Leading the way: Interviews with passionate PTs and the secrets to
success:
(A series of articles dedicated to discovering what empowers PTs to create positive change and master the opportunities in our field,
through interviews with current leaders.)
Are you feeling satisfied with your work? Do you think you are making a
significant difference? Remember when you were just starting out, so
excited, curious and ready for the big adventure? You got through the
grueling essays, the endless exams, the boards, and now you are officially a
licensed therapist. Are you still excited, or have you succumbed to the
challenges of the real world, managed care, limited visits, those outrageous
co-pays and endless documentation. To address the ennui or downright burnout
experienced by some therapists, I have asked successful therapists to
volunteer to share their magic. What is their secret? I hope their words
inspire you to reflect upon your practice, and to embark on a journey to
make positive changes in your work and in your life. How do we make our work
more meaningful, more significant? Can we really change the world for the
better? Carrie Cameron shares her wisdom with us in this month's interview.
Name : Carrie Cameron Profession: Physical Therapist
Specialty: Currently Energy Medicine, bodywork for chronic
pain
Licensed in: WI Where do you
practice now?: Out of my home
Tell me about
your choice to be a PT
“My formal education and licensure is in the field of
Physical Therapy. I was one of those fortunate youngsters
who had an experience in high school that led me to know
exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up! In my sophomore
year I observed physical therapists at the Curative Workshop
outpatient facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jenny B., RPT
took me under her wing and led me through a day that shaped
the rest of my life. (Watch for those days, they’ll come
camouflaged as plain old days, and then one day you’ll value
them as turning points on your path.)
Upon high school graduation, my choice of college was easy -
at that time physical therapy schools were somewhat rare. I
chose University of Wisconsin - Madison and four years later
had earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical
Medicine. After several internships, I received a
certificate of Physical Therapy and sat for the Wisconsin
state licensure board examinations. Although this part of my
education was the basis for things to come, the physical
therapy I perform today would have been hardly recognizable
in those times.
I proceeded to work in several different specialties with my
Physical Therapy (P.T.) degree. I worked for years in a
general hospital setting, when P.T.’s performed respiratory
therapy functions, burn/wound care hydrotherapy and cardiac
rehabilitation, as well as basic orthopedic and neurological
rehabilitation. Many of the now commonplace surgeries were
new innovations then. I can still remember observing my
first joint replacement operation. University of Wisconsin
P.T. school was at the leading edge of neurological
rehabilitation - including the groundbreaking work of the
Bobaths, Rood, and Voss’s Proprioceptive Neuromuscular
Facilitation, making stroke and spinal cord patient
rehabilitation extremely fascinating. In my first job, I
even had opportunity to join forces with the innovative
surgeons at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Milwaukee that were
performing their very first open heart surgeries. They
believed physical rehabilitation should begin immediately
post-op with deep breathing and coughing in the Intensive
Care Unit, and that a patient have a solid comprehension of
how to exercise independently before even leaving hospital -
perhaps an old fashioned idea, but I think a good one.
My cardiac specialty led me to teaching Cardio Pulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR) classes - and I discovered how much I
really enjoyed teaching. When I semi-retired from P.T. to
give birth to my babies, I trained and taught Lamaze Classes
under the auspices of ASPO/Lamaze. In retrospect, not only
was the teaching experience invaluable, but it laid the
groundwork for learning/teaching conscious relaxation, deep
breathing, guided visualization techniques and clinical
hypnosis.
As my children grew, a desire to work on the ‘school
calendar’ led me to train/work in pediatric physical
therapy. I loved working with kids, but had to learn
patience and frequently relied on my instincts with the
non-verbal children. I realized that learning to follow
these instincts was extremely helpful when I began training
in and using myofascial release techniques, especially when
unwinding procedures allowed somato-emotional releasing.
(refer to www.multidimensionalhealing.com)
Using myofascial release and craniosacral therapy became the
focus of my further training and I expanded to using it not
only in pediatric populations, but also with general
outpatient orthopedic/chronic pain patients. In the 1990’s,
this work began to include horses, and over several years
Doris Kay Halstead and I developed a program called Symmetry
in Motion. Traveling around the United States visiting horse
farms to posturally re-align horses and their riders, we
honed our skills not only in deep tissue bodywork and
craniosacral therapy, but also in working with the energy
body to facilitate healing of the physical body. As I
observed the results of this work, it began to shift my
entire belief system about pain and healing. I began to
think about physical therapy much more wholistically,
understanding that we must address and make changes in the
entire body and at all levels for true healing to occur.
So I have come to this point - certainly not an end point -
but the point at which I feel like I’ve put enough of the
pieces together so that I can share the specialty of
Physical Therapy as I practice it today. It’s no longer
physical therapy, it’s beyond physical and it’s beyond
physical therapy.... It’s MetaPhysical Therapy.”
Taken from Earth Missions Accomplished: What’s Next (yet to
be published!)
Do you remember
the most difficult patient case you encountered?
Many – these are the ones I thrive on!
Who do you
admire? The patient’s who have trusted in the
process and in my skills. Every teacher I have ever had
(yes, even Dorko!)
Who was your
mentor? John Barnes probably ‘kicked my pebble
and started the avalanche’ :)
Do you mentor?
I haven’t since I worked at Alternative Therapy Center of
Madison (patient load too inconsistent since I
‘semi-retired’).
What makes you
most satisfied with your work? Increasing the
conscious awareness of the energy body in those that are
interested.
If you could
change something about your work, your profession, what
would it be?
I have worked for years to increase the awareness of
Integrated Physical Therapy, including writing
MultiDimensional Healing. I have recently had it reformatted
into a digital book – perhaps that will help get it into the
P.T. schools
Tell me your
opinion regarding evidence-based research and practice
For the most part pretty ineffective for alternative
medicines – most researchers like to isolate specific
modalities, and most often it is the right combination of
modalities that helps individual clients.
Tell me about
your view on continuing education?
I really wish more of the coursework I’m interested in was
accepted by state licensing boards…
What do you
recommend for new grads? for those in the field over 10 yrs?
Follow your heart. Develop your instincts.
What does the
future hold for you?
More of the same? :)
Tell me what is
most important in contributing to your success/ happiness/
position in the field?
It is my soul path, and I was fortunate enough to find it
early in life and have the sense to follow it!
Thank you, Carrie, for sharing your wisdom and experience. I
love your recommendation to "follow your soul path", instead
of just following a protocol, someone's clinical prediction
rule, or the requirements of some insurance company
interested in their own profits. We are in a healing field
based on art and science. We need to remember to use all of
the creative skills of an artist while integrating the
evidence of science to produce outstanding results that make
a difference in people's lives. To learn more about Carrie's
work, visit
www.multidimensionalhealing.com
Last revised: December 21, 2014
by Theresa A. Schmidt, DPT, MS, OCS, LMT, CEAS, CHy, DD
