Meet Brita DeStefano // Pediatric Physical Therapist & Owner, Progress Through Play
When her son was born in 2014, Brita DeStefano noticed something the healthcare system wasn't addressing: infant feeding, movement, sleep, reflux, and development are all deeply connected. That realization became the foundation of Progress Through Play, the pediatric physical therapy practice she built in Denver around one idea: babies' bodies are connected systems, not a list of separate problems to solve.
Now, Brita spends her days helping parents see past the panic of a diagnosis. She's running the kind of practice she believes in: one where there's enough success to go around, and her fellow providers are collaborators, not competition. We talked about the moment that shaped her clinical philosophy, the parenting years that built her business, her idea of a sustainable career, and the confidence she lends anxious parents until they can find their own.
Tell us who you are in a few words.
I'm a mom, founder, pediatric PT, coffee enthusiast, audiobook addict, eldest daughter, and enneagram type 3. I’m always looking to check off my next to-do list item, and always in charge of coordinating travel, girls nights, and play dates. I love snuggling babies, connecting people, building community, and finding any excuse to book a flight or try a new restaurant.
You initially trained as a ballet dancer long before pediatric PT was the plan. Walk us through your journey.
It's always been about movement. I started dancing at age three; I've always been the person who goes all in, and by the time I was a teenager I trained pre-professionally. It was an incredible experience but also hard on my body. I had several injuries that landed me in PT, and I can trace my career back to one physical therapist when I was 15. Frankie would pull out anatomy models during our sessions and teach me how muscles, joints, and the nervous system all worked together. I’d always been a huge science nerd, so I was hooked!
By college, I realized PT was the perfect intersection of those interests, so I studied neuroscience at Tulane before earning my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at Emory.
I entered PT school convinced I'd work with dancers and performers, but somewhere along the way, I fell in love with pediatrics. I was drawn to the incredible impact you can have early in a child's life, and the ability to support not just babies but whole families.
You started noticing the gap in infant care after your first child was born in 2014. Was there a moment that made you think "there has to be a better way?”
What surprised me most was how disconnected the care felt. Everyone focused on treating individual symptoms, but no one was really connecting the dots between feeding, movement, tension, and development. We white knuckled it through oral ties (ouch!), reflux, ear infections, colic etc., without knowing how connected they all were.
After having my son, I started seeing the same patterns in my patients that I'd experienced firsthand: feeding, movement, sleep, reflux, head flattening, body tension, and development aren't separate issues, and I had to start looking at the bigger picture.
After my daughter was born in 2016, I spent a few years as a stay at home mom, and that season of life gave me the perspective to understand not only what babies need, but what parents need too. That's how my kids inspired Progress Through Play. I wanted to create the kind of support I wish I'd had as a new mom: a practice that looks at the whole baby, partners with other providers, empowers parents with knowledge, and helps families feel supported through the whole first year.
So much of your growth has been word of mouth throughout Denver, with one recommendation leading to the next. What did the work look like to get to this point?
Slow and steady! Starting PTP right before COVID hit in the fall of 2019 definitely influenced the early years of my business growth, but actually gave me the amazing gift of time, which I used to spend building relationships with all of the other amazing providers around town. Ask anyone: I'm the queen of a networking coffee! Need a recommendation for a lactation consultant, pelvic floor therapist, or other practitioners? I'm your gal! I absolutely love connecting people; I joke that I'm everyone's biggest cheerleader. There's enough success to go around, and I love seeing my friends' businesses thrive alongside mine.
I’ve never invested much into traditional marketing or advertising, instead focusing on building a presence in the community and making sure every family has an amazing experience with us. Over time, this has led to most families finding us through word of mouth or direct referrals from other incredible providers. There really isn't a bigger compliment than having a provider we admire or family we've worked with trust us enough to send their friends our way.
Starting your own practice must have been a big decision. Have you always known you’d take the entrepreneurial route and grow a team?
Entrepreneurship was never something I envisioned earlier in my career, but now that I'm here, I can't imagine doing anything else. As a Type A eldest daughter, I like getting things done my way! It turns out those personality traits are pretty useful when you're building a business.
I left the traditional clinic because I wanted the freedom to practice the way I knew families deserved: longer appointments and a whole baby approach, meaningful collaboration with other providers, and flexibility to create the work/life balance my family needed. The only path forward was to create it myself.
