Listen to an audio version of this column, voiced by the author.

(The poster of a tiger saying "Trust me" was a gift in 1980 from a patient with balance deficits who often heard Liebermann say those words as she encouraged them to practice transfers.)

As a teenager growing up in Israel, I was grateful to my parents for supporting my desire to find a career that would help society. My mother explored the options in and around our village, looking for a profession that would honor my desire to serve and do something I'd enjoy.

During my senior year in high school, she connected me with a physical therapist student. As I listened with rapt attention to her description of her classes and her clinical experiences, and of the joys of helping patients recover from illness and injury through movement, I was hooked. It was a defining moment in my life, because I knew I was destined to become a PT.