Cindy Johnson is celebrating the 20th year of her Therapy Works physical therapy clinic in Lawrence. Johnson has been a longtime local advocate for health and wellness.

Lawrence physical therapist Cindy Johnson took her family on a backpacking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park this summer. From left are husband Chris, Cindy, and their kids Kaitlyn (18), Maddy (14), Charlie (12) and Nicholas (6) Johnson.

Cindy Johnson approaches each of her patients like they’re part of something greater. Curing their ailments, she says, will ultimately make for a healthier, happier Lawrence.

“I know people have a job here in the community; they have kids. And kids are going to have better self-esteem and skills in school if they have a parent who doesn’t have such a bad headache that they can’t read with them in the evening,” she said. “That parent is going to help their employer by not having a headache and showing up, and when they do show up, being productive because they don’t have a headache.”

“Plus, volunteering is such a big piece of my life, as well as for most people here in Lawrence — that’s what makes it such a great community,” she added. “But no one in their right mind with a bad headache would want to be in the Quail Run rotunda after school with a bunch of Scouts.”

This attitude has served Johnson well in her 20 years as the owner of Lawrence physical therapy clinic Therapy Works. But that’s not all that defines her: She’s also a wife and mother to four children, a community leader who serves on various nonprofit boards and an inspiration to others.

“She practices what she preaches,” said Therapy Works marketing director Nikki White, who has known Johnson for more than 15 years through their prior work together for local nonprofit Health Care Access. “She’s definitely an inspiration, especially to working moms, that you can juggle it all. She approaches every day with a lot of positive energy. She must take her vitamins because she is full force every single day. If there’s a challenge, she just embraces it and says, ‘OK, what can we do to overcome this?'”

Johnson, 49, moved to Lawrence in the early 1990s when her husband, Chris, took a job as a music professor at Kansas University. She got her graduate degree in physical therapy from KU, and opened Therapy Works in January 1994. She got the idea for the business like she comes up with many of her plans: on one of her and her husband’s daily morning walks, which she called “the secret to our 26 years of marriage.”

Therapy Works opened at Sixth Street and Gateway Drive with one treadmill and a hot-pack machine. The clinic moved again before settling in at 1311 Wakarusa Drive, in 2008. It has grown to have 30 employees and its own wellness and fitness center. But Johnson always saw her mission in the scheme of the larger community.

She has served on the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s ribbon-cutting committee, as a Girl Scout troop leader, and on the boards of several local nonprofits. Her clinic hosts regular seminars on health-related topics. And in 2008, she helped found a local wellness coalition, LiveWell Lawrence, to expand opportunities for residents to be their healthiest selves.

“This community feels like family, and you want the best for your family,” said Johnson, who has the kind of infectious personality that makes it hard not to smile around her. “When a community’s healthy, it can do so many more things, and it thrives and it’s energized and it grows and it flourishes.”

Johnson teaches patients that their pain is usually part of something bigger, too.

“Helping people really understand what’s going on with their body puts them in charge,” she said. “As we teach them about posture or core stabilization, they realize the headache isn’t coming just from the head. It’s coming from muscles not being able to reinforce the spine. … I often joke with patients: I say, ‘You didn’t realize you signed up for an anatomy class.'”

Johnson encourages clients to set goals and dream big. Bob Senecal, a retired KU dean from Lawrence, had undergone rotator cuff therapy and two knee replacements when he showed up at Therapy Works a couple years ago hoping to get back in shape. Now, the 78-year-old and his wife are back to doing the overseas traveling they love. “We just got back from the North Pole,” he said.

Johnson keeps herself in tip-top shape as she approaches 50 by eating a balanced diet and staying active, including running marathons. She recently returned from a backpacking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park with her husband and four children, who range in age from 6 to 18, in which they hiked 40 miles in five days. Johnson called it “the best personal training session I’ve ever had.”

Therapy Works has patients write about their success stories after they graduate from physical therapy. Stories that say things like “What you really did is gave my kids their dad back” really strike a chord with Johnson. And she has her staff preaching the same gospel.

“You can’t just look at the patient when they come in here. You’ve got to look at everyone that patient affects: the patient’s family, co-workers, the kids in his Boy Scout troop,” said Katy Maxwell, who has been the office manager at Therapy Works for the past 15 years. “One person here affects so many other people in the community.”

Going forward, that will continue to be the philosophy for Johnson and Therapy Works. Said Johnson: “You look in the mirror at the end of the day and say, ‘What did I do today to help make Lawrence a great place?'”