Meet Dr. Sara Tanza

Dr. Sara Tanza (She/Her) came into the world of physical therapy in college after suffering a running injury while competing on the Triathlon Team at University of California, Santa Barbara. Seeing first hand how it helped get her back into racing again sparked her interest in this career path.

Dr. Sara Tanza went on to receive her doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco where she started advanced training in Functional Manual Therapy while still in school. Dr. Tanza was extremely pulled to further her ability to improve patient’s neuromuscular function, so she went on to complete a year long residency at Kaiser Vallejo, being trained in Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation. While in residency and in the years she worked there after, Dr. Tanza used this philosophy to treat hospitalized patients with spinal cord injuries, strokes, traumatic brain injuries, multiple trauma, Guillain Barre, MS, and more. She also completed the prestigious Certification in Functional Manual Therapy from the Institute of Physical Art in 2014. This treatment approach gave Dr. Tanza a new frontier of evaluation tools and treatment techniques to address musculoskeletal conditions as well as the neuromuscular ones she was treating.

Dr. Sara Tanza was born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA. When she and her husband were thinking of starting a family, there was no other place they wanted to be. Dr. Tanza switched out of the hospital setting to work in outpatient physical therapy. Soon after, Dr. Tanza began to dive deeper into the world of Pelvic Floor physical therapy, realizing very quickly that it was a much needed tool for an underserved population.

In opening her own practice, Dr. Sara Tanza chose the name “Pelvic Potential” because of her favorite quote by Maggie Knott: “Every human being has untapped, unlimited potential”. This is the lens that Dr. Tanza uses to view every patient she treats, meeting them where they are at while working to achieve their desired lifestyle and performance goals.

Dr. Sara Tanza lives in Aptos, CA with her husband and two young sons that bring so much joy (and craziness!) into her life. When not in the clinic, Dr. Tanza enjoys her role as the Assistant Race Director of She.Is.Beautiful 5k and 10k. In her free time, she loves running with her local Arete Women’s Running team, hugs, coffee dates, cooking and enjoying time with her family and friends at the beach and in the forest.