Colorado lets you book a physical therapist directly — no doctor's note, no referral — under the state's direct-access law. That is the first thing to know before choosing among physical therapy clinics in Englewood, and the second is that the state publishes its entire licence register as open data: every physical therapist's licence type, number, status and first-issue date is a public record anyone can query. This ranking was built on that register rather than on what clinics say about themselves. Every clinician named below was checked against it in August 2026, and the licence numbers are printed so you can repeat the check in seconds.
Englewood holds a position no other Denver suburb can claim: it is the rehabilitation capital of the south metro. Swedish Medical Center, the acute-care hospital at 501 East Hampden Avenue, and Craig Hospital, the federally designated spinal cord injury Model System center on South Clarkson Street, share the blocks at the city's heart, and a dense ring of outpatient physical therapy has grown up around them — on Hampden, on Broadway, along Pearl Street a few blocks west of the hospitals. The name is also a trap. The postal service applies Englewood, CO to addresses miles southeast of the city, in ZIP codes that belong to Greenwood Village and Centennial, so a clinic advertising an Englewood address may sit nowhere near Englewood. Every clinic on this page publishes a street address inside the city itself.
Ten clinics were screened in August 2026, and each had to clear three gates: a street address inside Englewood published on the clinic's own site, a live official website carrying the clinic's name and telephone number, and at least one named clinician confirmed active in the state licence register. The gates did real work. One long-standing neurological practice near the hospital campus was cut because its official website no longer resolves; two national networks were cut because their location pages name no treating clinician whose licence could be tied to the clinic; a well-reviewed practice that surfaces in every Englewood search lists its own address in Greenwood Village. Fifteen licences were confirmed across the five that remain — twelve physical therapists and three certified physical therapist assistants — and ordering weighs verified licensed depth first, credential and ownership transparency second, and independent review evidence third.
How We Evaluated Englewood Physical Therapy Clinics
The Top 5 Physical Therapy Clinics in Englewood
2026 Rankings · Englewood, Colorado
Physical Therapy & Injury Specialists
No clinic in Englewood publishes a bench like this, and none comes close on what the register confirms. Physical Therapy & Injury Specialists has served metro Denver since 1990 and states plainly that it is owned and directed by physical therapists. All five therapists named on its team page were confirmed active in the Colorado register — and one of them, Beverly Parrott, holds licence PTL 490, first issued on 7 December 1967. A three-digit licence number belongs to a licensing era most working therapists have only read about; hers is the oldest active physical therapist licence this publication has verified anywhere in the metro.
The credential pattern is manual therapy, systematically. Every physical therapist on staff publishes the COMT designation; Parrott and Jordon Couchon are fellows of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists; and Parrott and Gail Molloy — who holds a Doctor of Science alongside licence PTL 2357, active since 1984 — publish orthopaedic clinical specialist credentials, all per the clinic's own team page. Bob Letendre (PTL 6517, active since 1998) and Josh Orton (PTL 15148, active since 2017) round out the licensed bench, and both physical therapist assistants are certified too: Nora Molloy (PTA 12849) and Beth Channell (PTA 13650). Doors open at 6:00 am on weekdays, the earliest start on this page.
The Pearl Street address sits a few blocks west of the Swedish and Craig hospital campus, a practical detail for anyone coordinating outpatient therapy with hospital care. Review evidence is practice-wide rather than site-specific: 4.9 across 33 Google-sourced reviews on the Birdeye aggregate, which lists the practice under its Maroon Circle satellite address — and the reviewers name Jordan, Bob and Josh, the same therapists the register confirms. One spelling note for anyone repeating the check: the clinic's site writes Jordon Couchon; the register records the licence under Jordan Wood Couchon, PTL 11537, active since 2011.
Comprehensive Physical Therapy & Fitness
The credential density per therapist here is the highest on this page. Comprehensive Physical Therapy & Fitness is an independent practice founded in 2014 by Sheri O'Brien, whose licence — PTL 4965 — has been active since January 1995 and is registered to Englewood. Her published credential string runs PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT, CCRT: a clinical doctorate from Regis University, an orthopaedic clinical specialist credential, fellowship in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists and, unusually, a certified canine rehabilitation qualification, all per her own published biography.
