Scott’s advice to wear ill-​fitting shoes w/​ill-​fitting insoles full time for 2 wks (to help arch support supposedly), until they adjust to my feet. I kept telling him how painful it was to keep walking in the shoes but insisted it had to be that way. He encouraged me to use the sauna and «cupped» my knee when he finally saw the injury caused by that walking, and he apologized for causing me such pain. The sauna only made my knee swell up more; his response: «That shouldn’t happen.» My knee got more swollen and painful every time I went into the sauna. My massage therapist became concerned that my knee was getting worse and suggested I go to my doctor, who diagnosed me with knee bursitis, which is consistent with the way I had to walk on those shoes. This is a bad place.

I had two experiences at Berkeley PT. The first one was in 2010 for a knee injury. I saw a woman a few times until during one session she did something to my knee that made it hurt worse than the original injury. She blew me off when I said something about it. I promptly went to another PT place (SOL which is great) and swore I’d never go back to Berkeley PT. (Whatever she did not stop hurting until I had surgery.)
Unfortunately after another recent knee injury, I found out my new insurance no longer covered SOL so I was back at Berkeley PT. I had a different therapist which I thought would be better than the previous one (who I was surprised to find still working there). There were a few visits when the therapist did not even look at or touch my knee. He just handed me an ultrasound wand and made me use it on myself while he sat at the computer. Sometimes he’d look at/​touch my knee for a minute and then hand me the wand. Then he’d give me a few exercises and send me on my way. This was shocking after going to SOL where they massaged me knee and then had me go through all my exercises with the therapist’s help. My visits at Berkeley PT were about 15 minutes and at SOL they were 1 – 1.5 hrs. My aunt also saw this same therapist and she had such a bad experience with him that she stopped going to PT even though she had more visits left.
The front desk people are no better. It is super hard to get an appointment (booked weeks in advance) so I wanted to make sure my re-​authorization was done before my visits ran out. I asked every week for a month and was told not to worry, that they would make sure it went through before my last visit. Last visit came and went and still no re-​authorization. I kept calling and even came in a few times. FINALLY 6 weeks after my last visit, I went to my Dr, got a new perscription, and physically handed it to them. It took another week for my insurance to approve me. (That’s 7 weeks after major surgery with no PT.) By that time I was so over this place that I decided to go to another PT no matter how far I had to go. Luckily Montclair PT had just moved into my hood. They rock.

I went to physical therapy at Berkeley PT about a year and a half ago, from January to April 2011. I had a great physical therapist and he helped get me off my crutches and back to work.
My problems with Berkeley PT is to do with the their billing systems. I overpaid my deductible and have been owed a reimbursement from them. I have been calling and leaving messages for the past year and I am yet to receive my money. The billing company that they use are extremely friendly and helpful, but I have to collect my money from the clinic and not the billing company. I would just recommend that if you are a patient of this clinic, be sure to keep track of how many visits your insurance allows and keep track of all of your co-​pays! It is very frustrating to leave message after message and not receive return phone calls to resolve this issue.
It seems as if all the physical therapists there are all friendly and knowledgeable. My complaint has nothing to do with them and I would have rated the clinic higher if I hadn’t had this issue.

Amazing physical therapist, Justin, my therapist was very nice and attentive to what I had to say about my pain and he had some very good insight and useful exercise

This is my first Unilocal review. Despite using the site frequently, nothing has ever really inspired me to write a review… Until today!
After an epic skiing accident on the weekend I was left with some nasty tendon/​muscle damage when my skis didn’t release… so much so I can barely walk or use my leg at all.
I called almost every PT on this website (well, those with a decent review anyway), and tried the ones my doctors referred me to… but it was impossible to get an appointment until early next week unless I paid something like $ 200 upfront.
Berkeley PT not only shuffled some things around to fit me in, they were so friendly and helpful in doing so. The prices are actually affordable too, which makes it possible to actually have regular follow ups (a fundamental part of PT).
But the part I want to rave about the most was the service; the attentiveness and the thoroughness. My PT Scott explained everything to me in understandable terms and whilst he was gentle he still knew how to push me. He was fantastic. The reception staff were also super helpful and friendly (and talkative! hehe). This is only my first day, so I can’t give you any guarantees on outcomes yet, but I definitely feel I found the right place for my recovery journey ahead!
Thanks Berkeley PT for saving the day! Oh — and I’m actually feeling better and can see the light at the end of the tunnel (something I thought was near impossible earlier this afternoon).

I had a great experience here with Justin Fischer. I had patello-​femoral pain (kneecap) and he very quickly diagnosed the problem. His explanation was clear and useful, and he provided three simple exercises to address the problem. In follow-​up visits he showed a good recollection of my history, assessed my progress, and answered any additional questions I had. After six weeks, my pain was gone!
It’s hard to imagine a better physical therapy experience than this. Five stars!

I also want to rave about Allan Horowitz — I have had chronic and acute back pain for years and have tried several acupuncturists, 2 chiropractors (who were able to help in the past), massage, osteopathy, anti-​inflammatory meds, 2 other physical therapists and he is the first one to really «get» what sets off my pain and with a few very simple exercises my back is significantly improved after just 3 visits. I am finally hopeful about my back getting better.