Latest / The STA Clinician Podcast / Ep.213 ‘Women In Sports Therapy (WIST) Is back!’ with Sonia Fierro, Gemma Puzas and Sara Packard

Transcript

Ep.213 ‘Women In Sports Therapy (WIST) Is back!’ with Sonia Fierro, Gemma Puzas and Sara Packard · The STA Clinician Podcast

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You're listening to the Sports Therapy Association podcast, putting evidence
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back into soft tissue therapy.
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Music.
0:17
I'm alive. How are you doing? Welcome to the Sports Therapy Association podcast, episode 213.
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My name is Matt Phillips, creator of RunChatLive.com and as always this episode
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is being recorded live on the Sports Therapy Association YouTube channel and Facebook page.
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Very shortly in this episode entitled Women in Sports Therapy,
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WIST is back and I will be joined by the new voices of the Women in Sports Therapy podcast and community.
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Sonia Fierro, founder of Recover Stronger, Gemma Puzas, owner and manager of
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CoreFit Health, and Sarah Packard, founder of Fitness Therapy For You.
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Gemma and Sonia and Sarah will all be presenting Women in Sports Therapy Q&A
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session on day one of Therapy Expo this November at 10.15am in the STA Theatre,
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which is directly after Michelle Lyons,
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my guest from episode 201 a few weeks ago.
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Delivers her Q&A session on muscles and tendons, menstrual, maternal and menopausal influences.
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So before I bring up my guests, I'd like to give a big thank you to my last
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week's guests in episode 202, entitled Exercise Prescription,
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Why Communication Matters, with Andrew McCauley, founder of ProQuest Sports Medicine,
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and Andy Hosgood of Unlock With Andy.
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They will also be presenting in the STA Theatre at Therapy Expo this November
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with Andrew McCauley on day one, exercise dosage in clinical practice,
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and Andy Hosgood on day two with client retention,
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the superpower for business growth.
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Why am I talking so much about Therapy Expo? Because it's coming up.
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It's not on the way. I reckon it's probably about 80 days or less.
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So I'm just giving a little nudge, a little reminder, so we don't have as many
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therapists this year saying, oh, I didn't have time, I didn't organise accommodation,
2:13
I didn't have money, I couldn't get cover in clinic, etc.
2:17
Anyone who's a regular listener to the show will know that the STA is a fantastic
2:21
supporter of Therapy Expo.
2:22
We've been there since the beginning in some capacity or another,
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and it really has turned into the CPD, which all of you should go along to because
2:31
you can tailor it according to your experiences and your needs. So do recommend it.
2:35
Well worth looking into. If you are an STA member, then don't forget you've got a code you can use.
2:41
To get a cheaper ticket up to
2:44
start day and if you're struggling with the
2:47
price that you're being quoted then you may want to
2:50
consider being an sta member because you'll be surprised to see how little
2:52
that costs and the reduction you get off the ticket or you could ask your own
2:56
professional association how come you guys haven't got discount for therapy
2:59
expert not to stir the pot whatsoever anyway as always the episode with the
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andes 212 is available on all podcast apps youtube all popular popular podcast apps,
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YouTube, and on the STA website,
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www.thesta.co.uk.
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Right, I think that is all the back-end office stuff done.
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So what I'm going to do now is bring up, in no particular order,
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my guests for tonight, Sonia Fierro, Gemma Puzas, and Sarah Packard,
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the new voices of the Women in Sports Therapy podcast and community.
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Music.
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You're listening to the Sports Therapy Association podcast with evidence back in soft tissue therapy.
3:47
Hi everyone hi there all right i
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should notice that rather t voice you may you'll be
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pleased to know is actually gary benson founder of the sta who is with us as
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well right so here we are women in sports therapy wist for sure is back i thought
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i was worried about this because my first thing is i was going to say gary found
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the sta women in sports therapy was obviously you were
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very much involved in setting that up so i thought you
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might want to mansplain why we need a women's sports
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therapy which is just digging a grave for ourselves but it was your
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baby in the beginning what what made you think as found at the sta you
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know what we need to be putting this together i think it's because i didn't
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have the requisite knowledge to answer some of the questions that were coming
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to me and my only experience of being a woman is a couple of fancy dress parties
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but we won't go into that alive on the podcast so yeah it was just really putting a message out to
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see if anybody was interested in coming on board and creating a community.
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Fantastic. And that was about, I think it was 2022, February or something.
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And we will be looking back at some of the older podcast episodes with Dr.
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Fiona Higgs and also Deborah Thelo-Roney. That's right. Yeah, good.
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Tonight is all about the relaunch of it. So I'm very pleased to be joined by our guest tonight.
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Gemma, as I can see your face, first of all, no disrespect to Sarah.
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For our listeners, people who don't know you, I think one of the most exciting things I
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found so much for this relaunch it's the different
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varied backgrounds that you three have got and I can
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already see how that is going to provide such a diverse kind
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of inclusive topic and subject and ways of
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supporting people so maybe we could start by you telling us what your background
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is and how that led to you wanting to be involved in the women's sports therapy
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project yeah sure yeah I graduated in sports therapy in 2002 and then I spent
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sort of spent a couple of years sort of working
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push side rugby and football and I
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sort of soon realized that I wanted to set up my own clinic so
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started that in but yeah sort
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of my early early 20s all the way through my 20s sort
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of started building building a business locally building a
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clinic really trying to work a lot with the community and other therapists yes
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I set up my first business Body in Motion and really enjoyed working with other
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therapists and getting to know different professions whilst building my knowledge,
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building business at the same time.
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And in my sort of late 20s, sold the business and then just continued working
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on a self-employed basis at home and would have patients come see me at the house.
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And really, I wanted to start a family.
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So I think I think it made sense to sell the clinic, even though I was really enjoying it.
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A lot of the time, if I was to go on holiday.
