Hey there! Rather than talk about all things bladder and pelvic floor, I thought I would keep it light this week and give you some background information about me, the woman behind the urinary leakage posts.
Who am I? I’m your friendly neighborhood physical therapist. My name is Dr. Stacie Groat, a SoCal native, and I grew up in Palos Verdes and spent the majority of my childhood outside playing sports, mainly soccer and volleyball. This love has persisted throughout my life as I still love all things related to exercise including hiking, running, lifting weights, and kitesurfing. In my downtime I love to cook with as many dishes as possible to annoy my husband (only kind of kidding), try new restaurants (most recently La Parolaccia, yum!), spend time with my friends, family, husband and our puppy, Millie, travel, read novels (currently reading Girl on a Train), go to concerts, and binge watch a show (currently binging The Last of Us-I know we are late to
the party).
I didn’t think I ever wanted to be a physical therapist. While playing volleyball in high school, I sprained my ankle many times and injured my back which landed me in physical therapy. I’m not going to lie to you, at the time, I hated physical therapy. I was 13 years old and I wanted nothing to do with planks, but I loved my PT and truly looked up to her. As a child of two healthcare workers, I naturally wanted nothing to do with healthcare when I started college. I majored in Media Studies at UC Berkeley, but found myself drawn back to PT when my college boyfriend was in a traumatic golf cart accident which shattered his femur. I often accompanied him to PT, and again found myself looking up to his PT, because she helped him transition from a walker to crutches to a cane to eventually be able to walk without an assistive device. The surgery saved his life, and the physical therapist helped him learn to walk again. So I decided to pursue this path, finish my undergraduate degree, then take all of the prerequisites, apply, and five years later I completed my doctorate.
What I love about Physical Therapy is that we use movement as medicine. I get to apply my love for exercise, anatomy, and physiology to help others feel better in their bodies to accomplish their goals, whether it be playing with grandchildren or leaking while jump roping. Yes, there is 100% a time and a place for medical interventions, but I find so much joy out of helping people recover from injury holistically. As physical therapists, we spend more time with our patients than most other healthcare providers which gives us the unique opportunity to identify the underlying “why” behind your symptoms and I’ve learned so much from working with patients and hearing their stories over the years.
As for pelvic floor physical therapy, I fell into it when I stumbled upon a lecture on “Treating Incontinence in Female Runners” at our annual national physical therapy conference. I was amazed that PT could help someone with urinary leakage and when I started working with patients, I never looked back. My passion and mission is to help people return to the activities that they love without symptoms like leakage and pain. Women often put others before themselves, and I want to help women take care of themselves so that they can help others.
I started my own practice in 2022 because I consistently felt frustrated with the limitations that insurance companies place on the patient and health care providers. I wanted to help people reach their ultimate goal (whether it be a pain free run or no leakage during a workout), but the volume of patients made it challenging to get patients back in for follow-up visits. Sometimes, the wait between appointments was 2-3 months! If a patient canceled an appointment due to an emergency, they wouldn’t be able to reschedule for months. And sometimes, we waited 3 months for insurance authorization. Now, I get to work with patients 1-on-1 for 1 hour, and my patients are getting better results, faster. This allows me to truly individualize every person’s treatment so that they can go beyond improving basic function, return to optimal performance, and prevent future injuries.
If you or a loved one would benefit from PT, book a free consultation call.