Walk into a busy physiotherapy clinic on a weekday afternoon and you’ll hear a specific kind of noise. Someone counting reps in the gym. A laser unit humming behind a curtain. Two practitioners comparing notes in a hallway about a patient they’re both treating. It’s not quiet, and it’s not a spa. It’s a working clinic.
That’s the environment at Apex Physiotherapy & Chiropractic, a family-owned and -operated practice that’s been in Pickering since 2016. In this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards, Pickering residents voted for it across 11 clinic categories and seven individual practitioner categories in Health, Beauty and Wellness.
Where the Votes Landed
The clinic took Diamond recognition in Best Acupuncture, Best Chiropractic Clinic, Best Massage Therapy, Best Medical / Health Clinic, Best Naturopathic Clinic / Services, Best Orthotic Services, Best Osteopath Clinic, Best Physiotherapy Clinic / Services, Best Physiotherapy for Athletes, Best Reflexology Service, and Best Overall Business in Health, Beauty and Wellness.
Individual practitioners were recognized too. Dr. Jessica Kissoon took Diamond for Best Chiropractor, with Dr. Shawn Gargoum at Platinum and Dr. Cameron Tranchell at Gold in the same category. Dr. Mireille Momdjian took Diamond for Best Naturopath, and Yi Na Sin took Diamond for Best Registered Massage Therapist. Corey Hafner earned Platinum for Best Physiotherapist and Alisha Mistry took Gold.
Readers’ Choice recognition comes from community nominations and votes; it’s neighbours picking the businesses they know. Getting that response across nearly every discipline the clinic offers says something about how widely the practice has spread through Pickering over the past decade.
How It Started
Apex was established in 2016 by Dr. Christopher Gordon-Tennant, who founded the clinic and continues as an owner. Corey Hafner and Shawn Gargoum joined as owners and clinic directors, and the three have built what’s now a genuinely multidisciplinary operation.
The clinic’s stated mission is straightforward enough: honest, high-quality care rooted in the best available evidence and research, delivered in a personable and comforting way. In practice, that means a thorough assessment that first finds the root cause rather than chasing the symptom, then treatment built around what that particular patient actually needs.
It’s an approach patients notice. One review describes a practitioner who explains not just what’s wrong, but what the patient is doing that’s causing it, then follows up with exercises and suggestions. Another describes a practitioner as knowledgeable and down-to-earth. A third credits a clinician with finding the right treatment for a specific running injury.
What’s Actually Offered
The service list is broader than the clinic’s name suggests. Physiotherapy and chiropractic are the anchors, but Apex also offers registered massage therapy, acupuncture, athletic therapy, and a full rehabilitation program with a proper gym and equipment on site.
Then there’s the technology side. Class IV laser therapy, the latest generation of laser treatment, works by increasing circulation to draw water, oxygen and nutrients into damaged tissue, and the treatment itself is painless. Spinal decompression is available as an alternative for patients who’d rather not go the surgical route. Shockwave therapy, which uses radial pressure waves, is a non-invasive option to speed healing in injured tissue.
The interdisciplinary setup matters here. Practitioners collaborate rather than work in isolation, so a patient seeing a chiropractor might also get input from a physiotherapist, massage therapist or athletic therapist on the same case.
Two Locations, Two Regions
Apex now runs out of two locations: 1450 Kingston Rd., Unit 7, and 550 Finch Ave. in Pickering. Between them, the clinic serves patients across Scarborough and Durham Region.
The patient base spans ages and fitness levels; the clinic serves everyone from those recovering from everyday injuries to athletes working their way back to competition, supported by an athletic therapist. That last group is reflected in the Diamond recognition for Best Physiotherapy for Athletes.
What’s Next
For a clinic that’s grown from a single Pickering location into a two-site multidisciplinary practice in under a decade, the work doesn’t change much week to week. Assessments get done. Treatment plans get built. Patients return to what they were doing before the injury.
You can book appointments online and find more information about services and practitioners at apexphysiochiro.ca.