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Rather than see the person I'd brought on to take over for me,
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people would say, oh, wait until you come back.
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So I sort of didn't want to be in that position where I took on someone to manage
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it, stepped away, and then it really didn't work financially.
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So it seemed to make sense to sell that.
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So I think then from working, raising a family and working as a self-employed
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therapist, I think over the years there's been several issues that I've had
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trying to keep my hand in, keep my knowledge, keep up to date with all the current
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research, raising a family.
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I think when you step away from being in a
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clinic and surrounding yourself with other therapists you
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become a little bit more isolated and I think I
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did you know trying to maybe go and get jobs at times that I did or work in
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professional football or working in other clinics meant that I would have needed
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to work sort of shift work or come in early do some lates do weekends which
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didn't really work for the family so I've continued doing what I'm doing working from home which I
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think has worked whilst raising a family but I think
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from tonight and over the last few days has
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made me realize that I actually haven't put myself out of my comfort zone maybe enough
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in order to grow so yeah I think I definitely time there's time for a change
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for me and start getting out into the community a little bit more and working
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with other women to help some of the women that have gone through similar things
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with me and try to help them with that basically.
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It's something i want to say first of all i don't mean this in
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a sometimes i hear myself saying and it sounds really
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patronizing but it's so cool when we do get people like yourself because you
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were quite nervous about doing this you don't look at it you don't sound it
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but obviously we chat off air and and and it seems to be quite a common thing
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across the years if you remember i don't know maybe about 10 years maybe eight
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nine years ago there was this whole thing about,
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manels instead of panels there was very much a male presence
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and on podcasts a lot of the guests were men male
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therapists and we discovered
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myself and other podcast hosts that it wasn't
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a case of not asking female therapists
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to come and speak i mean to a certain extent amongst the research there
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is a history of only male therapists but for a lot of female therapists either
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one it wasn't that easy just to give everything up and be there at
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seven o'clock or eight o'clock in the evening and two there was kind of this
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less there was more of this fear this not quite sure whether I deserve it or
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do you think this is a trend amongst women I hate to generalize but because
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you suffered it yourself you've told us your history your career you've got
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so much experience so much to share what is it that makes you nervous.
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I think, again, this kind of thing virtually is not something I do.
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I have patients come in. I'm fine with anyone coming in. And I can face anything because I'm happy.
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You know, if I don't know something, I'm happy to refer on.
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But I guess it's the unknown. That's probably the thing, isn't it?
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You know, fear is the unknown of what's to come, questions to be asked that
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you might not have answers to.
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And I guess not doing these things regularly makes
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it it makes it harder just to step into that
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uncomfortable situation of something you don't
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know what's to come and I guess I listen to a lot of podcasts because
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I love learning love listen to guest speakers
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and experts in their field and then when
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you come onto a podcast it's that expectation that maybe
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people are expecting you to be an expert in your field and
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as much as I feel quite confident in my ability as a
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sports therapist doing doing this
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and being asked for the questions yeah it's not something I'm used to but I
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really would love to go out and talking to schools really interested in injury
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prevention and working with children and I would love to go out in schools and
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do talks so for me this is that little little step closer to maybe building
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that confidence to to go and do that.
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It's amazing the feedback we get from female
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therapists in saying oh thank you it's so nice to see
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other female therapists up there and you're already doing it now
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it makes you feel any better you're inspiring other female therapists thinking
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well if they could do it i can go up and share what i'm doing it's not you
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know so it's and which is exactly i think when we're talking
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beginning why we wanted to kind of set this up and encourage people to
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come on so so thank you sarah even
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though i can't see you at the moment you can
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hear me though i can hear you wonderfully tell us a little bit about
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yourself and again and as as jemma did why you felt
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you want to be part of the women in sports therapy podcasting community
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okay so hi everyone that's
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uh that's listening or watching so my
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history is quite complex so I
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I started off in the fitness industry many years ago
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just doing like a personal training working with pre and postnatal women and
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teaching but then I suffered a very nasty hamstring injury which unfortunately
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stopped me from from doing the sports that I enjoyed which then led into to knee surgery,
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which then stopped me from doing the sports that I enjoyed.
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So I kind of thought I'd really want to get into knowing the body a bit more.
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And I'd like to help people because psychologically, when you've had an injury
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like that, that changes the way that you train, you kind of have to go through
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a big shift psychologically.
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So I thought, well, I've been through that shift. So let's see if I can help others.
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So I started off by doing sports massage, and then I started adding stuff in.
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Did lots of courses, taping, everything, dry needling.
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And then I decided that that wasn't enough and that I wanted to go more on a holistic route.
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So then I did a four-year degree in acupuncture, Chinese medicine.
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And while I was learning that, I also traveled to Italy and I trained with Steko
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and it took about three years to train with them and that was if people don't know about Steko,
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Steko are amazing they're physiotherapist family that are based in Italy and
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they have their own treatment on fascia and this treatment is absolutely mind-blowing.
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When I went on the courses there I met people from all over the world so my
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network of people People are in Kenya, Tokyo, New York, Poland,
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it goes all over the world. And the treatment is the same.
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We fix people internally, externally, people that have problems,
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for instance, indigestion from shoulder pain, so lots of other stuff.
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But I was very fortunate that I became the first one of two certified fascial
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manipulation specialists in the UK.
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So I'm very proud of that. and that was about i think that was nearly seven
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years ago now since then there's a few more of us popping up all over but it
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is very unique treatment people travel far to come and have it and.
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You know, they say I'm wonderful, but I say it's not me, it's the treatment.
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I just administer it. I've learnt it and that's so I can't take full credit for it really.
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So, yeah, you know, I've done other things like iridology, which is amazing.
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That's taking pictures of people's eyes and diagnosing their health.
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It's a little bit out there, but it goes nicely with acupuncture when you're treating people for,
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you know certain conditions that you can look at something else that will like
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be very complementary to that so where I'm at now is that I do a lot of injury
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work with anyone from any age.
