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We are Hiring Pelvic Health Physiotherapist

The time has come! I am looking for someone to mentor that is interested in my specific areas of expertise. As a pelvic health and pediatric pelvic health physiotherapist, I see a huge demand in this area; for clinicians that are not only well versed in pelvic health and it’s intricacies, but also willing to treat the whole client. This includes the orthopedic components that impact the pelvis!

I am looking for a physiotherapist that has training in the area of pelvic health, or is willing to learn. Someone looking for a supportive team environment for developing their skills through mentorship and collaboration.

About us

Our clinic vision is to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to our clients in a non-judgmental environment that allows our clients to reach their health and wellness goals at any age.

Warman Physio has built a strong team of therapists with close working relationships with many allied healthcare providers and organizations. We are grateful to have been nominated for and won several local and provincial awards for business management and client care. We do this specifically to be involved in and helping the communities we are a part of.

At this time a focused mentorship will be available to any candidate including:

  • Pelvic Health
  • Pediatric Pelvic Health
  • Manual Therapy
  • TMJ assessment and treatment
  • Integrated Systems Model (ISM) approach
  • Dry needling
  • Chronic Disease Management
  • Case management
  • Third party payers

Want to know more?

We believe that our clients need holistic care, management, and support; with this in mind, we treat our staff and providers with a holistic lens as well. This means that we strive to achieve a supportive and playful workplace where we can cultivate a culture of trust, enjoyment, and excellence.

Our vision, mission, and overall values encourages our providers to cultivate and create the client-base that will bring them work satisfaction, passion, and desire to continue learning. This makes for a unique experience for not only our clients, but our staff as well.

A Successful Candidate

We are looking for someone that is a good fit for our team on a variety of facets. Some key attributes will including striving to be a life-long learner, being self-motivated and possess an authentic enjoyment in helping people to help themselves. This position will have room for growth and development and great opportunity for leadership and management moving forward if desired.

Applicants with manual therapy levels, acupuncture or dry needling, vestibular therapy, pelvic health training, and other coursework would be an asset but is not required to apply, and will be considered in renumeration at onboarding.

Wondering about renumeration?

Competitive compensation with opportunity for advancement is available in one of two formats. There is significant support and guidance in building and maintaining a caseload, including file management, follow-up care, and ensuring client resolution. There can be the opportunity to set-up various monetary incentives and allowances for sick days, education, and family days in addition to RRSPs. Each of our clinics hosts private treatment rooms, and will have available clinical mentorship.

Minimum requirements:

  • Registered member (in good standing) with SCPT
  • Training/coursework within pelvic health (or plan to achieve the same)

Interested? Email Haylie at haylie@warmanphysio.com

 

Looking for a new clinic and not a pelvic health physiotherapist? We are always on the lookout for an orthopedic therapist that is the right fit for our team as well. Send us an email and we will see what opportunities are available for you!

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Why Should I Sit to Pee?

Half the population doesn’t give it much thought. The other half have various opinions. For people that have the option to stand to pee, here are some reasons to sit!

 

Potty Learning

When young children are first learning to use the toilet, it can be easier to teach them to stand to pee. Maybe they already stand to pee in their diaper. Maybe they don’t have the patience to wait to sit to pee. Whatever the case may be, sitting to pee has many benefits through the potty training phases.

Sitting to pee (at all ages) will decrease the amount of mess in the bathroom. Huge motivating factor if you ask me! This mess is reduced even if you are able to continuously hit the bullseye. Having the ability to sit to pee will also help young bodies learning the new skill to relax fully. Being able to relax all the pelvic floor muscles when you sit, gives kiddo the opportunity to have a poop too. Remember from a previous article – being constipated actually makes potty training harder!

 

Adults

Many adults struggle with functional constipation as well. We may still be pooping every day – but not completely emptying. This can lead to issues such as tightness, pain, or perineal discomfort that is tricky to pin down a cause to.

Sitting to pee often seems to take significantly more time, even for adults

Public Bathrooms

The most common question I get is – but what about public bathrooms? We all know the state those washrooms can be in… ick. So of course, in the event of a less than stellar bathroom situation, or being out in the wilderness, standing to pee is a great option! By all means use it!

Just remember – sitting to pee as a general default can often save you headaches later!

 

 

Haylie has been practicing pelvic health and focused in prenatal and post-partum care since graduating from the U of S MPT program in 2011. Officially adding to her practice pediatric pelvic floor therapy in 2017. She has been advocating for treatment for women, ensuring appropriate and effective care throughout pregnancy and post-partum, and helping all expecting and post-partum moms ultimately brought her to open her family-friendly clinic. She now primarily focuses on pediatric pelvic health, perinatal care, and persistent pain in her practice in Warman and Saskatoon locations.

