What CEs Courses Are Needed To Become an OT In Pelvic Health?

OT Empower Hour where I Talk with Tiffany Lee about Certifications in Pelvic Health.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 OT Pelvic Health Content here.Find me on IG! @functionalpelvis-- Transcript --Let’s get right into it… this is a common question for anyone interested in becoming a pelvic health OT. What courses do I take?  What trajectory do I follow to become the best practitioner I can be?The truth is that there is not one right approach for anyone, and this especially applies to us as we take more and more specialized courses. Let’s face it, the world of pelvic health is a bit of the wild west. Especially  as OTs, there is not a linear path we have to take. This of course can cause confusion for us as we learn about the field and it can be confusing for our clients as well because it's hard to put an experience in a box when we all take diff paths to get there. And all the paths are ok… I encourage you to take the one that resonates the most with you. How awesome is it that we can be in a field where we can literally carve out our approach to helping clients? You can do this through taking a fitness based approach, a hands on approach some as visceral manipulation, a trauma based approach (which I think all pelvic floor therapist's should have, but that’s a topic for another episode), a behavioral based approach, an educational based approach, etc. Take the courses that speak to you and you will create a practice that is deeply authentic to you. Your bag of tools will be plentiful and you can customize the treatment session to the client in front of you. I don't know about you…. But does it get any better than that?So back to being a beginner in pelvic health… what steps can you take? I suggest Taking a foundational course or 2. I started offering OT Pioneers: an intro to pf therapy for OTs in 2018 and I have had the honor of supporting over 500 OTs at the time of this recording. This is a self paced online course with group mentorship and you have lifelong access to the material and updates. Another introductory course that I recommend after OTP is fellow OT Laura Rowan’s PRmatt course, it’s a 2 day in person lab where you get to practice your hands on manual therapy skills. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention fellow OT tiffany lee’s course called, “biofeedback training and incontinence solutions” This is a beginner to intermediate course designed to provide a basic working knowledge of biofeedback assisted behavioral therapy for bladder, bowel, and pelvic pain disorders. Pam’s document?There are also intro courses offered through H+W such as PF1. This is a large format course, often over 50 students and while this is changing, we are often the only OT enrolled in the course. While they have always been welcoming to OTs, the curriculum is primarily PT based.What’s next? After your intro courses, what do you do? My top suggestion is to join a supportive community such as the OTs for PH FB group. You can find and connect formally or informally to mentors (I have a list of mentors who offer services on the page). Mentorship is undoubtedly an incredible way to propel your learning to the next level.There are formal group programs out there as well.  I encourage you to join an OT specific one so that you always bring your frame of referen____________________________________________________________________________________________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!