Congratulations, Jaime!!
Jaime Bicknell, 37
Plans have frequently changed for Jaime B. Bicknell, but by finding inspiration at various twists and turns she’s trailblazed a path to become one of the leading women’s health physical therapists in the north country.
Originally from Potsdam, Mrs. Bicknell earned her bachelors in business and technology and later a masters and doctorate in science and physical therapy from Clarkson University with the hopes of eventually starting her own practice.
“But as times have changed, my focus changed a little bit,” Mrs. Bicknell said. “I ended up working at the Canton-Potsdam Hospital for about 12 years as an orthopedic neuro-physical therapist.”
That wasn’t enough. She was still driven towards that idea of opening up a clinic, but at the same time her life was changing.
“I really needed a change. I was doing basic therapy and women’s health therapy, but with my business background, I wanted to have my own practice. But that wasn’t kind of working out as a young mom with kids and things like that,” Mrs. Bicknell said. “So, I took on a leadership role at the hospital and became a supervisor for about a year and then an opportunity presented itself at Clarkson University.”
Now the director of clinical education and clinical assistant professor at Clarkson University’s Physical therapy program, Mrs. Bicknell found some of the flexibility she needed while still having the ability to practice. But again, she was driven to do more.
“In that time frame, I became a Mom and developed a passion toward women’s health having gone through some issues myself,” Mrs. Bicknell explained. “So, I turned my field towards women’s health physical therapy, took a lot of self-directed classes and went to training classes in women’s pelvic therapy. I did that for a couple of years and kind of worked on my certification there.”
Eventually, Mrs. Bicknell earned her certification, making her the only official board-certified specialist in women’s health physical therapy in northern New York and one of only around 500 in the country.
Reflecting back on the twists and turns, working at Canton-Potsdam, starting a family, Mrs. Bicknell said that was all incredibly important, and that she thinks her professional career could’ve been misguided without the maturity that came with it.”
“I’m actually really happy with everything and the way life has played out for me. If I’d look back, I never planned on having three kids. No one really plans on certain things, but I always found myself as a leader,” she said.
Now with her three kids in school, things are still hard, but Mrs. Bicknell said she has found a little more time. She said keeping organized helps, but often times she relies on a close circle of family friends—something she believes is special about north country communities—to help share some of the herculean efforts to manage taking care of the kids.
“We call it ‘framily’, we have a great ‘framily’,” Mrs. Bicknell said chuckling. “We have friends that are like family and we all help each other out, so if we need someone to drive a kid, they’ll take ours and we’ll take theirs. That’s one of the reasons why I love the north country so much is we have such great close relationships and everyone is just willing to help out with everyone.”
Those kinds of community bonds and friendly interactions, Mrs. Bicknell believes, are at the core of what makes the north country great. That extends to business as well, and young people who are looking for a supportive network from which to launch or grow their career.
“If you want to be in an area where people see you, people care about you and people support you, then the north country is that place. If you go elsewhere in the big cities, yeah it’s great, yeah it’s fun, but you’re not going to have that personal connection, that personal ability to grow yourself and have that support,” Mrs. Bicknell said “It’s just not there.”
Outside of work and family life, Mrs. Bicknell said she and her daughters are trained and regularly volunteer with the Potsdam Humane Society.
~Vaughn Golden
