Latest / The STA Clinician Podcast / STA218 'Women In Sports Therapy At Therapy Expo 2024' with special guest Sonia Fierro

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STA218 'Women In Sports Therapy At Therapy Expo 2024' with special guest Sonia Fierro · The STA Clinician Podcast

0:00
Music.
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And we're live. Hey people, welcome to the Sports Therapy Association podcast, episode 218.
0:18
My name is Matt Phillips, creator of RunShutLive.com. And as always,
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this episode is being recorded live on the Sports Therapy Association YouTube
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channel and on the Sports Therapy Association Facebook page.
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Normally, this live recording happens at eight o'clock on a Tuesday evening.
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But as you will have seen, hopefully in the adverts, this episode is actually
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being recorded at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. And it's I feel so cleansed and
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it's lovely having a lunchtime episode.
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But why are we doing that? Most importantly, well, as I put again in the adverts
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for this, some of our guests, shock horror, for example, mothers of little ones,
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don't have the luxury of taking an hour off in the evenings.
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As exemplified perfectly by our guest in this episode, Sonia Fierro,
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who will be joining us very soon.
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Sonia is the new host of the Women in Sports Therapy podcast and community.
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Some of you will already know Sonia as a hugely popular speaker at Therapy Expo.
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But for listeners who are not aware, Sonia has a huge history of working in
1:07
both private practice and in elite sport, including GB fencing,
1:12
GB diving, as well as in swimming and in rugby.
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She's the founder of Recover Stronger with a particular interest in strength,
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sports and functional fitness and has herself been a competitive powerlifting
1:23
athlete holding an Italian deadlift record.
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So to talk about her own presentations at
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this year's therapy expo as well as the women in sports
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therapy q a panel or discussion that's happening
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in the sta theater at therapy expo we're going to bring up sonia fierro very
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shortly if you have somehow in your busy lives managed to take pre-lunch hour
1:44
off like nikki's fans mansfield then do feel free to say hello and when you
1:48
do join us live then i can bring up your comments like this on the screen nikki
1:51
says lunchtime hello from chili Cambridge. It's beautiful.
1:55
Exactly. This has already sounded like something from the Whartons.
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If you listen to the podcast and you like the idea of joining us live,
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like I say, normally it's at eight o'clock in the evenings, but we might start
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doing, if it proves properly, we might start doing something in the daytimes
2:08
as well, just to be more inclusive, which is what it's all about.
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And I'm sure we'll be talking about that later on with Sonia Fiera.
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So I think that's all the housekeeping done.
2:17
Sit back, enjoy yourself, and let's bring up Sonia Fiera.
2:25
Hey, Sonia, how are you doing? Hi, good afternoon, everyone. All good, thank you.
2:30
Good afternoon, it's lovely. This is the first time, you know, this is the first time.
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I just realised, oh, I can't say good morning, it's past five o'clock.
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Exactly, it's true, very good, very British, very Anglophone.
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Thanks so much for giving up the time. I know you're super busy,
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but it's kind of, I mean, let's get straight into it.
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The fact that you are joining us at 12 and you weren't able to join us in the
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upper episode we did, which we planned, which was with Gemma and Sarah back in 213.
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That's kind of a little bit what we're talking about, aren't we,
3:00
with WISTS and everything? Yeah.
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Yeah, I think that there is this, you know, notion or belief that mums and parents
3:09
are always free in the evenings after kids' bedtime.
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But I think that doesn't actually happen until a bit later, or at least it didn't
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happen for me yet in two and a half years of having a baby and then toddler,
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because not all kids are the same. and some have huge sleep issues.
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We had quite big ones and the evening is still a challenge and I thought that
3:33
this time I would spare all your listeners of more crying and desperation on camera.
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I think we had two episodes like that, three with a whisked one and then I didn't make one.
3:45
So yeah, it was time to say plans need to change.
3:50
Do you think getting into the kind of meaning and the goal behind women in sports
3:56
therapy, do you think the tradition of doing things in the evening at kind of
4:00
eight o'clock is a little bit kind of patriarchal?
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Do you think it was invented by men for men? Or was that going over the top a bit?
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I don't know if we can say it was patriarchal. I know that, oh,
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that came out really weird.
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I know that is really how society is built. Everything revolves around, you know, nine to five.
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And the assumption is that people have nine to five jobs. But as we know in our industry, that's,
4:24
most often not the case and it becomes
4:27
a real issue when you're a carer you know it's
4:30
not just women but if you are the primary carer for kids
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or you know you may have an elderly relative
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at home that you have to care for and you know sometimes early
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morning evenings are a challenge because you need
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to be there and even if you do have
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a supportive partner at home if they
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are in a nine-to-five like by the time they're back
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home and you know you have dinner and everything you
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can't always take time and it's
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definitely like something that is so ingrained in society that we don't actually
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realize sometimes that there's a lot of people in in a different situation and
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it's not just us it's shift workers and you know social workers are often working in.
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We think our evenings are free people adult people will
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be free in the evening but it's not really
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the case it's really nice hearing you
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i mean because we're the title and everything
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about this is women in sports therapy but knowing you very
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well and knowing how intelligent you are your most intelligence is
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huge because some people might think women in sports therapy is
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going to be very militant it's going to be very women need this women
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need this men stop oppressing us you know stop waving your
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penis in front of us metaphorically or literally and just leave us
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alone we need to do this but you're not it's not really about that is
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it no it's not about that and i
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don't think it's about you know you said oppression
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or like just men not realizing the
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issues we face that's for sure a huge part i think that the biggest issue is
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with society how it's built especially in in this country uh you know maternity
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services are not working our child care services are not working and how the entire workplace is.