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Injuries but mainly my niche if
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you like is a lot of gynae stuff so I treat anyone from
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any female from that moment they start menstruating
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to the moment that they finish when they're trying to
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to get pregnant when they can't get pregnant when they're going through
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IVF when they're having the period from
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hell when they're getting blood clots all that stuff is really what I do but
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I also use the fascia work with that so I do a bit of mix but then I get the
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odd knee person come in as well so my my days are very varied but my passion
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is definitely women's health and when I saw Gary's
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email, unfortunately, went into spam.
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Sorry.
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I saw Gary's email and I was like,
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I could do that. That sounds really interesting. So my husband,
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he went, I think you'd like that. And I said, I think I'd like that too.
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I think it's a really good way to just kind of share your experiences,
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but also be a support network for anyone around you, which we'll talk about maybe a bit later,
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where you can share experiences, but you can also be there as a support.
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I think one of the big keys for me is that I found that as women, we have to do a lot.
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We have to have periods when we work.
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We go through menopause and we still have to work.
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We have babies and we still have to work.
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And not saying men get off lightly, but there's a lot.
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And we don't really talk about it. We kind of do the old British thing,
16:07
which is just get on with it.
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And I don't think we should get on with it anymore.
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I think we should be very vocal and we should say, this is affecting me when
16:18
I work. This is what I need to do.
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And as a sisterhood, if you like, the three of us can come together and hopefully
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end that stigma of not talking and move a little bit forward.
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So that's really why I'm here.
16:37
Fantastic very well put thank you we should
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point out Sonia Fierro who is the other the
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third of you guys is well not ironic at all but she's laden with child at the
16:48
moment and can't make it which is something I'm sure we'll talk about shortly
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in Women in Sports they've been thinking the challenge is one of the many challenges
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you face but it's fascinating listening to both of your backgrounds then we
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mix that with Sonia who we're talking Talking about somebody who's, well,
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I think we just say he's got an Italian deadlift record. That kind of like sums it up nicely.
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I love saying that. But yeah, the massive experience in the sports strength
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side of things, working with elite sport, GB fencing and diving and swimming.
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And so the three of you together already, we can see are going to be a wonderful
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support network and sharing your experiences.
17:20
So we did have WIST in the past and there's some amazing episodes which we will
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let listeners know about shortly.
17:27
But it was interesting to hear when we were talking off air
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about how you want to be more than just a
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podcast so how did that kind of evolve how what are
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some of your goals and aims with this relaunch either for
17:38
you or both of you yeah i mean i think before from from my understanding obviously
17:44
the the podcast were running regularly but i think moving forward as much as
17:50
we want to continue with that and bring in expert speakers guest speakers and
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and have a variety of different topics we cover.
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We also want to open that up a little bit more to build a community.
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And get people involved. And actually, I mean, as much as we've got an idea
18:06
of how we want it to run, we want, you know, we want to build a community,
18:09
a hub where people have a safe space to come in, ask any questions,
18:13
whatever issues they're having, that open space to ask those questions.
18:18
But also maybe look at having some group sessions some
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small group sessions again around the
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times that would work for women and and also look at possibly doing some one-to-one
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mentoring down the line but again is we haven't really finalized exactly the
18:37
way it's going to work because before we do that we want to really talk to people
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talk to all the members get an understanding of what
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else people are having issues with, what else we can do to bring in some other
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areas in which would help people.
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So really getting to know the people within the SDA and finding out how we can
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help and how we can come together.
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And it's not just about the three of us helping everyone and being a support.
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It's about what other members have other things that are different to us with
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with regards to their experience and their background that they can offer.
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So it's just about all coming together as a community to assist others,
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whether it's, you know, the young ones coming in, or whether it's somebody else
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who's all of a sudden going through the same sort of issue that somebody else has had.
19:27
And hopefully from that, we can build a community.
19:32
Sounds good. Sarah, anything you'd like to add to that?
19:35
I think Gemma's summed that up beautifully, really. I really do. No, I think you have.
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I think you have. I mean, it's.
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All I can say is that, you know, as women, sometimes we can,
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especially when we work together, we can be a little bit competitive.
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I don't know what guys are like, but I think when it comes to WIST,
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it's going to be we're all on the same level. We're all in the same wavelength.
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No one knows one more thing than the other.
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You know, when we talk to members, they'll know more than us.
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Us we're not you know we're not experts in everything
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that would be ridiculous so it's kind of like
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everyone's at the same starting point
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that's that's really just what i want to get across
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really to people that's cool that sounds very very healthy and so i presume
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this kind of like supportive community will be based on facebook and and things
20:34
like that and there's a presence now on instagram which has been updated which
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i encourage people to go along i liked the,
20:41
Let's bring this up just for people who are joining us on YouTube and see us,
20:44
Women in Sports Therapy.
20:45
It's little at the moment because it hasn't really had a lot of time invested
20:49
into it, but I do encourage listeners, if you're interested in this project,
20:52
to probably go to Instagram.
20:53
If I know Sonia, for example, like I do, then I think Instagram is going to
20:57
be one of the big sources of information and artwork and stuff.
20:59
So we're talking about UK underscore WIST, W-I-S-T, Women in Sports Therapy.
21:05
And the new description there, I loved seeing this the other day, advocating.
