EPISODE 065 | Navigating Perfectionism and Professional Growth with Lara Desrosiers

Is it perfect enough? That nagging doubt can paralyze us. Perfectionism doesn’t just demand our best—it demands more than our best, often at a cost.

In this episode, host Melissa LaPointe (she/her) has a compelling conversation with Lara Desrosiers (she/her), a trailblazing occupational therapist who has carved a unique path in women's health, pelvic health, and mental health integration. 

For Lara, this battle with perfectionism isn’t theoretical. Her story is one of constant evolution, from renting space in wellness clinics to becoming a key part of the Guelph Women's Health Associates, all while grappling with perfectionism and embracing the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Amid the challenges of surgery, motherhood, and career goals, she has managed to carve a path that honors both her professional aspirations and personal well-being.

What You'll Learn: 

• Finding Balance: How to identify essential commitments ("glass balls") versus those that can be deprioritized ("plastic balls").
• Embracing Imperfection: How Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has helped Lara battle perfectionism and foster adaptability.
• Staying True to You: The importance of maintaining authenticity in a rapidly evolving field,  and ensuring that your personal values guide your professional decisions.
• Seeking Community: Why you should be actively building support networks to improve resilience.
• Navigating Social Media: How effective marketing is essential for independent practitioners, and why adaptability is key to maintaining a strong online presence.
• Managing Expectations: How Lara’s daughter taught her a powerful lesson about healing and self-compassion. 

Prepare to be inspired by Lara Desrosiers’ reflections on perfectionism, balance, community, and the candid ups and downs of her journey.  Let’s dive in!

OTHER LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 

Lara Desrosiers (she/her) is a specialist in mental health and pain science, and runs Ontario's "Pelvic Resilience" private practice. Lara integrates trauma-informed care and evidence-based techniques to address the complexities surrounding pelvic health issues. Learn more at pelvicresilience.ca or on Instagram at @pelvicresilience.ca

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Thank you for being a part of the OTGR community. Let’s continue to inspire, innovate, and advocate for inclusive, transformative healthcare so that we not only know better, we do better.

Melissa & the OTGR Podcast Team

Transcript

Melissa LaPointe [00:00:00]:
Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the OT's Gone Rogue podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Lapointe. Today, I have a very special guest on the podcast, someone I've known for quite some time in the women's health space. Please join me in welcoming Lara Desrosiers, a fellow Canadian with a passion for mental health, pelvic health, and pain science. Based out of Ontario, she's worked in community mental health and addictions since 2009. She also has a private practice called Pelvic Resilience, where she supports clients experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction and persistent pain to get back to living life. Lara is a teacher and mentor to clinicians, a women's health advocate, an OT visionary, an entrepreneur, and an all around amazing human being. I am so happy to have crossed paths with her, and I can't wait to introduce her to more of our listeners.

Melissa LaPointe [00:00:59]:
So without further ado, let's go ahead and get into it. You're listening to the OT's Gone Roque podcast, where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa Lapointe. My passion is in helping OT entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show, I'm gonna share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I wanna see more OTs step up as visionary leaders, change makers, and influential CEOs. So let's get started.

Melissa LaPointe [00:01:51]:
Alright. Welcome everyone to another episode of an OT Gone Rogue podcast. Lara, how are you doing?

Lara Desrosiers [00:01:59]:
I'm good, Melissa. How are you?

Melissa LaPointe [00:02:02]:
I'm good. I always tell everyone before we hit record that these episodes are meant to be like having a coffee date, and I had to catch her. You know, we we started to get into it before we hit record, but this is one of those episodes. You were, like, one of the OGs, and I've really been looking forward to this because I'm like, yes. I want to have my coffee date with her. We've never met in person, have we?

Lara Desrosiers [00:02:28]:
No. We haven't. I've I was reflecting this morning. You have been so integral to me kind of finding my confidence to do really exciting things. And after just such an amazing weekend of being able to do those exciting things, I just I wanted to let you know I'm feeling very grateful today.

Melissa LaPointe [00:02:52]:
Well and that's something that I wanna you know, I'm looking over at the notes that I had made prepping for this call. And both of us, when we first connected and when we first really got into this work in women's health and pelvic health, I don't wanna say we were hustling. That's not the right word, and I don't like that word. But I think we were both really working hard to prove to others that we could do this and to, like, really seeking out that relevancy. Relevancy from the college, from professional bodies, from other occupational therapists, but I would even say from other colleagues outside of occupational therapy.

Lara Desrosiers [00:03:36]:
Yeah. 100%. I yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think the early days of just hearing, the possibilities, like taking your course in women's health and hearing about all of the possibilities of directions I could go as an OT. There was this balance of feeling like I had to prove to myself that I could do this, but also really trying to get that that validation from other professionals that I belonged in in the role that I chose. Right? So it was I feel like I've come so far from that. But looking back, you're right.

Lara Desrosiers [00:04:15]:
It was this hustle not hustle, but this, just striving for that validation very often.

