Latest / The STA Clinician Podcast / Ep.267 'Christmas 2025 Special' with the STA Team

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Ep.267 'Christmas 2025 Special' with the STA Team · 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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Welcome to the Sports Therapy Association podcast. My name is Matt Phillips,
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creator of onechatlife.com.
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And as always, this episode is being recorded live on the Sports Therapy Association
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YouTube channel and Facebook on a Tuesday night at 8pm.
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And it is the Christmas, or if you don't celebrate Christmas,
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it's the end of the year stroke winter festival episode.
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And also because, yeah, we've reached the final episode of 2025,
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which to the delight of my two Generation Alpha Children is episode 267,
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or what I should probably say is two. 67.
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There we go. That'll make sense to some of you. If you're over the age of 15,
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it'll mean nothing at all. I can see Scott there is nodding his head or shaking
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his head because he knows exactly what that is.
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So yes, we have reached episode two. 67.
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There we go. Which means we have been recording live every Tuesday night at
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eight o'clock and the occasional Wednesday for an incredible five years.
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How do you feel now, Gary, for an incredible five years and seven weeks.
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And as the 2025 end of year festivities rapidly approach in this last episode
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of 2025, I will be joined by some of the Sports Therapy Association team who've been looking after you,
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members and non-members, and will be looking back at the highlights of 2025
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and looking forward to what will, could or should be happening in 2026.
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Before I do bring them up, if there's one thing you do manage to squeeze in
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before Christmas, then do please mean, let it be, subscribing to our YouTube channel.
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It's the last time I'll probably ask this year, apart from at the end of the show.
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We've got like, I don't know, 1,500, 1,600, 1,700 members and about,
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1,000 subscribers or something. No, not even that. I think we've got about 30
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subscribers. So please just subscribe. Make that your goodwill gesture for 2025.
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Just subscribe to the YouTube channel. It just helps us appear higher in the Google rankings.
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Leave us a rating would be even nicer and a review. It'd be fantastic for the
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podcast. On whatever platform you use, it'll still help.
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Right, so that's it. The 2025 Christmas special, also known as episode two.
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Six, seven. Thanks, kids. Let's bring up the panel now.
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Everybody how you doing good evening scott you were
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shaking your head when you heard that was that something you you do you
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understand what's going on there am i the you're not the anyone no of
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it i don't understand it i have no idea what it's about yeah but you've heard
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it a few times before okay yeah fantastic i'm hoping some of our listeners are
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going to enjoy it as well but it's there in history now and it is the most popular
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phrase of 2025 so you know i thought we would,
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mention that, being the most popular podcast for sports therapists of 2025.
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Right, let's go round the clock for introductions to our listeners,
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just in case they're not aware who you are.
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I'll go round the clock. So, Gemma, I've forgotten how to say your surname. Is it Pusas?
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Pusas. Pusas. Pusas, yes.
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Pusas. And I forget, because we've been on the show, obviously,
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before, and you're the host or co-host of WIST, but is there a Spanish link
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to that? Or where does that surname come from?
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No, it actually comes from Lithuania. Oh, is it Lithuania? I haven't got a Lithuanian
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Christmas jingle, so I'm just going to pretend it comes to Spanish,
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okay? All right, that's fine.
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So whenever we talk to Gemma tonight, there'll be a little bit of a Spanish
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slash Lithuanian something going on in the background.
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So Gemma, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you are,
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what you do for the STA, and what you do in everyday life.
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Yeah, so I'm Gemma, and it's actually pronounced Puzas.
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So my husband says Church Pew with a bit of Zaz. that's
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how it's pronounced so yeah i joined well i
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first met gary a couple years ago at the uh
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sta conference and joined joined sta on the on the wist committee and i basically
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i live in pool i run my own clinic from home and i basically joined the wist
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team trying to help connect women so i've I've been working on the WIS team this year,
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basically running mentoring, probably over for like three months,
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three monthly sessions.
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And we've kind of been doing that all year and yeah, basically doing that alongside
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working from home in the clinic, about three children.
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This year I've also started a new job working in a school.
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Oh, fantastic. You needed more children in your life then? Yeah.
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Yes, it's daunting. I was working in a school with children with disabilities.
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I'm working in the physio team here.
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I'm doing hydrotherapy and really love it.
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So it's a really nice balance alongside the clinic and also working with amazing
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women in sports therapy. Fantastic.
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We'll talk more about WIST, as in women in sports therapy, as we go on with
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the episode. But yeah, thanks for joining us, Gemma Pouzas.
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Pusas. Pusas, sorry. Right, moving along to Gary Benson, founder of the STA. Gary...
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Benson how are you this evening yeah fine thank
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you matt hi everybody and could you
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for listening so unaware who you are and by the way if you're listening to
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the podcast then it's probably now is a good time to go along to youtube just
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so you can see gary and his fantastic christmas attire and
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it's yeah it's just well worth seeing it's a juxtaposition of flavors and expression
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so do check that out but gary yes for people who don't know who you are and
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what you do give us a little summary yeah i'm gary i i mentioned i i started
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the sta many years ago now 12 13 years ago.
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It's just what i wanted a club for people
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who didn't want to be in a big club i wanted a support network instead
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of a business model uh and i think
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what we've proven over the past 12 months
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is that you know we're doing that we you
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know our membership's growing we're providing more
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and more resources and and i'm doing what
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we set out to achieve and so i'm really pleased fantastic
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and that's really important and we'll mention that again as we look at what have
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we achieved this year as the sta i think it's important to to note
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like you say what what you know what we set out to achieve at the
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beginning and and what goals we have every year so that's really
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great we will come back to all of that and now moving
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around the circle to scott scott i couldn't find out a little thing for you
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so i'm just going to call you say this little helper there we go so scott Lloyds
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if Gary is Santa then obviously you've got to be Santa's little helper how are
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you tell us who you are and what you do that's fine Scott so I'm based up in
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the northeast I've been a member now for nearly six years.
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So after like chats with gary when i first joined i kind of started doing a
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little bit work with the sta originally started doing stuff with the original
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reps and that's kind of developed into.
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Various other things so i host the coffee chats the.
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Wednesday evening and the monday ones so the
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wednesday evening ones are generally kind of me and gary sit on
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and we air questions from members and
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we do non-member specials as well so we've done did one
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a couple of months ago didn't we gary for like new grad therapists
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by helping those and then the monday one alex who
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is based down south who's not on tonight we do
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the accountability chats we have our members come
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on and we discuss things set some targets set some
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goals and report back in a fortnight and we
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help people with that and then we've also got stevie bar
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with us tonight who is one of our new regional champions
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so we've kind of evolved the regional reps
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to be less regional and kind
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of chosen the people we feel are right for it
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rather than people who are based in certain locations and
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there's going to be some stuff coming out in 2026 with these guys
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as well so yeah amazing brilliant summary
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and there's so much in there which we'll unpack a little bit later on which shows kind
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of what the sta has been up to including like
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you say the coffee chat which is such an integral part of what we're
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talking about collaboration which we'll mention later on and a safe place for
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people to share and share problems and maybe solutions instead of seeing everybody
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else's competition so amazing summary there from reporting for scott loin so
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and then finally as you introduced stevie bar who some of you might know.