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It's not working for parents and again
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not just parents but people that have to care for for
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someone else or I would you know
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extend that to say for people in general because it's
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become so so challenging and if you live in
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a big city you think at eight hour shift plus an
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hour lunchtime plus you may have an hour to 90 minutes
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commuter like even in cities like
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London that's 10 11 12 hours
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of your day gone and you know
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it's a challenge it's not a good life anymore
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and I think something needs to change and in
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terms of like women in sports therapy I think that
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the issue is dual yes there's you
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know a lot of things in society have been built by men so
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there's that tradition that we kind of have to to
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be bring awareness of first of all because
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a lot of people don't realize that a lot of men will not realize
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that but also women need to learn to to
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speak up and take their place and i think i
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mentioned this in the past i mentioned this that therapy expo therapy
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expo has always been and any expo any
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in other industries as well you
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know most speakers are men and there's actually
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research about this saying that most speakers in a
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lot of industries tend to be men most podcasts
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and we need to have that courage to say
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no we we're good as well we can do this and we should do this so take our space.
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And show everyone else that we can do this so that more women then you know.
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Will speak up and take their place and fulfill their potential,
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that's really interesting and i remember time means nothing now it could be
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five years ago It could have been 10 years ago, but.
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There was it was it erupted this fact we
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started talking about manuals and how like you say a lot
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of guests were men and i remember talking to jack chew the
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physio matters about it because he's had loads and loads
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of guests and and you know he was i
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think he was criticized once if you know you only have blokes
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on it and he was like whoa whoa whoa hold on if you could see
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the amount of emails that i send out asking female
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guests to come on the show and half of them either don't reply
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maybe because they can't reply or they're not free he says
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it's not that i'm trying to avoid them it's simply because something in
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society means that they just don't come forward and one
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of the most common bits of feedback we get from the show which is so nice
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and we really really love it when we get these emails is when
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people like yourself or the other female guests we've had
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on the show we've had like i used to count it but now i
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know it's at least 50 50 in fact i think we're dipping our feet into
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more women than male guests it's just we
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get feedback saying it's so spying and it's made other sports therapists or
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massage therapists actually get involved more in public speaking or standing
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up for themselves or talking out where normally they'd kind of shelter back
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so there is quite a lot of confidence I think involved in it which again might
9:13
be the fault of men in a patriarchal society but I think confidence is an issue.
9:18
Yeah confidence is definitely an issue I mean there's research even
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in like workplace settings and you
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know looking for jobs and interviews where they've noticed
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that men apply even when they have you
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know less than 50 percent of the skills that are required and
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women tend not to apply unless they can fulfill 100 percent of the skills that
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you know the ad is describing so there's definitely something that is kind of
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ingrained in us if you know make wanting to to make sure that we can do something
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and we can do it well before.
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I don't know, come in public probably.
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There's a little bit of that fear. Probably a lot of that is from tradition
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and, again, how we are raised to be in our place, to be good girls.
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And the discussion could be huge and is probably something with psychologists
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because there's a lot from there.
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It's not just how we act in our jobs. but
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it's great to see that there's more and more women and I
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think it started with academia as well
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we know academia used to be really male-centered all
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professors and tutors were male
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and slowly more women got into academia and then
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because of of that and research as well there's
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more people coming from those environments and you
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know speaking at expos speaking on podcasts
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and and showing that that we can we can do this but we can be here and sometimes
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you don't need to be you know super expert or a researcher or you know someone
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with 30 years experience that to to share your experience so sometimes it's
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it's just about that it's not about knowledge.
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It's great. Brilliant. I look at you and people who listen to podcasts,
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you can't see something at the moment, but I've read about you.
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I think I first saw you advertised, you were on TherapyX, but I had to meet
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you before and you were speaking with Jack Cairo Rob. Yeah, Rob.
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And I'd read about you and what stood out probably just because I love strength
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and conditioning and stuff was like, oh, Italian deadlift or whatever it was
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like. What was the title you held?
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Yeah, it was the deadlift record. I had that for a few years.
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It was broken by some youngsters, these young people. Some youngsters.
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And they're super strong. You were probably that youngster's inspiration.
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She probably had a poster of you on the wall somewhere or another.
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And then, obviously, I met you.
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And the preconception I had between any kind of female Italian deadlift one,
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I felt so guilty afterwards thinking, wow, this girl is going to be gunned up and stacked.
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And and then people can't see you but you're not somebody
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who you'd walk by and think well yeah they're definitely a deadlift champion but
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how did you get into it was was that kind
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of in your history a battle a little bit of sexes or just proving it or standing
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out I wouldn't say a battle of sexes it was more like probably like a battle
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against myself and my limited beliefs so I I mean I've been in sports my entire life is,
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you know, why I do this job.
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I actually, so I was a figure skater and track and field athlete in my youth.
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I had an injury that meant I had to stop skating or at least I had to stop skating
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at the level I wanted to be.
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Because I was trying to be in the national team where Italy is one of the strongest
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nations actually in roller skating.
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And then from there, I took a completely different route. I went into marketing
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and communication and, you know, did bachelor, master's, started working in
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Italy, moved to UK, started working in offices, realized this is really not
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for me. I can't sit at a desk.
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And then, you know, what do I want to do?
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And I always had this feeling I want to do something for people like me,
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athletes that got injured and never had the help they needed because my injury got mismanaged.
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And it's a big part of why I couldn't continue. and
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then while I was going through that process I
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started joining a gym again I've never been a gym
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person because you know I was a 90s kid
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so you grow up thinking you have to be you know
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small and lean and not muscly and the gym is
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a scary place for women you think you get bulky but I joined the gym and then
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I discovered CrossFit so I got into the CrossFit world I started doing I mean
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my competitive nature resurfaced so I started doing some small competitions
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in CrossFit, from there, weightlifting.