21:10
Redefining and nurturing the first uk community for women
21:12
in sports therapy supported by uksta that's great
21:15
what a great profile it's always a challenge to fit what you want
21:18
to say into the characters you get without just advocating redefining and
21:22
nurturing sounds wonderful so it looks very
21:25
good so i do encourage people listeners to go to that uk underscore wist
21:28
and give it a follow so you can start being
21:31
part of this community as sarah and jemma have suggested
21:34
invested cool and and Sonia's great
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at the the graphics the social media her ideas
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are fantastic and I think just as as we're all starting to get to know each
21:47
other I think the more time we're investing in talking amongst us the more we're
21:52
getting an idea of actually why Gary has put the three of us together because
21:57
we have such different backgrounds and we have such different personalities
22:01
but actually I think we're all very passionate about our jobs
22:05
helping people and and really kind
22:08
of that sisterhood of exactly like Sarah said just supporting
22:11
each other and figuring out where we would be helpful like you know Sonia said
22:18
to me oh Gem I think you would be really good at doing this or you know I've
22:22
been pointing out actually you've got how about this you could actually offer
22:25
this and again talking to Sarah last night there's just so much that Sarah has
22:29
to offer and support that she could be helping others with oh thanks thanks jeff thanks jemma.
22:37
Thanks right i'll take that moment whilst everyone's
22:40
having a group hug to just remind listeners that yeah the three of you are going
22:44
to be at therapy expo this november oh sorry i will be sunning myself away i
22:53
will be there in i will be there in spirit do not worry i will be there That's great.
22:58
I'll get it all updated. It's no problem at all. A few emails.
23:01
Well, two of you, Gemma and Sonia, will be there at the expo.
23:06
And just to let people know who are making their way to the expo,
23:09
we're talking about day one, 10.15am, just after Michelle Lyons is giving a
23:14
Q&A session on muscles, tendons, menstrual, maternal and menopausal influences.
23:18
And also i think we've had confirmation that michelle is going to be joining
23:22
you as well which would be fantastic as she did i think last year so between
23:26
there will still be three yeah that would be great to have her on board that
23:30
and sarah spirit will be there you go.
23:35
We can look at setting up a satellite link if you like well maybe no camera
23:41
it's nice working so well why not yeah maybe no yeah i can't vouch for what
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i'll be doing at the time but yeah no camera i'm gonna do a little refresh the
23:51
screen now and see what happens bear with me,
23:53
Right. No, I don't think it made any difference. Sorry, Sarah.
23:59
So maybe again for our listeners, just to remind you that there's some,
24:03
we can talk about some of the episodes that are already at West on the podcast.
24:08
So obviously people are not that familiar with podcasts, which you must presume everyone is.
24:13
Spotify might be an easy one for you. If you're on an iPhone,
24:15
you'll probably have an app, an innate app on your iPhone.
24:17
You just go to podcasts and look for Women in Sports Therapy and it'll come up.
24:23
And there's 13 episodes already there, which, like I say, started in February
24:26
2022 with Dr. Fiona Heaton and Deb Stello-Rowley.
24:29
And I remember in their up and coming content, they said everything from ovulatory
24:34
cycles to opening hours, which I thought was a lovely literary piece, master of words.
24:40
But it did make it clear that this podcast is not, won't only be addressing, as we'd expect,
24:45
women's health issues, but it's also very much about what
24:49
female therapists face in their everyday lives working as a therapist in today's
24:52
society and we found that a therapy expert as well the questions were very varied
24:56
it's not just about women's health it's about being a woman in this industry
25:00
which we are so is that something you kind of want to continue Gemma and Sarah
25:04
yeah definitely so yeah Yeah, go, go, go, Sarah.
25:10
We won't have to do a tag.
25:14
Yeah, I definitely agree. Like,
25:16
you know, women's health is such importance to cover a lot of topics.
25:20
And obviously, Michelle Lyons and what she's going to have to offer is going to be phenomenal.
25:25
But also, yes, it's the different roles that people take in sports therapy,
25:31
ranging from, you know, pitch side, working in clinic.
25:35
You know just the different the different
25:38
things that people face and the different challenges that
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you face with regards to whether that's trying to
25:44
do that alongside raising a family or whether
25:47
that's you're in an all-male environment and you sometimes feel in a vulnerable
25:51
position and I know sort of for myself working from home and even when I used
25:55
to have the clinic I felt obliged to kind of have a receptionist full-time because
26:01
I felt like being in the clinic on my own I felt
26:04
quite vulnerable but obviously financially that doesn't massively work
26:08
but even working from home I make sure that
26:10
if I have a new patient come that hadn't seen I always make
26:13
sure it's on an evening when I have someone else in
26:16
the house but again that means you know more more working time so there's always
26:20
just little bits here and there that I think if somebody else has gone through
26:24
it and you've got somebody else who's in that situation and and they want to
26:28
talk about it they might feel a bit silly but it's maybe an easier question
26:32
to be posing to to women who who may have been there before.
26:36
I think it's, I mean, it's all connected to health anyway, because the stress
26:40
and mental health, which is obviously very much related, can be related and exacerbate symptoms.
26:44
But this whole work-life balance, there's a couple of episodes.
26:46
There was episode eight with STA member Becky Carroll, regional representative,
26:51
I think. Is Becky still in?
26:52
Yeah, regional representative Becky Carroll from Rebecca Stern Sports Therapy.
26:56
She did a fantastic episode, episode eight, talking about work-life balance,
26:59
advocating boundaries and the cafe wall illusion, which people should check out.
27:03
But yeah it's something we can argue
27:06
that it shouldn't be that way and we can do everything we can to make it
27:09
not that way if we feel it shouldn't be that way but ultimately
27:12
generalizing a lot there is different priorities
27:16
and different circumstances that women in sports therapy
27:18
are going to face which guys don't even realize would
27:22
that be fair to say i think from from my perspective
27:25
man i've spoken about this before you know we all
27:28
have you know a finite capacity to to
27:32
carry out our you know activities daily living our family life
27:35
and our work the extra burdens
27:39
on on a female capacity that that i don't have to endure things like you know
27:45
period health you know one of the girls spoke about having to work when they're
27:48
when they're having a period or having to work when they've got you know a hormonal
27:52
challenge i think it's important that we.
27:56
We understand as men who are treating women, what women go through.
