Casey Badder, PT, DPT, is the newest physical therapist at Fountain Hills Physical Therapy (FHPT), succeedinghis younger brother, Caleb, who joined FHPT in 2022.

Growing up in Fountain Hills and graduating from FHHS in ‘06, coming home felt right for Badder, who earned his bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University and his doctorate in physical therapy from the University of St. Augustine in San Marcos, Calif.

Badder played high school baseball at FHHS where, as a center fielder, had his fair share of injuries. Badder rehabilitated his injuries with Ken Greenstreet, physical therapist and former owner of Fountain Hills Physical Therapy. During his undergraduate studies at Arizona State University, he started to show an interest in PT and Greenstreet offered to let Badder shadow him.

Shadowing Greenstreet turned into working a few hours a week, which eventually turned into Badder meeting his wife, Tasha, who worked at the front desk. Badder and Tasha have been married for seven years and live with their two girls in Mesa.

“To think that it would come full circle to coming back to work with [Ken], I would never have guessed that would’ve been the case,” Badder said.

At FHPT, Badder works to his patient’s abilities using techniques like dry needling, cupping and a method that is growing in popularity, blood flow restriction (BFR) training, which partially restricts blood flow to increase muscle strength and hypertrophy and prevents muscle loss during injury recovering.

“I love working specifically with overhead athletes; baseball players, volleyball players,” Badder said, which appeals to him given his background in baseball.

Badder enjoys the creativity of his work, saying that every patient is trying to accomplish something different. Finding his patient’s strengths and weaknesses gives him a blank canvas to work with, applying hands-on care that is central to the work at FHPT.

“What Ken does with patients is kind of a lost art in the medical field in general,” Badder said. “We spend two, three, four hours a week with people…and these people are going to see a doctor and they're spending 10 minutes a month with them, right? That might be an overstatement, but we get to know the patients. That’s been one thing that Ken’s always been good about.”

Badder holds a Certification in Applied Functional Science (CAFS), Functional Dry Needling (FDN) and Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA).

Working with his brother, Caleb, is an added bonus for Casey, who likes to brainstorm with his brother on ideas for their patients. It’s a win-win for the Badder family, Badder said who, with Caleb, tries out new techniques on their parents.

“They have to put up with us, which is entertaining, but they get some free PT out of it,” he said.

Finding new ways to rehabilitate shoulder or knee injuries is exciting, but may not always work for every patient, Badder said, which keeps him on his toes.

“Everyone has specific goals and everyone's definition of function is different,” Badder said. “For some people, that’s playing golf. For other people, that's, ‘I just want to reach up and grab the dishes off the top shelf.’

“We're just trying to get people to be as functional as they can be…and to make sure that they can set themselves up for long-term success going forward.”

Delighted to cultivate homegrown talent, Greenstreet is happy to have a second Badder brother come aboard the FHPT staff.

“It’s great having Casey because he is a Fountain Hills kid,” Greenstreet said. “He has the same philosophy as the rest of us, that patient care comes first.”

FHPT is located at 16650 E. Palisades Blvd, Suite 109. They are open Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and closed Sunday. For more information, call 480-404-6775.