“I didn’t know what was wrong, but I suspected arthritis.”

A local musician struggling with piercing pain in his hands searched for the better part of two decades for relief.

In recent months he found it, in the form of small, custom dynamic splints, and the helping hands of J. Aaron Staeben, at Peak Performance Therapy Center.

Staeben — Peak Performance Therapy’s founder and occupational therapist with a board certified sub-specialty as a hand therapist — is one of four therapists currently working at Peak Performance, a private practice. They are actively seeking more.

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / The staff at Peak Performance Center consider themselves one big family, and, Practice Manager Amber Wilkinson said, treat patients like family, too. From left to right: Michelle Fields, physical therapy assistant, Wendy Ahearn, physical therapy assistant, Daniel Pitz, physical therapist, Eric Palenik, physical therapist, Sarah Mattson, physical therapist, Aaron Staeben, occupational therapist, Thomas Keu, physical therapist, Amber Wilkinson, practice manager, and Terrie Hibbard, Tina Driscoll and Danielle Florea, office staff.

According to patients and doctors all of the therapists and therapy assistants are exceptional in the time and care they dedicate to each person seeking guidance in healing their upper or lower extremities and spinal cord issues.

At Peak performance, 45 minute follow-up appointments after the initial one hour consultation are the norm, as well as one-on-one care.

Peak never “dovetails or double books,” a common practice in many therapy practices these days, Staeben said. (Double booking is scheduling more than one patient for the same time slot, and dovetailing is “overlapping patients’ slots by 15 minutes.)

Patients’ satisfaction is attested to by the colorful paper hands and feet displayed on the walls of the large communal therapy room at 519 Eureka Way #1 and #2, signed with thoughts and thanks for the healing that patients achieved by their own hard work under the guidance of the therapists.

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Therapy client Sandy Pufky-Negus uses a ball to assist with wrist extension at Peak Performance Therapy Center in Sequim.

Peak also won the 2021 Best of the Peninsula award for a rehabilitation facility, an award nominated and voted upon by Clallam County residents.

Helping Hands

“I was a practicing musician and the pain really interfered with my playing,” the guitar player wrote. After 20 years of trying off and on to get a diagnosis, he sought help from a doctor at Jamestown Family Health Clinic, who ordered X-rays that revealed “definite signs of arthritis.”

The hand specialist at Olympic Medical Center confirmed the diagnosis and referred him to Staeben as the best hand therapist in the area.

“He gave me exercises and built little custom splints,” the patient said.

Making splints is a speciality therapists can learn separately from their main training, Staeben said. He uses a heating machine to fabricate custom dynamic splints or static splints for patients who need them. Custom is more comfortable, he said.

Those splints, the patient said, gave him the ability to play guitar without piercing pain for the first time since the problem began.

“And the exercises are helping my hands strengthen up and protect me from the pain,” the patient noted. “Aaron’s expertise was obvious and his encouragement was enheartening.”

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Aaron Staeben, certified hand therapist, pursued special training to make custom splints. Here, he is smoothing out the edges on a custom 1st CMC orthosis (a brace that supports the joint at the base of the thumb) made from a low temperature thermoplastic material.

Amber Wilkinson, practice manager at Peak Performance, said Staeben has made it a priority to provide a safe and welcoming environment for patients and staff alike.

“It sounds a little cliche,” she said. “but we really do feel like family.”

The other staff echo this feeling.

A stable foundation

Staeben has been practicing his discipline for 28 years, trained both in civilian medicine and in the U.S. Army, working in a couple different locations before 2011 when he opened Peak Performance.

The name references his successful summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro prior to the business’ opening, and reflects its catch phrase: “Reach your peak performance.”

Daniel Pitz, manager of operations and the newest physical therapist at Peak Performance Therapy Center, grew up in Port Angeles, left to pursue a physical therapy degree, returned to the area for an internship with Peak and ended up being hired because of his strong work ethic and because he appreciated the underlying philosophy of the clinic.

Staeben chose to go solo at Peak on “a shoestring budget” while he laid down an infrastructure that would make it easy for other therapists to later join. His mother, Penny Staeben, focused on the administrative tasks so he could dedicate his time to the patients six days a week, sometimes for 12 hours a day.

“I didn’t turn anyone away,” Staeben said. Looking back, “the volume of patients makes my head spin.” Staeben’s records show he has helped more than 17,000 patients since opening — 2,330 of those in his first full year.

All patients come with doctor referrals.