Melissa LaPointe [00:04:24]:
Well, in both of us, you know, there wasn't a job for us. Well, in hindsight, I'm sure there were tons of jobs because the work you know, for those of you just getting started that are struggling to find where to go, trust me when I say the work is out there. Oh my goodness. The work is out there. It's just finding, figuring out what it is that you want to do and how you wanna go about doing it. So I know there's something to be said about trying to build a seat for ourselves at the table. Right? Not just insisting or trying to show through research and skill set and capacity and ability. Like, not just showing

Melissa LaPointe [00:05:04]:
and preaching and asking for a seat at

Melissa LaPointe [00:05:07]:
the table, but building a seat at the table through a private practice that wasn't a traditional private practice. So we were also going through financial feast or famine. Right? Like, these financial struggles. So also proving to our partners, our families. You know? Talk about a pretty big mountain that we were climbing at the time.

Lara Desrosiers [00:05:30]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly, it felt like kind of need to prove the concept was front of mind very often. I mean, I I feel I have to acknowledge that I had so much privilege in terms of the support and space to be able to figure that out, but it it certainly felt like a huge mountain decline.

Melissa LaPointe [00:05:57]:
While we also were moms of young children. Like, let's just throw a few extra balls to juggle in the air. You know, working combination of out of the office. Like, working from home lots, working around bedtime, working around partners' availability, and maintaining a you know, putting the work in to maintain a marriage in the first place. And I'm like, oh my gosh. If we could I'll just sit down and co author that book on how to juggle 872 balls in the air at once.

Lara Desrosiers [00:06:32]:
Right. Yeah. And I feel like a big part of the learning curve is, for me, was when I felt that overwhelm, like, trying to figure out which balls I could put down and give myself permission to put down. Right? There I think there's this process that I found I went through of, like, wanting to say yes to every opportunity that came my way because it was just so exciting and also helped to give me that validation. Right? That, yeah, this is my perspective is wanted and needed in these different different avenues. But then realizing that or trying to tell myself that the opportunities would still come, and I can't do everything all at once. And I'm gonna have to put some balls down from time to time, and that doesn't mean I can't pick them up later when I have more capacity.

Melissa LaPointe [00:07:28]:
This concept that we often talk about, learning to recognize which of the balls are glass and which are plastic.

Lara Desrosiers [00:07:37]:
Oh, yes. Yep. That's huge.

Melissa LaPointe [00:07:41]:
Well and I really resonate with what you said about if I say no to this opportunity, will it ever come again? And in the early days, we were really seeking out and advocating and often creating these opportunities. So when it would present itself, yes. Absolutely. I also felt that pressure to say yes even though it was, you know, pulling. There are only so many hours in the day, only so many hours in the week, and saying yes to a lot of things because, you know, I I've worked this hard to get a seat at the table. And when someone invites me, I don't want to let it drop because I don't wanna go backwards. And we were carrying a lot of pressure. You know? There weren't a lot of OTs doing what we were doing back then.

Melissa LaPointe [00:08:30]:
So it wasn't just I need to say yes for me. It was I need to say yes for me and all the other OTs who are watching me and the different ways that I know I'm creating opportunity for them. Because if I can use this story and bring it back to them, it's going to give them more courage, more confidence, more, you know, capacity to do that. So in a way, it's a lot of I didn't see it as a lot of pressure at the time and, actually, it motivated me to step out. It motivated me to do things that I typically wouldn't be comfortable doing. But it was a there were a lot of things that we were carrying in our backpacks.

Lara Desrosiers [00:09:06]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And that that actually hits home for me because that was one of the balls for me that I had to identify as a plastic ball that I needed to put put down this feeling like I was being watched. Right? And that what like, everything that I did would either make or break the future of OGs working in pelvic health in Ontario. Yeah. It wouldn't just be an immense amount of pressure. Right? And so I felt I really needed to lean into, putting that ball down, and just practicing in a way that was really authentic to me and what I wanted my practice to look like, knowing that would really resonate with some OTs. But I particularly for me because one of the things that I was kept getting asked from other clinicians, OTs and otherwise, was but OTs can't do internal work in Ontario.

Lara Desrosiers [00:10:04]:
How how are you going to practice in pelvic health, and are you going to fight for change there? And so I felt this immense pressure to take on that, that mission of fighting for change in terms of our scope of practice in Ontario. And I, in the early days, did a bit of research into what that would look like. But then how does take a step back and reflect on my own practice and what that looks like and realize that I am helping so many people with their pelvic health symptoms without laying a hand on them. And that's my my skill set and my comfort zone. Not that internal work or hands on manual therapy isn't really important. Mhmm. But I don't have to take that on. I can work with wonderful clinicians and and work authentically to who I am as a clinician and still have a really great impact for folks.

Lara Desrosiers [00:11:01]:
And so do I think OTs in Ontario should be able to do internal work? Yes. Absolutely. If that's their their jam, their scope. And I really do hope more manual focus therapists take on that torch and take on that fight. But but I really needed to focus on what, how I wanted to shape my practice and how to put that pressure down. Does that make sense?