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And whenever I was in CrossFit or in a weightlifting environment,
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I was always told by coaches and I knew myself as well that I was.
13:59
The person that moved well and it was
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gymnastic and agile but I wasn't
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strong I was able to do like really big weights for
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the strength I had so it was
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always kind of the limiting factor you're not a strong person
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and then one day in the gym we were playing around we
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were doing like some of the guys were doing rug pulls and
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I was just trying my dad and Lisa had always
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been probably my strongest lift and I
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always loved it and doing rack pulls I managed
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to like pull three times my body weight
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from the rack that was with straps and like above
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the knee so it didn't count anything but I was like oh this
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would be amazing if it was my actual deadlift
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and a couple of years down the line I was like you
14:44
know what I can't really train weightlifting because I
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wasn't around CrossFit gyms I was working with
14:49
teams I was working in clinics I couldn't make to make
14:53
it to like a gym that had space with platforms and
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proper barbells so I started thinking maybe I should try power lifting like
15:01
you have squat rack and bench everywhere I can train that anywhere and I had
15:06
this thing of maybe I should try to make that that lift a reality and then I
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think within a couple of months of training powerlifting,
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I actually managed to pull 160.
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That was like three times my body weight.
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And I did my first competition and then everything evolved from there.
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So what did you weigh at the time when you did the 160? So I was around, yeah, 56 feet, 57.
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No, wait, that time probably a bit lighter. I was probably 54, 55 when I started.
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And then I was competing as a under 57 lifter.
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So when I did my record, so the highest pool I had in a competition was...
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Wait 183 and a half and a half because that's how you put records and in a competition
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and that was as under 57 so it was 56 kilos so it was a bit over the three times.
16:01
Amazing and i guess knowing that the reason i love hearing about that
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is it kind of explains i think for people who go and see
16:07
what you talk about people go and sort of
16:10
are amazed at how inspiring you are and the motivation
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you give others i guess it all boils down a lot to your own personal experiences
16:16
and you know you've been there you've had the battles you've had people doubting
16:19
you telling you can't do that yeah and so passing that
16:22
on that's the wonderful thing i think about our career isn't it when you
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can inspire others can you draw upon that personal experience and
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yeah amazing yeah for sure and i think like everything
16:31
i went through with my injury always helped me for
16:35
sure in you know the elite sport settings like getting
16:38
the younger athletes to to know I
16:41
understood them because I've been an athlete as
16:45
you know a young person and then as an adult I was you
16:48
know going back to Italy like trying through COVID
16:51
to fly back so I could compete there so
16:54
I could be considered for the national theme and you
16:57
know there are other struggles that people that
17:01
have not been in sport sometimes don't don't realize and
17:03
understand and then it can be it can look
17:06
like a charming life when you know
17:09
you see athletes on tv or on the media but
17:12
there's a lot of challenges that they face and i think it's always good for
17:18
them to know that someone can understand it from within from their own experience
17:22
and then i mean that evolves so over over the years now is you know with women.
17:28
I had a chat a couple of weeks ago with someone that is.
17:32
You know, just discovered they're
17:33
pregnant and they want to continue training, but they are confused.
17:37
They don't know what to do. So it's reassuring.
17:40
You don't have to have had an experience to be a great therapist or a great
17:44
coach, or, you know, I'm not saying that unless you have gone through something,
17:47
you can help a person going through something, but it helps.
17:51
It helps with, you know, them feeling they can trust you and having that little
17:57
bit of reassurance for sure.
17:59
Yeah, I love hearing that. So I always remember, I think it was probably Dr.
18:04
Gary Mendoza we had on the show a couple of times talking about motivational
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interviewing and that. And some people think that to show empathy,
18:10
you need to have experienced what the person's gone through.
18:13
But if that's what you use to try and connect with the person going,
18:16
oh, yeah, I've done that. Oh, yeah, that happened to me. That's not empathy at all.
18:19
That is turning the conversation away from them and onto yourself.
18:22
So people get confused with that. And you can show empathy.
18:25
You don't have to have experienced it. It's all to do with the language you
18:27
use and opening up the dialogue for that person and listening and that sort
18:31
of stuff so but it does help if you've got empathy if you're a good communicator
18:35
and you've experienced it then that's pretty powerful I think.
18:39
Yeah for sure and I think there is a there are some
18:41
little things and little you know shades that
18:45
unless you've gone through something you don't really
18:48
fully appreciate even if you have a lot of
18:51
empathy you're a really good listener and you
18:55
know you research and you try your best there is
18:58
sometimes some little shadows that i think you can
19:01
only fully appreciate if you have gone through something
19:04
and like what you're saying
19:07
as well is like you can if you have gone through something you
19:10
can also appreciate that you don't want the other person to say oh
19:12
yeah i've gone through that like oh yeah i have experience of
19:16
that but like it's easier sometimes to just be there
19:18
for the person because you know how it feels on
19:22
on the other side do you think and and
19:25
by the way we're straying totally away from the questions I
19:28
was going to ask you but it's just so interesting I think it's really interesting to
19:31
listen to because now I'm thinking is there do you
19:34
think male therapists have maybe a fear of not being able to help female therapists
19:39
because they haven't been through it because they haven't been pregnant because
19:43
they haven't kind of gone through the menstrual cycle and and it's cheeky for
19:47
them I mean is that a good example of where they feel like I can't be empathetic
19:50
with this person because I don't know what they're,
19:52
I mean, I think that question is more for you than for me.
19:56
Like, I don't know. I haven't been there, but I...
20:01
You know, before becoming a mom, for sure, I was thinking I have a good understanding
20:06
of this physiologically. I have a good understanding of what the body's gone
20:10
through, like it goes through like pregnancy and childbirth.
20:15
And afterwards, I have a good understanding of what women go through emotionally and psychologically.
