AG
Amandamarie Gillen
May 29, 2025
My 15 year old son saw Kristen Sanabria for Physical Therapy, and we had to explain our religious beliefs 6 times over two appointments only to continually be dismissed and disrespected. Last Thursady, we started by filling out a short intake form that included the question: "Do you have cultural/religious issues or values/beliefs that would affect your care?" In which I answered, "Please do not incorporate any yoga." Kristen took time reading the whole form in front of us, then asked us if we had anything specific to avoid, to which I explained that we are Christian and do not practice yoga, no exceptions. From there, she showed my son 2 stretches and then had him do a yoga pose called "child's pose". So I again reminded her that we do not do yoga, to which she said "well, it's just the pose not the yoga". I explained it's all a connected practice and it's against our beliefs to do the poses, not that I should have had to explain further. She then directed him into the pose again. I asked which area that pose worked that was different than the other exercises, and she said it all works the same area, just different ways of doing it. (Which I already knew because I'm familiar with all this). So we could have skipped that pose completely, even according to her logic. It was like she read the form and took it as a challenge. We went for my son's second appointment today, and he kindly let Kristen know he did all the exercises at home but skipped the yoga pose and doesn't want to do it because he feels uncomfortable. Kristen again said it's just a pose. I replied, yes, but it's a yoga pose and we're Christian and don't believe you can separate the pose from the practice, as I explained last time. And she condescendingly said "I'm just trying to get him mobile again", as if he's not mobile and as if I'm not trying to help my child. (For reference, he has a tiny bit of scoliosis and is perfectly mobile.) There are so many other exercises that can be done instead of yoga. And then she had him do a chair stretch that replaced that yoga pose. Why wasn't that available when we asked last week? After that, she said we won't do the yoga pose any more, and then gave him 2 stretches to do, and then two more different yoga poses to do, and as she said them you can hear the change in her tone. She glanced toward me while saying them to him as if to see if I would react, and she left out the word "pose" as if to see if we would catch it. She said this is cat-cow and this is bird-dog. She literally tried to manipulate and trick us. Needless to say, we didn't schedule our next appointment. It doesn't matter if she agrees with what we believe or not, the disrespect and manipulation were off the chart. But I do want to thank God for this test that taught my son how to better stand up for his beliefs.
I also have a picture of the intake form and all the yoga printouts she sent us home with as receipts.