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I had the pleasure of spending time with Stevie recently in Glasgow's hometown
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and beautiful it was too.
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Stevie, introduce yourself and say who you are and what you do and no need to
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say where you are now. I hope everybody is well. I'm Steve Barr.
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I'm a movement and massage therapist based up in Glasgow.
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And I put myself forward to be one of the SDA champions because I get a lot
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of help from just being part of this community and I wanted to try and do my
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little bit to try and help people north of the border.
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I started up a Facebook page a little while back for Scottish therapists just
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to try and get everybody on.
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Sort of collaborative train and see if
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we can just move things forward and get some cpd
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up here and various other things so yeah
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i'm i'm delighted to be here thank
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you thanks stevie and it's great yeah as scott said the whole champion idea
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i can't think of anyone who would want to be a champion more than you steve
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so it's great that you're taking up that role and we'll talk about a little
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bit later on i'm not being sarcastic stevie honestly when i'm being sarcastic
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my ears move and they're not moving now and we've got some so thank you for
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that and we've also got some
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i'm presuming this is welsh can anyone say that properly nadalik lowen my lovers is that.
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Is that correct, Cecily? You'll have to come back to me. And Sarah as well is
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saying the same thing, spelled the same way. So it must be true.
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I haven't just made it up.
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Sarah Jones is in the house saying Natalie Glowen. I guess that's how it's right.
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And Nicky Mansfield is here as well.
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Hey, Nicky, thanks for joining us on the Christmas special. And also Glenn Murphy is here as well.
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Glenn says, unfortunately, I do know what you mean. We have 10 grandchildren,
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10 grandchildren. What a powerful man. It's incredible.
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So Glenn Murphy there. Evening all and Merry Christmas all.
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Thanks, Glenn. Thanks for joining us. And if you are listening to podcasts and you like the idea of
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joining us well it's too late now because you're listening to the podcast but as
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of next year make it one of your resolutions just join us any tuesday normally
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a tuesday at eight o'clock on either facebook or youtube
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sports therapy association new channel whichever is easier for you and then
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you can come and questions for our guests you can talk amongst each other it's
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a good way of networking to people who are also joining live you'll probably
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find somebody's in your area so i would put that into your list of resolutions
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maybe next year just try and make the time create the time, the hour on a Tuesday,
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rather than just relying on squeezing in a catch up somewhere on the podcast.
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But if you do this in the podcast, that's great as well. And we appreciate that.
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And it's lovely to have you all involved.
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Right then so my plan is
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then this is the plan because there's so much I mean how do
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we talk about 365 or six
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days in a leap year it's just impossible so I'm going
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to take us through kind of how the podcast formed the year and then maybe
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each of you and all of you probably getting involved in different areas we'll
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have a little chat about how the STA kind of was involved in all of that and
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how each of you maybe proceeded and benefited maybe from something so the way
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I'm going to do that is we'll start off by having a little look at the beginning
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of the podcast, beginning of the year.
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And you can jump in, you guys, whenever you want. But one of my personal goals
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through the power of the podcast, we had a lot of downloads,
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but I really wanted to kind of make sure that we focused on therapist's health
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as well and the wellbeing of the therapist.
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It's a big thing in healthcare that we do spend to kind of spend our lives looking after other people.
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And normally that is the risk is there that we're not looking after ourselves.
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We spend all that energy on other people.
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And if you're not careful, you're not putting anything back in the tank.
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And that's probably why there's such a burnout, not just in our industry,
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but also in physiotherapy and osteopathy and a lot of professions where you're
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kind of giving, giving, giving.
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So we did start the year with a focus on business, especially in January,
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which included, for example,
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the wonderful Joe Turner of mihab.co.uk and Joanne Elphinstone of Gems Movement,
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who talked to us about how a coaching approach can help you unload some of that responsibility.
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And instead of trying to fix the person in front of you and take all of that
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burden on your shoulders, you kind of walk with them. You're a guide as opposed to a director.
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And not only can it relax you down and help avoid burnout, but also you can
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get much better results because you'll end up making plans together,
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which is going to increase exercise adherence and so on.
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So does any kind of welfare, personal welfare and trying to unshift some of
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that responsibility ring a bell with any of you guys here in the panel tonight?
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A lot of my work that I do, Matt, every week is speaking to people about how
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they are managing their work-life balance.
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A lot of what Gemma does on the WIST mentoring group is discussing some of the
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barriers that our female members face that us male members don't.
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So, you know, to reiterate, a lot of my work is sort of pastoral.
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It's you know talking to people about you know
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their mental health or anxieties how you
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measure success about imposter syndrome all of
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those things and that you know that takes up much of my working week
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yeah it's a big thing isn't it and do you
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notice that do you notice that more people are actually
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reaching out and asking for help on that is that something
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you're seeing or has it always been just crazy on your phone no it
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i think i consciously about
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18 months ago mentioned my own anxieties
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and and the the journey i'd been through and
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i think what that did was give confidence to people that
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you know i have got enough experience and enough
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knowledge to help them and so as a as a
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result of that i did receive lots of messages of support and
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i've probably got 25 of our
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members now on fortnightly or monthly calls i
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you know i had one today with one of our members who who've just
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gone through a really really tough cancer diagnosis treatment
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and has now come out the other end and and we just spend
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40 minutes just having a chat and having a laugh and and generally making each
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other feel better and that's what I do the job for you know I don't teach anymore
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I don't get the job satisfaction from from inspiring the next generation but
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I do get the you know the job satisfaction from supporting people.
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That's brilliant. Which in a nutshell, I guess, is, you know,
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like you said earlier, what you set up the STA for, no one should be alone.
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And I think in this era we're living in, where life has got so much more stressful
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because of lack of money and also this idea we can have everything at our fingertips
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and when we can't, it makes it even more impactful.
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It's so impossible for people to have someone to reach to.
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And that's the whole idea of the association. That's what we're here for.
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Gemma, Scott, Stevie any tips on how to avoid
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burnout is it something you've been through yourself and had to make some changes because
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of being a healthcare provider yeah I mean I
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mean that's part of the reason why I joined the
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STDA is I mean it's from meeting Gary and I think when I was wandering around
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the therapy expo a couple of years ago I went there and I wasn't quite sure
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what I was looking for obviously I just thought I wanted I need to learn learn
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more but actually what I was needing more than anything was just to.
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Just sort of I was feeling probably a little bit isolated and
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lonely and I think the minute I joined I
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kind of started chatting with Gary and he was kind of
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like look come back here if if you need to it was kind of
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it just instantly felt like a little community that
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I hadn't had for a very long time and I
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think chatting to Gary that first six months after joining
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the STA it made me
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realize what I'd been missing a long time and that's why I
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wanted to join WIS because when I then started talking to
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a few other people a lot of people were like okay actually yeah
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they've felt similar as well so I think well actually
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this would be a good good opportunity and
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once I joined WISD and I came up first time sort of a year ago and went to the
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therapy expo I put out a questionnaire asking a lot of people what do they want
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most and actually they said they were feeling a bit isolated and lonely and
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they felt like sort of work-life balance those two things were an issue So,
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yeah, I definitely feel like recognizing there's something missing is the first
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step, recognizing there's an issue.