20:22
But as I was saying, there is some little things that I probably didn't fully
20:27
appreciate until I became a mom. And I think it's probably really similar for men.
20:33
I mean, even just not having, you know, a monthly period, like you can't fully
20:40
appreciate like the pain that some women are in.
20:44
Like even more so with endometriosis and conditions that can take years to be diagnosed.
20:49
Like women get dismissed by doctors. We know that's a huge problem in healthcare even now.
20:56
So, yeah, I'm sure there is some of that.
20:59
And for sure there are great therapies that really
21:02
do help women but probably i would
21:05
say they do question themselves sometimes whether
21:08
they know enough yeah i
21:12
don't know that's more that's more for you like what's that or
21:15
what suggestion would you give it was it's a leading question because i personally
21:19
believe i think kind of what i said before is to show empathy and to be a great
21:24
communicator and help someone you don't have to experience what they're doing
21:27
And this is particularly relevant if you're a male therapist helping a female
21:31
therapist, because if we look at the low-hanging fruit,
21:34
sure, if it really is at a higher level to experience exactly the pain they're
21:39
talking about or the emotional distress, then that's different.
21:41
But the lower-hanging fruit of listening to somebody and then having that,
21:46
being able to introduce a little bit of education along the way in a way that's
21:50
going to help them absorb it and reflect and change their behaviours, I think guys...
21:55
Thanks to people like yourself and this is why i'm going to ask this
21:58
is what i'm talking about because i think one of the goals of wist is not just
22:01
to look after women it's to kind of empower guys as well which
22:03
we'll talk about in a sec but there's an awful lot of information that male
22:06
therapists can take from you guys and use
22:10
to help women and i don't again now i'm
22:12
going to put myself in the place of a woman but i in the case
22:15
of female patients i've talked to they're really not
22:18
bothered if you're a male or a female you're a human and they
22:20
need a human to talk to i think you know so i
22:24
think people want to know that they are the person
22:27
in front of them that is is meant to help them is
22:30
there for them and is gonna listen and
22:34
is someone that they can trust they're not
22:36
gonna care whether you know some people may
22:39
have a preference but generally speaking people are
22:42
not gonna care if you are a woman or a man if you're
22:45
younger if you're older is more how you
22:48
relate to them and how you communicate with
22:51
them and that's a whole different skill set that
22:54
unfortunately most courses and schools don't teach
22:57
but like if you can do those things really well
23:00
it doesn't really matter the the problems I think surface when someone hasn't
23:08
got those communication skills and comes out a little bit like preaching or
23:13
lecturing then of course the first reaction which is normal psychological reaction is like.
23:20
Like, why are you trying to tell me that? Like, you don't even know.
23:24
Like, yeah, you might know, you know, from the books, but you haven't experienced this.
23:28
And I think it's something we can really relate to because it's something we
23:32
often face with doctors.
23:35
I had so, like, honestly, I think in the last two years, most of my burnout
23:40
issues have been fighting mainstream health care.
23:44
And I have a couple of conditions that are not really well understood.
23:47
They don't really give me problems day to day, but they are not really well
23:52
understood and they need a certain type of management.
23:55
And the worst is going to a doctor, to a GP and being told something when you know it's wrong.
24:01
In courses, we are told, or at least I've heard this a thousand times,
24:06
if you meet someone with a specific condition, whether it's rare,
24:11
whatever it is, they are the expert of their condition in their body.
24:16
So listen to them. so the worst thing you can do
24:19
is just tell them oh no but it's not like that
24:22
because this condition works this way and it's like no
24:25
it doesn't not always not in my experience and
24:28
I have it you barely know what is so yeah
24:32
I think you you can do a
24:34
lot to help people if you if you listen and you you
24:38
understand that even if they don't know anything about
24:41
their body and they don't know anything about therapy and
24:44
how we you know recover from injuries
24:48
they are still the expert of their body and their experience so that should
24:53
be like your like your guiding post that that's what you have to take in consideration
25:01
whatever you know about the body that's what matters the most.
25:06
Definitely. Great advice. That's going to be the little clip I choose to get
25:10
on social media. You look so serious when you're saying that. It's perfect.
25:14
Great. No, amazing, amazing words. Don't forget, people, if you are joining
25:17
us live, I thank you very much. I hope to put questions in there.
25:20
Nikki has had a reaction to your deadlift record. I knew she'd provide to that.
25:23
My deadlift for one hour RM was just over one times my body weight,
25:26
80K. And that was a trap bar.
25:28
Nikki, it's all relative. You know, it's fine. I'm sure you experienced a massive
25:32
high being able to do that. And thanks, Nikki, for also, I just saw earlier
25:36
on, you said she's squeezing us in between her Pilates class and her first client of the day.
25:41
Great time management. Yeah, thank you for being here.
25:44
And, you know, deadlifts is one of those women are scared of deadlifts,
25:48
probably more than men, for no reason that I can see.
25:53
It's just something, I mean, we are constantly fed in media, deadlifts are not safe.
25:58
And I think that's, you know, you've been to my therapy expo talks, that's being covered.
26:03
Quite a while and this year I'm gonna expand a little
26:06
bit you know about that for women especially around
26:09
pregnancy I think we can so many
26:12
women can lift a lot more than they are lifting and there's
26:15
a fear of weights fear of you
26:18
know getting bulkier bigger not having
26:21
been around gyms enough to feel confident feel
26:25
that you know the weight section can
26:28
be scary depending on the gym can be especially
26:31
if it's really like bodybuilding style gyms the looks
26:35
but I think so many women can do so much more and it's just about coaching and
26:40
keep doing the lifting and yeah I really enjoyed if people are listening well
26:46
we're going to talk about your what you're doing at therapy expo shortly but
26:49
it just reminded me of kind of.