The second therapist, Kimberly Bozich, was also confirmed in the register: PTL 6983, active since February 2000. That makes this a two-therapist practice in which the junior licence is twenty-six years old — a continuity profile no network clinic can offer, because the person who evaluates you also owns the diary. The method leans on manual therapy and movement correction, with TRX-based strength work for progression and trigger point dry needling, a procedure Colorado regulates specifically: documented competency, a qualifying course of study and written informed consent from each patient. O'Brien states she has held dry needling certification since 2007 and teaches as affiliate faculty at Regis University.
The West Oxford Avenue address puts the clinic on the city's far west side, a deliberate distance from the hospital campus rather than an extension of it. Two limits belong in the open. It is a small practice with short Friday hours — doors close at 11:00 am — and it publishes patient testimonials rather than a countable review corpus, so independent review evidence is thinner than the depth of its credentials. This ranking weighs verified licences and transparency above review volume; readers who weight star counts differently should read the next entry closely.
Dynamic Mobility & Balance Center
The specialist listing, and in this city the specialism is no accident. Dynamic Mobility & Balance Center treats dizziness, vertigo, balance disorders, concussion and neurological conditions — exactly the outpatient problems that orbit a rehabilitation cluster anchored by Craig Hospital, the federally designated spinal cord injury Model System center a short drive east along Hampden. Founder Tonya Fuller, MSPT, holds Colorado licence PTL 11960, active and first issued in October 2012, and she is the clinician patients cite over and over in the practice's published reviews.
Vestibular rehabilitation is a genuine sub-discipline — canalith repositioning for positional vertigo, gaze-stability retraining, balance and fall-prevention work — and a general orthopaedic clinic rarely sees enough of it to be fluent. This is the only clinic inside Englewood we could verify that leads with it. The practice is woman-owned, sits in Suite 425 at 750 West Hampden Avenue on the city's west side, and publishes the strongest review corpus on this page with legible sourcing: a 5.0 average across more than thirty reviews, the bulk drawn from Google and republished with attribution on the clinic's own reviews page.
The evidence limits are the mirror image of the strengths. Fuller is the only clinician we could verify: colleagues appear in the published reviews by first name only — Ella, Ann, Maria — and without surnames no register check is possible, so ask who will treat you and confirm the licence by full name before booking. And a balance-and-dizziness specialist is the wrong first call for a routine post-surgical knee; for that, the orthopaedic benches above are built for the job.
Pro Active Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine — Englewood
The Broadway clinic of the Pro Active brand, operating within Physical Rehabilitation Network — a national operator its own location page names outright, a disclosure standard several screened competitors failed to meet. The site is led by clinic director Ricky Catalano-Huber, PT, DPT, and the register confirms the licence under Richard Andrew Catalano Huber: PTL 13694, active, first issued in November 2015.
Everyone the location page names was confirmed. Abby Bergeron, PT, DPT, holds PTL 20622, active and first issued on 3 June 2025 — an early-career licence, and the newest on this page — with a functional dry needling certification per her published biography. Nick Swegart holds PTA 15201, a certified physical therapist assistant credential, active since 2022. The published service list runs orthopaedic and post-operative rehabilitation, sports medicine, vestibular and concussion work, dry needling and Graston technique, and the clinic handles workers' compensation and motor-vehicle claims, where a national network's billing infrastructure genuinely helps.
Hours are the practical differentiator: doors open at 6:00 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and run to 6:40 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, with Friday afternoons off. It ranks fourth on the evidence rather than on any judgement of care — the public review corpus for this address is modest, no board certification is published for either therapist, and one of the two therapist licences is barely a year old. The register work is clean and the disclosure is honest; the question to ask before booking is who treats you at which visit, therapist or assistant.
BARWIS Physical Therapy — Englewood
The newest arrival, and the one built around a training floor. BARWIS Physical Therapy grew out of the Barwis Methods performance training system, and its Englewood clinic on South Santa Fe Circle shares its address with the brand's Colorado performance center. The model is rehabilitation delivered one-on-one by a doctor of physical therapy, with return-to-sport assessment, blood flow restriction training and an ACL return-to-sport program on the published service list.
Both named therapists were confirmed in the register: Kara Becker, PTL 13273, active and first issued in May 2015, and Matthew Hesch, PTL 20806, active and first issued in August 2025. Weekday hours run 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, the latest evening window on this page by more than an hour — the schedule of a clinic that expects patients to come after work and keep training after treatment.