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And then I think just finding whoever you can to reach out to and talk to and get support from.
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And if, you know, if we can be that for anyone, then, yeah, I definitely want
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to give back after how supportive Gary's been with me. So I think making changes,
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if you carry on doing the same thing, you get the same results.
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So I think making changes and even the last time I came on this podcast,
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I was so nervous I could hardly talk.
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And actually, yeah, I think sometimes you need to just put yourself out of your
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comfort zone and be a little bit vulnerable and accept that maybe you need a lot of help. So,
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that's great i mean we've already just jumped we're only
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like 20 minutes in and we're getting so deep and sharing
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here it feels like such a safe space i actually feel ridiculous sitting here
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with my hat on christmas hat listen to you guys with
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two christmas hats on because this is a really interesting sharing conversation
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but that's that's really loved to hear gemma really cool scott and
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stevie any experience on your halves of like risking
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burnout well i suppose that's
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why the coffee chats actually started i mean the coffee chats now
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have been going for five years but like weekly fortnight to
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kind of flitter between so now there's one every week and it
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started just with a conversation with a then regional rep which was an online
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chat when we were in lockdown and nobody could leave the house or anything like
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that and it was it was like really kind of therapeutic at the time i kind of
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just went right no i'm going to do this for everybody just going to open this
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log on and it started just me logging on and it's kind of.
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Spiraled into lots of other stuff and that's basically where it is
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the life is a self-employed therapist at
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times can be quite a lonely place and
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you know i think people who don't work in the industry don't really
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have an understanding of how tiring it can be sometimes
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when you're sat there absorbing everybody's problems and listening
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and trying to problem solve for everybody else and at the end of
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the day you can be mentally exhausting so that's
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why we started the coffee chat stuff me and gary
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have heard all sorts of stuff over the past five years
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you know and it's we literally discuss
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everything on there from difficult clinical cases where people
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might be struggling the people are just struggling at home you know
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and just need somebody to offload on because they haven't got work colleagues
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or they haven't got somebody close by that they can load on to and
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i i personally find it really rewarding and
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quite therapeutic myself because it's like me going into a different space and
19:15
a different mindset there's clinical or in sport or in the college i work in
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or it's just completely different so it kind of switches my mindset and makes
19:24
me reflect a little bit so it's it's helpful for them it's helpful for me it's.
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It's it's been pretty good it's been successful so far
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that's really cool i remember actually that reminds me
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of what i think it was joe or joanne on that episode on
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the screen said is when you're in kind of a coaching position which
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like you're in the coffee chats and and you're listening to people who
19:44
are coming to share their problems with you the therapeutic benefit
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like you say is for both people and that's how it should be
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because it isn't even playing fields every time you're coaching somebody
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and just walking with them or maybe just sitting in the mud with them you're
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you're getting a huge benefit from that and you're learning things about life and
19:59
them and people and you're getting the reward yourself and and they're
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getting it so that's the way it should be isn't it with our patients we should be learning
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i think it's it's one of those it's not for me and gary to sit
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there and kind of talk to people how to do things or anything like that it's
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kind of i've learned as much from the people on those chats helping
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me as me and gary and alex
20:18
helping them it's it what you know does this we get
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some really knowledgeable people and we get some really kind of good and
20:24
supported people on the chats regularly and it's it helps us
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as well as it helps them very cool so i
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mean this has been a big element of 2025 stevie scotland you're
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happy and very carefree isn't it you don't really get people with problems i
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guess you haven't really had this this thing going on of you i'm not faced burnout
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in this industry because i came to it prily but I've had it in a previous occupation.
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And you know it does come down to a couple of,
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You've got to kind of make a decision about that. You've got to decide that,
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look, I can't continue with this any longer the way it's going.
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I've got to make a change. I've got to do something.
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And I think, from an STA perspective, or as a member of the STA,
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I think that having an organisation which can give you professional advice is brilliant.
21:20
But having people you can go to talk to is more brillianter.
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You know, it's just it's that I mean, for some people, it'll be a lifeline.
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You know, it will properly be a lifeline.
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They just need somebody to sit and just talk it over with. And it's, you know, an ear.
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And I think, as I said, professional advice is great.
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You know, knowing what to do, I've been given steers about what to do on a professional
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basis is one thing that I think that marks the STA out.
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But the fact that you can pick up the phone to Scott or Gary and say, look, can I have a chat?
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Or anybody else for that matter. You know, if you know people within the community
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and you can, you know, there's people you can go to and say,
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look, have you got five minutes? Can I have a quick chat with you about something?
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And, you know, there's an ear there, there's a voice of reason there that you
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can just sit and say, you know, actually, yeah, I'm on the right lines here
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or I need to make a change, you know.
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And having that there in the background there is absolutely vital, absolutely vital.
22:28
Because as Gary and Scott said
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and Jimmy too actually it can be a real lonely place to be if you're self-employed
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and having a community to just bounce into when you like is a really great thing
22:43
so hats off to you guys for being so supportive the way you are.
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I think, Matt, I think what's important is, you know, when we talk on the Coffee
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Evening Chats, when we talk on these podcasts, we talk about having the luxury
22:58
of time, you know, over other allied health professions who are constrained by a system.
23:05
You know, we have, you know, in a clinical environment, we have an hour.
23:09
90 minutes to spend with somebody.
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And I think that's really important at building those therapeutic relationships.
23:15
It now what i have i have
23:18
the luxury of spending time with with some of the members you
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know some of them are really good friends with some of them we have a laugh some
23:24
of it's you know quite serious and some of it can
23:27
be quite dark at times but it's that
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spending time with people and
23:33
talking to them and for me personally getting an understanding
23:36
of the cross-section of members that we have that's
23:41
really important and and you know as jemma mentioned
23:44
as as everybody's mentioned that having that sense of
23:46
belonging is really important and i think
23:49
the whole reason for setting this up was was
23:52
because i felt that that you know
23:55
the the other stakeholders out there were more of a business model
23:58
and and what i wanted to try and achieve was having
24:01
a support model and and it's it's sometimes
24:04
it's frustrating sometimes it's gratifying to see that now
24:08
other people are starting to follow our lead and i
24:11
read a newsletter the other day that was very similar to
24:14
our format it spoke about very similar things that we're
24:16
doing and so you know my goal of
24:19
increasing support for members not just for the sta members but the wider members
24:26
i think that's coming to fruition and you know we've had some great collaborations
24:30
over the years over the last year so i'm really positive moving forwards that's
24:35
really cool that's really nice as well that's really nice that somebody.
24:39
Can say that you know you're you're conscious and rejoicing in the fact you're
24:44
looking after your own members and also indirectly the members of other places
24:48
as well you know because you at the end of the day you just want to look after
24:50
all therapists so that's really nice to hear.
