Thailand: Pre-Physical Therapy College Prep Program

Overall, I had an amazing time in Thailand with TherapyAbroad! I loved the clinical activities we were able to partake in, such as shadowing hydrotherapy, visiting the Prostheses Foundation and Thai Sports University, and working with the children at the Dulabhatorn Foundation. While visiting these organizations was my favorite aspect of the trip, I wish there were more clinical experience opportunities. I felt that there were days when we had a lot of free time, and I wish that time was filled with more opportunity to visit another PT clinic or foundation. Furthermore, I LOVED the Thai kickboxing class, but not the dance class as much. I recommend replacing the Dance class with the Thai Massage class. My group did the massage class during our free time and it was a great experience (and great way to gain more PT observation hours too). Lastly, I want to give our BlueDot guide P Pann a HUGE shoutout. She was amazing!! She was so organized, knowledgeable, always there to translate, and willing to help us at every turn. Unlike our PT supervisor, I felt that P Pann really took the time to spend time with us and get to know us personally, which I know all of us girls were thankful for. She had an amazing impact on our trip and experience, so I hope she gets the recognition she deserves.

Our experience was a roller coaster. We were told there would be alot of clinical experience and there was not. We had one day of PT where the group split and then we learned nothing, saw no patients and left 1.5 hours early. The massage class was taken out of the itinerary and Tykes camp was great but it was not physical therapy centered, mainly because our supervisor didn't try to make it that way. Our supervisor would leave situations, ask us about our feelings and not encourage physical therapy related questions. Personally coming into this experience I was told there would be holistic PT experience and there was not. As well there was an extreme amount of free time every afternoon had 3+ hours when we could have spent it at a clinic or learning something new. Our coordinator Paan was the most amazing woman ever, she was so helpful and treated us amazingly. I felt lied too when they said various settings and holistic PT. Doulabtorn was amazing and working with the kids was life changing. I really wish we had more experience and I am really disappointed about that but these girls made the trip way better.

Overall I really enjoyed my trip with therapy abroad! I think that there could have been more clinical experiences built into the program, but I really liked the tykes camp. I also really enjoyed Ppan and the size of our group.