Thrive OT: Where Holistic Health Meets Rural Accessibility

How a Small-Town Practice Is Revolutionizing Wellness in Harlan and Beyond

When Erica Stevens started her occupational therapy practice in Harlan, Iowa, in 2017, she was addressing a gap most residents didn't even know existed. Today, Thrive Occupational Therapy, Health & Wellness PLLC has grown from a one-woman mission into a team of ten professionals serving multiple communities across Iowa and Nebraska.

"I kept seeing the need to provide services that weren't available," Stevens recalls. "I would come home from work and tell my husband, 'They need pelvic floor therapy, they need somebody addressing mental health with their physical health.' I kept thinking, how can I help people before these conditions become chronic?"

From Business Skills to Holistic Healthcare

Stevens' journey to founding Thrive OT wasn't a straight path. After graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in psychology, she spent a few years in sales at Coca-Cola in Kansas City before pursuing her master's in occupational therapy.

"While I didn't see myself selling Coca-Cola forever, my passion for business prevailed, now with a new product," Stevens explains. "I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and while that wasn't in the front of my mind when I went to graduate school, it's woven into who I am."

After completing her OT education in 2016, Stevens worked in various healthcare settings across rural Iowa and Nebraska, doing "a little bit of everything" from skilled nursing facilities to hospitals and home health. This diverse experience showed her the gaps in rural healthcare—particularly for specialized services like pelvic health therapy.

Building a Market That Didn't Know It Existed

The challenge wasn't just opening a practice—it was introducing services many residents had never heard of.

"I thought, 'I'm going to throw spaghetti at the wall here and see what sticks and what services my town needs,'" Stevens says. Her approach was refreshingly grassroots: "I started showing up places in town. Anywhere within an hour and a half radius of Harlan that would let me present and speak on these topics."

These early outreach efforts included unexpected venues like a ladies' night at a local hair salon, where Stevens distributed questionnaires to gauge interest. She spoke at local practices, to herbalists and massage therapists, and eventually at the local hospital where she presented on pelvic health to their obstetrics and gynecology department.

"We have gone from one patient trusting me to nearly 1,000 and counting trusting our team," she notes with pride.

Three Pillars of Comprehensive Care

Thrive OT's approach to occupational therapy revolves around three interconnected areas Stevens identifies as essential to comprehensive wellness:

1. Pelvic and Core Health - Addressing conditions like incontinence, postpartum recovery, and chronic back pain
2. Lymphatic and Fascial Health - Working with the body's connective tissues and fluid systems
3. Mental and Emotional Wellness - Recognizing the crucial connection between physical symptoms and psychological well-being

"I created this framework when I realized some of the tools from my lymphatic training were really pertinent to the care of pelvic floor patients," explains Stevens. "And my other OT skills were essential to helping individuals beyond just the pelvis."

This integrated approach differentiates Thrive OT from traditional medical models. "It's a hard concept to market because we call it pelvic floor therapy, but in my brain, I'm looking at the whole person," Stevens says.

Meeting Rural Healthcare Needs

For residents of Harlan and surrounding communities, Thrive OT offers specialized care that would otherwise require significant travel.

"Our patients and clients in Harlan are extremely loyal," Stevens observes. "They're wonderful. They don't miss appointments. We are constantly booked with our Harlan location because people now see this service as valuable."

The impact is immediately evident in patient feedback: "Everyone says, 'Oh, thank goodness you're here. I can't imagine having to drive an hour when I just had a child. I can't afford or don't have the time to drive an hour to get these services somewhere else.'"

This accessibility is transforming healthcare outcomes. Patients come to Thrive OT for issues like back pain, cesarean scar tissue, perinatal care, and menopause—conditions that often receive inadequate attention in traditional healthcare settings.

Beyond the Medical Model

Stevens emphasizes that occupational therapy's potential extends far beyond its common applications. "When I was at my other jobs before I started Thrive OT, I remember feeling stuck in a box of what the medical model wanted me to do as an OT."

