CLOSING TIME
Physiotherapist shutting it down at end of month.
After 41 year in the physiotherapy business, Joan Chiasson-MacDonald is moving on.
The owner of New Waterford Physiotherapy & Therapeutic Centre on King Street, will close the doors for good on Feb. 28.
Chiasson-MacDonald told her longtime employees about the decision a couple of weeks ago and began informing patients last week.
“At first there is shock, some people are sad and some are happy for me,” she said. “Business had slowed down and I just think I’m ready to close that chapter of my life and move on.”
“My grandfather Elie Doucet had taken a stroke when I was in high school. I saw a need,” she said, adding she was one of 18 people accepted into the physiotherapy program at Dalhousie in 1974.
“Back then we got our diploma in physiotherapy, that’s all that was offered.”
She was sponsored by the New Waterford Consolidated Hospital.
“They paid for everything but I had a two-year commitment to work for them,” she added.
The two years turned into almost 12 and then on Sept. 28, 1988 she opened New Waterford Physiotherapy.
“Physiotherapy is never boring, it’s treating new people all the time,” she said. “New patients and new challenges.”
Over the years, her clients were mostly middle age but she treated everyone from young people to those in their 90s.
“If anyone has a sore back, a sore knee, arthritis, after motor vehicle accidents, work injuries — there would be a lot of reasons,” to require physiotherapy.
In 2007, she became involved in laser therapy and changed the business name to New Waterford Physiotherapy & Therapeutic Laser Centre.
“Laser therapy speeds up the healing tremendously,” she said.
And about eight years ago, she began to provide laser acupuncture as a preventative measure.
“I’ve been doing it to prevent hangovers, prevent jetlag, motion sickness and to reduce stress and anxiety and to reduce or eliminate hot flashes,” she said. “I always thought when I retired I’d try to promote that a little bit more.”
Chiasson-MacDonald said she is most proud of the atmosphere she provided to her clients over the years.
“It was relaxed … it was such a nice homey atmosphere.”
There have been various employees over the years including Judy Abraham, office manager for 27 years, Janice Ferguson, physiotherapy assistant for 20 years, and earlier Lynn Hillier for more than 17 years.
“Lynn was my first physiotherapy assistant that I called my chief cook and bottle washer. She helped me open
the clinic. I had many wonderful employees all the way through.”
Although she has lots of unforgettable patients, one was the late Danny MacLellan who brought her a painting by his son Richard Chiasson. The painting depicted images from physiotherapy and the words “Born to Serve.”
“He told me from the first time he met me — watching me with my patients and how I was interacting with them — I was born to serve,” she said, adding MacLellan died last May at age 100.
“He showed up with this painting a few days before my 50th birthday and it’s one of my most prized possessions.”
She says a combination of the economy and a second physiotherapy business in the community led to a reduction in clients and with business slowing down, a year ago she
reduced her workweek to three days.
“I think things happen for a reason and I think because business had been slow for an extended period of time, mom or God or someone, is telling me this is the right time to move on and try other things I’ve been thinking about to see if it is the right time.”