24:53
Hannah Tabram has said in the comments just to read this
24:56
out for people Hannah Tabram says evening oh hey Hannah dipping in
24:59
for a moment before I have to shoot off again really appreciate all the support we
25:02
get from the STA life can be stressful at times especially when you work
25:05
alone and having someone to talk to is massively valuable
25:08
thanks hannah yeah it's yeah it's a big thing
25:11
and i think that's probably one of the biggest things i think that's happened this year that
25:14
i've witnessed is just an increase in communication and people
25:17
actually opening up a little bit talking to each
25:20
other not feeling so embarrassed and i'm hoping
25:22
next year 2026 is going to be now we've
25:26
got that engagement and communication i'm hoping next year is going
25:28
to be collaboration because you to get collaboration you need
25:31
to have trust and and communication and to feel safe and
25:34
non-judged so now we're going to try and take that both
25:37
within the STA and with connections we've got outside and and
25:40
really collaborate for the benefit of the industry and each other's businesses as
25:43
well which will be great and indeed in the
25:46
episode focus on business which we started in January we
25:49
had probably the champions I think of a collaboration over
25:52
competition at the moment which was the Unbound project with Andy
25:55
Thomas and Andy Hosgood Andrew McCauley later on the year and
25:58
that was a great episode which kind of opened up the year to focus on communicate
26:01
with each other you know rather than hiding your problems
26:04
and trying to sort it out yourself the person down the road you think is your
26:07
competition has probably found a solution to that you know so talk to them find
26:11
the solution and then take your own business and make the great things even
26:14
greater and they can make their great things even greater and just work together
26:17
for the for your own selves and alter your clients will benefit them as well so.
26:22
Very cool somebody who doesn't seem to be struggling at
26:25
the moment is jake who has messages from texas
26:28
saying good afternoon from texas the sun is shining it's about
26:31
20 degrees thanks jake have a nice christmas bye now we'll
26:34
read that a little bit more we should explain why is jake sunning himself
26:37
in texas at the moment gary giving these your son yeah well
26:40
jake's full-time in the military now and he's
26:43
over there on on some some training so yeah
26:46
he's there for poor month yeah it doesn't
26:49
make me feel any less hateful for him at the moment he says listening whilst
26:52
playing racquetball hey poor thing tough life hope everything
26:55
has a great hope everyone has a great christmas and looking forward to all the
26:58
plans yeah jake is uh for people who don't know if
27:00
you're in the sta what sort of stuff does jake cover gary without
27:04
putting his name against it yeah so so
27:07
jake joined us during covid when he
27:11
was made redundant from working in aerospace logistics.
27:14
And and at the time we needed somebody to
27:17
to do business development and jake's degree
27:20
is in in business enterprise so interestingly he
27:24
wrote an assignment on on the sta whilst he
27:27
was at university and and basically you know
27:30
in a nutshell said dad it's not a good business model and i rejoiced because
27:33
i had achieved what i set out to be it's not a business it's a
27:36
support network so jake does all of the business
27:39
relationship building with our partners negotiating discounts
27:43
he does a lot of the administrative tasks you know sending out
27:46
certificates auditing cpd folders generally in
27:49
the background working all hours depending on
27:52
where he is in the world because he's also a very good cricketer and
27:56
he travels the world playing cricket when he's not in texas fantastic there
28:01
we go right then so let's so yeah communication has been a big thing this year
28:06
and i'm very proud of everything that we and all the other people in the sd
28:10
have done to improve that communication i think it's a massive achievement for us so bravo us,
28:15
Moving on to another thing, which I think is another thing we kind of spearheaded
28:20
and continued throughout the year to focus on is women's health.
28:24
Straight away with February, we did a month on women's health.
28:28
And we, for example, I mean, the episode we did on breast weight management
28:33
was something I'd certainly never heard anywhere else in any other podcast,
28:36
maybe on an obscure physio one, but it was something which we got loads of feedback from,
28:40
particularly obviously from female therapists who had never thought about,
28:44
even for themselves, let alone for their clients are asking these questions
28:47
and taking into account.
28:48
We had the wonderful Siobhan O'Donovan who joined us at the STA and Hansel Hub conference as well.
28:52
Such a great educator and entertainer in terms of the way she presents everything.
28:57
So yeah, we continued. We had people like Christian Bird and Joe McEwen of the
29:02
Menopause Movement talking about bone health and muscle mass at menopause.
29:05
We had Michelle Lyons of Celebrate Muleviti talking about pregnancy-related back and pelvic pain.
29:10
And then we also had Gemma Parry, which was the fourth episode in that February
29:14
focus on women's health, who talked about female athletes and how women are
29:18
certainly not small men.
29:21
Gemma, as the host of the Women in Sports Therapy WIST community.
29:27
This must be good for you.
29:28
Are you thinking that, are you seeing with your own eyes that women's health
29:31
is getting a little bit more traction and being talked about more this year?
29:35
Definitely definitely I mean especially
29:38
with sort of with the group of women I've been
29:41
mentoring this year it's something that obviously we talk
29:44
about a lot and actually quite a lot of the women are looking
29:46
at sort of going down the route specializing in women's health
29:50
especially when you get to a certain age I think there's
29:52
sort of a lot of the women on the group who are sort
29:55
of going through perimenopause which has definitely probably hit
29:59
me quite a bit the last couple of years and I think us all
30:03
being able to open up and again have
30:05
that safe space with a small group to discuss all of
30:08
these things that I just don't think we even
30:12
realized were a thing until we were able to say oh
30:14
have you experienced that too because you sometimes don't oh you want
30:17
to discuss that in a big group or but it's
30:21
been yeah there's been so many
30:24
really interesting chats that we've all had and
30:27
I think there were things you know even
30:29
just things like anxiety that women talk about
30:32
like you know a few of the women said to me like oh I can't believe you you
30:36
went on the podcast or that you stood up and gave a talk as if as if that I
30:40
wasn't feeling anxious I said like actually I was feeling extremely anxious
30:46
and and I remember you asking me before what is it you're.
30:51
I definitely think when perimonopause hits, anxiety is definitely a real big thing for women.
30:58
And I think alongside sort of memory, like that fear of being asked a question
31:03
and just, I know it definitely hits me.
31:06
Your words just can't come out. You can't process what you want to say.
31:10
And it just comes out of one big blur.
31:13
But actually being able to say, yeah, that is okay.
31:16
Hey if you're gonna you know if you're gonna put me in a
31:19
situation where I'm gonna be asked questions just
31:22
you just have to be there and be honest and be like okay I
31:26
might walk on my words I might not be able to always vocalize
31:29
what I want to say but I'm pretty sure a lot of other women out
31:32
there are gonna be feeling the same they're gonna be
31:35
feeling lonely and isolated but it's like come home
31:38
we're all feeling the same let's just mucking together
31:42
support each other so yeah i think it's
31:44
just a great thing that there's been more more chat on
31:47
women's health because it's just given so many people the opportunity
31:50
to discuss things that they just might not have otherwise that's
31:54
really cool to hear and it's kind of a continuation from communication isn't
31:58
it it's all very well communicating let's start talking about the taboo topics
32:01
and things which we're not supposed to talk about or i mean it just it's just
32:04
a how open communication and safe non-judgmental spaces just lead to greater
32:09
and greater things because we start talking about everything.
