As the end of the year approaches, and with a new year on the horizon, I look back on 2011 fondly as a year of inspiration and change.
The first major change was leaving my former clinic, CBI Spine and Sport Physiotherapy after 11 years. I had the privilege of being mentored for 6 of those years by Anita Lorelli Reg PT, a phenomenal clinician with her diploma in MDT from the McKenzie Institute. Although my leaving was met with fear and anger, it was the best decision for me and my family. I have followed my heart and my dreams and opened an idealistic clinic where our goal is to teach you how to get well and stay well. I have surrounded myself with skilful therapists and am looking ahead to the great things that are yet to come.
A game changer was completing my course in pelvic floor physiotherapy. Being able to assess the pelvic floor muscles internally by placing my fingers on the individual muscles and palpating their strength and function has made a huge difference in the effectiveness of my treatments for diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) and incontinence. It also gave me the opportunity to assess for a pelvic organ prolapse and make much better treatment programs for all women.
Another big change was to my DRA program. I had the opportunity to learn from two inspiring physiotherapists that are on the forefront of rehabilitation – Julie Wiebe and Diane Lee. Julie has taken the research on how the core muscles work together and made it clinical. She put that piece of the puzzle in place for me. She changed how I teach recruitment of the core muscles to my patients. In adapting it to my DRA patients, my good friend Kim Vopni of pelvic floor wellness coined the term “the core breath”.
More recently, Diane Lee invited me to take her course on restoring form and function of the abdominal wall after pregnancy. It really underscored the complexity of the compensations that occur with a diastasis and the need for women to be assessed by a physiotherapist prior to beginning an exercise program, particularly post partum. Optimising proper core strategies is essential in resolving a DRA, and resuming a meaningful task.
The year ahead looks just as exciting, building on where we are with more courses, new research and products. Join me for what is sure to be another exciting year. Stay tuned!
What about you? What did 2011 bring?
PhysioExecellence 