28:01
So I think with the, from an organizational perspective for,
28:04
you know, the WISP project, you know, will have a variety of.
28:08
Forums, you know, there will be some women only, there will be some education.
28:12
There will be some presentations from Sonia, for example, but there will also
28:16
be some open sessions where men can come on and listen to the girls talk and
28:21
say, okay, is there a way that I can understand,
28:24
you know, know my female clients you know more
28:27
comprehensively so i can offer them a better service but
28:31
there's there's no rule book here and i've said to the
28:34
to the three girls i said you know you run with this
28:36
do what you want to do make it what what it can be
28:39
but for that to happen we need engagement we
28:43
need our female members to engage with this we need
28:46
feedback we need ideas you know wister's got
28:49
its own email which i've sent through to sonia today they're going
28:52
to be setting up the facebook groups and and and and you
28:55
know probably some whatsapp groups in in the future but there
28:59
is as i say there's no prescription on what what the girls are
29:02
going to do here it's to let them run with it and let's see where this goes
29:05
obviously we're a not-for-profit association so all of the fees that we take
29:09
have to go to creating member benefits benefits and resources and it would be
29:14
my job in six months and nine months and 12 months time to to convince the auditors to well this is
29:20
what we've been doing. This is how much money we've spent on the project.
29:23
These are the returns we're getting. And, you know, of all the girls that I spoke to,
29:28
you know, as a result of the emails and the newsletters, you know,
29:33
I thought Gemma, Sarah and Sonia were ideally placed because they had different areas of expertise.
29:40
I could see they wanted to do something, but I also understood that they probably
29:44
needed a little bit of a challenge.
29:47
And I'd make no apology. And, you know, yourself, Matt, we've spoken about this
29:50
before. Anybody on the STA team will be challenged.
29:53
I want you to be the best version of you that you can be.
29:56
And sometimes that takes a little bit of pushing and cajoling.
29:59
And I'm sure that when the girls start sharing their knowledge,
30:03
that's where the power of Wist will come from.
30:07
I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point.
30:10
And hearing that from a male perspective and that I
30:13
think yeah you've hit the nail on the head as to how
30:16
how this can also be helpful for men and
30:19
women not just women in sports therapy because I
30:22
think also for men to understand how much
30:26
emotional support women need I think
30:29
I'm just starting to understand maybe that's probably the
30:31
been the biggest thing that I've maybe not had from
30:34
not not working in a team not working in a
30:37
hospital or a clinic where I'm going out seeing people each
30:40
day and I think I've started speaking to a few
30:43
people lately who've been asking for my help and
30:47
they're just coming into the industry or they're
30:50
in the industry but they want to change slightly or challenging themselves
30:52
and I've realized that a big part of that is that
30:55
emotional support and I've spent the last couple of years spending a little
30:59
bit more time on so I think I had a bit of a period of after covid maybe having
31:05
a bit of a break through covid and having another child sort of lost my confidence
31:09
a little bit I was actually thinking do I have a change of career,
31:14
and I think that would have been the easy option actually I think if anything
31:17
really what I needed to do is get my head back down get stuck in figure out
31:21
where I wanted to go moving forward.
31:24
And just starting speaking to people lately I've realized that trying to find
31:29
a way in which you You can work on yourself, understand yourself,
31:33
get that emotional support that you need.
31:35
And I've spent the last couple of years seeing a few people with regards to
31:39
sort of personal mentoring. I've had a business coach.
31:43
I've really got to understand myself and maybe where I was going wrong in the
31:47
past and the support that I didn't have.
31:50
And it would really be great to be able to offer that to others who are in that
31:55
same situation of questioning themselves.
31:57
Themselves this isn't quite working how I wanted it to I want to go in a different
32:01
direction but I feel a bit trapped because because I've got a family or I don't
32:06
understand as much as I would like to where do I go to find that out and I think
32:10
there's just so many areas in which we can help,
32:14
support women it's real it's really interesting two words you mentioned there
32:19
Gemma were care and support.
32:23
I speak to probably 20 to 30 members every week, and on average, half of them are female.
32:28
And I'm acutely aware that as a man, as a literal thinker, I'm really good at offering solutions.
32:35
But sometimes a solution is not what females want. They want the care and support.
32:40
And I might not be the best place to do that. You might find that hard to believe,
32:44
but there we go. So it's really important.
32:47
And I've got no doubt that you three will become good friends.
32:50
You will become a network and you will you know you will be exposed
32:53
to the the special guests and the experts like
32:56
um michelle and and other guests that we'll have and that was that's your development
33:02
this this in in effect for the next year is your own cpd it's your personal
33:06
and professional development all tied up within this project so it will be a
33:10
challenge and i'm looking forward to reading your reflections in your cpd statement next year.
33:18
Hey there matt phillips here sorry to
33:21
interrupt the podcast just 60 seconds to remind you
33:24
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Doesn't include already discounted bundles.
34:24
Looking at a few of the other episodes, we've talked about the work-life balance
34:28
and the aspect of being a woman in business and in sports therapy.
34:33
Obviously, there is one of the things we've talked about a lot on this show,
34:36
on this podcast, and also on the WISC podcast is how much sadly a lot of women's
34:43
health issues do go undiagnosed or simply not diagnosed,
34:47
all of the barriers and sometimes if the
34:50
taboos kind of surface and it's tragic because we
34:53
get we've had some guests who have talked about
34:55
things like endometriosis and
34:59
we had episodes on hip dysplasia and things where people particularly young
35:04
often teenage girls are not diagnosed it's not to their 25 years old they realize
35:09
what's actually going on and when you look back you think oh if they'd asked
35:12
the right questions or not presumed that oh yeah you've just got a heavy menstrual
35:16
cycle it's It's normal. Go on the pill, that sort of thing, which is still happening.
35:20
So I'm wondering, is that still very much on your agenda, Gemma and Sarah, to try?
35:25
One, is it on your agenda, which I presume is going to be yes.
