Meet Dr. Aliya Decates-Miller, PT, DPT, GCS
Dr. Aliya Decates-Miller
Aliya is the Owner and Lead Therapist at Cleveland Dance Physical Therapy.
Aliya grew up in Cleveland and spent much of her childhood in the Dance Studio. In middle school she joined her studio’s competition team and dreamed of becoming a professional dancer.
Aliya attended University of the Arts in Philadelphia as a dance performance major, but after a career-ending back injury, she combined her expertise of muscle performance, strength and flexibility from her dance background with her love for science, and ultimately became a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
After 10 years working as a Physical Therapist and honing her skillset Aliya has finally opened her dream practice, working primarily with dancers.
How CLE Dance PT Began
Like many dancers, Aliya experienced various injuries throughout her career. There was a sprained ankle, a broken wrist, and eventually a stress fracture in her lumbar spine. She received standard physical therapy care on and off for her back injury during her senior year of high school and believed that she was healed. However, during her sophomore year of college, her back injury flared up again. It turns out that the old injury had never fully healed and the stress of dancing 8+ hours each day was causing additional damage. Aliya tried a number of treatments but none of her providers worked specifically with dancers. They did not understand the demands she was putting on her body every day,, the movements that she needed to achieve, or how to stabilize the spine so that she would not re-injure again in the future. As a result, Aliya chose to end her dance career and pursue Physical Therapy instead.
Aliya has loved her career as a physical therapist, but over the years, she began to see some of the gaps and shortcomings in our current medical system. She noticed that many clients would be cut off from therapy before reaching their maximum potential due to insurance restrictions, and this concerned her greatly. Aliya was bothered that so many people were paying top dollar to receive care from a therapist whose attention was divided between multiple patients at a time, or restricted by 15-30 minute treatment sessions.
Aliya decided to open her own practice dedicated to providing exceptional and personalized care. She founded CLE Dance PT as a way to ensure that those who need one-on-one, expert care will be able to receive the services that they need! She wants to ensure that dancers have a provider who they can trust understands their specific needs, is up to date on the latest research and training techniques, and who they know is committed to not only healing the injury, but preventing future breakdown!
Education and Experience
After graduating as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Aliya spent a year working in pediatrics before landing a highly sought-after residency position at the Cleveland VA Medical Center, where she studied to become a Geriatric Clinical Specialist. She received her specialization in 2017. During her years at the VA Medical Center, Aliya worked in a number of specialized areas, including the general medicine unit, the post-op unit, the ICU, the Skilled Nursing Facility (nursing home), and ultimately was the lead therapist in the Geriatric Rehab Facility.
Aliya also has advanced training in other specialty areas of physical therapy, including Amputee Care, Pelvic Health (Women’s Health), and Vestibular/Dizziness treatment.
Aliya is active in the Physical Therapy community volunteering as the State Advocate for Ohio APTA Geriatrics since 2018, teaching Doctor of Physical Therapy Students, and having published for APTA Geriatrics in 2022.