Melissa LaPointe [00:11:29]:
That makes total sense. And, you know, similarly, like, with one of my plastic balls, like, it was my in person practice. And letting that go, recognizing it wasn't serving me and part of the pressure of, you know, but I use this for different you know, I can reflect on teaching experiences, and there's so much that I can bring to the table in terms of the work that I'm doing with other OTs and in terms of the community work. But with that being said, I think one of my biggest strengths was the impact I could have without doing internal work. And the different spaces, you know, I had a number of contracts with private schools who had religious affiliations, and they were inviting me in to do workshops and to do 1 on 1. And I was able to bring in my pelvis and I was able to talk about the core, and I was able to incorporate it into the function and the daily activities. And it was it was well received. And there were a number of families that I was able to do work with that because I had a more biomechanical approach.

Melissa LaPointe [00:12:39]:
And I'm not saying there's not a place for internal work, but I was deemed as a safe like, it was like the sidestep into some of those more sensitive topics, and it worked. You know? It it worked at the time. And I think, again, from my own perspective, you know, as someone who's experienced pelvic health trauma in the form of medical trauma, like, that internal work scared the bejesus out of me forever to ever go back to that. So you need to find like, there needs to be other people doing this type of work that, you know, not everyone is comfortable with internal work and what's there for them. Right? And there are people like you.

Lara Desrosiers [00:13:24]:
Mhmm.

Lara Desrosiers [00:13:24]:
Yeah. And and I think one of my missions is to support more and more OTs with leaning into how valuable that makes us. Right? We can find so many pathways into impact someone's not only their symptoms, but the relationship they have with their symptoms, how it impacts their functioning, which goes beyond traditional pelvic floor therapy that we increase access for folks. Right? Yeah. They can find the right clinician at the right time. And I think for so long, pelvic health OTs have felt like they needed to fit into that traditional pelvic floor therapy model, that it's so exciting to support them with leaning into all of the other things that we bring into the table and can make us really unique.

Melissa LaPointe [00:14:17]:
So let's we just I knew we would do this. We could upgrade in. And that's great. Like, I wanted this conversation to go where it was naturally going to go. But before we go much farther down different rabbit holes that I certainly wanna explore with you, let's take a step back and give everyone kind of that 30,000 foot view of what it is you're doing now because we already hinted at where you started. Mhmm. Now let's give them a picture of where you are now, and then I'm going to start back tracking and filling in some gaps for our listeners. So you still wear multiple hats, but you have streamlined a little bit, and you have really it sounds like you've been finding your stride.

Melissa LaPointe [00:15:00]:
So what are the primary roles that you are I don't wanna ask what your day to day looks like. We won't go there quite yet. But what different hats are you wearing in terms of your professional career?

Lara Desrosiers [00:15:16]:
Yes. So a few different ones. So I am still operating my private practice. So it's pelvic resilience. And so I work with with clients, 2 days a week to support them with managing their pelvic floor symptoms, but my focus is often all the ways that's often intertwined with their mental health. And so the mission is really to support them with reengaging in life in meaningful ways and disentangling from from their symptoms. Often that leads to a big change in symptoms. So operating as a clinician, I also do a lot of teaching.

Lara Desrosiers [00:15:58]:
So I have developed a few different courses for clinicians of different backgrounds focused on psychology, focused on using cognitive behavioral therapy skills and acceptance and commitment therapy skills to help them sprinkle that into their work so they feel better equipped to address psychology in their various roles. And then that's that's led to so many exciting opportunities. I really enjoy offering 1 to 1 mentorship to other OTs, and clinicians that are either looking to develop those skills or are trying to also find their footing in a private practice. And I am now also working as CEO for a professional development company based out of BC. And so that I I was able to connect with them through some of the teaching that I did, but they are super aligned with my value of really trying to provide clinicians with education that translates not just not just throwing new information at clinicians, but providing education in a way that translates into significant practice changes. So kind of going beyond a weekend course and really pacing out learning in a way that supports translation to practice. So my role with them is really to identify gaps in learning that clinicians are feeling across Canada Okay. And how we can bring in kind of the the nerds, the experts in those areas, and develop courses that meets those needs.

Lara Desrosiers [00:17:50]:
And that gives me so much flexibility to be the busy mom I am. I can work at my pace, and it's it's been a beautiful fit.

Melissa LaPointe [00:17:59]:
And that's the AMP Healthcare Education.

Lara Desrosiers [00:18:01]:
Yeah. You got it. Yeah.

Melissa LaPointe [00:18:04]:
So it's interesting. When I was looking at the so I was doing some sleuthing before our interview and with AMP Healthcare Education. So when I go to look at the company info, are you the only current female on staff?

Lara Desrosiers [00:18:19]:
I'm the only female partner. So this was a company developed by a group of 4 amazing male physiotherapists, But they were really looking to expand their offerings beyond just physio. And so we do have a lot of, a lot of staff, a lot of support staff, and a lot of clinicians now developing teaching that are female as well. But it's it's been wonderful to kind of offer a different perspective than they're used to and that being really well received by them. They're so receptive and supportive, and it's, yeah, it's been just such a phenomenal fit.

