Therapy Abroad

Program Reviews

Joyce
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Very fun!

I enjoyed my time in Belize with the girls I as with and learned more about the nuances of my field. I liked getting to spend time with the faculty in an environment outside of the normal university scene and see them relax a bit and have fun alongside us! The experiences there was great like the work we did in the clinic with the kids and also the snorkeling trip! The food was great (shout out stewed chicken rice and beans from Vino Tinto in Belize City) and so were the views. The locals were open and kind when you interacted with them.

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?
Hudut, a traditional Garifuna food of fish boiled in coconut milk and served alongside plantains and coconut rice. The whole fish in a small bowl was fun!
Pros
  • Beautiful views
  • New perspectives
  • Yummy food (stewed chicken rice and beans 🤤)
Cons
  • The catcalling culture was a shock
  • The outward staring was also a shock
  • Smell of sargassum was strong
Taylor
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Forever grateful

I will forever remember this trip. Traveling to Belize with Therapy Abroad has been an absolutely amazing, educational, adventurous trip. From the housing, to the organizers, to clinic, everything about this experience was great. Chad was an excellent guide and had so much experience to share. I loved all of the restaurants selected and the beaches and snorkeling were so much fun. I also built some great friendships along the way. I would definitely travel with this program again if I had the opportunity. I cannot recommend it enough! Thank you so much Therapy Abroad!

What was the most surprising thing you saw or did?
Swam with sharks!
Pros
  • Made great friends
  • Helped kids and their families
  • Ate great food
Cons
  • I couldn’t stay longer!!!!
Ryleigh
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Therapy Abroad is amazing!!!!!

Therapy Abroad held an absolutely amazingly fun trip!! During this 6 night trip we helped kids on the island of San Pedro, Belize with speech, language, and hearing. Chad and Ms Patty were incredibly supportive and fostered a professional environment while also allowing for a great time. We had three days in the clinic where we got to experience a very rewarding environment helping those in this community. Therapy Abroad also planned a lot of tourist activities for us to do such as snorkeling with sharks, trying new foods, and seeing Mayan ruins.

I definitely recommend Therapy Abroad!!
Go Chad and Ms Patty!!

What was the most nerve-racking moment and how did you overcome it?
Swimming with sharks!!! I am terrified of sharks but it was actually really fun and a once in a lifetime experience.
Pros
  • Well planned
  • Included a lot of activities (educational and fun)
  • Very supportive team
Cons
  • You have to be flexible
Frida
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Belize!

Where do I even begin…This experience has been fun and informative! I spend a week in Belize with my UH classmates and professors and I can honestly say we have come back a much closer group! I had so much experiencing the rich culture in Belize while also doing fun activities like snorkeling and the Mayan cites. The clinic portion of this trip has truly made me grateful for this opportunity. Working with the people of Belize was such a rewarding experience. My week in Belize was pact with so many wonderful memories that I will cherish forever and I cannot wait to come back !

What was the most surprising thing you saw or did?
I went snorkeling and swam with sharks! I do not like swimming or being in bodies of watercress, but this was something I HAD to experience and I am so grateful that I did.
Pros
  • Experiencing the rich culture and food
  • Excursions
  • Shopping
Deanna
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Wonderful Opportunity

Therapy Abroad made great efforts to keep out program running smoothly. When schedule changes were made, it was communicated efficiently. I could tell how well coordinated the program was and the time and consideration that was put into the daily itinerary. I especially enjoyed the new addition of community outreach. Being able to leave parents and teachers with resources and information about speech pathology and audiology felt more assuring. They were able to take physical resources back to their homes or schools which I saw they were grateful for. Overall, great experience!

Pros
  • Efficiency
  • Helping the community
  • Team building
Liz
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Dominica May 2025

Great experiences - getting variety of populations and settings. Would have liked clearer faculty expectations and idea of what conditions were for each setting prior to coming but we will be fully prepared now for next time. Also, we will likely do less dinners as group and allow students stipend to get other meals as too much of same food. Katie was phenomenal and is perfectly suited to what she does. The drivers were also very knowledgeable and wonderful with our students through the trip. We will be back!

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?
Pack light and remain patient with island time
Pros
  • Wonderful people
  • Beautiful nature
  • Diverse experience
Cons
  • Needed more info ahead of time
  • Repetitive food
  • Not much open on island this time of year (not in your control)
Dena
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Dominica Review

The locals were friendly and the water beautiful. The activities didn't have very much structure when we went to the nursing homes but that was more of a cultural thing. The hospital tour and water activities were all well structured. I enjoyed the reef and beach were lovely but I would have loved to have more time for swimming. The nursing homes were very sad, I felt like with proper help they could make great progress, but they didn't have the option. The terrain was bumpy, bring comfy sneakers and shoes.

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?
Bring more clothes there's no good way to wash them 😅
Pros
  • Friendly
  • Informative
  • Fulfilling
Cons
  • Depressing
  • Crowded
  • No AC
Lydia
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Dominica Review

It was a great trip and experience! I would have liked if we could do more hiking since that is what Dominica is known for. I also think there should have been more physical therapy things. While we did go and see people in their home, it was just for a day. I think maybe a couple days of that would be great. I think we also should have been better prepared about the patients we would see like in the infirmary or PHARCS, most of the time we didn’t know what we were doing and the staff from the place expected us to do a lot. Overall it was a good experience and I would recommend students to go!

What was the most surprising thing you saw or did?
I have never been or seen a waterfall that big so going and experiencing that was fun. And that we got to go in the pool below the waterfall.
Charlie
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

FSC DPT Dominica Trip

I had a fantastic experience with Therapy Abroad. It allowed me to see an area of the world I never thought I would be able to otherwise see or experience, as well as how the healthcare system here worked. This is as a great opportunity to open my eyes to the other parts of the world. I felt that the trip did a good job balancing opportunities to explore the natural beauty of the country as well as the healthcare field. We viewed a wide variety of settings in a short amount of time supplying a very holistic sense of the medical system here.

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?
I ate dashee (purple ground vegetable) and hadn’t before. It was alright
Pros
  • Saw a new country
  • Got to enter a hot springs
  • Widened my healthcare experiences
Cons
  • Potentially Dangerous City
  • Sometimes weird food (tasted fine by internally my body disagreed with it)
Brooke
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Therapy Abroad Dominica

Such an amazing trip!! I learned so much about the rich culture and health care systems in Dominica. Katie our tour guide was absolutely amazing and kept us all in check and shared so much knowledge about the country. The drivers were also very friendly and got us to our locations very safe. The food was amazing and the clinical sites were a very positive experience and definitely will help me for my future career as a physical therapist. I would highly recommend this trip to some of my peers as it truly changed my outlook on physical therapy.

What was the most surprising thing you saw or did?
The different types of stories and communication styles of the clients.