“I have been sending patients to Peak from the day they opened for business as initially a hand therapy practice,” said Dean Short, PA-C, an orthopaedic specialist at Jamestown.

“I worked with Aaron at a hand surgeon’s practice for several years prior to Peak opening and got to see first hand Aaron’s excellent practice principles and skills at assessing the needs of patients with various upper extremity issues.”

“I trusted Aaron to provide excellent care for my patients. Aaron’s insight into what patients need in conjunction with his high ethical standards and integrity gave me confidence my patients were getting the best treatment available in our community,” he said.

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / The interior of the clinic is structured for sociability, although there is private space for those patients who prefer it. To the left is physical therapist and manager of operations, Daniel Pitz, and in the back is physical therapist and clinical manager Sarah Mattson.

Staeben moved Peak Performance across the street in 2014 and shortly thereafter opened the physical therapy department with Eric Palenik, DPT, as the director.

“Adding physical therapy would allow us to treat the whole body, better service the community. I guess the rest is history,” Staeben said.

Palenik said he worked in larger hospital outpatient clinics for around 18 years prior coming to Peak. “I wanted to be a part of building a patient centered physical therapy department from the ground up.

“Aaron’s model and focus were on providing excellent care tailored to the patient. In a private practice, that is much easier to do. You can make immediate changes and decisions based on what the patients need. In larger organizations, that is often more challenging.

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Licensed occupational and hand therapist, Aaron Staeben, assesses Sandy Pufky-Negus’s wrist’s range of motion during a therapy appointment at Peak Performance Therapy Center in Sequim.

“I knew we could do something special for the community and I wanted to be a part of that mission.”

‘Happy therapists make happy patients’

One of the core principles in how Staeben runs his clinic is that the quality of working life for employees directly affects the quality of care they are able to offer patients.

Pushing therapists to see 15-20 patients a day, on top of documentation, is a massive contributor to therapist burnout in a lot of therapy practices, he said, adding that private practices are “getting squeezed out” and therapists and doctors do their best in a system that inhibits their healing abilities due to frequent reimbursement cuts.

Sarah Mattson joined the clinic seven years ago as a physical therapist.

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Aaron Staeben takes Sandy Pufky-Negus’s arm out of a Fluidotherapy dry whirlpool heat treatment during an occupational therapy appointment at Sequim’s Peak Performance Therapy Center.

“We have such a great team at Peak, from providers to office staff,” she said, “working together to provide positive patient experiences from the time they walk through our doors until they leave after graduating from therapy.”

Daniel Pitz, who grew up in Port Angeles, moved away to get schooling and was hired full time at Peak as a physical therapist after an internship there, agreed and said, “I am very thankful a clinic like this exists in our rural community.”

Patient Sandy Pufky-Negus said, “They all have a sense of humor here and that’s really important when you’re working with people who are hurt and don’t know what to expect.”

She said she comes because of “the quality of this place and my wanting to get better.

“You’ve got to believe you’re going to get better and have faith that you will. They can’t follow you home and make you do it. It’s important to listen to them and do the exercises.”

Pitz reiterated this.

“Therapy will only succeed with both patient and therapist doing their role. Therapists need to determine the course of action and what body parts and exercises need to be done and the patient needs to perform them and report.”

The staff at Peak Performance Center consider themselves one big family, and, Practice Manager Amber Wilkinson said, treat patients like family, too. From left to right: Michelle Fields, physical therapy assistant, Wendy Ahearn, physical therapy assistant, Daniel Pitz, physical therapist, Eric Palenik, physical therapist, Sarah Mattson, physical therapist, Aaron Staeben, occupational therapist, Thomas Keu, physical therapy assistant, Amber Wilkinson, practice manager, and Terrie Hibbard, Tina Driscoll and Danielle Florea, office staff.

Margot Hewitt returned to Peak before knee surgery and post-operation because of a previous good experience.

Hewitt said, “I’m walking really well, all things considered. I’ve made a turn for the better.”

Said Short, “The therapists and therapy assistants at Peak treat patients with compassion and competence.”

Peak provides “high quality therapy and a high rate of positive outcomes .… We are fortunate to have such a facility in our rural community.”

Sequim Gazette photos by Emily Matthiessen Sarah Mattson, physical therapist and clinical manager at Peak Performance Therapy Center in Sequim, guides patient Margot Hewitt in a static balance task, utilizing an unstable surface.

Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Sarah Mattson, physical therapist and clinical manager at Peak Performance Therapy Center in Sequim, guides patient Margo Hewitt through dynamic balance exercises .