Melissa LaPointe [00:18:56]:
Hey. Circle back for a moment. For your private practice, are you practicing out of your home? Do you rent a space? Where are you working?

Lara Desrosiers [00:19:05]:
That's been a journey. I've worked in so many different places and clinics, and I it's been quite a process to find the right fit for me. So I started out in some in a clinic where I was just renting space, one day a week, but it would it felt very separate. It was a clinic that wasn't a pelvic health clinic. It was just a wellness clinic overall. And then one of my dear friends and pelvic floor physios, my pelvic floor physio started her own practice, and so I had the great joy and pleasure of, switching gears and working out of her clinic for a while. But that was still a space rental arrangement, and it was awesome. I they connected we me with clients.

Lara Desrosiers [00:19:57]:
They referred clients to me. But I still for my practice, I really struggled with that renting space arrangement because it it was only just such a small segment of my bigger picture, of my bigger goals as I was leaning more and more into mentorship, education, and then wearing the CEO hat with AMP Healthcare. I was approached by another women's health clinic that's, just a much bigger clinic, a much bigger pool of physios that could funnel clients to me, that offered me a really wonderful percentage split. And that that just felt like a much better, arrangement for me at this stage because, I didn't have that overhead of having to rent space. I got a lot of their admin support and support more support with kind of marketing my offerings that I could let go of a lot of that pressure I felt to take that on and just do my clinical work. Yeah. Yeah. Where I'm at right now, I'm working with the, clinic called Guelph Women's Health Associates.

Lara Desrosiers [00:21:12]:
But, well, I'm here in person one day a week and then offering virtual services through them one day a week as well.

Melissa LaPointe [00:21:21]:
Lovely. And, you know, just reiterating that it does take a little bit to find your spot. And it's okay to just this pressure that we carry, that we need to get it right right off the bat. Right.

Lara Desrosiers [00:21:37]:
We need to be

Melissa LaPointe [00:21:37]:
in the perfect place. And then if it's not perfect and we're backing out, that mean what does that mean? You know? And you're let's come back to the CBT and the act work that you're doing. Right? The stories we tell ourselves, how much power that carries.

Lara Desrosiers [00:21:53]:
Yeah. And I find yeah. That's one thing I heard from you really early on, Melissa, is is because perfectionism has been a huge thing for me. And one thing I heard you say over and over was to show up. Right? And and, and then taking I think I took acceptance and commitment therapy course right around or right after I took your course. Mhmm. And I got so much from that personally in terms of finding the courage to really just put myself out there, and get it wrong, permission to get it wrong because it would still be learning. Right? I still took so much away from the experiences where it didn't quite pan out, or maybe it was a good fit for that stage in my journey into becoming an entrepreneur, a solo practitioner.

Lara Desrosiers [00:22:46]:
But I could learn to pivot, right, or or to make a change have the courage to make that change when I could identify if it wasn't working.

Melissa LaPointe [00:22:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. With your teaching, so share a little bit more. We won't go too far into it because we are going to have another episode where we are solely focused on the work that you are doing with our mutual friend, Lindsay. But share a little bit more about the teaching because you and I go back to the master class webinar. It was a webinar.

Lara Desrosiers [00:23:24]:
Yeah. We did a webinar together. That was a

Melissa LaPointe [00:23:27]:
long time ago. And so that was for the Ontario Society of OTs.

Lara Desrosiers [00:23:30]:
Is that what you said?

Melissa LaPointe [00:23:31]:
Yes. So you and I partnered on a webinar for them, and it was all around the role of OT in women's health and presenting statistics and the growth that we've seen and the areas of practice and all these. And, again, we were trying to prove that there is a place for OTs. In some ways, I feel like we're so far past that until I talk to people who still have their heads in the sand. Right? Like, it's this dance of, wow. We're so far past that. Like, really? We still have to be knocking on that door? But then you talk to some people who are like, oh, OTs can do that. I'm like, oh, right.

Melissa LaPointe [00:24:07]:
We still have ways to go.

Lara Desrosiers [00:24:09]:
But Yeah.

Melissa LaPointe [00:24:10]:
Topic for another day ongoing. Yeah. So that you know, I think of, like, when you when we were teaching that webinar and now to see the different areas that you've really expanded, I do wanna talk about some of the challenges with marketing that can show up. But what are so you're teaching your different courses, your different programs, and then you have the trauma certification. So fill us in a little bit. Just give us a snippet of what's to come in future episodes.

Lara Desrosiers [00:24:38]:
Yeah. So, in all, I would say it all began with starting to take courses myself in pelvic health, and I had the privilege of connecting to some amazing leaders in the world of pelvic health physiotherapy here in Canada, and Carolyn Van Dyken being one who who at the time was part owner of Pelvic Health Solutions, who and they've really been leaders in terms of educating physiotherapists around pelvic floor therapy. And she and Nellie identified, how I could support their clinicians in terms of the skill set that I brought to the table. So they they wanted me to teach a course for their clinicians, and, like, this was something that was so outside my comfort zone. I never thought of myself. I'm such an introvert. I always hated public speaking. How was I going to create and do this course? But they were so encouraging and supportive in terms of this being a skill set that was needed by by clinicians, specifically pelvic health clinicians.