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Pain With Intimacy

Often pain with intimacy is brushed off “oh you’ve had kids”, “just relax”, “have a drink and you’ll be fine”. If you have heard this rhetoric be the one to stop the narrative! Here we go through a case study on dyspareunia after having kids!

Case Study PD

What does it feel like?

A mom of two comes into the clinic, we will refer to her as PD. She is anxious and unsure of what to expect for her first appointment, but she knows she can’t continue to live like this. PD says that she started having pain with intimacy (specifically with intercourse also known as dysparuenia) after she delivered her first baby. It wasn’t bad then, just some burning and pinching right at the opening. It wasn’t too painful and didn’t stick around but definitely wasn’t pleasant.

Since having her second more trouble with intimacy began. PD recalls having some tearing during delivery with her second but she didn’t need a referral. Her and her partner have tried multiple times to be intimate but she has 8/10 pain. Her pain now is a pulling, burning, pinching at the opening and she also experiences sharp pains deep in her belly as well. PD has pain that persists after attempts at intimacy and it seems to be taking longer before it goes away now. She tells the therapist that she continues to attempt to be intimate for her partner and to see if it still hurts.

This all-too-familiar story doesn’t just happen just for women who have had children vaginally, but can also occur for women who have had c-sections as well as women without children. Let’s focus on this case and some of the possible reasons WHY this happens, what we can do about it, and how you can start your road to recovery TODAY! 

What Causes Pain with Intimacy?

There are many reasons why an individual may have pain during intimate encounters with their partner. In this instance PD is experiencing pain after child birth; which can be considered a trauma to the body. Since she had tearing during both her deliveries she will have scar tissue in the area that could be contributing. Couple this with the bodies natural response to pain (protect the area). The anticipation of pain causes the body to also move into a protective mode and it is a recipe for a pain cycle.

If you have pain with intercourse, a physiotherapy assessment could benefit you!

What does an assessment look like?

PD was seen for an assessment at the clinic where she was observed in how she moves generally through walking, squatting and bending movements. When evaluating her breathing PD had difficulty taking a deep breath down into the belly. The pelvic floor exam revealed a hypertonic/protective pelvic floor. At the time of the assessment she reported reproduction of “the pain”. The therapist was able to discontinue further evaluation while assisting PD in relaxing the muscles of the pelvic floor.

PD would be provided with a home program to improve deep breathing, pelvic floor muscle relaxation, and imagery/relaxation techniques to start.

Over the course of the next 3 months PD attended appointments at the clinic. Starting with once every 7-14 days, to stretching out as her symptoms improved. PD was thrilled with her improvements and adjustments to the home program and in-person techniques were made. These adjustments included home exercises and activity, discussion on optimal positions, and internal techniques as PD’s pain improved. After 6 appointments she reported being pain-free except when she was very stressed, but manageable with her home program. PD was also happy that the program also seemed to help with her light bladder leakage, and tailbone pain!

How long until I am better?

The recovery period usually varies from client to client, depending on the severity and frequency symptoms. Other factors include:

  • How long the pain has been present
  • Activity level
  • Ability to complete homework

Often with pelvic health issues resolution of straight forward cases occurs within 6-8 appointments. In some instances this could be shorter, and in others it could be longer.

Don’t delay! Schedule your assessment today to get started your journey to recovery!

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Being Backed-up: how constipation is related to the pelvic floor

Everyone dreads being constipated. It’s never fun to be backed-up to the point of difficult, often painful bowel movements. How we often think of constipation, and what constipation can look like may not always be the same!

Constipation is often described as having 2 or fewer bowel movements in a week. These bowel movements will often be difficult to evacuate or require effort. So anything outside of this (more frequent, and easy to get out) would be considered normal… right?

Not necessarily! Our ability to consistently evacuate the bowel may not mean that you aren’t constipated! Some individuals that are constipated evacuate the bowel several times a day. BUT HOW?! In this instance, usually we are getting out several smaller stools throughout the day, and not completely emptying the bowel. These stools may in fact be “easy” to pass, and for some people they will find that they will sit down to go pee, and some stool will come out as well, without any urge to go number 2 in the first place.

So beyond the “usual” signs of constipation, what else should we be watching out for?

