Professional Beginnings

My story begins in 1990 when a home-birth midwife gave a presentation at my Biology of Women class at the University of Minnesota. I was sold. There were very few training options back then, but I found an independent birthing clinic in El Paso and arranged for an internship in 1991. I went back to El Paso in 1993 when the clinic experienced a staffing issue and when I returned to Minnesota, I earned my EMT certificate and started practicing. I maintained a very small practice, two or three births a year.

In 1995, being a Sinophile and needing something new to learn, I decided to matriculate at Minnesota Institute of Acupuncture and Herbal Studies (MIAHS) in St. Paul in their Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) program. I studied acupuncture and herbs. I graduated in 2000 and sat for the national exam in 2001. (In 2000, MIAHS joined the chiropractic school in Bloomington—Northwestern Health Sciences University.) I've had many faces over the years, recreating my practice as I tried out different business models. Then I found my niche.

Accident

I had already begun studying Dynamic Body Balancing (a system of bodywork that combines craniosacral therapy and myofascial therapy), visceral manipulation, and Chi Nei Tsang abdominal massage when on 12 August 2006 I had a serious motorcycle accident. I incurred seven pelvic fractures, five broken ribs, a pneumothorax, a third-degree acromio-clavicular (A-C) separation and snapped off a number of vertebral processes (the ends of the spinal bones). It was a small accident with major injuries. My bike only needed a brake handle and a directional light replaced.

"What happened?!" you exclaim. Well, it was the second year that I was at a track learning and practicing racing turns—fun! I was really good at it, too. But it was the end of the day, I was dehydrated and overtired—not a good combination. I had thought about calling it a day and going home, but I figured that I'd finish out the course one last time—my fatal error. I made an error on a turn and recovered by going off the track—no big deal. But my motorcycle is a cruiser, the handlebars turn outward. They got caught in the chain link fence and drove the motorcycle up into the fence. The bike came down, then I came down in a seated position. The impact moved through my pelvis and up my spine. The recovery was surprisingly quick and I was walking and back at my life, full time, within three months.

I learned a lot about trauma that I never knew before going through it. Whiplash, as it turns out, is not just something that happens to one's neck at impact. Whiplash is the movement of the trauma through the body and it can take over two years to work its way through the body. It doesn't necessarily involve the neck at all. For me, I started experiencing urinary urgency nine months after the accident. I was mortified to find that I didn't know how to treat myself. One would think, as I did, that a midwife should know something about the bladder and the pelvic floor--the muscles of one's bottom. But in my vast library of midwifery texts and resources I could only find information on treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) and catheterizing during labor. One would also think that Traditional Chinese Medicine should address the various forms of incontinence. But again, in my library of acupuncture texts and resources I could only find information on treating kidney stones and UTIs. I was aghast that I was without recourse from my main fields.

Physical Therapy

I decided to venture into the Western Medical world and see what they had to offer. I went to a family doctor who gave me a referral to a urologist. The urologist gave me a typical exam and gave me a referral to a physical therapist. The program I attended was a combination of the Beyond Kegels program and biofeedback. The course of treatment was once a week for six weeks. I attended all six weeks, but I was cured in three. Now I knew that physical therapy (PT) held the information I sought.

Over the next two years I accrued my PT library and taught myself bladder and pelvic floor health from a PT perspective. I did this while continuing to study manual therapies. Eventually I developed a continuing education class that I took to the MANA national midwifery conference in California in 2009 where I offered it as a pre-conference workshop. That was the beginning of my Bladder and Pelvic Floor Class for Practitioners. Once I returned to Minnesota I recognized that the need for this information is great, as incontinence and pelvic pain are pervasive problems. So I developed the patient class to give people the information, resources, and exercises that they have trouble finding anywhere else and I found that the manual modalities I had been studying applied directly to treating these conditions.

Current Niche

This is my niche. I work with active adults who are struggling to remain active, to achieve the lifestyle they deserve. This is my success story. I'm having all sorts of successes with my patients by using manual work and acupuncture to bring life back to their tissues, assist their organs to function properly and develop neuromuscular coordination. In essence, they get better over time. And so do I. I am a lifelong learner devoted to accruing the skills and knowledge that best serve my patients. In 2018 I added a certification in corrective exercise in order to address postural and alignment issues in my patients. For some of my patients' success stories, hop over to the testimonials tab.

I hope you find your success story, too.

My Story

Professional Beginnings

Accident

Physical Therapy

Current Niche