Lara Desrosiers [00:25:51]:
So I developed my CBT course for distressing physical symptoms and taught it through pelvic health solutions. But every time I teach that course, there's another opportunity that grows from it. Some there's a clinician in the course that says this really needs to come to our facility. So there's been so many opportunities to then teach it privately with different organizations. Now it's still being offered privately through different opportunities, but also being housed with AMP Healthcare Education as a knowledge project. So, really, once a year, I'll be able to offer that as a a 4 to 5 month long program, supporting clinicians with not only learning the skills, but also helping them to start to integrate it into their practice. And we launched that for the first time this year, and it was incredible. Like, to be able to pace out the learning a little bit more slowly, have clinicians go through it at their pace, and then offer support calls and mentorship to help them put it into practice.

Lara Desrosiers [00:27:00]:
I really enjoyed that. Awesome. And then the next step kind of coming from that is with that course, there's a little sprinkling of acceptance and commitment therapy skills, but there's a desire and a need for a deeper dive into using ACT skills. And so I've dipped my toe into that, doing a few workshops at some different conferences. But the next thing on my list will be to build an acceptance and commitment therapy knowledge project. Amazing.

Melissa LaPointe [00:27:33]:
Mhmm. And then the tell us in a couple of sentences, I'll steal the spotlight, but in terms of the trauma work that you're doing with Lindsay.

Lara Desrosiers [00:27:44]:
Yeah. So one of the, I guess, the reasons why I became so passionate about the OT role in pelvic health was seeing as you described, Melissa, that there like, internal work, manual therapy is not accessible to everyone. And trauma is just such a common experience for folks experiencing, not not universal certainly, but certainly a high prevalence of folks struggling with their pelvic health have a history of trauma. And I noticed that with my practice being non internal, that's the population that I would tend to attract. And so Lindsay and I have been chatting. Lindsay Vestel, the functional pelvis, and I had been chatting quite a while about this need to support OTs with leaning into a trauma informed approach to pelvic health, going beyond biomechanics and really supporting clients with understanding their nervous system, and all of the ways that that might be intertwined with their pelvic health symptoms. So we've been dreaming this up for quite a while and have finally been able to launch it this year and actually just returning from an incredible retreat with our first cohort of participants, and it's been it's been unbelievable.

Melissa LaPointe [00:29:08]:
And how lovely that you are able to not just empower the virtual world in terms of teaching, but meet them in person with that in person retreat.

Lara Desrosiers [00:29:23]:
Yeah.

Melissa LaPointe [00:29:23]:
The best of both worlds, really.

Lara Desrosiers [00:29:25]:
Yeah. And, actually, we we've been toying with, can we make it all virtual just to make it more accessible to folks? But we had well, it was mostly OTs. We also had a physiotherapist join us and and the connections that came out of that in person retreat and the way folks were able to take all of the learning they had done and kind of put the pieces together through conversation, through experiential practices, we realized, okay, this this needs to continue to happen. It's a lot of work, but it needs to continue to happen. Mhmm.

Melissa LaPointe [00:30:06]:
Have you run into any challenges with like, let's come back to some of the conversation we were having before we hit record on the challenges with endorsing or perceived endorsing with marketing with you know, when it comes to our regulatory bodies I'm choosing my words carefully. When it comes to our regulatory bodies and our colleges and some of the regulations where they perhaps are not as updated or it's taking them longer to get caught up on social media and working virtually, You are in one of the provinces in Canada. I've worked with people all over the world at this point, and I can say with confidence that you are in one of the provinces with the more stringent like, with stricter guidelines. There are certainly stricter guidelines to follow. There are 3 provinces in Canada and Australia, I feel, are like there's a lot a lot of oops to jump through. And have you gotten any pushback in terms of the work that you're doing outside of Ontario?

Lara Desrosiers [00:31:19]:
I have to say I haven't. Do you mean the work I'm doing in terms of teaching outside of Ontario?

Melissa LaPointe [00:31:26]:
Yes. In that teaching outside of Ontario, in some situations, there would be with your license your OT license is specific to your province. So I have had some OTs experience some kickback where they are working with other professionals outside of the province or working with other you know, even if it's geared to the general public, but it is you know, they never actually meet the person. It's more health promotion education. I have had some therapists where there has been some kickbacks and pushback from their college, from the regulatory body saying, no. You can only do this within your province.

Lara Desrosiers [00:32:11]:
Yeah. It's interesting. I have it. Like, I have always found that I like to be really transparent from the get go, whether I'm teaching a course, or mentoring a clinician. Like, this is the lens that I'm coming from. These are kind of my guidelines, my regulation, my scope. It's really important that you be aware of your regulations, your guidelines, and your scope of practice. For me, I find that that that transparency really gives me permission to offer the support that I can to that clinician

Lara Desrosiers [00:32:50]:
Mhmm.

