Alum Opens Calibrate Physical Therapy

Doctor of Physical Therapy graduate builds concierge practice specializing in performing arts and women's health

Key Highlights

• Sacred Heart University alum Amanda Paquin, DPT ’17, has opened Calibrate Physical Therapy & Fitness in Fairfield and New Canaan, Connecticut. 
• Paquin earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy from Sacred Heart University and credits the University's problem-based learning model with shaping her patient-centered approach to care. 
• Calibrate specializes in performing arts rehabilitation and women's health, including pelvic floor rehabilitation. 

Sacred Heart University alum Amanda Paquin DPT ’17, has opened Calibrate Physical Therapy & Fitness with locations in Fairfield and New Canaan. The practice reflects Paquin’s effort to reimagine patient care, combining clinical expertise with hospitality and technology to deliver more personalized treatment.  

Paquin earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) from Sacred Heart after completing her undergraduate degree at Northeastern University. Before pursuing physical therapy, she worked in research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, drawn by a desire to help others and build connections with patients. 

Her path to the field began long before her professional training. Born with hip dysplasia, Paquin spent much of her childhood in physical therapy and later became a competitive dancer, a pursuit that placed added strain on her hips and required additional treatment. An injury during her senior year of high school ended her ambitions of dancing professionally, steering her toward physical therapy as a first major in college. 

“During college, I had multiple hip injections and eventually hip surgery,” Paquin said. “Unfortunately, my post-surgical rehab wasn’t tailored to hypermobility or the demands of the performing arts, and I ended up needing another injection. That experience stayed with me. I went to SHU to earn my doctorate so I could give performing artists and people with hypermobility or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome the tailored rehabilitation I never had.” 

After graduating in 2017, Paquin joined an outpatient clinic in Connecticut, where she completed an online orthopedic certification program. She later worked at a hospital system in the Adirondacks, treating a highly active outdoor population that included aerialists, mogul skiers, cross-country skiers, and bobsledders through the clinic's affiliation with the U.S. Olympic Training Center. 

Paquin and her husband, Jon Filipe, had long discussed building a practice together. The opportunity arrived when the couple moved to Fairfield, where they launched Calibrate out of the back room of a gym with a single treatment table. A year later, they opened a second flagship location in New Canaan. 

“Calibrate Physical Therapy & Fitness is a concierge, fee-for-service clinic,” Paquin said. “We want it to feel warm and welcoming, and we want our patients to know that we are going to take excellent care of them. Within this model, I've been able to specialize in two areas I'm extremely passionate about: women's health and performing arts.” 

Paquin credits Sacred Heart's problem-based learning model with shaping her collaborative approach to patient care. 

“The problem-based learning program put us in small groups and required a collaborative approach to care,” she said. “It taught me as much about people as it did about physical therapy. You learn to listen, to disagree respectfully, and to build on someone else’s idea. That carries straight into patient care. My patients are partners in figuring out their problem, not just people I treat.” 

She added that her Sacred Heart experience continues to inform how she runs Calibrate today. “Sacred Heart taught me to look at the whole person in front of me, not just the body part that hurts,” Paquin said. “That approach is the foundation of Calibrate. We spend a full hour with every patient, because you can't truly understand someone in 15 minutes.” 

Paquin has since expanded her clinical focus to include women’s health and pelvic floor rehabilitation, completing advanced coursework through the Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute and specialized training in pelvic health for dancers and athletes through the New York University Harkness Center for Dance Injuries. She is now one of the few pelvic floor specialists serving the Fairfield and New Canaan area. 

Reflecting on her journey as an alum building her own business, Paquin said sharing the experience with the Sacred Heart community carries personal significance.  

“Sacred Heart gave me my foundation as a clinician, so I'd love to find ways to give back to the physical therapy program and support the students coming up behind me,” she said. “If our story inspires even one person who dreams of opening their own clinic, or of following a path that feels a little uncertain, that would mean more to me than anything.”