35:27
And two, why do you think the misinformation is still out there?
35:30
Why do people like yourself need to show the support for people who haven't
35:34
been, who've been basically let down by health care?
35:37
I think with the health care system is, from my experience, it's very tunnel vision.
35:47
They're if okay if you go to a
35:49
doctor now a doctor is expected to
35:53
know everything about every
35:56
condition every part of the body and
36:00
they're supposed to tell you that within five minutes now I'm sorry I think
36:04
doctors are amazing but it's absolutely ridiculous that they can give someone
36:11
the right information there and then so I think first of all we are missing that diagnosis,
36:19
with women or with anyone in
36:22
general because they're not being seen by the right person and again we go back
36:27
to the tunnel vision now I've had many experiences where you know I get women
36:32
come in and they've especially from a gynae point of view where they've got
36:36
problems and because Because asking the right questions,
36:40
taking the time to listen,
36:42
thinking outside the box and not necessarily homing in on what the actual,
36:48
where the problem is, thinking of the body as general.
36:52
Then I start to get a story about what's happening with that particular person.
36:57
And then with that story, then comes a different side to what maybe the doctors actually said.
37:04
So I think as therapists what
37:08
is going to be the way forward for
37:11
all of us if some of us are doing it already it's amazing
37:14
but it is literally about listening differently
37:18
taking in every bit of information that
37:21
that you get given but also about asking
37:25
the right questions and when you
37:28
first start in this industry if you start
37:31
quite young everything's all nice and
37:35
bright and shiny and you've had no problems in
37:38
your own life because you're just qualified and
37:41
everything's bright and shiny but when you
37:44
get a bit older and you start seeing all these problems that are
37:47
out there in women's health what would
37:50
be really cool with WIST is to translate
37:53
that down to the younger person when they come in
37:56
so they don't have to miss these signs
38:00
that someone's got something wrong with them that's not
38:02
been flagged already that they've got oh yeah there's
38:06
a checklist that they've done have they got this have we checked that have we
38:10
checked that and if not then they can they can ask and if we don't know the
38:14
answer then we can find someone that knows the answer because like i said earlier
38:19
we don't know everything but i think it's quite clear that.
38:23
These things, these health conditions that are being misdiagnosed,
38:26
we have to really step up now because of the way of the NHS.
38:31
It's really up to us to really kind of ask these questions to our female patients
38:37
when they come in to make sure that there isn't anything sinister and untoward.
38:42
So, yeah, that's definitely, I think, something that we can put into the WIST website.
38:47
I've not mentioned that before, by the way, to Gemma or Sonia,
38:50
but what do you think, Gemma? Oh, exactly what you've just said.
38:55
Totally. I think what you've said is spot on. I think in also supporting other
38:59
therapists on how to cope and being there to support those whilst they're going through that.
39:05
I mean, I myself suffered with endometriosis for several years in my early twenties,
39:10
had several surgeries, had my appendix taken out because they thought it was that.
39:15
I was told I wouldn't be able to have children, went through a pretty stressful
39:20
time. But again, all through that, I was sort of working.
39:22
And I guess it was one of those things you have to sort of still get on with,
39:26
because there's not going to be something that's going to be fixed tomorrow.
39:28
You have to keep going. And I think if there is somebody out there that is going
39:33
through that at this moment in time, then I would like to say,
39:36
gosh, I'm on the other side.
39:38
Luckily, thankfully for me, I'm sort of three children later,
39:41
I managed to get past that.
39:43
But But, you know, at that period of my life, when I'm, you know,
39:46
you're in your early 20s and you're told that you can't have children.
39:49
Again, going through, you know, miscarriages like I've gone through and like
39:53
many, many others have gone out, gone through.
39:56
Again, you have to just carry on. You hadn't told anyone.
39:59
You know, you've got to you've got to continue. And it's just if we can have
40:03
a better understanding so that when we see people like I was never asked,
40:06
there's a lot of questions that I wasn't asked when
40:09
going to CGP specialist that I now think
40:12
gosh had I only have been asked that so yeah I think
40:15
us as therapists you know asking more
40:17
questions taking more time when you're seeing person sitting down understanding
40:24
the whole person not just you know looking for your classic signs and symptoms
40:30
really connecting finding a way to connect with that person and this is where
40:34
I'm trying to get a bit more understanding on,
40:37
personality types and different so that you can find a way to ask these questions and connect with people.
40:47
Without feeling you know without those people feeling like
40:50
you're being too intrusive but yeah i think exactly what you
40:53
said sarah trying to ask more questions
40:56
give more support look at the whole person i
41:00
think we we've had this before from several guests haven't
41:03
we matt where they've said you know we as soft tissue
41:06
therapists as sports therapists we have the luxury of spending time
41:09
with our clients where a health professional might not
41:12
sarah mentioned five minutes with the doctor you know
41:14
expected to have you know a full examination a
41:18
history take and then a diagnosis but you
41:21
know i think that the health care system post-covid is
41:24
is really good at managing emergency medicine and i
41:27
think it's not so good at managing chronic conditions
41:31
because of the waiting lists etc so i
41:34
think you know on a on from a business perspective that this.
41:37
Could be a real growth marketplace if we have
41:40
women's health specialists who are come from
41:43
a soft tissue a holistic background a sports therapy background i
41:47
think having that area of expertise means that
41:50
you can actually work a little bit less as jemma
41:53
said spend more time you know probably charge a little bit more
41:56
money for your services and and make a
41:59
difference because you know that's what i'm really
42:02
you know listening to these messages from the girls now it's you know
42:05
they're they're not being invalidated you know the things that they're going
42:08
through are okay well we'll just pass you on to another
42:10
specialist pass you on to another specialist but you know what we can do now
42:15
say what you know i i hear what you're saying and i i know you're experiencing
42:19
pain let's get to the bottom of this let's let's try everything within our scope
42:22
of practice to see if we can find out what's going on and if not we will refer
42:28
you we'll sign post you to somebody else.