32:11
So Scott and Stevie, have you noticed kind of more awareness when you're either
32:16
working with female athletes on your own behalf or female athletes coming to
32:19
you and maybe not being so surprised when you do start a conversation with them
32:23
about their menstruation or something or...
32:27
I think there's better information out there now that you can share around.
32:32
I see quite a few things cross my path, and I really like to get them out there and share them around.
32:38
Because I still think although we're making progress, there's definitely more we can do.
32:43
We can just keep making our progress so that this information gets more and more out there.
32:49
And the other thing is, well, you know, we as lads, we need to put our hands
32:53
up and say, you know, we know nothing about this. We need to get better.
32:57
At understanding partners or our daughters or whoever it may be,
33:02
you know, the things that they could possibly be going through.
33:05
So, you know, any opportunity to get those conversations out there is a good one.
33:09
Good points, good points. Scott, you work with athletes quite a lot.
33:13
Do you see many female athletes?
33:15
Yeah, I mean, so I work in a college with a high-performing netball team,
33:20
and so there's also female football, female rugby, and just in clinic here as well.
33:26
You know, I've always kind of been an advocate of, if I'm seeing females' general
33:31
population, female athletes, I should have an understanding of what's going on.
33:35
If I had somebody come in with an ACL injury and I
33:38
wasn't sure what to do as far as rehab I'd research it
33:42
so why wouldn't I do that for just female kind of
33:45
health in general but it has been quite helpful be having
33:48
the kind of that background knowledge from podcasts
33:51
and from the resources from Wist and from yourself
33:54
when having conversations with kind
33:57
of like younger female athletes where it's probably
34:00
you have to broach it a little bit differently because
34:03
you know the 16 to 18 year old some of them they have to feel comfortable talking
34:08
if you have to kind of broach it differently you have to kind of know what you're
34:12
talking about and point them in the right direction and you know we've got very
34:16
good female coaches as well that we can kind of discuss things with so it's
34:21
been helpful to to have because it's.
34:24
The reds one that that's been a massive one for me things like that so you know
34:30
college girls high performing athletes play and train in seven days a week and
34:35
they're just not taking in enough nutrients, not taking in enough,
34:38
not eating enough, not drinking enough, getting injured because of stuff.
34:42
Just having that and actually talking to them about it and giving them a little
34:45
bit more information so they can go away and go, actually, maybe I need to change this.
34:49
And then it helps with their peers as well. So yeah, it's helped me.
34:55
Good work. Good work. I think it helps all therapists because I think a lot
34:59
of these areas, but women's health, for example, if you start understanding
35:02
women's health and how important some of these questions are,
35:05
I think it helps you re-weigh how important what you're doing with your hands
35:10
is, for example. I'm not saying we take the hands away.
35:12
The hands can form a very important part in relaxing down the nervous system, et cetera.
35:15
But when you realize the importance of looking at energy availability and looking at potential history.
35:22
Even whether, you know if they've had difficult pregnancies and all this other
35:24
questions you need to ask it makes you realize you're so much more than
35:28
just a bender twister prodder scraper mover and
35:31
you start looking at other things which can amplify your service and that's
35:34
going to give you better reputation better results and i'm probably happy with
35:37
life because you really will help people a lot more by having these conversations
35:41
and and referring on when you do discover there's something maybe that needs
35:45
checking out but checked out by somebody else because you're working outside
35:48
idea, scope of practice.
35:49
So it's a great area and something in which, again, we've been proud to get involved in.
35:53
I'm sure we'll mention it in a little bit when we look at the conference later
35:57
on that we had in Exmouth.
35:59
But I do want to move on to through the year a little bit.
36:02
There's a question there, actually. James Morgan from Barefoot Physio in Exeter
36:07
said, Fran, who's his far, far, far better half, established women's wellbeing
36:13
initiative following the conference.
36:15
So yeah, thank you james for that it's really nice to see because again it just
36:19
gives business owners the confidence just to just the awareness to start something
36:24
else off and people like james and
36:26
fran more than capable of doing anything they set their minds to
36:29
if we can kind of sow a seed and help business owners think this could be really
36:33
useful for your for your clientele then great they then go and do the hard stuff
36:37
of setting it all up but it's uh yeah there was a question from james earlier
36:41
about are many members employed it's true sorry james i missed that one out
36:46
are many members employed.
36:48
So the last survey that we did, 87% of our members were self-employed in some capacity.
36:55
They might have had a day job. They might have been working in admin or retail
36:59
or the bakery or the supermarket whilst they built their client base.
37:03
But actually, employed roles is less than 10% of our members.
37:08
And I think that's really indicative of the jobs that are out there at the moment.
37:15
You know, the figures that we quoted at the Therapy Expo were probably somewhere
37:20
around about 5,000 registered with a membership body sports therapists out there,
37:28
probably four times as many soft tissue therapists.
37:31
Probably, you know, a couple of thousand sports rehabilitators.
37:34
When we're all looking for those 400 500 jobs
37:38
working in professional sport so there aren't
37:41
the number of employed roles especially after
37:44
the the budget of the previous year with
37:47
the increase in national insurance contributions the employers
37:51
are you know they've been their hands have been forced and
37:55
so there are actually less employment opportunities and that's why
37:57
i think a lot of the work that scott and i do on the business
38:00
mentoring on the on the mondays and the wednesdays is
38:03
really important so that we can you know
38:06
we can guide people but if james james had just said that
38:09
his shame is looking to employ another massage therapist 2026 well
38:12
get in touch james you know you've got a great
38:15
local network where you are we can uh we can
38:18
give you some names or help you with that search definitely happy to great place
38:23
to work out if you can get in there people um if you're near exeter then look
38:27
up barefoot physio and that could be a great opportunity for a massage therapist
38:31
and really a chance to be a true of a true multidisciplinary team there some
38:35
great work they're doing thanks james for the input.
38:39
Right. So in March, we had a focus on disability. I love this month.
38:42
Again, kind of there's a link going on here because if you start to understand about the challenges
38:48
and potential barriers of working with a different population,
38:51
particularly, for example, this whole month was about athletes with disabilities,
38:54
then you start realizing how important it is, the words you use and how much
38:58
you look at the individual in front of you and you don't start judging people
39:01
by their cover and all this sort of stuff.
39:02
With an amazing month, it really was just truly spectacular.
39:05
I'm not allowed to say they're inspiring because that's where they really do
39:08
not like applied to them because they want to be recognised just for being great
39:12
human beings with great athletic performance and not kind of just because they
39:15
do happen to have one leg or one arm or whatever their disability may be.
39:20
But it was some incredible stories, really empowering. That's a far better word to use.
