APTA Nebraska Podcast
The APTA Nebraska Podcast dives into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We’re here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, build our community, and optimize the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans.
APTA Nebraska Podcast
E19 - Member Spotlight: Michelle Lueking
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What if the best doorway to better care is the one that meets you where you already are—at home, at work, or in the hours between feedings and sleep? We sit down with PTA Michelle Lueking, a former music teacher whose path from choir room to clinic shaped a fresh take on pelvic health, chronic illness, and accessible physical therapy.
Michelle shares how a mobile-plus-clinic model removes barriers for patients who can’t always travel, especially new parents and those living with complex conditions like hypermobile EDS, mast cell disorders, and dysautonomia. We unpack why pelvic health support is important, how breath and pressure systems connect to core function, and how early education can prevent long-term setbacks. Michelle also addresses insurance realities, noting that chronic illness rarely follows a straight path. Treatment goals should reflect flares, daily participation, and periods of meaningful relief rather than simple step-by-step improvement.
Inside the clinic, collaboration turns into an advantage. Michelle explains why “assistant” does not mean “less”—it means contributing within a team that values autonomy, asks better questions, and blends each clinician’s niche. We also talk about the culture that lets working parents thrive, the community ties that make Omaha feel small in the best way, and how APTA Nebraska fuels advocacy, networking, and statewide continuity of care.
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Episode Links:
- APTA-NE All District Meeting: Continuing Education Day
- Feb 28th: 7:30 AM – 11:45 AM
- Live attendance is available in Omaha, Ord, or Kearney
- There is not a zoom option
- Register Here
- Feb 28th: 7:30 AM – 11:45 AM
- APTA-NE Annual State Meeting
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska Podcast, where we dive into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We're here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, optimizing the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans. Join us as we connect with experts, share insights, and build community throughout our profession.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome back to the APTA Nebraska podcast. My name is Brad Dexter. I'm your host, and today I'm joined by Michelle Lu King. Michelle, how are you?
SPEAKER_03:I'm doing well. How are you?
SPEAKER_01:I'm doing well too. Um, we are we're currently experiencing some slightly warmer February weather, and uh it's looking up on the week, I suppose. Uh just a little foretaste of what spring will be like in like another two months.
SPEAKER_03:Thank the Lord.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Well, Michelle, thanks for joining me. Uh, this is one of our episodes where we try to highlight some of the good things that our members are doing within our organization and uh just be able to share with the rest of the state um a little bit about Michelle. So, Michelle, can you tell us about yourself? Um, maybe exactly what you do. Are you a PTA? Are you a PT? Um, where is your career taking you? You know, I'll I'll kind of give you free reign there.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Yeah, I'm well, I'm Michelle. Um, I am a PTA in Omaha right now. I actually serve the metro area as a whole. My company, we have a little bit of a different paradigm than others. Well, not my company, but the company we work for. Um, we meet patients in their places of comfort. So sometimes that's in their offices, at their daycares. We have a clinic here too. I actually see the majority of my patients at the clinic, but um, serving a variety of patient populations. And sometimes we know that it's not easy to get to the clinic, especially if you're out farther away or you have a kiddo with some pretty significant medical complexities or disabilities yourself. Um, that's something that's really important to us as a company, is being able to make care accessible. So that's what I do in the day-to-day. I work a lot with uh hypermobile, invisible, invisible illness populations, and uh pelvic health. Um however, my primary job also is being a mom. So I'm a mom of two crazy little boys that keep me very busy outside of my work hours, and that's my favorite job, of course. Yeah, I was a teacher before this too. So I I'm I like to dabble in many trades.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, let me so let me ask you a few questions. So you're you're a PTA, uh physical therapy assistant, you're at my key therapies, correct?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'm at key complete therapy.
SPEAKER_01:Key complete, okay, key complete therapies. Um excellent. And you just said you were a teacher before you became a PTA. So tell tell us a little bit about that track. What that looked like.
SPEAKER_03:So I uh graduated from Louisiana State University. I'm from Texas originally, but um went to LSU to study vocal music education. Taught for three years here in Omaha at some of the middle schools around town and in Omaha public schools. I taught choir. So that was my passion. It's actually really cool to see how both my education experience, just as a teacher in general, comes into building patient relationships, empowering patients, that sort of thing. But also the like physical vocal music anatomy and understanding of the diaphragm models and all of that and how that plays into public health has been like super fun to get really nerdy about. Uh, I'll spare you the details unless you just really want them.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's I I I see the connections. I'm making all the connections and I I love that you're able to like intertwine different skills and passions together. That's great.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. So I went uh I stopped teaching in the summer, I guess, of 2021 when I enrolled at Clarkson and kept subbing throughout my time at Clarkson. So it was fun to like overlay different things. I helped out in the some of our higher needs classrooms at that time, got to observe some of their PT sessions and seeing the overlap between my worlds. And now it's now I'm a PTA. So I've been doing this since August of 2023.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So so you made some of the connections for us in regards to being a choir teacher and just some of the anatomy and what was going on there and uh and what you're able to do now. But what made you take the jump to becoming a PTA?