42:30
Definitely. Definitely. I agree. And I mean, I think one thing that I've realized
42:35
over the years is I think when you're, you know, for me being,
42:39
you know, fairly newly qualified, you always feel like you want to have the
42:43
answers and know the answers.
42:44
And also people sometimes can be quite impatient. They want to come in and they want a quick answer.
42:48
Answer and I think you know previously I was quite
42:51
quick to want to get hands-on and do tests and do this and you
42:54
know try to get get an understanding whereas now I
42:57
spend double the double the time sit down
43:00
try to understand who they are and I think
43:03
it's also having that confidence to say look I am going
43:06
to be spending more time trying to get to know
43:09
the whole you you know we will get students some testing and but is a case of
43:15
we need to understand the full picture because there's so only little key things
43:18
that you can pick up in that early stage of just taking history a thorough thorough
43:23
history and having the confidence to sit and ask those questions.
43:29
In your marketing materials then do you manage the client expectations and say
43:34
your first session will involve x y and z you know it may involve some treatment
43:39
but you know we are very focusing
43:42
on you know a history take yeah i i
43:45
do now and i think i always speak to people i
43:49
usually speak to people before i book them in anyway and i
43:52
always now say whereas i i probably will allow double the amount of time now
43:56
for an assessment but i always make it clear if we have time we may try to get
44:00
some hands-on work and start start treatment especially if it's a fairly simple
44:04
injury but if it's if it's a more complicated chronic long-term injury i will
44:10
take anywhere up to, you know, again, could be an hour, could be an hour and a half.
44:15
Because again, once you get someone talking, I had a patient in a few weeks ago.
44:21
Luckily, I had the time, but I ended up spending two hours with her because
44:25
actually she'd been suffering with low back pain for about the last 10 years. Yeah.
44:31
And she'd seen so many people, so many people.
44:34
And I'm really passionate about low back pain because I went through,
44:38
had a herniated disc in my early 20s, surgery.
44:42
Well, sorry, late teens surgery in my early 20s, suffered with sort of lumbar
44:47
disc herniations all the way through my 20s, on and off.
44:50
So I'm really passionate about helping people with low back pain.
44:53
So meeting this sort of young female who was going through the same thing that
44:57
I did, going from pillar to post, feeling just desperate, because you want to
45:00
continue sport but you can't because you're just bedridden with this pain.
45:04
I spent two hours with her and it's funny because
45:07
at the end of it I hadn't even put my hands we'd done
45:10
some testing but we hadn't done any treatment and she actually leaving said
45:16
she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and just the messages
45:21
I got from her over the next week she actually said to me that you're the first
45:25
person that's actually listened to me and that
45:27
she actually felt cared about her as a person,
45:30
as opposed to just looking at what she was presenting with,
45:34
because there were so many other things that had happened in her history that had led to this point.
45:38
So I think it's just so important to take that time and not feel under pressure
45:43
to give an answer because someone's coming in and paying you.
45:46
And, you know, you compare yourself to your competitor who's,
45:49
you know, on social media, you're watching what they do.
45:53
For me i do try to keep away a little bit more from social media lately because
45:58
i feel like if you look too much about what your competitors are doing you focus
46:01
on what they're doing and i think trying to find out who you want to be as a
46:06
therapist and what's important to you.
46:08
Really will help you build your confidence and it will shine through in your
46:12
in your treatments and assessment that's well said jemma i do exactly the same
46:19
we'll see we're so alike i do exactly the
46:22
same I can spend when someone wants a treatment with me I can just sit there
46:27
and listen and it's the questions it's you know if I'm doing fertility treatment with someone,
46:35
I'm saying to them, the first appointment, don't even expect a needle.
46:38
Don't expect it. I want to know everything, your inside leg measurement,
46:42
everything, because that's how you find out. That's how you can help someone truly.
46:47
And listening, Gemma, that's the most crucial word, isn't it?
46:52
The listening to someone, sometimes it's just therapy in itself because no one's
46:57
actually bothered to ask them their story.
47:00
So I'm with you completely on that.
47:03
Unfortunately the great thing is a lot
47:06
of the cpd now anyone looking at the program therapy
47:09
expo and the last well we're
47:12
always a bit ahead of therapy expo but the last 50 or 60 episodes of this it's
47:16
all about communication you know we are promoting people who are giving courses
47:20
in that even last week with andrew mccauley it was all about an antihospital
47:25
it was all about exercise description why communication matters why just giving
47:29
out three sets of 10 to everybody just
47:31
doesn't work because you're not listening to the person in front of
47:34
you are they going to do it why can't they do it do they
47:37
just not need to do any exercise this week or something else is going on
47:40
so there is some quality cpd out
47:43
there in communication because the industry is kind of catching
47:45
up and realizing these are skills that we need
47:48
to develop because again we're not necessarily born with these
47:51
skills of being able to listen in fact it may well be
47:54
human it may well be natural for humans not
47:57
to listen and to try and fix things or to try and you know maybe that's more
48:00
natural than just sitting back and letting the person talk so it does
48:03
take a bit of skill and i just wanted to point out
48:06
some of the episodes for topics we've been
48:08
talking about which people might want to tune into
48:11
if you're new to the whisk podcast so just picking some up randomly episode
48:16
two was all about periods excessive blood loss deficiencies anemia signs and
48:20
symptoms episode three was endometriosis and episode four was menopause and
48:25
perimenopause and episode 13 was Ellis Daniels Syndrome.
48:31
Which is something which, again, was an amazing episode with Bonnie Southgate.
48:35
So all of these things as audio, if you listen to this now as a podcast,
48:39
thinking, oh, I'd love to hear a little bit about this, then do go back and
48:42
have a listen to these 13.