  1. Large diameter stools: for adults and children we should not be thinking “whoa! I hope that doesn’t plug the toilet” or “I can’t believe it’s THAT BIG!”
  2. Cracked or dry stools: bowel movements that look cracked or dry, or like little bunches of small balls stuck together
  3. Urge to go with no results: if you have the urge to evacuate, get to the bathroom and just nothing seems to come out… this could be a sign
  4. You wipe and wipe and it never gets “clean”: this could mean that you aren’t fully evacuating the rectum
  5. It feels like there is still some in there: likely that the bowel is not being fully evacuated
  6. Belly aches and bloating: can be signs of constipation
  7. Itchy rear-end (or the wiggles) is common to see in children as well

Being constipated will put a strain on the pelvic floor, as often evacuating the bowel will require effort in the form of pushing of some sort. Sometimes we are spending significant amounts of time sitting on the toilet attempting to get stool out. Development of hemorrhoids, pelvic pain, and pelvic floor dysfunction can be a result of persistent or chronic constipation.

 

Constipation starts young for many people “I have always been like this for as long as I can remember”. With seeing many children with constipation, they have struggled with bowel movements often since starting solids, or when they began potty training. Often other issues start to arise such as bed wetting as well.

 

Helping people to re-educate the pelvic floor to improve coordination, improve evacuation, and go through bowel hygiene tips are all part of our pelvic health assessments. Some things you can start thinking about now:

 

are you getting enough water?

when you go are your feet well supported with knees above hips?

do you take enough time (but not too much!)?

when you get the urge to go, do you make time?

 

These can be some things to consider with your bowel hygiene to help you begin to get things sorted. Determining the abdominopelvic coordination and function, overall pelvic floor muscle strength and ability to relax, as well as a variety of other technical factors will be what we want to dive into with you.

Issues with constipation isn’t just a problem for children, but also men and women alike!

Book in Saskatoon                                                                       Book in Warman (Kendra, Maja)

Haylie has been practicing pelvic health and focused in prenatal and post-partum care since graduating from the U of S MPT program in 2011. Officially adding to her practice pediatric pelvic floor therapy in 2017. She has been advocating for treatment for women, ensuring appropriate and effective care throughout pregnancy and post-partum, and helping all expecting and post-partum moms ultimately brought her to open her family-friendly clinic. At Warman Physio clients are encouraged to bring their infants and children to treatment. Warman Physio has been nominated as a finalist for the 2018, 2017, & 2016 WMBEXA, is a WMBEXA award recipient of 2017 New Business Award, and a finalist in the ABEX 2018, 2017 & 2016, and Haylie was recognized as YWCA Women of Distinction for Health & Wellness in 2017, and has been nominated for the 2019 SABEX and WMBEXA Awards.
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Pelvic Health for… Men?!

Pelvic floor dysfunction is not just a problem for women… after all, everyone has a pelvic floor!

A study by MacLennan et al, reported that 4.4% of men have self reported problems with urinary incontinence (inability to control urine) (1). If you take the population of Saskatoon, which in July of 2018 was reported at 278,500 and divide that in half you have approximately 139, 250 males (2). 4.4% of the Saskatoon population will give us 6, 127 men that have problems with leaking or controlling their bladder. Keep in mind that urinary incontinence is only one of many potential issues with the pelvic floor.

The crux of the issue is that pelvic floor health can be a big problem for both women and men.

  There has always been a stigma around men seeking help for any issue, let alone their leaking bladder, erectile dysfunction, and pelvic pain. Men need to understand that they do not need to live with these stressful and often embarrassing problems.

Pelvic Health Therapists are specifically trained to help men and women with a vast majority of their pelvic floor dysfunctions. The pelvic floor is a bowl of muscle that surrounds the external openings, in men that is the urethra (the tube you pee out of) and the rectum.

The muscles are the same as any others in the human body and therefore they are treated similarly.  In a good number of cases urinary incontinence is related to the lack of strength, coordination, and increased tension/tightness of the pelvic floor muscles that close the urethra. Then when the bladder is full, or someone has the urge to pee they cannot stop themselves. By simply teaching someone to relax, strengthen and coordinate their pelvic muscles, urinary incontinence problems can often be resolved.

If the pelvic muscles are too tense it may cause pain in the perineum, abdomen, low back or inner thigh. Relaxation exercises and manual therapy skills can be applied to achieve relief. Strengthening pelvic floor muscles and addressing other contributing factors can often lead to the resolution of erectile dysfunction and healthier sex lives (4). Men need to understand that the tools and resources are out there to help them with their pelvic floor dysfunction, part of which may be pelvic health physiotherapy assessment and treatments.

In short, we are asking that men take it upon themselves to seek out help for their pelvic floor dysfunction and in return understand that they will be treated with privacy, respect, and compassion. Waiting and suffering in silence doesn’t need to be the case; we are here to help you, help yourself.

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