Former Red Sox All-Star, Wife Open Physical Therapy Practice In Newtown

NEWTOWN, CT — A former Boston Red Sox All-Star and his wife have opened a new physical therapy practice in Newtown, bringing a facility focused on pelvic health, orthopedic care and recovery services to their hometown.

Monarch Physical Therapy, located at 61 Church Hill Road next to Newtown Hardware, was founded by Dr. Chelsea Barnes, PT, DPT, and her husband, retired Major League Baseball pitcher Matt Barnes.

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The practice will celebrate its official opening with a ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 4. The event is open to the public.

The couple designed the practice with a focus on pelvic health and orthopedic wellness, drawing in part from the treatment and recovery resources Matt Barnes had access to during his professional baseball career.

"Bringing in Matt's expertise was important," Chelsea Barnes said in a statement. "We wanted it to feel like a spa, not like a medical office. And we wanted to promote a full body approach to wellness for all our patients and visitors."

Chelsea Barnes said the goal was to bring the type of individualized physical therapy, workout programming and recovery resources available to professional athletes together under one roof.

"The gold standard for me is that Matt had access to amazing one-on-one physical therapy, a custom workout program, and an opportunity to recover," she said. "We're offering all those opportunities in one location, which formally didn't exist anywhere in the area."

Monarch offers pelvic floor physical therapy, pregnancy and postpartum care, orthopedic physical therapy and support for runners and patients experiencing joint pain or sports injuries. The facility also offers one-on-one care, a recovery room, small-group fitness classes, an infrared sauna, red light therapy and compression massage.

For Chelsea Barnes, opening the practice in Newtown was personal. The couple has lived in town for nearly nine years, and their son attends school there.

"After my son was born I discovered there weren't any pelvic floor specialists, so I said to myself one day I'm bringing it here," she said.