Lara Desrosiers [00:32:50]:
From my perspective. And I and not take on the responsibility and ownership of really trying to understand the scope, the guidelines in every other region. That's that's gonna be impossible. And we're just gonna keep ourselves kind of separated and isolated if we stick to our little regions of the world and don't allow ourselves to grow and benefit the wisdom of other clinicians in other parts of the world. I have not I've not received kickback from the college that, I've had such wonderful discussions, I would say, from every time I have a question or concern around, am I kind of branching outside my scope? I do reach out to my college directly, and I find they're able to identify, here are some of the things that you should be mindful of. And then I bring those things into the transparency conversations that I have with my audience, whatever the product is that I'm offering to say to make sure that those boundaries are really clear in terms of what I can and cannot offer. And that helps me to feel really confident that I am staying within, within my guidelines of what I can offer. I had a I had a question.

Lara Desrosiers [00:34:16]:
I know I heard from, some of my physio colleges, colleagues in Ontario where their college, did like a sweep of social media accounts of their members to look for testimonials. Right? Testimonials is something that our college says. No. No. No. No. You cannot do, which is tough, right, when you're wanting to build when you're running a business

Melissa LaPointe [00:34:46]:
Yeah. Absolutely.

Lara Desrosiers [00:34:47]:
And you're wanting to build proof of concept. Right? Those social media testimonials are are huge. So that's tricky for me, but I am mindful of not, not putting testimonials on social media. But but when I talk to my college about this, and I would encourage everyone to talk to their own colleagues directly and no way take this as advice. But one thing I asked is, well, what about the reviews that I like, what about Google reviews? Right? I I don't I don't have the capacity. I can either tick to have those, show up and be public on my website or tick to not. I don't have the capacity to edit them. Right? And and the explanation to me from the college was their concern is that testimonials can be doctored or made up and not be an accurate representation of someone's experience.

Lara Desrosiers [00:35:45]:
And so the feedback that I got will is well, yeah, that's okay.

Melissa LaPointe [00:35:50]:
Interesting.

Lara Desrosiers [00:35:51]:
So I've I've really leaned into the Google reviews as an avenue to gather that feedback from my clients and get that proof of concept kind of out there.

Melissa LaPointe [00:36:04]:
And so I I know another OT who her regulatory body told her you need to turn the Google reviews off.

Lara Desrosiers [00:36:11]:
Really?

Melissa LaPointe [00:36:13]:
And that's one of the challenges. We in today's day and age, we depend so much on other OTs for support and collaboration and guidance and community, especially when we're living in rural communities, rural areas. We don't necessarily have that in person network. And that there's such a gray area between what we are being told. Mhmm. And and I understand. Like, I had well, I try to understand I try to understand, in terms of where they're coming from. But this OT was

Lara Desrosiers [00:36:46]:
told, no. You'd actually need to disable the Google reviews.

Melissa LaPointe [00:36:46]:
Interesting. And actually need to disable the Google reviews. Interesting. Yeah.

Lara Desrosiers [00:36:50]:
And it might depend on just because there there isn't

Lara Desrosiers [00:36:51]:
this is so rapid and evolving, this world of technology. Right? Well and how do you even control that?

Melissa LaPointe [00:37:02]:
You know? Okay. So we're talking about testimonials on social media. And what if I'm your client and I have an amazing experience and I tag you and I share it to my audience? Is that not a testimonial? How do you limit that? You know? What's the next step? Well, don't be on social media. Right? Well, that's not the answer. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a tough scenario. And I've never I've worked for many organizations, and I can honestly say, at one point, no. That's not true.

Melissa LaPointe [00:37:33]:
I was on a volunteer committee for 5 years and with the regulatory body. And, actually, the more I reflect on this, it was slow going because there are so many cooks in the kitchen on every volunteer organization, but it's slow going. Right? Things are changing so quickly, and I think larger organizations are a little bit slower for good reason. They have a lot more t's to cross and a lot more i's to dot, but it's frustrating. When you are a sole practitioner, when, you have limited dollars, limited energy, limited time, limited capacity for marketing, and when we are being told you can't do this, you can't do that, when especially we see other OTs doing it. That's frustrating.

Lara Desrosiers [00:38:18]:
Yeah. It is. And and I think for me, one thing that, one thing that has really helped me is is to worry less about what other people are doing. Right? Like, I think we can we can some it's helped me kinda get out of the weeds of constantly worrying about how the college is gonna react and focus on more so my values, and this is my act lens coming through. Mhmm. Every decision that I make, my goal is to enhance the impact that I can have with people to reach more people. And when I anchor back to that as the value guide that helps me make those moment to moment decisions about what I'm gonna do, could this potentially cause harm or mislead folks? That's my question versus am I gonna get in trouble by my college. Right? Because that's gonna keep me stuck in the weeds if I'm constantly worrying about that.

