We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Victoria Mallow, PT, DPT a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Victoria, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?
Before opening my own practice, I worked as a staff physical therapist at other outpatient clinics as well as in a hospital setting. While each prior position provided unique experiences and valuable skill development, the most important thing I took away was confidence in knowing the kind of care I wanted to be able to provide to my patients. This lesson was the biggest driver in me opening my own practice. I had a vision of creating a space where each patient could receive one-on-one time with me to truly understand their symptoms and to work through their individualized treatment plan. I felt patient education and personalized treatments were lacking in many other facilities, as therapists would often be rushed and overbooked, as a result of productivity requirements. I witnessed patients moving through their entire exercise program alone, while their therapist provided limited supervision across the room as they tended to another individual. I observed patients attending therapy without truly knowing why they needed it or what the end goal was. I also noticed therapist labeling patients as “non compliant” with therapy or their home programs and couldn’t help but to wonder if their “non compliance” was simply the product of them not being informed of the value of therapy and the purpose of their particular treatment plan in the first place. After all, how can we expect someone to dedicate time to something, without them understanding how it is going to benefit them? To me, this all came down to a lack of quality patient care.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I earned my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Washington University, in St. Louis, after leaving a career as a science teacher in my native state of New York. During the first few years of my career, I gained experience in hospitals, home health, and outpatient settings. I quickly found my passion for the specialty of pelvic health, which enabled me to apply my knowledge and experience in orthopedics to the most personal and intimate symptoms. In 2020, after relocating to South Florida, I opened Restore Pelvic Health & Rehab, a specialty clinic dedicated to serving women and children with pelvic floor dysfunction.
I am extremely proud of the environment I’ve created, which enables my patients to be vulnerable, listened to, and treated with the most current, evidence-based treatment approaches. I find it especially rewarding, to see so many individuals who have survived trauma and abuse, succeed in therapy and resolve their symptoms. In order to achieve this, I have structured my practice to provide a minimum of 60-minute visits and ensure each visit and care plan is individualized to the person I am working with. I focus heavily on manual therapy and provide ongoing education, in order to enable each patient to play an active role in their care and recovery process. I am also a strong believer in facilitating independence with symptom management by creating specific home programs for each patient to follow. This ensures progress is continuous between sessions.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Those who seek out pelvic floor therapy suffer from some of the most intimate and personal types of symptoms. Therefore, it is essential that professionals come from a place of compassion and empathy, to truly be successful in this field. Patients need to feel safe and therapist need to earn this trust. I firmly believe that any therapist can learn the necessary skills and knowledge to treat pelvic floor dysfunction, but if they lack genuine passion and caring for what their patients are going through, it is obvious and detrimental to the provider-patient relationship.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
If I could go back in time, I would absolutely become a pelvic floor therapist again. In fact, my only regret is that I didn’t jump into this field sooner. I have never felt so passionate and proud of my work as I have, since starting my practice. I truly feel this is the most amazing specialty within physical therapy. It brings me great joy to see someone’s life change and to be able to establish ongoing relationships with my patients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.restorepelvicrehab.com
- Instagram: @restorepelvicrehab_boca
- Facebook: @Restorepelvicrehab
Image Credits
Cristina Pelino