It ranks fifth on verifiable evidence, plainly stated. The therapy clinic's own public review corpus is thin — most reviews attached to this address belong to the adjoining performance facility rather than the physical therapy practice — the team page publishes DPT degrees but no board certifications, and the brand's history sits in Michigan and Florida rather than Colorado. For an athlete rehabilitating toward a return-to-sport test, the one-on-one model and the 8:00 pm door are specific, checkable reasons to call; for everything else, the longer-tenured benches above carry more proof.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a doctor's referral to see a physical therapist in Englewood, Colorado?
No. Colorado permits direct access to physical therapist services — you can be examined and treated without a physician's referral, and as of July 2025 every US state allows some form of direct access, with Colorado among those imposing no referral condition in its practice act. Two limits matter in practice. First, what a physical therapist reaches is a physical therapy diagnosis — a movement and function finding within the scope defined by Colorado's Physical Therapy Practice Act — not a medical diagnosis of disease, and a therapist who suspects your problem sits outside that scope should send you to a physician. Second, your insurer is not the state. A health plan may still require a documented physician referral or a certified plan of care before it will pay, even though the law requires neither for you to be seen. Call your plan before the first visit and ask specifically whether it covers direct-access physical therapy; the answer decides whether the freedom the statute gives you costs anything to use.
How do I check that an Englewood physical therapist holds an active Colorado licence?
Two routes, both free. The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies runs a licence lookup through its Division of Professions and Occupations, where you can search a name in a browser and read the credential record. DORA also publishes the entire licensee file as an open dataset on the Colorado Information Marketplace, which returns licence type, number, status, first-issue date and expiry for every licensee in the state. Physical therapists carry the licence type PTL; physical therapist assistants carry PTA. What you want to see is a status of Active — not Expired, Inactive, or anything indicating discipline. Every licence cited on this page was read from that register in August 2026 and is printed with its type and number so the check takes seconds. Licence status changes, so re-check by name before booking rather than trusting any date-stamped page, including this one.
What do the letters after a physical therapist's name mean — DPT, COMT, OCS, FAAOMPT?
Only one set of letters is the state's. A Colorado physical therapist licence is what authorises practice, and the title statute protects the designations physical therapist, physiotherapist, P.T. and L.P.T. for licensees — it says nothing at all about Doctor or Dr., which is why a therapist with a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree may lawfully use the prefix without being a physician. Everything else is post-professional. DPT is the clinical doctorate that has become the profession's standard entry degree; OCS is an orthopaedic clinical specialist certification issued by the profession's national specialty board; FAAOMPT marks fellowship in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists; COMT is a manual therapy certification issued by private training organisations. None of these appear in the state register, which records the licence alone. Where this page cites such credentials, they come from the clinic's own published biographies and are attributed that way — the licence numbers are what we verified against the state's records.
What is the difference between a physical therapist and a physical therapist assistant in Colorado?
Two separate credentials under the same statute. A physical therapist is licensed and carries a PTL number; a physical therapist assistant is certified under part 2 of the Physical Therapy Practice Act, carries a PTA number, and is defined in law as a person who assists a physical therapist in selected components of physical therapy. Evaluation, diagnosis and the plan of care belong to the therapist; an assistant delivers components of treatment under that plan. Aides and technicians are a third category and hold no state credential at all. Three certified assistants appear on this page — at Physical Therapy & Injury Specialists and at Pro Active — each verified in the register like the therapists. None of this makes an assistant-supported model inferior; it makes a staffing question worth asking before you book: who will be in the room at each visit, and under which credential?
Is dry needling by a physical therapist legal in Colorado?
Yes, with specific statutory conditions. Colorado's Physical Therapy Practice Act addresses dry needling directly: the therapist must have the knowledge, skill, ability and documented competency to perform it, must have completed a dry needling course of study meeting the state's supervision, educational and clinical prerequisites, and must obtain written informed consent from each patient that covers the potential benefits and risks. Several clinics on this page publish dry needling among their services — Comprehensive Physical Therapy & Fitness states its owner has held the certification since 2007, and Pro Active publishes a functional dry needling credential for one of its therapists. The statute gives you two checks that take a minute each: ask to see the consent form before the first needle, and ask where the therapist trained. A practitioner who meets the statute will answer both without hesitation.
Should I choose a hospital rehabilitation program or a private clinic in Englewood?
