The Breakaway Experience Podcast | Episode 2

The speaker discusses what makes Breakaway Physical Therapy different and important qualities to look for in a provider, specifically for pelvic floor physical therapy. They emphasize creating a family-friendly environment, allowing kids to come to appointments, and taking the time to listen to patients' stories. Education is a key aspect, as they enjoy teaching patients about their bodies and how to properly care for them. The speaker values the team approach, as different perspectives can make a big difference in patient success. The goal is to help patients achieve a better quality of life and not let their bodies hold them back. I was talking with a patient recently and she asked me what makes me different, what makes breakaway physical therapy different, and she said to me that if she didn't choose to start her care with us, what would be some things that are important for her to look for in a provider, and more specifically she was looking for a pelvic floor physical therapist. And so it got me to thinking, came back to you know why I started the clinic in the first place, but also to me what's important and what are things that I make sure are always happening in the clinic, because it comes back to why I started it all in the first place. And you know one of the things is having it be a family environment. We get to know our patients so we know what's going on, in your life, and you know as challenging as it is to come in here and work through some of these things, we do our best to make it as enjoyable as possible. Also having kids be able to come to your appointment. I know that as a mom I don't always want my kids with me and it's way way easier to focus when I don't have little people asking me 500 questions. But that being said, if we can't bring our kids and involve them at times with what we need to do, then it really stops us from or prevents us from getting care. So you know I've set up my clinic so that it's family-friendly, meaning we invite kids to come and we've got books and toys and puzzles and all kinds of things. We encourage that and we don't want you to not get the care that you deserve because you've got kids. Bring them along. I would say as well something that's really important to me is that we spend time listening to our patients. So I've worked in the past in models where you know it was like go go go, quick quick quick, get them in get them out type of a thing. And as time has gone on like we've really shifted our model to be truly like one-on-one care where you get the time with your physical therapist because we then really get to know you and your body and we are you know we do some hands-on, we do some exercises, but we're able to guide you through it. So to me there's no value in handing you here's a sheet of paper, go do these exercises at home. If you're not crystal clear on exactly how to do them and your form and why all of that is important. So being able to spend that time with our patients is critical and then coming back to the beginning of listening to your story. You know your body best and so really understanding your history and everything that has happened to your body that helps you be successful and it gives us a lot of information that then translates into a better program which just means more success and it just means you getting to achieve your goals and not have your body hold you back from enjoying life. Another probably one of the most important things that I do and that I love and I teach my entire team is education. I love love love to educate my patients. Sometimes I tell people that the first visit especially if you're coming in for your pelvic floor is one of my favorite visits because I get to teach you. So I pull out the pelvis and I show you exactly where are these muscles what are they doing what's happening and how should the body function properly so that you know when something isn't working and it really teaches you oh yeah maybe I do that like just in case peeing but now I understand why that isn't the best for my body and when you understand that why behind what we're asking you to do everyone we're you know as human beings we're going to be so much more likely to do the things that we're asking and to be successful not only in the short run but also in the long run. So I truly enjoy teaching patients about their body show them the muscles show them exactly what's going on so that then they can put those things together in their head. You know we we love to just spend the time with our patients get to know them enjoy life right we we get to see you a lot throughout the week and it's really an amazing relationship that we're able to build upon and again making it fun is some of the best parts. Yeah so truly truly enjoy what I do and we're always working on looking at you know the experience that you have as a patient. So you think about if you let's say go to the grocery store and you're checking out and the checker is busy and they're you know checking texts on their phones and you know and you're you're just ready to go right you're ready to head out of the store. You know we live in a very technological age and I get that but we also truly enjoy just that like one-on-one attention and we all have a mission and things to go on and so really just giving that time and attention and paying paying the attention that you deserve to our patients and not just on the first visit but every visit after and I am truly blessed to be able to work with a team. You know my team we we get to meet regularly and so we're all on the same page and our patients do get to see more than one provider and you know you won't you wouldn't be moved from person to person however being able to see more than one person I always say you know two heads are better than one four eyes are better than two. We all come at this with a little bit of a different perspective and so we really value this team approach and we find that our patients actually do better because until you understand or things make sense what we're cuing you to do you're not going to be successful so I can tell you ten different ways how to activate those lower abdominals but until it clicks in your brain it doesn't really make sense so sometimes just hearing it from a different perspective from a different team member makes the biggest difference but I just truly love you know working with my team and getting to you know enjoy this this whole patient experience and helping to get people to not just achieve a goal of pain relief or release from their leakage but we aim to look bigger so how are these symptoms impacting your life and then what does that mean to you right so why is it important that you exercise well for some it might be that's their like me time and they get to like get out of their own head and they get to just focus on their body so not being able to exercise is really affecting their sense of self or it might be that you enjoy exercising with yourself or with your kids and that it's more affecting your relationships or you know your entire family so we really spend the time with our patients to understand what's going on from a big picture because that's what we're all looking to achieve right is live our best life and not have our body hold us back enjoy our families enjoy the time that we have have fun do all those activities I think that that's you know what we're all seeking so again truly truly blessed to have such an amazing team that we can make such a difference in so many people's lives