39:24
And the series included some discussions with Invicta GB athletes,
39:29
Sam May and Gemma Barnes.
39:31
Invicta Games is a fantastic organisation of games set up for athletes with disabilities.
39:36
And we talked to sam and jemma about the
39:39
highs and the lows of being part of that also we had
39:42
a guy dan wheels down metcalf which is just an incredible story
39:45
i couldn't do it justice by talking about it now but it's definitely worth
39:48
looking at this month on disability joining dan was a consultant he worked with
39:52
nicola hunt and dr katherine dawson and also we had rich potter rich davis of
39:56
the limitless that's lim with a b limitless expedition who set world records
40:00
for amputees crossing the longest snow trek in the himalayas again an incredible story.
40:07
And they went on to be part of Therapy Expert as well with sports massage therapist,
40:13
Carla Bickerstaff and Jenny Lane. So it was an amazing month.
40:15
And the crossover between working with somebody, for example,
40:19
an athlete with disability, and then going home to your able-bodied athletes,
40:22
the stuff you gain, which is explained so eloquently by Carla and Jenny, is just incredible.
40:27
And if you dip a little bit into working with a population like that.
40:30
Even with clients with learning disabilities as well, then that's something
40:34
which we did with Alistair Beverley.
40:36
Again, the crossover into when you go back into your normal inverted commas
40:40
or able-bodied or able-minded clients is huge.
40:44
So I would recommend again that you check out that whole month we did in March.
40:48
In April, we started a reflection series, which is where I invited therapists
40:53
just to come on and talk about episodes in the past, which affected their practice.
40:58
They were really popular.
40:59
There's some great feedback for that. And I applaud and thank all of the therapists who came on.
41:03
Like Gemma was saying earlier on, it can be daunting to come onto a podcast
41:06
when you know there's like a couple of thousand downloads.
41:09
And it's like, but for people who do that, everybody without fail at the end,
41:14
when we shut it down, disconnect, they go, wow, okay, I feel pretty cool about doing that.
41:19
You know, it's like a real pat on your shoulder and it's great for your personal
41:22
development. It's so valuable in terms of CPD. and you can go on to change your
41:27
own life as well as the life of others.
41:29
Now you feel empowered and helped to become a bit of an educator as well,
41:32
which is what we all are anyway, as clinicians and therapists,
41:34
we are a bit of educators.
41:36
So it was really nice. And one of those reflections was with Stevie,
41:40
who's here tonight. So I thought we'd just have an example of that.
41:43
Stevie, you and Tristan Attenborough, the wonderful Tristan Attenborough,
41:46
hugger of the year 2024 and 2025.
41:49
You came on the show to talk about an old episode in 2021, which was called
41:54
Massage 2021, he won the year of change.
41:57
I got the impression, I think, that both of you weren't quite convinced that
42:00
massage is in the place you want it to be yet.
42:02
There's still an awful lot of misconceptions and misinformation out there.
42:05
But how are you feeling now as we approach the end of 2025, Stevie?
42:09
Do you feel a little bit more optimistic about the future of massage?
42:13
Or do you still fear that we're kind of cascading and falling down this bottomless
42:18
pit of misinformation? I don't think we're we haven't fallen any further I don't
42:25
believe in the last while.
42:26
That's good, that's pretty good for Stevie that's pretty good We have definitely
42:31
seen some progress, there are more people out there pushing a more evidence informed,
42:39
narrative than there were before and their voices are beginning to get a little
42:44
bit more heard in various places, not just necessarily in the massage side of things.
42:50
You know, there's some chiros out there, there's some physios out there,
42:54
one in particular, shouting pretty loud as usual, but he makes a good point now and again.
42:59
So I think there is room still for optimism.
43:04
Why not? I mean, why do we have to accept that, or why should we accept that
43:10
things were pretty poor?
43:13
Why should we just accept that as the norm?
43:16
Why can't we change it? Why can't we try and just, in our own little way,
43:21
whatever it is that we do, try and just bring that message up to say that,
43:24
look, you know, we are better than we showed ourselves to be before.
43:30
And, you know, if you believed something before and you've had the opportunity to go back over that,
43:38
and guilty as charged as much as everybody else, and see that the flaws in what you thought was true.
43:47
And then you're able to say, well, actually, I need to move on from that.
43:52
I need to have another think about the other things that I thought perhaps that
43:56
were true and see if that is the same with them as well.
44:00
And I don't think there's, or rather I should say, I think there is an appetite
44:06
for people to do that. People want to be better.
44:10
They want to be better with their hands. They want to understand the human body
44:14
better. They want to understand the mind better, the therapeutic alliance.
44:19
How do we get that and how do we nurture it? How do we improve it?
44:24
Everybody wants to be better. So I think that's where the optimism lies.
44:29
There is a definite trend of people wanting to be better now, I think.
44:35
That's good. Nicely put. I like that. I like that a lot. That's really great. Yeah.
44:40
And again, I think I'm going to sound like a record, but I think it's thanks
44:43
to better communication. I think it's on both parts about both the therapists
44:48
not fearing questioning and criticizing things maybe and not taking in everything.
44:53
We've lost a little bit of that guru status, which we saw about 10 years ago,
44:56
which is always a healthy thing.
44:57
And also maybe the people theoretically at
45:00
the top just having a little bit more of a gentle approach when
45:03
talking to people who are trying to learn and move evolve their
45:07
practice and indeed we did kind of form part
45:10
of that that was a wonderful segue matt well done we did form part
45:13
of that when we had a two-part panel debate on it
45:16
was called facebook groups for massage therapists helpful or hateful
45:19
and it's a two-parter which i again i encourage you to
45:22
listen to all of this year's podcast but this one in particular gave a
45:25
chance in part one for a lot of what's about six less experienced
45:29
newer therapists to say how difficult it'd
45:32
been on social media to to the
45:35
responses they got for some of the questions they had and it was it was quite
45:39
shocking in places it did kind of show how how maybe to how maybe facebook is
45:44
not the place to ask such questions that was something we debated but also just
45:47
how etiquette kind of goes out the window sometimes and we forget and we're all there sometimes.
45:53
And then we did a part two where we had some more experienced therapists come
45:56
in and react to what they heard in episode one.
45:59
And there was some really nice, interesting debate there as well about this
46:03
kind of dilemma between being gentle with people who are maybe using still outdated
46:07
narratives, but also that responsibility of making a difference.
46:10
And we've got to swing the pendulum towards evidence informed rather than.
46:14
Kind of filling all the holes we don't know about with as yeah
46:18
with just potpourri or anything else we can grab to put in there so it
46:21
was yeah really good couple of episodes which i recommend you guys listen to
46:25
where are we time is going very quickly we should mention as well the st and
46:30
hans and hub conference which was on the 20th and 21st in exmouth where we had
46:35
a whole bunch of speakers which was just amazing it was like i say it was in
46:38
collaboration with the st school anna maria and the people there.
46:42
And we had a lot of the speakers we've mentioned already, Michelle Lyons and
46:45
Siobhan O'Donover. And we had Claire Minchel and Serena Williams.