26:52
Your journey and it wasn't kind of one of these kind
26:55
of like hello magazine journeys of you having a baby and
26:58
you weight training with it but you posted some stuff on there which just kind
27:01
of showed again in a wonderfully here's a
27:04
little look what i'm doing i'm not forcing upon you and it won't be right for everybody
27:06
but it just showed because you were kind of told i think the guidelines were
27:10
like don't pick up anything heavier than a hat and bag or something in the
27:12
first yeah i mean the guidelines are still like those
27:16
like don't lift more than a couple of pounds and it's
27:19
like why like I'm so much
27:21
more I'm so much stronger than that why
27:25
should I stop lifting weights just because
27:28
I'm pregnant like women have been going
27:31
through pregnancies working in the fields working in in all different type of
27:37
settings and for sure health care and safety you know wasn't the same under
27:42
200 or 500 years ago but like women can do amazing things and finally research
27:47
is kind of catching up to that.
27:49
In CrossFit, we have seen like some something that is just unbelievable,
27:54
like women giving birth and six days later, being sectionals to try to make it to the games.
28:01
This means that like that person was eight, nine months pregnant doing workouts
28:06
as prescribed, full weights.
28:08
Full movements, including gymnastics, like muscle ups,
28:11
and then giving birth and six days later being in
28:15
the gym with full weights and you know doing muscle ups
28:18
which is of course you know outliers but
28:21
like women are able to to do this like
28:24
there's some women's doing amazing things so we really need that research to
28:29
to catch up and ensure that no you don't have to stop lifting weights and you
28:34
know if there's moms of multiple kids they know there's no way you are not going
28:38
to pick up your toddler, that is not going to be two pounds.
28:42
So yeah, it's so limiting and it's really fear mongering, which is the worst
28:48
for me, like the worst part of it.
28:52
Amazing right yeah I really
28:54
want to hear more before we go into your I want to I've got
28:58
to stick to the script to get some stuff out yeah so but
29:02
we're definitely going to talk more about your presentations therapy expert for
29:05
people who are listening who don't know what we're talking about with women in
29:07
sports therapy it's WIST and it's yourself and
29:11
Gemma and Sarah so that's Gemma
29:14
Pouzas and Sarah Packard and you're
29:17
kind of the new voices to something that was started off a while back by
29:20
fiona and deborah and one
29:24
of the things i'm interested so there is a podcast there people in case you're listening
29:26
started off in 22 i think and there's quite a
29:29
few great episodes amazing guests you were one of the guests on one of them
29:32
yeah and so people should check out the women in sports therapy podcast at the
29:38
older episodes the v1 episodes as we'll call them but v2 now is i love the way
29:43
you say it's not going to be just a podcast now it's going to be kind of a community
29:46
so before we go and talk about therapy expert give us a little idea of what.
29:50
People can expect to be happening in the future with regards to WIST community.
29:53
So yeah, when we started chatting about like what can we do and like we realized
29:59
like me, Sarah and Gemma, we were all saying, yeah, the podcast is great,
30:04
but the podcast tends to be like one-sided.
30:08
There is one side presenting to the audience.
30:11
And even if you have different guests, even if
30:14
you go live there's not that much interaction
30:18
and yes you can cover topics but like
30:21
that interaction that connection is always missing
30:24
and especially as women the moms there
30:27
we talked at the beginning of this conversation about
30:30
the issues of sometimes you know showing up live so
30:33
even if you are really interested in something and you
30:35
have questions if you can't be there if you listen
30:38
to a recording it's not going to be the same experience even
30:42
if those people are you know available to answer
30:45
questions later it's still not the same experience there's no
30:48
connection so we were always all saying we
30:51
want this to be something else something more and
30:55
we thought about creating a community the SDA
30:59
is great it has a great website sorry a great
31:02
Facebook group that is really active but sometimes
31:06
like you might feel a little bit you know you don't want to share some struggles
31:12
or put some questions in an open group and we feel that it's not just women's
31:18
health questions but about business about those fears that we were talking about
31:22
you know showing up and you know.
31:25
Speaking up in expos etc sometimes you
31:28
do want that like female environment and
31:32
feeling safer in that environment so we
31:35
thought okay we need a community we need to
31:38
be something more and be there for
31:41
for women and allow them to to
31:44
voice their concerns and come to us telling us
31:47
what they really need so the community opened
31:50
yesterday we had the first few people joining there would
31:53
be more and more happening there and what we aim
31:57
to do with that is really having people feel
32:00
more confident also by helping someone else because if I post a struggle and
32:04
someone has gone through there we want that person to answer with their experience
32:09
with their advice so they don't need to be one of us like it's not just you
32:14
know advice from us we want to lead the way so that.
32:17
More women can be there supporting one
32:21
another we we are not you know
32:24
the main experts in in this field Sarah for
32:27
sure has done a lot more with women's health
32:30
but then I have limited experience I'm
32:32
not scared of of saying that I do work with
32:36
like pregnant women and postpartum women
32:39
but it's never been the sole focus of what I do
32:41
so yeah we need everyone else to
32:44
contribute and do more and the community is
32:47
going to be just for women but then we are still gonna
32:50
continue with the podcast other resources and even
32:53
meet and greet at therapy expo where as you were saying earlier we want men
32:59
to be part of the discussion and tell us like their fears like you were saying
33:04
what challenges they face when
33:08
when treating female patients so what they want to know so that we can,
33:12
with time, create those resources as well.
33:16
Amazing. Sounds amazing. And if listeners are interested in hearing about this
33:20
firsthand, then as I said before, you're going to be yourself and Gemma,
33:24
not Sarah, sadly, I believe she's going to be sunning herself somewhere.
33:27
But Gemma and you are going to be presenting Women in Sports Therapy,
33:30
Building a Stronger Community.