SPEAKER_03:Great question. I love this question. I won, I've always loved medicine. I love the body. Um and I wanted to do music therapy for a really long time. It's actually what my original goal was, and then I took the teaching route. I really, really, really love teaching people. Um and then I had an opportunity come up with Clarkson. I had a friend who was in PT school at the time, and I was just kind of struggling with um I loved my job, but I also really wanted to get involved in medicine. Like that longing was still there, getting into the healthcare field. And she was like, Have you ever heard of a PTA? And I said, Absolutely not, what is that? Because I was I was taking classes to go for apply for PT school and get some of those things I didn't have to take for my education degree. And she told me about the PP PTA profession. So I did more research there, and I was like, Oh my gosh, they have a PTA school here in town, and then yeah, it kind of domino affected from there, and it was a really crazy story. I needed a lot of dominoes to fall into place, and every single one fell into place. And I was like, Oh, I guess I'm not a teacher anymore, and I'm gonna go be a PTA. And so that's how it happened. Um, it was really it's been really cool to see, and I think I think we might talk about this a little more later, but just how much autonomy PTAs really do have. I think that was a really big misconception and a concern of mine of like, well, I have all these passions, I have these things I want to do. I am a leadership is really important to me. And seeing that having assistant next to my title doesn't take that away from my ability as a clinician and as a leader is has been really, really empowering um and exciting. So that's kind of the how I got in, how I got here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was that was the change that happened for sure. So you you shared a little bit about you got some kiddos at home right now. Um primary role. Are you working full-time? Are you part-time? Like how how are you balancing being a mom and uh and working?
SPEAKER_03:Arguably, some days I'm not balancing that very well, but I I do work full-time. Um, one again, the nice thing about the paradigm of this company, and I've um my our our founder and owner is super big on prioritizing, prioritizing family. So your flexibility is important being able to do that. So I build my own schedule and I can flex my hours as I need. Um, but I do work full-time and I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Um, so I work full-time at home too after that. Um, but yeah, I mean, how do I balance it? I leave my work at work for the most part as best as I can. It takes a lot of discipline that some days are easier than other days, but I really think a lot of it takes advocating for yourself to your workplace and choosing to pick a place that fits the needs for the season that you're at, as well as um just really building relationships with the people that you work with to know that hey, my kid's sick, can you cover this for me? And there's a lot of a lot of teamwork in our company, and it's one of again, one of my favorite things about being here.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, really, yeah. Sounds like healthy culture. That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_03:Very much so, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. Um, well, so outside of you know, being a mom and working full time, which is a lot of your schedule, right? All of those things, what what else do you like to do? Tell us a little bit more about yourself, um, hobbies, recreation.
SPEAKER_03:This is something I've been trying to get better at. So after 10 p.m., when my crazy children go to sleep, yeah, they go to sleep really late. But um, I love to read. Uh, so I got a Kindle for Christmas, and that's been a game changer. I somehow have read six books in January. So I went from reading like one book in all of 2025 to reading six in January alone of 2026. So I was pretty proud of that personal accomplishment. I like to do puzzles. I have not been able to complete a puzzle in, well, my son's three and a half years old, so in three and a half years, that is not a 32-piece puzzle that he likes to do. But uh, I have several partially completed puzzles and then I put them back until I can find a day where I have enough time. I really like puzzles, and I am again pretty nerdy, so I listen to a lot of podcasts in my free time about a variety of of things. I like some true crime. I like to throw that in there. But I also really love listening to like women's health, hormone management, uh podcasts there, histamine intolerances, EDS connectivity issue overlays with other health care disorders. And then I just talk about them with anybody that lets me talk to them about that will listen.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Pretty much my husband's uh doesn't care as much anymore. He's like, Yeah, you don't I've heard that before. So you know.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it sounds like you you probably could have some good material for a lunch and learn of some kind with within your team, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I actually did one recently about caring for your public floor as a clinician. So that was my most recent one. But I am uh hoping to do more for our community actually. Um I'm working on a couple things to be a better advocate for hypermobile therapists. I myself am a very hypermobile person. I have a mast cell disorder, have some dysautonomia, lots of the things. Um, but I also am a very high, uh, highly driven person. So I want to make sure that I can continue to do the work I love to do. So helping other clinicians that have that same goal is one of the things I like to dream about.