Lara Desrosiers [00:39:18]:
And knowing that they are going to police me more so, I would be more worried about that if I was doing harm to someone. Right? And so making those moment to moment decisions based on my values of wanting to have a positive and a better impact for more people helps to get me out of the weeds of the constant worry. And and I wonder if that has helped me not and knock on wood. And I'm sure I will, at some point, run into someone questioning what I'm doing. Yeah. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Right? I don't I don't want it to keep me stuck.

Melissa LaPointe [00:39:58]:
And there's something to be said, and I don't wanna go down a whole rabbit hole of marketing because we could, but that's another episode for another day. But something to be said for lifetime customer value Mhmm. And for word-of-mouth referrals. We in the world of AI, in the world of Facebook, social media, paid advertising, we can't forget about lifetime customer value and about word-of-mouth referrals. I have been primarily online since 2018 and our, like, marketing the primary marketing method for us is still word-of-mouth referrals.

Lara Desrosiers [00:40:40]:
You know? Yeah. I would say ditto. That's that's where the bulk of my clients are coming from. It's from my clients talking about my services and sending other people my way.

Melissa LaPointe [00:40:50]:
Yeah. Yeah. There's something to be said about that. Lara, before we start to wrap this up, I want to shift gears just a little bit and talk about some of your personal experiences in terms of your healing journey. Because for high performing overachieving women who sometimes know too much,

Melissa LaPointe [00:41:14]:
I

Melissa LaPointe [00:41:14]:
may be speaking of you. I may be speaking of me. When we run into

Lara Desrosiers [00:41:19]:
Not both.

Melissa LaPointe [00:41:22]:
When we run into or when we experience health challenges. Because I know you were very open with this in when we first connected about prolapse and about your love of sports and being an athlete. And that's in part, you know, what projected you into, like, what, like, how you got into this world. And you more recently in the last year, 15 months, when did you have your knee surgery?

Lara Desrosiers [00:41:50]:
I had knee surgery in September of 2023, but had ACL even a year plus prior to that. Okay.

Lara Desrosiers [00:41:59]:
So

Lara Desrosiers [00:41:59]:
it took me a while to get in for the surgery, but certainly limited by my knee for much longer.

Melissa LaPointe [00:42:07]:
How do you balance the like, there are times that we get down on ourselves. So there are times where our healing journey is not this beautiful linear, exactly what we think it should be, check, check, check, done, done, done. And then the mindset, to the stories, the you know, how that sneaks up on us and then how we can beat ourselves up or feel guilty because we know better. Again, I may be speaking about you. I may be talking about me. So share a little bit because the listeners of this podcast are primarily therapists, and I have no doubt that they have a story, a scenario in their lives where, you know, where we have to be our own therapist, but we're sometimes we're not the most compliant

Lara Desrosiers [00:42:54]:
Oh, yeah.

Melissa LaPointe [00:42:55]:
Slash client. And, you know, and it's tough, isn't it? Like, it's tough to practice what we preach and to not then beat ourselves up that we're not doing more. We're not healing in the way that we should. So can you share a little bit more about that?

Lara Desrosiers [00:43:09]:
Yeah. Actually, this this was front and center for me in the last couple of months, I would say, from my from my ACL surgery and beyond. The first kind of chunk of healing for me went so smoothly, much more smoothly than I expected. And I worked with a fantastic physio that helped me kind of progress at a at a great pace. But then I hit this marker in my recovery where I I could do more. My physio was really wanting me to do more in terms of pushing because I was there to build strength. My ultimate goal is to get back to the ultimate Frisbee field because that's my major social and movement and sport outlet. But I didn't I didn't have the capacity to do everything he needed and wanted me to do.

Lara Desrosiers [00:44:08]:
Trying to run felt really uncomfortable at first. I was feeling really frustrated with that. And I certainly struggled with with feeling really stuck and feeling really guilty with feeling like I should be I should know better as a as a health care provider. I should find the time for all of the things. And so I had to take a step back and think about, like, how do I want to approach this and really think about I'm so good at providing this guidance to my clients about being compassionate with themselves in their recoveries. But, of course

Melissa LaPointe [00:44:47]:
Yeah.

Lara Desrosiers [00:44:48]:
Not so great at myself. So really having to take the step back and be intentional about it. And so what I realized I needed was I needed a different clinician at this stage of my journey. I needed a clinician that got it, that got the busy mom life, that got, the fact that I was more than just a need, that I still have pelvic health challenges. I still have a cycle that impacts what I can do depending on where I am in my cycle. So right just in the last couple weeks, I connected with a pelvic health physio that specializes in ACL rehab and was very clear about what I needed and wanted in terms of a plan and program and advocated for myself for that. But I also had a moment with my daughter. I went out, I went out for a run, and I was really anxious about going out for a run, kind of anticipating that I'm trying to squeeze things in, trying to get it all done, and I don't have time to do, like, the warm up that my previous video had recommended.

Lara Desrosiers [00:46:08]:
And she said to me, mom, just treat it like an experiment.

Melissa LaPointe [00:46:14]:
Children in their wise words?

