Peter Freeborn
Peter Freeborn
DPT
Director of Physical Therapy & Performance Training
Practicing since: 2013
Previous roles:
Owner/Operator of Freeborn Physical Therapy est. 2022
11 years of Physical Therapy experience at Regions Hospital, a level-1 trauma center:
-Co-created the amputee rehab program
-Assisted in CARF credentialing for stroke and spinal cord injury rehab programming
-Worked as physical therapist on the following units primarily: physical medicine and rehabilitation lead therapist, aquatic lead therapists, burn, neuro, trauma, surgical ICU, medical ICU, and mental health.
Instructor of Cardiopulmonary Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Minnesota Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program
Mobile / Off-Site, In Person, & Virtual
Injury Rehabilitation
Mobility & Movement
Sports & Athletic Performance
Strength & Conditioning
Who I Work With
I work best with the person who’s built a business or a career by solving hard problems, and has quietly let their body pay for it. They have a physical issue that’s “been like that for years.” They refuse to stop training (lifting, grappling, playing sports or with their kids) and want to keep doing it into and beyond their fifties without something nagging every time. Usually this person has tried physical therapy before and found the exercises were too easy, or they felt a little better and then stalled. They’ve started to suspect the real problem isn’t where it hurts, but don’t know who can help them identify it. What they share is curiosity about why their body does what it does, and a willingness to put in the work.
About Me
I grew up between worlds. Until I was ten, we lived in a suburban neighborhood between two Vietnamese refugee relocation homes, with neighbors from Vietnam, South Africa, and the Philippines, and a trailer park just past the neighborhood where the poorer kids from my school lived. Then my family moved onto the TPC golf course in Blaine, where I met kids who were rich in ways I couldn’t relate to. Both places taught me the same thing: people want to be around someone that respects them and that they trust enough to give them shit with love. I still treat people that way.
I tried nearly every sport as a kid and was good enough at most of them to learn that I wasn’t great at any of them. Basketball was the exception, and I put in a lot of work to become better than mediocre. The best part about sports, aside from winning, was going through something challenging with people who become close friends and laughing about it later. I still pursue that while training jiu jitsu.
A few things have always bothered me: dishonesty, suffering, rules that exist only so someone can hold power, and people who can’t explain what they’re talking about. I love structure when it makes sense. These aversions may explain why I enjoy particular subgeneres of metal music. It’s honest, directly confronts the experience of suffering without sugar coating it, and rebels against unworthy authority.
A decade at a level-one trauma hospital made me cherish my body in a way I don’t think anything else could have. I walk on curbs like a balance beam, carry my kids whenever they ask, ride the shopping cart through the parking lot, and have landed a kickflip in every decade of my life because someday, odds are, I won’t be able to do any of those things. Working in the hospital also showed me how big systems have underutilized the most capable and noble people. The systems created incentives that, while aimed at providing the best service, often created hurried and short-cut thinking which ended up undercutting the best possible service. This was a primary reason I left a big system to work independently.
What We Work On
Mobility
Injury Recovery
Strength
Return to Sport / Activity
Physical Resilience
Movement Confidence
How I Work
I assume your body can reorganize how it moves, whatever the starting point. It just needs specific, better options to do it.
I listen first for the story of what’s already been tried. People often arrive feeling like they’ve failed at fixing this, but I see it differently: they’ve already done half the investigation. Usually someone had a simple explanation, did something about it, and got partway there. Where that progress stalled is often where the real pattern starts, and the missing piece was usually there all along, never addressed.
In sessions, I explain what’s happening in plain language, sometimes technical, sometimes with a metaphor or story, until it clicks. We test, modify, and retest so you feel the change starting before you leave, and I’ll tell you honestly what will improve quickly and what will take longer. Although the work is rigorous, we’ll probably laugh through parts of it.
People leave understanding their body well enough to catch themselves slipping into old habits, with a plan they can return to if something flares up. Most of all, they trust their body again.
Where I’m Not a Fit
I’m not the right fit if you’re looking for care that’s done to you. Massage, manipulation, and modalities have real value, and there are practitioners who are excellent at them. My work is active. Your body has to take part in the change for it to hold, so most of a session is spent moving, testing, and retesting. One of my mentors taught me that if we were stranded in the desert, I should still be able to give you excellent physical therapy. I still hold myself to that.
Pelvic health is its own specialty, and it’s one I refer out.
Outside the Practice
My wife and I started dating when she was 19 and I was 20. That was over 17 years ago. Now we have two kids who fascinate me and challenge me to grow constantly. I become obsessed with my interests. I frequently and confidently over commit to projects around the house like ripping out flooring a week before hosting a party because, “now I have to get it done”, or rebuilding an engine and transmission because, “if the manuals and youtube videos help everybody else, then they can help me too.” I’m always reading several books at once like Jung, a textbook on the evolution of biomechanics for walking, early Christian texts, or something by John Swartzwelder. My dream retirement job of working at Hollywood Video was destroyed by Netflix.
Rabbit Holes
Writings of the Christian church fathers
Jiu Jitsu
Custom cars
History of World War 1 & 2
Influences
My Mom & Dad
John Swartzwelder
Blackwater Park
The Ninth Wave
The Coen Brothers
All my PT mentors
Something People Wouldn’t Guess About Me
I was the vocalist in a metal band and wrote a concept album about being disenchanted by society and corruption of those who claim to be improving it, experiencing the brutal lessons in nature, and ultimately being led back to society in effort to make positive changes. The end of the record then loops right back into the start.