48:44
The hosts are going to be different. And as our guests have explained.
48:47
It's going to be much more than just a podcast.
48:50
But to get an understanding there's some absolutely i
48:53
mean bring a box of tissues along because there's some very gut-wrenching stories
48:56
on there and some honesty and some passion and the guests just opening up especially
49:01
for blokes i'm talking about bringing the tissues along for the blokes going
49:04
to listen so i do encourage you to go and have a listen because as gary said
49:07
so wisely earlier on guy therapists out there half of your patients are going
49:12
to be female so if you really want to help them.
49:16
Go and listen to these episodes so you can ask the right questions and not be
49:19
surprised when some of the answers are yes from what you've heard. So great stuff.
49:25
I think that's so as well, Matt, when we're talking about these podcasts.
49:28
It's really important, you know, one of the mainstays of what the STA do,
49:32
it's not hiding this information behind a paywall.
49:36
You know, we're very lucky to have some really, you know, high-caliber guests
49:41
and speakers on our podcast.
49:43
So we put it out, you know, freely to the wider community.
49:46
We need people to engage with us. Obviously, we would like more members,
49:51
but it's not a prerequisite that you have to be a member to listen to our podcast.
49:55
We don't make a charge for non-members. Some others might.
49:58
This is free information for you, and it counts towards your CPD.
50:03
We've got a very open and flexible CPD policy. and if
50:06
anybody listening wants any advice or support
50:10
on any of the subjects on any of our podcasts please get in touch with Matt
50:14
or myself because we are here to help you and I'm accountable to all of you
50:18
you know the panel here tonight and to my members I'm accountable for spending
50:23
your money because we're a not-for-profit association so challenge me if if you feel you need to.
50:30
Talking of which did you mention earlier on Gary that there is now a WIST email
50:33
address Jeff, that we can put the show notes?
50:35
Yeah, so we've reopened the WIST email.
50:38
So anybody who wants to get in touch with the team, Sonia's got the login details.
50:41
We're going to have a catch-up whether she's managed to log in.
50:44
But WIST at thesta.co.uk.
50:48
We can put that on the show notes as well.
50:51
Fantastic. We'll make sure it does. And then, because we are drawing towards
50:54
the time now, if people want to keep in contact with our guests,
50:58
Gemma, you've got corefithealth.co.uk.
51:01
Good place to find you.
51:03
Info at corefithealth.co.uk. Yeah. Fantastic. And the website,
51:07
and I believe there's links to the Facebook group as well on the website.
51:10
So yeah, you can keep in contact and find out more about Gemma Puzas there.
51:15
And then Sarah, you have fitnesstherapyforyou.co.uk website.
51:19
That's right. Yeah. Yes, definitely. Thank you. And also on Facebook as well,
51:23
I believe there's a group there.
51:25
Yeah. Yeah. On Facebook as well. So if people have been touched and want to
51:29
get in contact with something you've mentioned today, then they can contact
51:32
you by going to the website and finding a button there, I imagine. Yes. Yes.
51:38
There's a, you can go into the comment section, be nice.
51:43
Last couple of pages, but yeah, no, you can find me, you can find me there.
51:48
Amazing and as always just follow
51:51
i mean across social media we at the sta is
51:54
uk underscore sta but then wist is
51:57
uk underscore wist so like
52:00
i say instagram good place to sign up for now sign
52:03
up sounds like you're paying for it just go and join there now and there
52:06
is a twitter account as well which you might find if you still
52:08
use twitter or whatever is formally known as twitter i think
52:11
less and less people are but that might be something you join up for
52:14
and there's gonna going to be loads of things in the pipeline so just follow uksta
52:18
and ukwist and we'll keep you
52:20
updated right then it's 8 58 we
52:24
haven't managed to have sonia with us today but jenna and sarah have done a
52:28
fine job in holding the fort we wish sonia well and we'll have sonia back soon
52:33
and if you want to follow sonia then look up on instagram sonia.recoverstronger
52:38
loads of stuff there as well particularly strength-based.
52:41
Next week on the sports therapy association
52:44
podcast we're talking tuesday september the
52:47
24th if you listen to this podcast we continue
52:50
to bring you speakers who will be presenting in the sta theater at this
52:53
year's therapy expo martin christensen who's a
52:56
norwegian physiotherapist best known for his friday physio confessions
52:59
podcast will be joining us to talk about his presentation
53:02
which is happening on day two of therapy expo so 28th
53:05
of november at 3 10 p.m in the STA theatre
53:08
what values truly make us professional therapists
53:12
so again this touches on to things we've been talking about tonight um
53:16
how much of being a professional therapist is about and what we know and what
53:19
we say or is it about how we act and how we are as people so basically putting
53:24
a lot more human um elements into it rather than just certificates and our walls
53:27
and things so that'll be with Martin Christensen next week if you'd like to
53:32
join us live so you can ask
53:33
Martin questions directly and just head along to Sports Therapy Association
53:36
YouTube channel or Facebook if you prefer that at eight o'clock on Tuesday.
53:42
So that just leads me to say, Gary, was there any housekeeping or anything you
53:45
want to let people know? Anything we ever mentioned?
53:48
No, no, nothing. Nothing this week, Matt. Thanks. So Gemma Puzas, good pronunciation?
53:54
Yes. Puzas. Good pronunciation. You heard it right. Thank you for that analogy.
53:57
It really helps with pronunciation.
53:58
Thanks, President, for that. And also Sarah Packard, thank you very much for
54:02
both joining us and letting us know. Really exciting.
54:04
Thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it.
54:08
And we'll have some follow-ups. We'll have some regular follow-ups to see how
54:11
things are going and to talk about new developments.
54:14
Thanks to people who joined us live. And hopefully we will see some of you next
54:18
week, like I say, on either Sports Depository's YouTube channel or Facebook.
54:21
In the meantime, as always, just look after each other. Take care.
54:25
Music.