SPEAKER_01:That's really great. I uh was listening listening to you talk about some of your your passions there, and it reminded me um one of the APTA's like big six issues that they're focusing on is pelvic health physical therapy. Um and and making sure that women are getting access to that. Um so I here's here's my plug, you know, go look at the go look at the APTA website, look at the issue, um, and and spread the word because uh I think we all know as PTs how important that is for women, not not just after um giving birth, but uh and and not just for women either, for men too. Uh but it's something that gets overlooked all of the time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I actually um one of the things that I so recently this past November really have started to push it, but um we launched I and another PT here have started launching our own public health program here. I had some training at a different clinic prior to this, that was excellent. They helped me a ton. Um, but with our paradigm, what's awesome is that um specifically like in that postpartum period, if we're going for it for that particular range, that right after you get home to your six-week clearance is usually when they are like, okay, now go get seen, but nobody sees the mom in between then. So our goal, like we can meet mom at her home and help her do some of these tests. We also have speech and OT that can come in so we can keep an eye on mom and kind of bridge that gap of some of those things that can go wrong and just be really, really hard in that transition, too. Another thing I love about our model is we're in workplaces all the time. So people are asking, what's going on? Who's here, what's there? And I again love to talk to anyone that will listen to me about public health. And just gonna mean that there's a lot of need for it just in workplace education. So it's it's just fun. I like to talk about it all the time.
SPEAKER_01:So you know, as we talked about ahead of time, it's just gonna bleed into everything that you're gonna see. Right. Um, so you talked a little bit about hey, you're from Texas originally, you went to LSU, you did education while you're there. What brought you to Omaha and and what do you enjoy about this community? What keeps you here?
SPEAKER_03:Um, my husband is from Nebraska. We met when I was at LSU. He was living here at the time. We met on a trip overseas. And um yeah, I moved here after I graduated, and we've built a life here together. I love that Omaha is now it's a little bigger than it was when I first moved here, but um it's a bigger city that feels small, I guess is is the way to say it. So you usually know someone in common with someone else that you're talking to, and I like that aspect of this community. I think Omaha has a huge amount of cultural diversity, which is really important to me as well. I've lived a few places that are not America, and just seeing what other cultural things can bring to the table is like super fun. I also really love food, and Omaha has excellent food, so that is very nice. We do need some more Cajun food representation here, in my opinion, but nobody asked me about that.
SPEAKER_01:So you you I'm assuming, you know, anytime LSU fans come to town for the College World Series, you make your way down there just to get some authentic Cajun food.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, yes. LSU fans are my favorite part of June.
SPEAKER_01:So yes. That's great. Well, hey, let's let's shift gears a little bit. Um tell me, you know, since you've been practicing as a physical therapist assistant, and you were talking about some of the autonomy that you get as a PTA uh and just some of those joys. Can you talk about some of the things that have maybe been challenging about being a PTA? But then also like what's brought you joy from being a PTA as well.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. So with the challenging thing, I mean, I think this is kind of a challenge for the PT profession in general, but um definitely one of the things I've run into a lot is um the lack of education, even just within the PT world itself, of what an assistant can do. I think people hear the word assistant and they immediately think of um like it's just a it's a big step down, right?
SPEAKER_04:Sure.
SPEAKER_03:Um and I think there's just a lot more advocacy than you just have to advocate within your own profession. And then we have this overlaying advocacy of PT in general, constantly trying to explain why our profession is important and necessary and deserves to be compensated well. Um, and so I I do think that is one of the biggest challenges is um working through that initial, oh, but you're an assistant. So shouldn't I be working with a therapist and having that conversation with either with other therapists like our OTs or SLPs or um within patient populations themselves. I have been lucky both times in my workplaces that I have been at, um they are excellent at uh honoring and empowering PTAs. So I've been very, very grateful part of why I choose to work there. But just across the interview experience and different clinical rotations, that was definitely something that I was like, huh, this is uh this is hard. This is hard to explain what PTAs do to a PT. Because we operate usually under the assumption that PTs know what a PTA does. And oftentimes I've learned that several other PTs aren't exactly sure what's fully in the scope of the PTA. So being able to advocate for myself is both exciting but also quite challenging sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. And it's just another opportunity to try to promote higher level communication skills too, right? Like it it's gonna require, like any relationship, it's gonna require good communication to make sure that uh everyone involved is thriving, right?