Determined to utilize her full skillset, Stevens printed out the occupational therapy practice framework and highlighted areas where she knew she could help people—areas like sleep hygiene, stress management, and holistic wellness.

"Occupation has now taken on a new meaning of things anyone wants or needs to do in their daily life," she explains. "We have many occupations we need and want to do in our day. So we look at person, environment, occupation—all those things, not just your range of motion with your arm."

Growing a Team of Specialists

What began as a solo venture has evolved into a collaborative team. In 2022, Stevens hired her first additional occupational therapist, Marissa Ruhl, who recently became Director of Operations. The team now includes multiple full-time and part-time therapists, including specialists in doctoral-level care and various therapeutic approaches.

"It's been very fun to see the evolution of growth and the type of occupational therapists we're attracting with our more holistic lens of healthcare," Stevens says.

This growth has allowed Stevens to shift into a new role herself. "Providing a space for other OTs and team members to work at Thrive OT...has been such a joy and unexpected. When I started hiring people, I didn't anticipate loving that part so much."

Expanding Access Across Communities

From its flagship location in Harlan, Thrive OT has expanded to include a location in Omaha at Dodge Street and 680, with a third location under development in Gretna.

"There are currently no pelvic floor therapists in Gretna, so there's just a huge need in that community," Stevens explains. "Gretna's half an hour from Omaha, so it feels more like the Harlan vibe in terms of businesses and community need."

Despite this growth, Stevens emphasizes her commitment to the community where it all began: "A sentiment that is important to me is just a thank you to the Harlan community for trusting me and showing me support all of these years. They've watched the growth of Thrive OT like watching a plant grow."

Connecting Symptoms to Solutions

What makes Thrive OT's approach particularly effective is the team's ability to see connections others might miss. Stevens shares an example of a young patient referred for constipation: "If we really get to work with that kid and their sensory needs, we might discover it's anxiety with school or using the restroom at school that's causing this cycle."

By addressing both physical symptoms and their underlying causes, Thrive OT helps patients achieve lasting improvements. This might include treatments for physical conditions like diastasis recti (abdominal separation after pregnancy), lymphedema, or pelvic organ prolapse, but also supporting sleep quality, stress management, and overall wellness.

The results speak for themselves—patients often arrive for one specific issue and discover improvements across multiple aspects of their health. "I've had several clients say, 'You've known this the whole time. You just couldn't tell me in the beginning,'" Stevens notes. "They came in for back pain. They didn't want to hear anything else at that time."

A Foundation for Future Growth

As Thrive OT continues to expand its reach, Stevens remains grounded in the mission that started it all—providing accessible, holistic care that sees beyond symptoms to treat the whole person. "We've been able to create something that truly serves our communities in ways they didn't even know they needed," Stevens reflects. The practice stands as a testament to how rural healthcare innovation can thrive when expertise meets entrepreneurship. For the residents of Harlan and surrounding communities, Thrive OT isn't just filling a healthcare gap—it's revolutionizing expectations of what complete wellness care can look like close to home.

Meet the Thrive OT Team

The success of Thrive OT stems from its dedicated team of specialists who bring diverse expertise to serve the community's needs. Each member contributes unique skills to the practice's holistic approach to care:

• Erica Stevens OTD MOTR/L, Owner & Founder
• Marissa Ruhl MOTR/L, Director of Operations
• Bonnie LaFollette PTA, Office Manager
• Chelsy Pattee, Administrative Assistant
• Julia Anderson OTD OTR/L, Marketing Specialist
• Courtney Hundtoft MOTR/L, Omaha Lead Therapist
• Ella Vazquez MOTR/L
• Laura Rohrer OTD, OTR/L
• Allison Hamre MOTR/L
• Sydney Gress MOTR/L.  

Visit Thrive OT at 524 Market Street, Suite 4 in Harlan or at their Omaha location at 11225 Davenport St., Suite 100. Learn more at thrive-ot.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram. To schedule an appointment, call or text 712-560-0240 or book online at thrive-ot.janeapp.com.