Episode 1: Welcome Conscious Clinicians!

Hosts Dr. Monika Stefanowicz & Dr. Sammy Steele welcome us to The Conscious Clinician Podcast! Sammy introduces us to the origin story of the podcast when the pair worked closely together as mentee/mentor. Their vision for the podcast is “to help pelvic floor physical therapists create an enjoyable and sustainable practice through the lens of exploring relationships with patients/clients.” 

Monika shares, “we think that relationships are at the very heart of healing.” However, most pelvic health therapists receive minimal training on the interpersonal aspects of patient care. These soft skills are essential in pelvic health, given the intimacy and complexity of the issues people present with. They hope to shed light on burnout, resilience, and a paradigm shift that encompasses psychologically informed care. 

Next, each host highlights the experiences which led to this change in perspective. 

Dr. Sammy Steele, DPT is a pelvic health physical therapist practicing in an outpatient clinic in Davis, CA. She graduated from UC San Francisco and San Francisco state in 2019 with her DPT. She describes feeling burned out and emotionally exhausted with pelvic health during her first year of clinical practice. At the time, she had 1:1 mentoring with Dr. Monika for a trimester as part of the Agile Women’s Health Physical Therapy program. Sammy opened up about her experiences and the two embarked on an exploration of relationships between provider/patient. They focused on professional boundaries, processing emotions, examining biases, and challenging assumptions. These tools helped Sammy embrace a new paradigm of patient care and become more resilient in her work. She’s excited that “this podcast is addressing a missing link in what we do, and hopefully providing a space that's sacred for people to explore these topics.”

Dr. Monika Stefanowicz, DPT, WCS is a pelvic health physical therapist practicing exclusively telehealth out of Austin, TX. She graduated from Springfield College in 2013 with her Bachelor’s and again in 2015 with her DPT. She describes similar feelings of burnout during her residency at Brooks Rehabilitation in 2016/2017. “I didn’t realize reliving people’s trauma with them was affecting my well being because I thought it was the stress of residency.” This connection dawned on her while working with a personal relationship coach. As she studied codependency and healthy relationships, she began changing the way she practiced. Mentoring Sammy accelerated these changes “10X” as she was able to observe the relationships between PT and patient. 

Both of them felt compelled to create a sacred space for pelvic health providers to start and explore the interpersonal and spiritual aspects of care. And so The Conscious Clinician Podcast was born! At the same time, they are clear on the scope of this podcast: “We are not trying to become psychologists. We want to bring psychology into pelvic health because the mind, body, [spirit] connection is so strong.” 

They end with a lighthearted lightning round of questions for each other. Tune in to find out their favorite drinks, books, alternate career options, and definitions of a Conscious Clinician.

Highlights from our conversation in Episode 1: Welcome Conscious Clinicians!

• 0:00 - Podcast Intro 
• 0:33 - Welcome & The Conscious Clinician backstory
• 1:50 - Their vision for the podcast 
• 3:57 - Dr. Sammy’s background story
• 7:16 - Dr. Monika’s background story 
• 11:40 - Podcast values and professional boundaries
• 14:10 - Sammy’s lightning round of Q&A 
• 16:38 - Monika’s lightning round of Q&A

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Conscious Clinician. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and write a review for the podcast to grow our community. 

Resources from Episode 1: Welcome Conscious Clinicians!

• Follow The Conscious Clinician on Instagram 
• Follow The Conscious Clinician on Facebook 
• Follow Dr. Sammy Steele on Instagram & LinkedIn
• Follow Dr. Monika Stefanowicz on Instagram & LinkedIn