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, absolutely. And then the same thing, one of the things I love about being a PTA, and again, I'm biased because I have great work experiences thus far. Uh like two of my favorite things. One, obviously, patient relationships as a PTA. I'm getting to see patients through an entire plan of care, multiple plans of care sometimes, especially in some of these chronic illness communities. Um and like I the I develop close relationships with my patients, and it's it's you know, we see each other twice a week. Sometimes I see them more than I see other people, and I don't know. That's one of my favorite things, teaching my patients how to advocate for themselves and learn to be comfortable in their body and learn how to listen to their body. Like these are really cool things that I love to see the light bulb come on about as the educator in me as well, and seeing people step up and um not feel as disabled by their disabilities uh is really cool. I I I just really enjoy that. Celebrating the wins and being there for the bosses too. But secondarily, from a professional standpoint, one of my favorite things is that collaboration is like an expectation in this job description. I I have to collaborate working underneath someone else, and I love to ask questions. So anyone that's ever taught me who I don't know if any of them will listen to this. I'm sure someone will.
SPEAKER_01:We'll make sure they do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, make sure they they know I love to ask questions and they will probably laugh at that. I am never one to shy away from a question or a suggestion or a hey, what do you think about this? Or like I want to pick your brain. And that's my I love that that's built into my job description because then I never have to, I never have to feel bad about asking a question. Um, it's part of my job. And I love to that, like, I don't know, I I I love the autonomy. It's really helpful for someone with a personality like me to know that I can go in and do what I'm really good at and then learn from someone else about what they're really good at and learn to like I don't know, just work off of everybody else's niches.
SPEAKER_01:We I work in a very collaborative clinic, so it's it's sounds like it sounds like playing uh playing jazz with a bunch of people in some ways, right?
SPEAKER_03:Like you just very similar, very similar vibes. Um I that's what makes it awesome, is if you're really good at something, Vicky McHugh is my uh supervising PT and owner of this company, and she like wants you to run with it. And I love that. Um, I thought it should be it's awesome. Not of course within the reins, right?
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so since the analogy came up, you know, if you if you were actually in a jazz band and you were riffing off of the rest of the the band members, what what instrument would you be playing?
SPEAKER_03:Saxophone a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01:Alto tenor?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, probably alto sax.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:That's for sure my my style.
SPEAKER_01:So you're you're like, I've I've got to be the soloist here. Get give me a solo.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, fine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I've got things to express with the saxophone.
SPEAKER_03:I do. I have I want to play for anyone who will listen. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. Um you know, you've you've touched on a few of these things, uh, I think, and you've you've even expressed some of the things that you're passionate about, whether it's pelvic health, um, physical therapy, or um, you know, EDS and some of the overlying uh disorders that can come along with that too. Um but you you can go there with this question, or maybe you have something else in your mind, but what what kinds of challenges or problems are you currently facing in your practice and and also what kinds of solutions are you looking for?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I thought about this for a while. Um, I know one of the one of the problems I think that is the biggest is just insurance, like having to constantly justify why what you're doing is important, and obviously trying to stay away from the maintenance type plan and things like that, but especially in the chronic illness community, is this is something I'm I'm passionate about, is there's a lot of gaslighting and dismissal and um just a lot of people who have experienced uh not being listened to. Um and I think it it it's been very interesting to learn just the mechanics, I guess, of how. Navigate insurance in the world of chronic illness because these are people that really do need some therapeutic intervention for a long period of time. And they have these periods where they're going to ebb and flow. So they're going to have days where everything is for them at their baseline. So maybe like someone else's level four, right? But to them it's a zero. And so then you have days where they're coming in and you're like, okay, let's build some stability, but everything is super, super, super flared up. And now this flares lasting two, three weeks. So it looks like you haven't made progress and you've regressed. But really, you're working on the ebb and flow of an inflammatory response. And so it's trying to navigate that and explain all of that on paper in a short amount of time because documentation, you know, otherwise you're spending 25 minutes on a note.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That is hard. So I think that is one of the biggest challenges professionally of how can we better facilitate um either goal making or like treatment justifications for the chronic illness community. Um that's a definite need.
SPEAKER_01:And you can layer on to some of that conversation with typically care for those individuals is not just siloed. It really needs to be collaborative with other providers. Uh and in your goal writing and the way that you're approaching that individual, it's it's not quite um, it has a different objectivity to it in in how you're writing your goals, right? So it it may not be as body function and structure based. Uh you're living in a participation realm, you're you're focusing, certainly focusing on activity limitations, but um and and habit formation in some big, big ways for those individuals, right?
