We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Santamaria. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.
Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
During physical therapy school, I had my mind set on becoming an orthopedic physical therapist – treating post operation people and general muscle/joint/ligament injuries- and I did. I began my career as an orthopedic PT working at an outpatient insurance model clinic. Over the next two years I began getting burnt out – seeing 20+ patients a day and struggling to provide the patient care everyone deserved. Furthermore, my heart wasn’t in it – I didn’t feel fulfilled and I started loosing my drive to go to work every day – not a good sign when you’re only two years into your career! So I started thinking and strategizing what I could change and it automatically came to me. I’m a huge advocate for women and making their voices heard in all aspects of life and the way to apply this to my field was to become a pelvic floor physical therapist!
Helping women address their pelvic limitations and pains, giving them the support and realization that they CAN recover when others brushed them off – this was my calling! So I began taking the necessary courses required to treat within this speciality and then started treating women with pelvic floor dysfunctions in the clinic- but that wasn’t enough. Being in the outpatient setting with an insurance based model really limits your ability to treat to the full extent of your patients’ needs. Despite my education and clinical experience – I was at the mercy of insurance providers when it came to the treatment I could provide. I had to abide by the approved number of visits the insurance approved (regardless if my patients still needed more), I could only use the treatments they covered even if my patients needed others, patient goals had to be insurance based and not what the patient actually wanted to achieve, and I had to continue seeing 20+ patients per day to meet the productivity standards of the clinic.
At this point, I was feeling happy in the work I was doing but I was still getting burnt out and frustrated when I couldn’t go further with my patient care. That’s when I decided – I’m leaving this model, opening up my own practice and avoiding insurances so that I could be the one making all the necessary decisions to give each woman the support they deserved for as long as it took to reach THEIR goals. It was the craziest idea – most therapist don’t start their own practice until they’ve been in the field for 10-15 years, yet here I was two years out making the wildest career move I could have ever imagined. But I did it and it was truly the right decision for me. Yes owning your own business is difficult – more so when its a cash based medical practice- yet I wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the field. I’m where I’m meant to be and am so incredibly glad I made this move.
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 back background and context?
I’m Dr. Jenny Santamaria PT, DPT owner of Femme Strong Physical Therapy – a specialized practice for women that treats various pelvic floor dysfunctions and orthopedic conditions. How did I get into this? I have to give a bit of backstory to this first.
Unfortunately, there’s a lack of support for women’s pelvic health in our country as well as a gap in the knowledge needed to treat pelvic dysfunction. What many people and medical providers don’t realize is that women are incredibly susceptible to pelvic floor dysfunction – whether from various types of traumas, pregnancy and birth, or menopausal changes. What are these dysfunctions? Urinary incontinence, urinary leakage, bladder and bowel difficulties, pelvic pain with penetration, and general pelvic/spinal instability, Within our medical system the only options that are often given to women for these conditions are medications or surgery. Such invasive and dangerous options that ultimately cause more harm than good. There’s actually quite a bit of research out now that states conservative, pelvic floor physical therapy interventions result in the best possible outcomes for those suffering from pelvic floor symptoms while allowing for long term benefits to be observed more constantly than with surgical or pharmaceutical interventions. These interventions include, minimally invasive treatments involving manual release and neuromuscular retraining of the pelvic floor musculature for decreased symptoms and a gradual return to the individual’s preferred level of function. To be a part of the small physical therapist population that can provide this level of specialized care for women is a huge honor and really makes me proud of the work I provide – its ultimately why I left general outpatient physical therapy and got into it.
My practice provides mobile pelvic floor and orthopedic physical therapy services to women in the San Diego and Temecula regions. I work with women of different ages to address the pelvic health issues they are facing and help them return to whatever life goals and aspirations they’ve put on hold due to their symptoms. There’s no such thing as “grin and bare it” or “that’s what happens when you ______” when you talk to me – pelvic floor symptoms CAN be addressed holistically and reduced with the proper guidance.
Because our whole body is interconnected by fascia (one of the most notable connective tissues) my practice is very holistic and addresses the entire body not just the pelvic floor. It just so happens that the TMJ pain you’ve been having directly correlates to the built up tension you carry in your pelvic floor that makes you have pain with insertion. Or the ankle injury you got 10 years ago is part of the reason you pee your pants a little when you run. The whole body talks to itself and has ripple effects from one end to the other. Not many therapist treat in this manner, but because I want to get down to the root cause of a woman’s symptoms – I address the entire body and work through as needed.
I’m so proud of the practice I’ve created and the opportunities I’m able to provide women. It’s truly fulfilling when a woman goes through a debilitating traumatic experience yet is able to return to her life feeling empowered, confident, and ready to take on the world all thanks to the guidance I was able to provided. There’s no better feeling.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Pelvic floor physical therapy is nothing like your typical outpatient physical therapy. The work that is done in these types of sessions is intimate, personal, and requires a higher level of understanding and trust. For this reason, I believe having a good “bedside manner” for lack of a better term is so important. You need to be able to listen, understand, and show compassion to your patients for their journey and experiences. You need to be able to understand how it all plays into their physical well being and how it has led them to you. More so, their demeanor and life experience will have a huge impact on their ability to recover. It’s important to be mindful of their mental and emotional state and learn to adapt your treatment so that you can help them grow and improve. Without this, patients may not get better or take longer to show progress than you’d expect. The trust and encouragement a pelvic floor PT can provide to a patient is more than any other provider may have ever given and showing these women this connection works wonders in helping them heal.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
It honestly all comes down to networking and word of mouth. When I started my practice I reached out to all types of providers and met up for coffee dates, I even gave some complimentary sessions so they’d have first hand knowledge of how I practice. Then as I started treating patients, they unintentionally became my marketing campaign. After completing their plan of care and reaching their goals they would rave about my services to their friends/family/medical providers and hence the word of mouth referrals began.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.femme-strong.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femmestrongpt/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/femmestrongpt
Image Credits
Julianne Rose Photography