Shirish R. Godbole

OTR/CHT

Shirish is the “ORIGINAL PAIR OF ABLE HANDS” since 1994, when AHR PC was established by him in Old Bridge Township, with the help of his beloved wife Minette. Shirish is a Licensed Occupational Therapist and a Certified Hand Therapist. His specialization in Hand Therapy (CHT), was achieved in 1995, when the Hand Therapy was still in its infancy.

Due to hard work ethics, continuation of studies and ongoing extensive experience in all kinds of hand injury and impairments especially traumatic hand injuries, Shirish and AHR PC started gaining traction and trust of all Hand Surgeons in the area. Shirish always worked in close contact with the Hand Surgeons, whether Orthopedic or Plastic, at local and national level, to ensure excellent coordination of care and excellent results for his patients. He is often credited for totally changing the outcomes of hand trauma patient in his office, by treating them successfully and achieving the best possible results.

However, due to due to excessive hard work and repetitive stress and strain over the past 25 years, he has developed serious osteo-arthritis of his hands as well as his neck. He is now in the process of recovery and works only when necessary. He is now a supervising Hand therapist and is always available to all the patients for any advice at AHR PC all the time without any reservations, whenever he is in the office.

Minette C. Godbole

OTR/CHT

Minette became a part of this ‘ultimate husband and wife team’ at Able Hands Rehabilitation PC in 2002, by opening her own Freehold office. She achieved specialization and internationally recognized certification in Hand Therapy by meeting all the strenuous requirements to become a CHT (Certified Hand Therapist) in 1997. She also has extensive experience with all kind of hand injury and/or impairments, especially traumatic hand injuries.

Minette specializes in creating unique, custom and creative static and dynamic splints (Orthotics) for hand injury patients to regain range of motion, for positioning or protection purposes, which is well liked by patients as well as hand surgeons. Minette is also very capable in developing a bond of trust with the patients, which is so important in hand rehabilitation

Dr. ARah godbole

PT, DPT, COMT

Dr. Arah Godbole graduated from Seton Hall University in 2020 receiving a B.S degree in Biology, and soon attended Rutgers University to attain her Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT) in 2023. Arah has gained a vast clinical experience treating a myriad of musculoskeletal, neurological, respiratory and cardiopulmonary pathologies in the in-patient and out-patient environments, spanning across the pediatric to geriatric populations. 

Arah was a competitive gymnast for over a decade, travelling state and country-wide for her gymnastics club. Being an elite athlete herself, her love for gymnastics soon blossomed into a passion for physical therapy after becoming a patient herself multiple times. Arah discovered the importance of achieving one’s physical goals and optimizing function in all individuals. 

Arah hopes to advance her knowledge in the field of Hand Therapy, Manual Therapy, and Kinesiotaping to further optimize treatment and plan of care in all of her patients. 

SAMANTHA HANDS

OTR/L

Samantha is a licensed Occupational Therapist who joined Able Hands Rehab in June 2022. She found her niche in hand therapy and has gained a vast clinical experience in this area. Samantha prides herself in building rapport with the patients and helping them gain independence in occupations they find meaningful. She ensures that each treatment is client-centered and personalized to them to help them reach their highest level of function. 

Samantha graduated with her Bachelors of Science and Masters in Occupational Therapy from Alvernia University in 2022. She began her journey into hand therapy with us as a student in 2021 and has been with us since.  She has attended multiple CEU courses to further her development in this skilled area.

We as human beings, interact with our environment through our hands and make things happen in our professional and personal life. Hands perform millions of functions for us every day without us even thinking about it!

It is exactly the reason why hands are so intricate and complicated.

Compromising the hand functions, due to injury or impairment, can reduce our interaction with the world significantly, affecting our psycho-social life. Loss of hand functions is a devastating blow to any human being and need to be taken seriously.

Certified Hand Therapist’s know how to take care of wounded and disabled hands in a very specialized and methodical way. The goal is to make hands better in function as well as in appearance.

CHT’s are always trusted and preferred by all Specialist Hand Surgeons (Plastic or Orthopedic), to take care of their post-surgical and post trauma hand patients. This trust develops due to our ability to give them excellent results and making their patients happy for regaining as much hand functions as possible.

Certified Hand Therapist’s know how to take care of wounded and disabled hands due to possession of extensive knowledge and experience in treating hand injuries-impairments. They are very good in timely and correct interventions with different ways and means, which is critical in having a very good prognosis.

They know many different treatment protocols for specific conditions such as forearm-wrist and finger fractures, tendon injuries which are very common and nerve injuries as well as crush injuries which usually involve all the structures. CHT’s know the anatomy and physiology of healing hands very well.

They are aware of the psycho-social effects of hand injuries and are very good in establishing a rapport with the patient. That bond of trust they develop with the patient and family is the most important part in successful hand rehabilitation.

CHT’s also have the unique ability to effectively use all modalities such as hot packs, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, TEN’s, NME’s. They also have expertise needed to fabricate multiple custom static and dynamic splints.

Splinting and Orthotics for wrist-fingers and thumb for protection of healing structures or to regain or to retain range of motion is critical for hand Therapy. CHTs know all the diagnoses, conditions and the clinical presentations. They will either make their own educated decision to treat the problem in a certain way or they will communicate with the referring specialist Hand Surgeon and discuss about the course of intervention, if needed!

This close communication and coordination between the hand therapist and a Hand surgeon is essential to formulate and execute a successful treatment plan to regain all hand functions.

Read more about Certified Hand Therapists (CHTs) or our hands-   Ask a question to a hand therapist.