SPEAKER_03:So we actually just had one. We were talking about um changing the goal from originally it was like relief for 24 hours following therapy session.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Now we're trying to expand that to like a 48, 72 hour window with two times a week of engagement in mindfulness activities, two times a week engagement in home exercise programming. So, like very specific into anybody outside, even this is even hard in the physical therapy world because it's so misunderstood of like, oh, just stretch, just put them on a stability program. And it's not that simple. Um there's a lot of nuance and a lot of individuality. Um we'll branch off here for just a second, too, with with specifically with EDS and hypermobile EDS, which is what we see a lot in the community, um, and hypermobility spectrum disorder. There are they're coming out with by the end of this year some new subtypes of each of those, too. So not only are you dealing with hypermobile EDS, but now you're gonna have hypermobile EDS type one, type whatever it may be, and can justify some of these wildly different presentations that we have across the EDS community. So I'm hopeful that that will help in the advocacy standpoint, but also know that that's a going to be another learning curve for an already um an area that already needs some more um learning, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. No, that's really good. A great answer. Um, I love the thoughtfulness behind some of that. Uh, you know, we were often, at least in physical therapy school, we're we're teaching some of the um you know the psychosocial aspects of healthcare, really the things that as we get into practice, uh, we recognize, ooh, there's a lot of this to what we're doing, right? Um, that is providing skilled care. It's understanding how to work well with people and having empathy, uh, how to have hard conversations. Um and there are progressions that you can go through in all of that to help move your patient from point A to B to C to D to E, right? Um, and you know, I you you brought up that stability program or um uh strengthening program, a balance program. And those might be like step J sometimes, but you have to go through all of these other ones to get to that point. Uh so maybe right thing, wrong time, uh, and it's just not always as cut and dry with some of these patients. So uh you you bring up a really good example of just you know, how do we treat these people in the best way from what we know from a uh a best care perspective from the literature and what we're learning? Um, but then match that up with the system that you're working in at the same time. And it takes a lot of skill to overlap those things for sure.
unknown:Good.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, that's a great example. So uh just to maybe land this thing, then Michelle, um, can you talk to our audience about what value you found in being a member of APT in Nebraska?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I absolutely want to again, I think I kind of have an overarching theme. Uh, advocacy is very, very important to me. So one of the things I love is that the APTA truly is constantly advocating for this profession with our best interest in mind. They are receptive to hearing feedback and encouraging of hearing feedback. And again, they are like the representatives of us to the state, right? And to the national level as well. And so I it is very encouraging and exciting to hear of the different things that are constantly being advocated for and knowing that um I mean I mean, I know that we're in good hands, I guess, is is that that's the best way to say that you don't get to that point without having people that are passionate about something. Um and that is one of my favorite things. And I think secondarily, one of my other favorite things is just the connections that it provides in the physical therapy world. So if I know I have a patient that's moving to a different part of Nebraska, for example, and is looking for a specific type of PT or um, once I hear different things, I can contact other people within the APTA and be like, hey, do you have some connections that you think would be a good fit for this person? Here's what they're looking for, so that we can do some of that heavy lifting for them and connect them to someone that's going to be helpful rather than another negative PT experience in writing off PT as a whole. So that continuity of care component is um really encouraging and important.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. Great answer. Well, Michelle, thank you for joining for the conversation. Uh I appreciate hearing your story. And we've never met before either. So uh this was just a connection um between us that uh you know, I was able to learn a little bit about the work that you're doing. And just like what you just described in terms of why APTA Nebraska has been valuable to you, some of the networking uh and just getting to know like what people are passionate about, it is helpful when when I know, hey, something is maybe outside of my my personal scope of practice, not my professional scope of practice, but maybe my personal scope, I I know who to go to, right? And if I really care about that patient getting um really great care, uh it's really helpful to make some of these connections too. So uh I love doing this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, me too. I do too. So I really appreciate your time.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Uh audience, hopefully that was helpful to you. I have a couple things I want to leave you guys with um related to APTA Nebraska on February 28th from 7:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., there is an all-district meeting and it's a continuing education day. So live attendance is available in Omaha, in Ord, and in Kearney. There is not a Zoom option. And if you're interested in this and you want to register, I'll leave a link in the show notes for you. And I'm also just gonna plug that the annual meeting. The annual state meeting is coming up on April 10th. That'll be the business meeting and the debate that evening. And courses will be on Saturday, April 11th. Registration is open for that now. Uh, so there'll be a link in the show notes for that as well. And hope to see some of you there so we can do the very thing that Michelle has talked about, and we can network and get to know one another a little bit better. So thanks for tuning in and hope this is a valuable uh podcast to listen to.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast. Stay connected with us for more conversations that elevate our profession and improve the lives of Nebraskans. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and join the discussion. Get together, we're driving the future of physical therapy forward.
