Deryl Pace is happy to be back. 

Pace grew up in Barrington and recently returned to town with the new Ivy Rehab Clinic, located in the Barrington Shopping Center. Pace serves as the clinic director and physical therapist.

“It’s nice to be in my hometown,” Pace said. “It’s nice to be with everybody I grew up with.”

Pace said she has seen quite a few familiar faces since Ivy Rehab Clinic opened its doors last month.

“People are coming out of the woodwork. People I know from the yacht club — I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, I taught you swim lessons,’” she said. “My family is still here. My parents are in Warren. My sister lives on New Meadow Road.”

Pace, who lives in East Providence, said she loves the location of the clinic, and her patients do also. 

“They love the convenience of it. It’s close for them,” she said. “My post-op patients who maybe aren’t driving, they don’t have to deal with that bridge traffic right now. They don’t have to go through Providence.”

Pace had been working in a different Ivy Rehab Clinic in Providence while crews put the finishing touches on the Barrington location. She said she spent one day working in the capital city before the state shut down the west-bound travel lanes of the Washington Bridge. 

“I could not have opened at a better time,” she said. “It’s the shortest commute I’ve had yet. It’s great.”

Pace also enjoys all of the amenities offered at the Barrington location of Ivy Rehab. The clinic is loaded with plenty of space and top-flight rehab equipment. She also has space to provide dry-needling, for those patients who want it. 

“People should expect that we’re going to treat the whole person, help you get back to your goals,” she said. 

Pace said Ivy Rehab caters to a variety of patient-needs. Some of the work focuses on helping people who are recovering from surgeries. Some of it is for folks dealing with chronic conditions. And some is in response to the pandemic. 

“Because of the pandemic, with people being less active, we’re also seeing quite a bit of de-conditioning, postural issues,” she said. “People maybe had to work in uncomfortable environments … a home set-up instead of office. “I’ve treated pretty much everything in the body except the pelvic floor because I’m not certified for that. I love orthopedics. I love hips and feet. I know that’s strange. Just because of my own experiences. Anything from the hip to the foot — knees and everything — I really enjoy.

“You want to be able to do what you like best. If your hobbies are being outdoors — I was just talking with a patient this morning — taking a hike, using their bike, that kind of stuff. Just being active outdoors is really important and nice to do. Taking a hike and not being worried about having a fall. It’s huge, helping a patient return to their goals. Even if it just means dancing with their child at a wedding.”

Best part of the job

Pace’s journey to the Ivy Rehab Clinic in Barrington started years ago. 

After graduating from Connecticut College, she went to work at a boarding school in Connecticut. 

“I wore many hats,” Pace said. “I started out there as an intern, was supposed to stay for one year and it turned into four.”

She lived in the dorm, taught psychology to seniors, served as the school’s aquatics director and the assistant athletic director. 

“I liked it very much,” she said. 

Eventually, she returned to the Ocean State and set her sights on physical therapy. She went back to school, and worked part-time at 426 Fitness. After graduating from URI, Pace went to work at a clinic in Rehoboth, Mass. 

“I was there for seven years. I loved it,” she said. 

The best part of the job, she said, was building relationships with her patients.

“When you’re an outpatient, it could be weeks (in physical therapy). It could be even longer. My longest patient has followed me from Personal Best Physical Therapy (in Rehoboth) to Elite Physical Therapy, which was bought by Ivy Rehab, and he’s still with me today. We’re going on six or seven years together,” Pace said. 

“He has some chronic conditions. I see him pretty frequently for that.”

The Ivy Rehab Clinic in Barrington offers a variety of special programs, including ACL rehab and return to sports, complimentary injury screenings, running analysis, Telehealth, and a workers’ compensation program. It provides treatments that include balance and fall prevention, chronic pain, dry needling, physical therapy, post-surgical treatment, and more. 

Pace said part of her passion in physical therapy is based on overcoming her own injuries in life. In high school she competed in field hockey, swimming and rowing. And she has also run two marathons.

“I’m a firm believer that anybody can do a marathon if they put their mind to it,” she said. “It’s a mental game. If you can get yourself through the training and spend the time on your feet and put in the mileage and the time, then you can get yourself to the starting line. Then it’s a mental game to the finish line.”