46:48
It was just fantastic to see.
46:51
And what we've talked about already in terms of collaboration,
46:55
of communication, of everybody being on a level field, of the speakers actually
47:01
turning that camera around and shining on the audience and saying,
47:04
what do you want from this conference?
47:05
What can I give you that's going to help you and your business.
47:08
It was pretty much, I think, there's a few problems with timings and that,
47:12
but it was pretty much a textbooks on what we wanted.
47:16
There was a few problems on timing. Sorry, Andy Hosgood, again,
47:18
I'll apologize once a month.
47:20
But yeah, it was everything we talked about put into action and it showed it could be done.
47:25
So yeah, whether we can do it again, we don't know.
47:29
It was quite exhausting and ran at an astronomical loss, which is kind of the
47:33
whole debate about quality education and making a profit is tricky.
47:37
But it was a great one out there. And we have also had STA, smaller regional
47:42
conferences held around the country.
47:44
We've got another one coming up, I think, in the South, endorsed it again in May.
47:47
So if you're interested in all of the benefits of meeting each other face-to-face,
47:51
of which there are so many you can't believe, it's not just a case of getting information.
47:56
If that was the case, yeah, just download a PDF or watch a video.
47:59
It's about mixing with your peers.
48:01
It's about having the chance to ask questions on the spot, to reflect,
48:04
to adapt the information you're giving to you.
48:07
And yeah, so we're very big in that. It's our belief and that's what all our
48:10
conferences are there to try and help.
48:13
The last thing I wanted to squeeze in, because I know that a couple of you were
48:16
there, was Therapy Expo this year.
48:18
And this year, as a few of you are aware, there wasn't an STA theatre.
48:23
There wasn't a Hansel Huff and the ST School either. But that gave us a wonderful
48:26
chance to step back and maybe have a better view of everything that was going
48:31
on and also chat to a lot more people across the two days.
48:34
And it was the sight of something quite special this year, which I've kind of
48:39
mentioned a little bit. And I wanted to spend the time here just to highlight
48:41
because I think this was probably...
48:44
Kind of one of the big highlights of the year and one of the potential things
48:48
which could affect next year.
48:49
And I'm going to hand it over to Gary. There was a couple of debates, wasn't there?
48:52
We're going to imagine that people haven't heard last week or didn't attend
48:55
the Therapy Expo, but what was
48:56
so special about these two debates that happened at Therapy Expo, Gary?
49:00
Well, it's the first time in 15 years that representatives from the stakeholders.
49:06
The major stakeholders in sports therapy sat on
49:09
the same panel and had a discussion about anything there
49:12
has been some background things happening since the
49:16
change of leadership at the society of sports therapists
49:19
and their new ceo uh simon bowen he's
49:22
been instrumental in getting us all around the
49:25
table it's something that i've been pushing through for as i said
49:28
for over 15 years and it never happened so
49:31
just to get us all on the stage and and be accountable
49:34
really to our members you know to ask questions
49:38
and we discuss what does it mean to be a sports therapist and
49:41
my two academically recognized
49:44
colleagues as i referred to them you know were promoting
49:48
if you like or advocating the the graduate route
49:51
into sports therapy and i was trying to balance the
49:54
the argument there with you know vocational
49:57
training you know the historical diplomas advanced
50:01
diplomas that that were apparent in the
50:04
late 80s 90s and and noughties
50:07
so you know i think what we came
50:09
to was a broad understanding of what a sports therapist is
50:13
you know the competencies that that we should hold and and there will be some
50:18
more collaborations going forward one of them hopefully one of the the major
50:22
topics will be to update some of the occupational competencies what we call
50:26
the national occupational standards in the coming months and years.
50:31
Yeah, it was really cool. And I like to repeat it because I don't think.
50:36
I don't think anyone in the audience appreciated how monumentous an occasion
50:39
was it as you on there after so much work you've done to try and get people
50:44
to sit in the same room and talk to each other and talk with a bit of honesty and openness.
50:49
It was really a great event. And I think it does set us up for 2026.
50:54
It will be lovely next year to actually have people from, for example, the SST.
50:59
We've spoken to Kate Williams, who's the head of education at the SST and also
51:03
representatives from the STO.
51:04
We'll get them on the show and we'll chat about things and hopefully,
51:07
like I say, use this established engagement now to actually collaborate and
51:12
make some changes for everybody, not just our members, but for their members and everybody.
51:16
So it's a really exciting thing, which we're looking forward to.
51:20
We talked about the second one with Anna Maria last week, which was about the
51:25
topic of diagnosis, which has some really interesting things,
51:28
which I want you guys to have a listen to.
51:30
Some highlighted the problems with regulation and standardization. So
51:33
much is in there was really interesting and that took us to
51:36
today so we've just been through the year done how
51:41
are you feeling everybody does it feel like we've been through the year was that
51:43
a fair summary have you missed anything out from a
51:47
personal perspective Matt and I've said this last year and I probably said it
51:52
the year before you know we were down in pool in Dorset with Alex who's just
51:57
come into the room he's been working this evening and Alex organized a conference
52:01
on a Saturday in May and we went down there, beautiful weather,
52:05
really nice location, really good facilities.
52:09
And afterwards we retired to a local.
52:12
Drinks place if you like and we sat outside in the
52:14
beer garden and and there's a table with you know 15
52:17
or 20 sta members sitting there and and
52:21
what i got from it was the was the
52:24
the friendships that were there and and i remember saying
52:27
to to claire that you know not on a sort of an egotistical level but if i hadn't
52:32
have started the sta all those years ago those people would never have met some
52:37
people travel 200 miles to go to it you know we were at therapy expo we We were
52:42
down in Exmouth and people again traveled 200 plus miles to go.
52:45
And I got a really good sort of feeling of pride and achievement in being part
52:53
of this team that facilitates all of that.
52:58
Yeah, that's great. That sums it up really nicely. And it's good to see you
53:01
in the room, Alex, or you can be with us tonight.
53:03
But yeah, thanks to Alex and the local conferences that you've been setting up.
53:06
And like I say, the next one's in May, isn't it? I think it's all the information
53:09
going out there back down in Dorset. Yeah, and there has been an announcement
53:12
tonight on our social media at half past six.
53:15
But just to put it into some sort of context, we are in negotiations to hold
53:21
a conference in Norfolk,
53:23
one in Nottingham in the East Midlands, and Ludlow with Mike Rice of Movement
53:29
Therapy Education in the early summer parts of this, of 2026.
53:36
Fantastic very exciting and if you are listening to the podcast and you want
53:39
to stay in touch with that then the simplest thing is to either just follow
53:41
the uk underscore sta across all social media sites or you could even consider
53:46
if you're not ready becoming a member of the sta,
53:49
which is ridiculously cheap i'll let you know now it's 75 pounds a year because
53:54
we don't have to hide our prices we just put them out there because we're dead
53:56
proud of them but yeah 75 pounds and if you're interested in becoming a member
54:00
then if you use the code podcast 25 that's podcast 25,
54:04
you'll get an extra three months on top of those 12 months.
