Assistant Editor
People come to Shirley Maloney's physical therapy office in Colonie to find relief from pain. They don't care whether she uses traditional techniques or adds alternative therapies like healing touch -- and many don't even know at first that their physical therapist is actually Sister Shirley Maloney, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
Sister Shirley just celebrated 10 years in her office in Rosewood Plaza on New Karner Road. Even after a decade there, she told The Evangelist that her career path continues to surprise her.
Surprised by life
"For most of my life, I was interested in the medical field," she remarked, taking a break in an examining room on a sunny afternoon. "I wanted to be a nurse, then [do] medical research."
A petite woman with a shock of brown hair, Sister Shirley said she entered her religious order assuming she had to become a teacher or a nurse. But when she happened to see a physical therapist working with a child at the Cerebral Palsy Center in Albany, she immediately wanted to try that instead.
"I can't even tell you why it struck me," she said. But the Sisters of St. Joseph agreed to let her spend four years earning her degree in physical therapy from Russell Sage College in Troy. Excited by work
That was 28 years ago -- and Sister Shirley still finds her chosen work as exciting today as it was then.
"Anyone who says they're bored [in this field] isn't doing their homework," she declared. "Physical therapy is a growing field. The more you have available to help patients, the better off you are."
In July 1991, Sister Shirley became one of only two St. Joseph nuns to have their own businesses when she opened her physical therapy office. (The other, Sister Patricia St. John, operates the Carondelet Music Center in Latham.) She chose the Colonie location partially because it was close to her order's Provincial House in Latham; the senior sisters who live there still come to Sister Shirley for therapy.
Sister Shirley also offered a new career to another woman religious: Sister Frances MacFarland, who had taught at Catholic Central High School in Troy, became her office assistant in 1998, joining original office manager Teena Bell.
Growing practice
In the past 10 years, the practice has grown to about 1,670 patients per year. Sister Shirley recently hired another physical therapist, Mandy Krause, and has expanded the list of therapies she offers to include cranio-sacral therapy and myofascial release.
Those "complementary modalities" work on the fascia, the covering of the body's muscles, organs and tissues, to relieve pain and increase range of motion.
The therapist also uses healing touch in her work. "Sometimes, things show up in the energy field before the body," she explained. "For example, stress: If you can deal with that, you have averted a problem."
Seeking relief
While the idea of alternative therapies puzzles some, Sister Shirley said her patients are usually willing to try anything to get rid of their pain -- and many don't like the idea of popping pills.
"People are searching for something other than traditional medicine," she said. "The people who come here want to be healed; they want to be helped. People are more open than you think, especially if they are hurting."
Her patients are also open to the fact that they're being worked on by a woman religious. If they didn't realize it before they arrive at her office, she said, "everybody knows once they come here."
However, she joked that when she introduces herself as "Sister Shirley," patients "usually don't understand what I'm saying, anyway. Three sessions down the line, they'll say, `You said you were a sister. What exactly does that mean?'"
Plus in vocation
Being a woman religious is a boon in that people feel comfortable talking to Sister Shirley.
"Sometimes, I feel like I'm a barber or a hairdresser," she said with a smile. "I bring a different dimension to people because I do live by a set of values. Because I'm a sister, people can get into other areas to share with me."
The therapist noted that she is not -- and doesn't claim to be -- a counselor. But "with myself and Sister Frances being here, we do tell people we'll pray for them or their family members having surgery," she said. "I think that's a consolation to them."
Anniversary
Sister Shirley spoke with pride about her office's anniversary as she showed off her spacious office filled with equipment, from an ultrasound machine to a whirlpool and "sitting stepper."
Some of the therapist's more interesting patients are the youngest ones. Sister Shirley once treated a five-month-old baby who was developmentally delayed because he'd spent so much time in the hospital after surgery.
"That was fun. People thought I was just playing with him!" she said of her time teaching the little boy to crawl.
Complicated cases
While the average patient comes to therapy for anywhere from two weeks to many months, "I'm finding I'm more and more treating more involved patients," Sister Shirley said thoughtfully.
Fibromyalgia, neck or back pain, bursitis, arthritis and the effects of strokes or accidents can cause multiple problems. Many of today's new surgical procedures, like arthroscopic surgery, necessitate learning new therapy techniques.
"The hardest is what I like best, at this point, because it's a challenge," she added.
Staying small
Many fellow physical therapists have sold their practices to large corporations, but Sister Shirley is determined to keep her office.
"Our profession is becoming a little too mechanized," she stated. "I've been approached once or twice [by corporations], but you'd have to be pretty naive to think it would be the same."
At her office, she said, patients often come for therapy at the same times each week and get to know each other -- and Sister Shirley likes it that way.
"I truly don't want this to become a large facility," she said, gesturing at the equipment around her. "It's a quiet atmosphere and it's homey, and patients get to know all of us."
(Contact the office at 869-2429.)