33:31
And that's going to be on day one of Therapy Expo this November,
33:35
which is like three weeks away. Oh my God, it is. I know.
33:38
We better get right in our presentation, Sonia. I think it's like the ding, ding, Bill.
33:42
But yeah, so 27th, So we'll be on the day one on the Wednesday at 10.15am in the STA theatre.
33:48
So if you are going to therapy expert, it'll be an amazing way to start the day.
33:51
And in fact, prior to that, unfortunately, Michelle Lyons was going to be chatting
33:56
before you guys and then joining you for the women's sports therapy,
34:01
building a strong community.
34:02
But unfortunately, Michelle can't be along at therapy expert this year.
34:05
But Michelle has put us in contact with a colleague, Christiane Byrd,
34:09
co-founder of Menopause Movement, who is going to be stepping in for Michelle,
34:13
which is wonderful news.
34:14
Christiane is going to be delivering a session called Power the Paws,
34:17
the pelvic floor and more.
34:19
And that will be directly before the Women in Sports Therapy,
34:22
Building a Strong Community, and they should be joining you.
34:24
So it's still going to be a great morning for therapists who
34:27
are interested in helping women
34:30
in sports therapy and being women in sports therapy and working
34:33
with either female patients and other therapists so that includes guys
34:36
as well and it'd be a really interesting conversation and
34:40
reflection so i'm going to
34:42
bring this up for people who tell us that they love a bit of imagery on youtube
34:45
that's what youtube is all about so you can see on there when that's going to
34:49
be but as we can also see and this is where if you listen to the podcast you
34:52
might want to go along to youtube just have a look at the screenshot of all
34:56
the things that sonja's doing you've got a pretty busy day one sonja have you
34:59
planned this to collapse after day one and then just keep your feet up for day two?
35:03
No I think it's just it's my ongoing issue of not really being good at saying
35:09
no and yeah I can do that for sure let's go and then realizing oh actually everything
35:17
is on day one because usually I had two talks in,
35:20
like as a keynote presentations and they would were day one and day two but
35:26
because of my daughter and, you know, struggling to be away a couple of days from home.
35:31
Therapy Expo was really kind to put everything in day one. And then,
35:35
you know, it was the SDA panel and they were like, oh, do you want to be on this panel?
35:39
Like, yeah, sure. I didn't even check the times. And it's like,
35:41
oh, okay, I'm going to be bouncing off one end to the other all day.
35:46
But it's always a lot of fun. So I don't mind. You really are though.
35:51
Yeah. Just we'll need a hand signal for coffee or whatever your poison is on that day.
35:55
Just we'll need a code word and I'll just make sure that you get brought one
35:59
because you're going to be bouncing around.
36:00
Let's have a little look at what else you're doing apart from the WISP presentation.
36:04
So like we say, that's going to be 10, 15 in the morning in the STA therapy update theatre.
36:08
And then at 11.05, so you've got 25 minutes to get it. That's pretty cool.
36:12
You're going to get over to theatre B and that's me at 11.05,
36:16
empowering pregnant and postpartum athletes debunking myths
36:19
and optimizing recovery in the new era of exercise
36:22
we've already kind of touched a little bit on that but what
36:25
are your goals for people who attend that to walk away with
36:28
i would say definitely to be aware
36:31
of more recent research that has been
36:34
showing the lifting weights and
36:37
things like the valsava maneuver so holding breath
36:40
or even laying on your back and benching when
36:43
you are pregnant are not actually as risky as
36:46
once thought so that if women
36:49
are involved in in these sports or
36:52
even impact sports like there's women running really late
36:55
in their pregnancies now that is is okay
36:58
and we can support these women rather
37:01
than being a bit scared ourselves as therapists
37:04
and you know scaring them off from from doing
37:07
anything I mean birth is one of the hardest things
37:10
that women will go through in their life at least physically
37:13
and I really think you know you need a strength foundation for it for that so
37:19
you need to keep exercising some women will struggle because of other symptoms
37:24
like nausea and not feeling really well or energy levels that's absolutely fine
37:29
but like if you feel you can you you know you shouldn't be.
37:33
Just scared of doing more, like all the functional fitness, let's say,
37:40
activities and lifting and more high intensity.
37:44
There's new research also about like raising your heart rate.
37:47
We were always told, oh, you should then really raise your heart rate. It's dangerous.
37:51
And it doesn't actually seem to be the case.
37:54
And then as we were saying earlier about postpartum as well,
37:59
I think there is a things don't
38:01
really work how they are now like we have this six weeks check
38:04
and you're told ready to go but there's women
38:07
that would have done you know really good recovery in
38:10
those six weeks I would have started some rehabilitation some pelvic
38:14
floor work and some they've done nothing and then
38:16
there will be some that you know maybe are just home with
38:19
their first newborn baby and they can rest and
38:23
they have lots of support and some that have to go back you know
38:26
to fairly physical jobs at six weeks and we
38:29
are kind of lacking in UK that we have that
38:32
protective period and if there's listeners from
38:35
like America we know that that's a huge problem
38:38
there where they don't even have that protection and
38:41
sometimes they're thrown in really physical jobs straight away and
38:44
they can't afford to take time off because they don't have maternity leave
38:47
and we need to learn how to support these
38:51
people when they can't rest and they have to go
38:53
through that record very but at the same time support the
38:56
ones that they want to go back in sport and not just saying no
38:59
because you are four weeks postpartum and
39:02
you shouldn't do anything because some people will be
39:05
able to so we should support not stop them fantastic so it's going to help therapists
39:12
to attend it's going to help empower therapists to empower the women and kind
39:16
of spread a little bit of better information and yeah excellent yeah and then
39:21
following with the Q&A with you.