Lara Desrosiers [00:46:16]:
Yeah. I was like, Of course. That's what I would tell my clients to do. Right? Like, this could be whether it goes well and it doesn't hurt. That's great. It tells you that you can be a little bit more flexible now in your movement routines. If it hurts, then that tells me, okay. I do still need a little bit of that warm up and that space to get back to running.

Lara Desrosiers [00:46:40]:
And so I think for me, that was a wake up call around, one, needing to give myself some grace and treat things like an experiment. But 2, monitoring that little story that said, I should have known that. Because as a therapist, I think we have to give give ourselves that grace that it's it's gonna be harder to see those those next steps for ourselves because we're right in it and it's gonna be more high stakes and emotional for us. So we really do need to lean into our support systems, whether it's your incredibly wise and intelligent 11 year old or a new clinician that is much better able to meet you where you're at. Yeah. Thank you for asking that question because it's been a process, but it's it's you mean. Yeah.

Melissa LaPointe [00:47:37]:
Building our support team. Mhmm. It's evolving because we change. Like, we change as individuals. We change in terms of our professional direction, our scope, and it's always, you know, change in terms of the roles, the dynamics, the relationships. Always a work in progress to figure it out.

Lara Desrosiers [00:47:58]:
Yeah. I think I think we're flexible with ourselves too. Right? Like, just because I can't, fit in all the things that I would love to do to progress in my rehab, the work that I'm doing still counts. It's still helping me move forward. Maybe maybe at a bit of a slower pace, but I'm okay with that because I'm still moving forward.

Melissa LaPointe [00:48:23]:
Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. I was wondering how things how things are going and, again, that having that level of knowledge and awareness is both a blessing and a curse. My therapist reminds me, I've been working with the same therapist now since September, which is a world record for Melissa Lapointe. And she was reminding me of that last week. You know, not everyone has your level of knowledge and awareness, and not everyone, you know, is seeking those gold stars for performance. And maybe we can take it down a notch and just let's, for a moment, have some compassion for it's like, fine. Like, that you're gonna tell me I did a good job noticing this.

Melissa LaPointe [00:49:12]:
Right? The ongoing joke. The ongoing joke between us that I when do I when do I know I succeeded in this level of therapy? When do I get my gold star?

Lara Desrosiers [00:49:25]:
Right. Where is that benchmark?

Melissa LaPointe [00:49:28]:
Yeah. The goalposts that are all this moving. Gosh. Yeah. Another episode for another day. Lara, where are you hanging out these days? Where can people find you?

Lara Desrosiers [00:49:39]:
Yeah. So I I am giving myself some grace around social media, but I am I I've come back, I would say, to Instagram a little bit more regularly. So my handle on Instagram is at pelvicresilience.ca. My website is pelvicresiliencedot ca, and I do put out a quarterly newsletter. So I'm giving myself some grace there as well. But I do put out some quarterly a quarterly newsletter with a little bit of a glimmer of insight or wisdom that have often come from my clients, as well as offerings that are are coming up.

Melissa LaPointe [00:50:19]:
Awesome. Well, I too am just starting the end of the month. I'm mentally prepping right now for doing a little bit of coming back to social media. I took a really long break and didn't miss it. But, no, from a business standpoint, I really should have more of a present presence. So I will put a challenge out, an invite of sorts. Perhaps you and I can connect for an Instagram live and do a, you know, ask us anything based on this podcast interview and flex our Instagram muscles. So there you go, listeners.

Melissa LaPointe [00:50:52]:
Hold us accountable.

Lara Desrosiers [00:50:55]:
That's why I love that idea. I did my first IG live with one of the physios at our our clinic just last week, actually. It was fun. It was intimidating, but feel like I've gotten over the hump. So I'd love to do that with you.

Melissa LaPointe [00:51:08]:
Alright. Yes. I've yeah. It's been a long time, but it's time for me to come out from under my rock and have more of a presence on social media. So I hear you. Well, my friend, this was lovely. It was really nice connecting with you. Really nice hearing all the great things that you are up to.

Melissa LaPointe [00:51:29]:
And, boy, would I love to go back in time and just put my arms around both of us and say, like, you've got this. Take a breath. It's all good. You know, you're on the right trajectory even though you can't quite see where you're going with it. Right. Just pace yourself and keep going and keep having fun.

Lara Desrosiers [00:51:49]:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Melissa, and for all everything you've done and do for to, I think, just help us as OTs just think outside the box and do scary things that are so worth it.

Melissa LaPointe [00:52:06]:
My pleasure. And for everyone listening, it is much easier to do those scary things when you are, like, arm and arm with comrades and with friends and with colleagues. And, you know, it's a lot more fun jumping off a cliff into the water when, you know, there's people on the beach waiting for you and you're all doing it together and you can have a bonfire and dance and be silly than standing there by yourself petrified wondering all the what ifs. Right? 2 totally different scenarios. So find your people, everybody. Find your people. Okay. Okay.

Melissa LaPointe [00:52:40]:
Take care. We will be in touch soon.