54:08
So for £75, you'll get 15 months instead of the 12.
54:12
And it's only valid for new members. And if you are a level three and qualified
54:15
after 2014, then do make sure you opt for associate member when you join,
54:20
Right, there we are. Gemma, Scott, Stevie, anything you'd like to add with a
54:24
reflection on 2025 or hope for 2026?
54:28
I mean yeah i'm happy to jump in there um i
54:31
mean i'm i have to say with the group
54:34
of women that i've been speaking to in the mentorship program this year i've
54:38
felt just so immensely proud of kind of just how everybody has been just so
54:45
lovely and supporting to the other women that they met and they just made a
54:50
really lovely little group to the point where some of them have continued,
54:54
they're going to continue doing like a monthly accountability session.
54:57
Like that for me was a definite win and made me feel very proud to know that
55:02
they were going to continue with that.
55:04
So yeah, and I think next year we're going to continue. The next lot of dates
55:08
are going to be sort of put out over the next few days to start another group in January.
55:12
So can't wait to get started and speak to, you know,
55:16
hopefully get another group of women bonding and accountable
55:19
and supporting each other fantastic that's
55:22
great to hear very cool and i love this has all come from
55:25
somebody who as you said in such honesty that you're wandering around feeling
55:28
lonely and isolated therapy expert and gary sticks out his five-foot arm and
55:32
just pulls you in not even metaphorically probably literally and and yeah now
55:36
look what this produced you know that conversation is now allowing you to help
55:40
so many other people as well so that's great so thank you for that,
55:44
Scott and Stevie any other thoughts or looking ahead at 2026 so I'm you know
55:50
if I look back over the last year and kind of like.
55:54
Obviously, Gary's kind of given us the platform to help members,
55:57
but I want to thank the members who actually have interacted and kind of come
56:01
on to chats as well because it makes it worthwhile.
56:06
And seeing the journey of some of those therapists from – like some of them
56:10
have been coming on regularly now for three, four years.
56:12
And seeing the journey of that is really, really nice to see.
56:16
Going forward for me, we've obviously got Stevie in the room,
56:20
Alex and Stuart as well, who's in the chat.
56:23
They're some of our new sta champions so
56:26
we're going to be doing chats regularly across the
56:29
year with them because we have a lot of expertise we've got
56:32
a lot of knowledge within the sta itself we're about showcasing that so that's
56:37
what we want to do we want to kind of showcase their knowledge their their expertise
56:41
and see how they can continue to help our members as well so that's what we've
56:46
got coming up as well over the next 12 months.
56:50
Fantastic. Very exciting.
56:53
Stevie, your thoughts for 2026. What are you looking forward to either with
56:57
the STA or through the STA or just personally?
57:00
Yeah, I mean, just following on from Scott there, anything that I can do to
57:05
help STA members or anybody that needs it really up here especially, but,
57:12
somebody wants to speak to me about anything and I'm happy to do that and help
57:17
out as much as I can and hopefully see if we can put together a conference up
57:22
here and carry on the good work that's been started around the country I'd really
57:29
love to get one done up here and showcase,
57:32
all the expertise and the knowledge and the STA up here,
57:37
Fantastic. Sounds great. Right then, we reached the end of the year in terms of podcasts.
57:45
So thank you very much to everyone who did join us live. Let me just flash back
57:48
to the comments again. Apologies if I did miss your comments.
57:50
I think we're okay. Brian here.
57:52
Thanks for joining us, Brian. Pretty much every single episode. Really appreciate it.
57:56
Brian says, best wishes everyone. Looking forward to 2026, as are we all.
58:00
I think we can all say that, hopefully.
58:02
I'd just like to say, I think on behalf of everyone, thanks to Gary Benson,
58:05
our founder, who I think we've all alluded to the idea that were it not for
58:08
him, we wouldn't be doing any of this. So thank you very much, Gary.
58:11
And you don't have to say thank you, Matt, for all of the podcast episodes.
58:13
Please don't take the focus away from you like you normally do.
58:17
It's just thank you, Gary. And that's it.
58:19
Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Gary. Gary, shush, shush, done.
58:22
In January, what are we coming back with in January? Just to give you an idea
58:25
of what to look forward to.
58:27
In January, we're going to start off. I like these focuses on different topics.
58:31
I think it's a good way that the feedback I've had is it keeps a focus so
58:34
people know what's coming up kind of what category is coming up during that
58:37
whole month so in January we
58:40
are going to have a focus on neurodivergence
58:44
in health care both on working with patients
58:47
or clients who are neurodivergent and also if you're a
58:49
neurodivergent therapist some tips on how
58:53
to make your life easy as well and we've got a fantastic line
58:56
of guests set up with topics coming the first
58:59
one we're going to have is on communication and that's
59:01
going to be with rosie sexton cassandra clemens and ben
59:05
benjamin mace croseley who's sdm member and then and the following episodes
59:09
in that month we're going to have an episode on hypermobility which is going
59:12
to be bonnie southgate a lot of sdm members will be aware of and also with rosie
59:17
sexton again and jessica as well from east therapies and then on the 20th of
59:22
january we're going to talk about barriers when it comes to neurodivergency.
59:25
And on the 27th on a
59:28
tuesday as well and we're going to have the neurodivergent therapist an
59:31
episode especially on that for those of you because i think there's
59:34
quite a few we'll be talking about this in particular i think within health care which
59:37
is obviously a very giving industry where you have a lot of empathy helps this
59:41
is where some of the strengths of neurodivergency really comes out in terms
59:45
of being naturally empathetic but also some of the dangers as well the weaknesses
59:49
of not being able to look after yourself and not being able to channel that
59:52
and and being over-empathetic in many ways.
59:54
So that's going to be on January the 27th with some great speakers and educators from that.
1:00:00
As I say, if you have enjoyed this episode or any episode in 2025,
1:00:04
do please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
1:00:06
That's the main thing. Let's just see them jump up over the Christmas period
1:00:09
as you're sipping on your port.
1:00:10
Just go along to the Sports Therapy Association YouTube channel. Just click subscribe.
1:00:13
There's no money. There's no catch. There's no spam. It just really helps our
1:00:18
episodes appear higher in a Google search when people are looking for something
1:00:21
on the topic of everything we've covered in these five years and seven weeks
1:00:26
of episodes. So I really appreciate that.
1:00:29
But I think that's about it. Until we meet again in 2026, I just say thanks
1:00:33
again to all of our guests, all of the people who download the podcast,
1:00:36
all the people who join us live.
1:00:37
Thanks to my panel tonight. So thanks, Gary.
1:00:40
And thanks, Gemma and Scott and Stevie. And thank you, the listener,
1:00:45
for joining us and being with us throughout the year.
1:00:48
We wish you all the best over the festive season, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.
1:00:51
We hope you find some joy and merriment and time to relax. and then we'll see
1:00:55
all of you hopefully in the new year.
1:00:57
Until then, take care of yourselves and each other.