39:24
Yeah, exactly. It's true, yeah, because that's how we mentioned like last week
39:29
when we were chatting with all the Therapy Expo people, Molly and Vernon and...
39:34
Charlotte, how this year the STA Theatre, a lot of the people who started off
39:38
in the STA Theatre are now keynote speakers in that, which is amazing.
39:40
So rather than trying to compete with that, we're offering opportunities for
39:44
people to come and see the keynote speakers in the STA Theatre for a more kind
39:47
of intimate Q&A session, which people love.
39:50
And it's like you were kind of touching on earlier, it's real healthy interaction.
39:53
The interaction there is a great way of learning.
39:55
The main theatres are amazing to expose you to information.
39:58
It's probably a good idea for some people to take a pen and paper along because
40:01
otherwise you just get home and think, I remember but nothing.
40:03
My head's just gone. What did I see then? Yeah, for sure. But the Q&A sessions
40:07
and that in the STA theatre hopefully will be a chance for you to reflect.
40:10
So yeah, we've got you after Theatre B.
40:13
We've given you 15, oh, 35 minutes, pretty generous to get there.
40:17
And then yeah, you'll be doing a Q&A on that very topic for 25 minutes in the STA theatre.
40:24
Then you get a chance for a little bit of lunch. Nice.
40:26
Don't go too far though, because at 2.50, you're in Theatre C,
40:31
And that's going to be a presentation entitled Challenging Women's Health Inequalities
40:36
Within the Therapy Sector.
40:38
Without giving too much of it away, what are people likely to gain from visiting that?
40:44
Well, it's going to be a panel. So hopefully that's also going to be,
40:49
there's going to be some interaction with the audience.
40:52
Matt is not just me, there is other therapists on that one.
40:56
And we really want to, you know, kind of Oh, I'm missing the word there. Sorry.
41:04
Give our experiences. Give is not the right word, but like you guys.
41:08
Share. Share was the word. Share our experiences. And
41:12
then the experiences we had with our patients and what they've been going through
41:18
and all those struggles and what we can or at least what we think we could do
41:25
to better support women and women's alpha and all the issues we see within the sector.
41:33
Fantastic. And that's actually 45 minutes in there. So that'll be a really good
41:37
chance for people to go along there in one of the big theatres to get involved as well.
41:41
And obviously, again, for both male and female therapists, hugely important.
41:46
Because people forget, don't we? I mean, at least half of your therapists are
41:50
going to be not the same sex as you. They're going to be male or female.
41:53
So we really need to talk about these topics together.
41:56
Amazing. And that's what we were doing that day. So pretty light.
42:00
Nice. and in between you'll
42:04
probably find me like apart from the coffee and
42:06
lunch breaks around the STA stand
42:10
I'll be there with Gemma representing WIS
42:13
and we want to meet as many therapists as we can so do come and search for us
42:19
we would love to hear more from you about what you want to see from WIS the
42:25
support you feel you need topics you want covered and just to meet you like in person.
42:31
So yeah, I'll be hanging around the SDA stand.
42:35
Fantastic. For you, waiting for you. It'll be, and next to the SDA stand as
42:39
well, we've got properly signed posts this year, the Speakers Lounge as well.
42:43
So that'll be a chance for you people as well to have a chat with the speakers
42:47
who are free and not running around too much, but that'll be really cool as well.
42:51
Last year, I think it became a little bit of a kind of a storage space for Anna Maria Maccieri,
42:55
but this year we're going to police that and she's got
42:58
strict lines of yeah so so
43:02
that can be fun yeah i think it would be really nice
43:05
i really like the format that like it's been created this
43:08
year with therapy expo because i find that a lot of people are
43:11
not really feeling the questions in
43:13
the main theaters it can be again i need
43:16
to be scary like some theaters like some of the presentations
43:19
is like a full theater with people standing i
43:22
had a couple of those and i know i can it can
43:25
feel scary to ask a question there and i will often
43:28
find that oh anybody has any questions silence no
43:31
not really and then as you are like trying to
43:34
exit the theater like you have people stopping you and coming to
43:37
ask questions so i love the you know
43:40
having the q a in the sda theater later on so it's a more informal setup you're
43:47
closer to the audience and whoever has questions can come there and have them
43:53
answered and we can dig a little bit deeper in what I'll cover with the presentation.
43:59
Dig a little bit deeper. That's good. Exactly what we'll do.
44:02
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing I love about Therapy Expo.
44:06
And it has sounded like the last five months in the lead up to it.
44:10
We've just been kind of like really going on about it. But they do listen to
44:13
feedback and they are trying to make it an educative experience as well.
44:18
Because we're well aware, we all know it, that you go to a conference and if
44:21
you just see too much and take in too much, you literally do wake up on Monday
44:25
or whenever it is and just think, I've got nothing out of that.
44:28
I don't remember anything it's just an overload you can't learn.
44:31
That way but you like going to trying to do a degree in
44:34
three months just non-stop back to back you need to live it
44:36
absorb it and take it in so yeah and I
44:39
think when you try to have too much and too
44:42
many topics and everything a little bit different becomes also
44:46
a bit superficial so a lot
44:48
of the talks end up being all these like nice little
44:51
words or giving examples but like not
44:54
really giving people and impractical that they can take
44:57
with them and that's what people
45:00
want from expos they want to learn something that they
45:03
can apply or at least that that can spark
45:06
an interest and then go and learn more but I
45:09
think yeah that unless the expo
45:13
really put some work into into
45:17
the program and trying linking the presentations it
45:21
ends up being a bit like a bit of this a bit of that nothing
45:24
really in-depth whereas this year they've
45:27
done a great a great job and day one
45:30
is it's really women's health focused and one of the theaters is really women's
45:35
health focused which is is great because we know especially from last year that
45:38
there was a lot of interest around those topics so yeah I'm I'm really looking
45:43
forward to to this new setup and I think people will love it.