Englewood is one of the few suburbs where that is a real question, because both options are inside the city. Swedish Medical Center is an acute-care hospital on East Hampden Avenue, and Craig Hospital on South Clarkson Street is designated by the federal disability research institute NIDILRR as a Model System center for spinal cord injury — patients travel across the country for its spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation. If your case involves that order of complexity, or your surgeon practises on the campus, hospital-based rehabilitation keeps everything in one system and one record. The private clinics on this page earn their place on different ground: routine orthopaedic and post-operative rehabilitation, sports injuries, vertigo and balance problems, with direct-access booking, hours a hospital department rarely matches — 6:00 am starts at two clinics here, 8:00 pm doors at another — and a named therapist whose licence you can check before the first visit. Neither choice is wrong; they solve different problems, and the licence register covers both.
Sources & References
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Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA)
Colorado Professional and Occupational Licenses — statewide licensee register
The primary register every PTL and PTA number on this page was read from, in August 2026. Published as open data; returns licence type, number, status, first-issue date and expiry.
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Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations
State Physical Therapy Board — licence verification and board rules
The board that issues and disciplines Colorado physical therapist licences. The page returns HTTP 403 to automated requests — bot-blocking rather than a dead link; it resolves normally in a browser.
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American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)
Direct Access to Physical Therapist Services
Backs the statement that every US state permits some form of direct access as of July 2025, and that payer coverage rules are a separate question from state licensing law.
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Colorado Revised Statutes, Title 12, Article 285
C.R.S. 12-285-104 — Definitions
Defines physical therapy to include physical therapy diagnosis, and defines the physical therapist assistant as certified under part 2 of the article.
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Colorado Revised Statutes, Title 12, Article 285
C.R.S. 12-285-107 — Use of titles restricted
Protects the titles physical therapist, physiotherapist, P.T. and L.P.T. for licensees, and contains no provision governing the use of Doctor or Dr.
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Colorado Revised Statutes, Title 12, Article 285
C.R.S. 12-285-116 — Special practice authorities and requirements
Sets the conditions for dry needling cited in the FAQ — documented competency, a qualifying course of study and written informed consent from each patient.
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Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC), funded by NIDILRR / ACL, HHS
Rocky Mountain Regional Spinal Injury System — Craig Hospital, Englewood
Confirms Craig Hospital at 3425 S Clarkson Street, Englewood as the NIDILRR-designated Spinal Cord Injury Model System center cited in the intro and FAQ.
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Hospital General Information — Care Compare provider dataset
The federal hospital record confirming Swedish Medical Center as an acute-care hospital at 501 E Hampden Ave, Englewood, CO 80113; read via the dataset's public query API in August 2026.
Our Recommendation
For most Englewood residents starting from scratch, Physical Therapy & Injury Specialists offers the deepest verified bench in the city — five licensed therapists and two certified assistants, fellowship-level manual therapy credentials, and a licence history running back to 1967 — a few blocks from the hospital campus. If dizziness, vertigo or a balance problem is the reason you are searching, Dynamic Mobility & Balance Center is the specialist call, and its published review corpus is the strongest here. If continuity with one veteran owner-therapist matters most, Comprehensive Physical Therapy & Fitness pairs two twenty-five-year licences with the densest credential string on the page. An insurance claim points to Pro Active; a return-to-sport rehabilitation with evening hours points to BARWIS.
Two things are worth doing before you book anywhere, including at a clinic on this list. Look up the clinician who will actually treat you in the Colorado licence register and confirm the status reads Active — the licence numbers above make that a thirty-second check, and status can change after a page like this is published. Then call your insurer and ask whether it covers physical therapy without a physician referral, because Colorado law and your policy answer two different questions, and only one of them is settled by the statute.
This page is not medical advice. Denver Dean's List is a publication, not a clinic; nothing here is a diagnosis, a treatment recommendation or a referral, and no listing should be read as an endorsement of any particular course of care for any particular person. Physical therapy is not appropriate for every condition, and a licensed therapist who believes your problem falls outside the scope of physical therapy should send you to a physician. If your symptoms are severe, worsening, or accompanied by anything that worries you, see a doctor first.
Denver Dean's List maintains editorial independence. We do not accept payment for rankings and we do not accept advertising from the clinics we evaluate. Licence records were read from the Colorado DORA licensee register in August 2026 and are printed with their type and number so readers can verify them; licence status can change, so check before booking. Addresses were confirmed against each clinic's own published location page. This page is not medical advice.