I never imagined that PTP would grow into what it is today. Building a team was never in the plan, yet that part has been both the most rewarding and humbling of the journey. As a PT, no one teaches you how to hire, lead, market, manage finances, or build a company. I've learned most of it through trial and error.
We imagine it’s hard not to absorb parents’ anxiety about their babies. How do you leave work at work when it’s so personal to you?
I'm not the best at leaving work at work. There are absolutely babies whose stories stay with me long after I leave the clinic; I’m frequently chatting with my team in the evenings about cases and brainstorming 24/7. That said, one of the greatest things I can offer anxious parents is my confidence. After treating thousands of babies and now having the perspective of raising older kids myself, I'm able to be the calm in the room for both babies and their parents. I can see beyond the anxiety of the moment and help families focus on what really matters.
What's funny is that I wasn't always able to do that for myself. In the middle of my own feeding journeys with my babies, I felt like I was losing it. Every challenge felt huge because it was my own child. But when it's someone else's baby, I can ground myself much more easily; I have the benefit of perspective and knowing that most of these challenges are temporary. Parents often just need someone to borrow that confidence from until they find it themselves. What I really want is for parents to be able to enjoy their baby and approach their development with curiosity over anxiety.
What have you struggled with and/or learned in these past few years?
Learning to ask for help, delegate, trust others, and let go of control has been the hardest part—and still something I'm working on. There's a huge difference between maintaining high standards and believing you're the only person who can meet them, and it took me a while to realize that doing everything myself wasn't sustainable.
I've also learned to trust my instincts and stop overthinking every decision. Looking back, so many of the best things that have happened for PTP came from simply saying "yes" to an opportunity. Whether teaching a class, speaking on a podcast, hiring a new therapist, or opening a new clinic, I've found that growth often comes from taking the leap before you have all the answers.
At the same time, I've learned that saying "yes" only works if you're also comfortable saying "no." Building a business has taught me the importance of setting strong boundaries and protecting my time, my energy, and my family. Some of the best decisions I've made have been the ones where I walked away from something that didn't align with our mission or work for my family.
What's in your ears or your hands right now that has nothing to do with work?
You can always find me with my AirPods and an audiobook; getting lost in a good mystery, thriller, or historical fiction novel is one of my favorite ways to unwind. This summer, my kids have been on a real boba tea kick, so it’s been fun exploring new flavors with them. I thrive on daily routines and my favorite form of self care is my morning ritual. I wake up before the rest of the house, drink my coffee, do the New York Times Connections puzzle, scroll social media for a bit, and do my red light mask. It's nothing fancy, but that quiet hour before the day begins is crucial for my sanity.
Ten-plus years in, what does success look like for you right now?
Success is creating a career that I don't feel like I need a vacation from. It's building a business that allows me to do work I genuinely love while still having the flexibility to be present for my family and enjoy life outside of work. It's also creating that same opportunity for my therapists. I want them to have meaningful careers without sacrificing their own families or well-being. Success is seeing one of my therapists nominated for Colorado Parent Magazine's Family Favorites, watching my team collaborate to solve a tricky case, or having a family come back with their second or third baby because they trust us so completely.
Any common myths you regularly find yourself debunking?
I think the biggest question we get asked all the time is "why would a baby need physical therapy?" Most people don't realize my job exists until they need it! My answer is always the same: they have bodies just like you and me, and they deserve to feel good so that they can do all the things babies need to do: eat, sleep, roll, and crawl. I think people picture PT as something you only need after an injury or surgery, so they're surprised to learn how much pediatric physical therapists do, especially for infants. The first year of life is when the foundation for lifelong movement is built. If we can help babies move more comfortably, more symmetrically, and with greater confidence from the very beginning, we're giving them a gift for life.
Is there anything else PTP offers that you’d like to highlight here?
One thing I'd love people to know is that our support doesn't stop with physical and occupational therapy. One of my favorite parts of Progress Through Play is creating opportunities for families to build community and confidence beyond one-on-one sessions. We love hosting our milestone-focused baby play classes, teaching infant massage, holding space for families navigating oral ties through our free Tongue Tie Support Group, and our newest offering, Dads + Donuts, a rough and tumble play class designed just for dads.
How should folks get in touch? Drop your links.
Hang with us on Instagram (@progressthroughplay) or shoot me an email at brita@ptpdenver.com Our website is www.ptpdenver.com.
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