Mountain Physical Therapy and Fitness Center owner Mireille Bierens said she will leave money on the table if it comes down to doing what’s right for patients.  

“My team knows that and that is very important to me. Retention is easier than getting new patients. But, because you come to physical therapy already in a not fun situation ... I want people to feel at home here,” she said.  

She said owning a medical clinic is not for the faint of heart — there are hiring challenges, insurance payouts to wait on and costly equipment to repair. But, creating a place where patients feel comfortable has always been her goal. 

“One patient I had a conversation with said ‘I love you guys so much because you accept me for who I am.’ Especially Kelsey at our front desk — she knows the people’s dog’s names, she knows their kids ... The human part is amazing. Especially if you see people coming in very apprehensive about physical therapy and then being so grateful to be here,” Bierens said.  

The clinic offers a myriad of services, including manual therapy, pelvic floor and women’s health, dry needling, cupping and functional fitness — helping people to reach a place where they can stay active and mobile. 

The business offers a full gym and aquatic therapy pool, which Bierens describes as “their pride and joy.” The 15- by 18-foot pool is always heated to 94 degrees and is a welcome relief for those recovering from injuries or chronic pain. The gym is available to established patients who want to continue working on their progress.  

Specializing in recovery from sports injuries, personal injury, pain management, pre- and post-surgical care, Bierens said her team can tackle almost any area of need.  

The practice has been open since 1997 but was purchased by Bierens in 2020. Taking ownership of a clinic at the start of the pandemic was a challenge at times, but her patients continued to come in because they were deemed an essential service.  

Still, it wasn’t the easiest time to operate a business.  

“One of my employees got Covid that year, so we had to shut down for a whole entire week. And I had a cleaning company disinfect the whole entire clinic,” she said.  

Since then, Bierens and her team have had the opportunity to continue growing. The clinic has five providers — three are doctors in physical therapy and two are physical therapy assistants.  

Recently, she hired someone with a specialty in women’s pelvic floor health, which are scarce in the area, she said.  

“It took me about seven months to find somebody. We’ve done a tour for some OBGYN doctors and midwives and they were super happy, because a lot of the pelvic floor professionals here are full ... And she’s doing awesome, she’s already 90% full,” Bierens said.   

When a new patient comes in, they begin with manual physical therapy, which could be a massage, cupping or stretching. Then they graduate to exercise in the treatment room, and as the patient improves, they start exercises that focus on gaining more range of motion and muscle strength in the gym.  

One of their providers also offers guidance in nutrition, she added. Another has a certification in vestibular and concussion protocols.  

“I started with two and a half providers, two full-time and one part-time, and we’ve been slowly growing into what we are right now,” she said.  

Bierens is Dutch, born and raised in Europe. She came to the U.S. in 2000 and graduated college, planning to be a physical education teacher. But, instead, she jumped into the world of being a real estate broker. Eventually, she moved to the Flathead Valley and started working at The Wave in Whitefish, where she got familiar with aspects of running a physical therapy business. 

“I was the marketing director for The Wave and the physical therapy business that used to be in there ... The first day of my new job was like, ‘Well, this is fun. I’m selling a product I know nothing about.’ So, it was a trial by fire, but it was super fun,” she said.  

Following her stint at the WAVE, she started Ruby Physical Therapy with two of her former gym coworkers in 2017. When they wanted to sell part of the company to an investor in California, Bierens knew she didn’t want to go back to the corporate world.  

“So I sold my shares back to them,” she said. “And I knew that Mountain Physical Therapy was for sale, and the owners wanted to retire ... I went to the bank and asked if they would finance me. It took a bit for me to get all the pieces together, but we closed in May of 2020, right in the middle of Covid-19 situation.” 

With their team slowly growing since then, Bierens said she’s formed a good relationship with the physical therapy assistant program at Flathead Valley Community College. “Blown away” by the quality of physical therapy assistants who graduate, Bierens said she always has a student working in her clinic, and that she has hired many of them in full-time positions after they graduate.  

Hiring people who are doctors in physical therapy can get a little trickier. She said some get hired during their junior year of schooling, making it a competitive process. 

“There’s a huge gap now between physical therapy assistants and doctors. There’s not a lot of people that take the whole doctor route anymore. So hiring doctors in physical therapy is challenging,” she said.  

The clinic is one of the only places offering physical therapy services in that part of Evergreen, and Bierens has found herself engaged in ways to give back to the community. Mountain Physical Therapy and Fitness Center won the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year award in 2024, and Bierens stays active as a member of the Rotary and Evergreen Chamber of Commerce.  

“I am of the opinion that if you have a business in a certain area, you have to give back to that area ... I believe, and especially for Evergreen, there’s so much work here to do, and we’ve done already so much. People have such a heart for Evergreen,” she said.  

To learn more about Mountain Physical Therapy and Fitness Center, visit mtnpt.com.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4440 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.