Always Moving Forward

After pushing through a period of self-doubt, Martin Johansson is leaning into the power of innovation and research as a DPT student.

In August 2023, Martin Johansson left his home in Denmark and traveled across the ocean to Newberg, Oregon, to pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree at George Fox. He’d dreamed of going to America for a long time, but when he finally arrived at Fox, things got off to a rough start.

“Every beginning is hard,” Johansson says. “I remember on my fourth day into the program, I was ‘all the way down in the basement’ – that’s a Danish phrase. I was frustrated and irritated, and I was questioning myself. What did they see in me coming here? Why did they choose me?”

Luckily for Johansson, he was surrounded by peers and professors who refused to let him quit. 

“One of my classmates said to me, ‘What are you saying? It's the fourth day, and you want to quit? Why did you sell everything? Why did you even buy a flight ticket to come here if you want to quit after the fourth day?’” Johansson remembers. “So I called the program director and told him how lost I felt. He reassured me and gave me some tips and tricks, and I stayed.” 

Now Johansson is well into the program, and he’s found his footing. He’s happy he chose to stay and thankful for the people who encouraged him to stick it out. 

A Path to a Promising Career

Johansson wasn’t always set on becoming a physical therapist. In fact, he already had an established career in Denmark when he first began to look into physical therapy.

“I've always been physically active, and I started my career as a personal trainer,” Johansson says. “But when I began to get many clients who were coming from rehabilitation, I realized that I didn't know anything about rehabilitation.”

Johansson started researching physical therapy in his spare time, and he quickly realized that he wanted to pursue a bachelor's degree in the field – so he did. 

After earning his BA at University College Sjælland, Johansson enrolled in the master of physical therapy program at University of Southern Denmark and graduated in 2021. Then he decided to move to the U.S. to pursue a DPT degree. 

Johansson applied to George Fox’s DPT program and was accepted in 2023. Despite the difficult start, he’s glad he came. He appreciates the American approach to physical therapy and the education he’s received so far. 

“American education in physical therapy is solid, and it's founded on heavy research,” Johansson says. “It's an industry of constant development.”

A Focus on Innovative, Holistic Care

Johansson particularly admires how dedicated George Fox’s DPT program is to innovation, which he believes is crucial to providing quality patient care. 

“Innovation is really important to me because we live in an ever-changing world where we have to come up with something new all the time,” Johansson says. “The physical therapy program here is based upon innovation, and that’s something I missed from my education in Denmark.”

That’s not to say that Johansson doesn’t value the education he received in Denmark. He learned many important lessons and crossed paths with several interesting patients during his five years of clinical work there. One of his favorite assignments was working with a Danish soccer league of young men ages 12-20. 

“I really enjoyed working with that soccer club because I was in a position to put my fingerprint on these young guys and inspire them to take care of themselves for the rest of their lives,” Johansson says. “I believe that if I can just push one or two people in a better direction, my job is worth gold.”

Johansson believes in treating his patients holistically; physical therapists can’t isolate the body from the rest of a person’s being. Physical therapists must also address a patient’s mind and their emotions. Johansson quickly found himself becoming a mentor to those young soccer players as he treated their injuries. 

“One of the best parts of physical therapy is being able to teach a patient how to take care of themselves and watching them work toward their goals and develop from week to week,” he says. 

But in order to treat his patients to the best of his ability, Johansson has to stay up to date with clinical research. 

“The patient is the center of our care,” he says. “We need to back our treatment up with research and our best clinical expertise.”

The Power of Research

Johansson is especially grateful for the emphasis that George Fox’s DPT program puts on research. Through shared research, physical therapists are connected by common knowledge and practice. There’s a whole community of healthcare professionals working together to propel the health field forward. 

Johansson is not only pleased with the direction his education is taking at George Fox, but he is also happy with the people he finds himself surrounded by. After all, he might not have continued on at George Fox without the encouragement he received from the DPT learning community. 

“The faculty and my peers mean a lot to me,” Johansson says. “They are the ones motivating me, but also pushing me and challenging me on an everyday basis.”

Johansson intends to stay in America after he graduates from the DPT program in 2026. He plans to do travel therapy for a couple years before settling down somewhere warm and sunny like Arizona, and he hopes to open his own company in a fitness center working with athletes. 

He may even become a clinical instructor one day, helping the next generation of physical therapists excel in their studies. In any case, he’s here in the States to stay.

“I feel like I’ve grown more here than I did in Denmark,” Johansson says. “I feel at home here.”