Christy O’Brien, Physical Therapy Assistant
Name: Christy O’Brien
Empower History: March 2026
Hometown: Coloma, CA
What inspired you to be a PTA? As a person who has had chronic back pain for all of my adult life, physical therapy consistently made the biggest difference for me and kept me moving. Before becoming a PTA, I was a massage therapist for 10 years where I had a lot of patients who were happy to come see me for help relieving pain, but were hesitant to go to physical therapy for a variety of reasons, even though getting stronger would help to keep them out of pain. Or perhaps they would go to PT, have a negative experience and then quit. I wanted to be a person who could help bridge that gap and support people on both sides through manual therapy and skilled exercises to better support long term recovery.
Where did you go to PT school? University of Alaska, Anchorage graduating in 2025.
What do you enjoy most about your role? How lucky am I that I get to work with people every day who are working hard to improve themselves, get stronger, and find new ways to accomplish their goals? I get to be there to help guide and to witness the milestones. I am pretty passionate about patient education as well and helping people understand the why. I get to learn from my colleagues and patients alike everyday – it is pretty great.
What brought you to Alaska and kept you here? Originally, I came to Alaska as an AmeriCorps volunteer with SAGA in 2010 where I quickly fell in love with the great outdoors. After two years as a volunteer camping and travelling around the state, I fulfilled a childhood dream by buying a used Subaru, getting my very own best dog, and going on a long road trip where I moved up to Alaska for good. Now I live with my librarian husband in Anchorage and we have a different trusty Subaru and sassy dog.
Passions within PT: Manual therapy will always be close to my heart, as is working with people in chronic pain, and people with neck and back pain. I am still developing specialties and am looking forward to continuing education to expand my skills and be able to help more people along their way.
What are your passions outside of work? I enjoy both creative and outdoor pursuits. Recently I have been exploring pottery and stained glass. I am almost always listening to an audiobook. I love learning new things, and also enjoy gardening, foraging, cooking, camping, and kayaking.