Jodie's Story of How We Came to Be HERE
Written by Jodie Pulsifer
Full Circle Physiotherapy has become much more than just a clinical practice. It has been an evolution of all of the people who have crossed paths with it, have asked what could it be and let it continue to adapt to what might be possible.
One of the things I am most proud about in my own life is the self identity I have been forging, sometimes with great difficulty, is that I am allowed to grow and change and that I can give that same grace and permission to those around me. As I give myself permission to change, I have tried to build relationships and frameworks around myself that embody and support that ever evolving process.
This is the story of Full Circle Physiotherapy from how my memories have been shaped and evolved over time and from own vantage point today:
Full Circle Physiotherapy was the name given to my own sole proprietorship when I started out in pelvic health at Pomegranate Community Midwives in 2016. I was young, a new mom, new in my pelvic health career and excited and simultaneously entirely unsure about what life in solo private practice could be. The one thing I knew was that I wanted to be identified not by my own name but by something that could be more expansive. I wanted something that could shift with me if I took another maternity leave and to have the space for others within. I had no idea what it would become but I knew that I thrive in community and needed something that might leave room for the expansiveness of my own curiosities.
MEETING MY COMMUNITY
As I set down my roots in my solo pelvic health practice, I also took a job at Treloar Physiotherapy where I had the opportunity to work with other pelvic health providers. That’s where I met Jen LaRoy and learned about her work in pelvic health and the way she pushed for acceptance of pelvic health as an area and expertise in practice that was paralleled to our orthopedic colleagues in training and compensation. Treloar accepted and encouraged her to build the program there and it has expanded and had so many of us walk through and work in their space. I am eternally grateful for the connections that space allowed me to make.
When I took a second surprisingly early mat leave in 2017, Jen covered part of it at Pomegranate and the expansiveness of Full Circle Physiotherapy began! As I eased back into daytime work in 2018, Jen stayed on to work a few hours in the evenings to give more options for appointments for clients. When Jen made the move back to her hometown of Chilliwack in 2019, Full Circle was able to have the framework for her to provide home visits and still care for some of her Vancouver based clients when she was in town or virtually.
SHARED VISIONS COLLIDING AND EXPANDING
At some point in this adventure I met Adrienne Sim and my own life and professional development expanded exponentially. Adrienne, having trained at Curtin University with a Certificate in Women’s Health, could quote research in ways I am still trying to catch up to and she inspired me to dive deeper and get smarter! In 2019, when Adrienne started thinking about working in her home community of Langley, she asked me what solo practice was like. I told her about how much I loved my own agency for my schedule, my time and for feeling like I knew where the resources were being spent and distributed. I suggested to her that I had the digital infrastructure already in place and would be more than happy to share and rebrand. Adrienne was planning on returning from her own maternity leave in 2020 to her position at Fortius where she had found her dream connection of bringing pelvic health to the sports world and then run a small solo practice from her home office in Langley. Unfortunately, Fortius was put in a really challenging position during the Covid-19 pandemic and was forced to permanently close. Adrienne found herself having to pivot what was going to be just a side hustle solo practice into her full time job and that was when Full Circle Physiotherapy needed to grow some wings. It was from there that we truly became a framework for us, as independent providers, to be networked together as a community of providers with shared vision and shared resources.
LEARNING OUR OWN RESILIENCY AND ADAPTABILITY
What we learned in the pandemic was that we had resiliency. We pivoted immediately as we weren’t tied to large overheads in real estate and the digital infrastructure allowed us to continue to reach our clients virtually and we could stay connected as a community over larger geographical landscapes. We’ve learned that we could support each other in our personal and professional growth and have room for others too.
We’ve sat together and had hard conversations around legal contracts to keep each other safe in business and give value to each others’ time. We’ve committed to sharing in tasks and projects, to sharing costs transparently, to being open and honest with each other, to work together and to have boundaries to turn off too! We’ve provided mentorship to newer physiotherapists which turned into a model shift for our own self development. We’ve rumbled with how to add more members to our group and deepened our own understanding of who we are and the commitments we make to each other. We strive to say yes to each other’s changing lives as much as we can and we shift our framework to adapt and meet those needs but also allow for those needs to be met beyond what we can support.
WHAT WE HAVE BECOME
As I write this, I reflect back to my own opening paragraph about what change can be possible. Full Circle Physiotherapy has become a framework around all of us that embodies and supports us in our ever evolving lives. We have permission to stay, we have permission to grow, we have permission pause, we have permission to go.
Full Circle Physiotherapy has become more than just a clinical practice. We are an evolving group of humans that try to welcome the possibility of our own growth and adaptation as healthcare changes, as new knowledge arises and as culture and society shift in our changing world.
As frightening as it can be to look ahead to the unknown, I’m so honoured to have this community along for this part of the ride!
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