45:48
Excellent. Great. I don't know whether it's possible for you to think about
45:52
post-therapy expo, but what else have you got kind of planned apart from the
45:56
WISC stuff? Have you got anything else that you're doing with Recover Stronger?
46:01
In a little bit of like, I've been pausing and trying to figure out how to better
46:07
set up things for myself because I'm facing some of those women's challenges
46:12
with workload and life in general.
46:16
So I'm trying to rejuggle everything.
46:19
I have a slightly new format for just clients coming up in terms of like training
46:26
and how they can work with me.
46:27
And in terms of therapists, I'm still running kind of on, I'm not really advertising
46:32
this as much, but like mentorships, like one-on-one mentorships.
46:36
I did plan to launch a course last year but then
46:38
I kind of paused on that because it was becoming
46:41
just too much with everything else so hopefully that
46:45
will happen at some point in 25 but I'm not I'm
46:48
not quite sure when and how yet so yeah if anyone is interested in getting some
46:54
support I do run one-on-one mentorships for therapists generally they are focused
46:59
on well they're like either business help because I've run my own businesses, a gym, a clinic,
47:06
online or telehealth work.
47:11
There are not many therapists too. And all the communication marketing as well
47:15
as communication with patients.
47:17
So I've been helping a few therapists too.
47:21
Really juggle how they offer their services and how they interact with their
47:26
patients so that their retention rates have improved and their rehabilitation
47:32
adherence has improved because that's you know it's one of the biggest issues
47:37
we face people don't do their exercises.
47:41
Amazing and that's so i mean best for people
47:44
want to keep in touch with that instagram is still the main place
47:46
for people to follow you yeah yeah so what
47:49
makes that goes in the show notes but that is if you're listening you've got a pen and
47:52
paper handy then that is sonia.recoverstronger so
47:55
sonia.recoverstronger on instagram and this
47:58
is a great feed like i say you can go back and there's so much valuable information
48:01
in there going back years and years so have a little look at that and then also
48:06
if anything you've been interested in regarding women in sports therapy then
48:09
you can follow that across social media and that's at uk underscore wist It's
48:15
W-I-S-T, so UK underscore W-I-S-T.
48:17
Obviously, that will be, as always, on the show notes.
48:21
And, yeah, but if you are going to Therapy Expo, then now you know what to do
48:25
on day one. Your day one is now planned out.
48:28
Yeah. And join Sonia on her journey. Follow me around.
48:32
And, yeah, we'd love to see you there. And also, like Sonia said,
48:35
and it's so important as well, do come and say hello to us at Therapy Expo.
48:39
We've said it so many times, it's not just going to presentations.
48:41
It's the conversations you have with other therapists in between those talks,
48:45
which probably are going to stay in your head because you're going to be interacting
48:48
and talking and remembering and reflecting.
48:50
So do come and say hello, particularly as Gary Benson has magnificently said,
48:54
if you're going to therapy by yourself, which is why Gary set up the STA in the first place.
48:59
He doesn't want anybody to be alone or feel alone. So if you are going to therapy
49:02
by yourself and you're not quite sure and you're feeling a bit of a daunting
49:05
process, just come to the STA.
49:06
It doesn't matter if you're a member or not. You soon will be a member because
49:09
you'll just realise how amazing we are.
49:10
But come along just say hi we heard the podcast and i'm just first time here
49:14
i wanted a bit of guidance bam you will be probably taken to a corner by somebody
49:18
over six foot six there's a high chance that person will be over six foot six
49:21
so don't worry about that it's just coincidence,
49:24
and uh and yeah you'll be looked after.
49:27
Amazing right well thank you so much Sonia for giving up your time really appreciate
49:31
it and for people who joined us live and thank you
49:33
very much if you do if you listen to the podcast and
49:36
you want to join us live next week we're still going to we're still
49:39
bringing you news and speakers who are going to therapy expo next
49:42
week we'll be back to the normal time of eight
49:45
o'clock on the tuesday and that's me with james earls of born
49:48
to move and born to walk who's a fantastic favorite therapy
49:51
expo as well and a really really nice bloke on top of everything a wonderful
49:54
educator so james will be joining me next week Tuesday at
49:57
eight o'clock in the evening sorry I was just reading
50:00
a Nikki's comment let's say Nikki Mansfield let's say if
50:04
I buy you and that can I read this out loud if I buy you and Anna Maria each an
50:06
espresso will you let me just stand there and listen while you talk Italian
50:09
to each other about absolutely anything you want asking for
50:12
a language gig yeah it's a beautiful experience isn't it just watching Anna
50:15
Maria and Sonny Fierro it's true I should have that photo
50:18
in our hand if I haven't got it but um yeah there will be
50:20
more Italian magic I'm sure at therapy expert as well
50:23
yes yeah we can send this to
50:26
anna maria i'm sure she will be happy to as as
50:29
long as there is a press involved i'm sure she'll be happy to
50:32
it's one of my jobs across the day yeah fantastic well thanks again sonny i
50:36
really appreciate spending time with you and see you in person in like three
50:39
weeks or something yes yeah putting your presentations together there yeah we
50:44
need to get onto the onto there not to be uh like running with you know my little.
50:51
Usb stick yeah last week yeah usb stick like every year
50:54
it's like sorry i'm late guys but yeah this is here this year's gonna be different
50:59
is it sonia i don't know i always plan for yeah to be more organized we'll see
51:05
we'll see that's good at least this is giving us both of both of us believe
51:08
me both of us giving a three-week call so we can we can crack on with that yeah yeah right
51:13
thanks everybody really appreciate it as always until we meet again just take
51:17
care of each other bye bye.
51:19
Music.