Use This Framework To Excel As a Pelvic Health OT

Get my 9 page OTs Map to the World of Pelvic Health.Meet me on the OTs for Pelvic Health Facebook Group!Check Out More AMAZING OT Pelvic Health Content here.Find me on IG! @functionalpelvis-- Transcript --I love today’s topic. I think it’s essential for us in pelvic health to have a framework that we can feel grounded in, one that we can come back to when we can see multiple ways that a treatment plan can go. When we get analysis paralysis and are just not sure where to go. This is when it’s helpful to come back to our model or our framework.  It my opinion, if I had to sum up the framework of a pelvic floor OT, it’s 2 fold:We embrace a facilitator vs a fixer mentalityWe take a Whole person/BPS approachNow there’s a lot more that goes into it than just these two things but keep in mind this a podcast not a dissertation, so give me some slack. Also, this framework is not exclusive to OTs. Many PTs have this same approach. It’s just that I am a proud pelvic health OT, and underdog most of my career and I am so firmly rooted in supporting and encouraging OTs to get out there.and strut their stuff.  Let’s kick off today’s episode with a  quiz! Here’s the Question: How do you view your role with your client?While some of us listening to this episode are newer OTs and some of us are more seasoned, I think no matter where you are, it's extremely relevant to stop to check in and ask yourself this question.  We all have an internalized viewpoint of how we see our role as the OT.  This viewpoint is usually unarticulated, it's usually subconscious, but here is the thing - this internalized viewpoint is going to have an immense impact on our words and actions and our relationship with our client.    So How do you view your role with your client? There are 3 options to this multiple choice quiz.Option A: I carry my clients up the mountainOption B: I lead the way and they follow. Option C: I walk alongside my clients. Full disclosure: Standardized tests have never been my strong suit. Good thing we’re not grading this one. Let’s review each of these options.Option A: I carry my clients up the mountain. If I carry up my client - I am thinking of them as weak, I am doing for them, I am doing all the hard work and they are being passively transported.  I am not educating, I am accomplishing the task (getting up the mountain) but here I am treating them as someone weak and incapable. I can check the box, I did it. But they are not an active participant as someone who has gotten better because of it, they don’t have more knowledge they probably won’t be able to get up the mountain themselves again.  In this option I am viewing myself as superior which  automatically means I am  viewing them inferior. “I am the practitioner here.  I know what's right.  I am in charge here.”  If I had this view then I probably would just go in and manually release them, I wouldn’t talk to them about why I was manually releasing them, wouldn’t give them any home exercise programs that would reinforce what I’m trying to build in their body, they are just coming and getting done.  The experience can be  a little bit like a massage, or experiences I have had with massages. You know the ones when You are not being told which muscles are tight, you are not being told why they are doing what they are doing, and what you can do about it yourself when you get home.When an OT views their role like this it be____________________________________________________________________________________________Pelvic OTPs United - Lindsey's off-line interactive community for $39 a month! Inside Pelvic OTPs United you'll find:​Weekly group mentoring calls with Lindsey. She's doing this exclusively inside this community. These aren't your boring old Zoom calls where she is a talking head. We interact, we coach, we learn from each other.​Highly curated forums. The worst is when you post a question on FB just to have it drowned out with 10 other questions that follow it. So, she's got dedicated forums on different populations, different diagnosis, different topics (including business). Hop it, post your specific question, and get the expert advice you need.More info here. Lindsey would love support you in this quiet corner off social media!