How to talk about Pelvic Health and Trauma-Informed Care on Social Media with Krystyna Holland

Hi, welcome to the Pelby Biz Podcast. Are you a pelvic health PT or ot struggling to start your own practice? This podcast helps pelvic health PTs and OTs get out of debt, gain the income they desire, be able to treat patients without insurance restraints, and learn how to create time freedom for yourself and your family. I'm your host, Dr. Kelly Alhui, founder of Ortho Pelvic Physical Therapy, Pelvic Health Business Grower and Pelvi Biz. Over the last two years, I went from a solo entrepreneur to a seven person team in counting. I'm here to help provide a clear path to grow your pelvic health business as fast as possible so that you can gain the time freedom, decrease debt, increase income and live the life that you desire. Before we get started today, make sure you click the link in our bio to grab your ticket for Pelvi Biz.

Now let's get into today's episode. What's up guys? Welcome to Pelle Biz. I'm your host, Kelly Alhui. Today I have Christina Holland here from Inclusive Care Physical Therapy in Denver. Welcome Christina.

Thanks for having me, Kelly. I'm really glad we get to connect in person because I feel like we've been talking online for a long time because we're from the same geographic area, I think.

Right? Exactly.

Yep.

Northern Virginia. Yes. Yeah, that's awesome. So kind of give us a rundown of how did you open your practice and how did you get into that and then also how did you come up with the name Inclusive Care? I think so many people can get stuck on that when they first are starting a business. And so tell us how you came up with that name.

Yeah, so it's interesting because I came up with the name Inclusive Care and I spent a lot of time thinking about it while I was in PT school. But it wasn't because I wanted to start a practice, it was because I wanted, I had to do a project for school. I had like a three week May master business course which was very brief and didn't prepare me really at all for what I'm currently doing. But it was more about like starting like an insurance based practice and growing it from there in any case, doing the billing, those sorts of things. So Inclusive Care was the name that I came up with for that group project. I basically convinced all of my classmates or all my project members to like let me do it because I was very interested in what it could look like to open a practice. And then through that project I was like, oh, Actually, I don't want to do this shit. I was like, this is too much. There's, like, so much emphasis on the money. I didn't want to focus on the money. I wanted to focus on the care aspect of it. And then. But how I ended up starting a practice is I, as a new grad, moved from Georgia, where I was going to school, to Denver, and I moved here kind of on a whim, just because I liked it and I thought it was interesting and I wanted to live somewhere different. And I looked high and low for a job that I thought was going to support the way I wanted to practice and the way I wanted to treat. And to be very honest with you, I came in contact with a lot of, like, dude, bro, business owners who just did not really conceptualize what pelvic health was, what pelvic floor physical therapy entailed, how it was going to impact billables and the number of patients I could see and productivity and all these sorts of things. And so from kind of that experience, I ended up working for a private practice business owner who didn't take insurance, which was a little bit better. And through that, I was marketing and hanging out with just people kind of in the birth world who I really enjoyed. And through that, met a chiropractor who is a woman and really wanted a physical therapist in her office. And she was like, hey, you're doing contracting for this person. Would you like to rent my space? And gave me a really great deal that I really couldn't refuse. And I started getting referrals from that kind of way before I was ready. And then all of a sudden, I was like, oh, shit, I need an LLC and a way to take payment. And so that's how it started. And that was three years ago on the 25th. So that's where we are.

Wow, that's awesome. That is so cool. Yeah. I remember thinking, crap, how am I going to take payment? And I was like, okay, Venmo. It's like, what's the easiest thing to, like, just start out? Because you didn't have, like, an EMR system back then, you know?

No, no, I had nothing. I was like, oh, I should come up with. I think I was using Google Calendar.

Yeah.

And was like, frantically Googling, what is HIPAA compliant and what do I need to do as a private practice owner? But I picked inclusive care because even in PT school and, you know, I was in Atlanta, I was in the South. I don't really know where this came from, but I had this image My original image when I was doing this big group project was that it was going to be a big clinic space, kind of like a CrossFit style gym on one side and then a wall of windows and a wall of like private treatment rooms on the other side. And so if you were in the gym working out, you were going to be able to see where you could go if you needed help. And if you were in medical care, you could see what your goals could be and what you could accomplish. And I imagined like women in hijabs working out with trans women and people after oncology treatment, working out with new moms and like the community that could be built in that. And I wanted it to be so much more than just, you know, like physical therapy and really have a lot of space. And so inclusive care is what I came up with then I had to make sure that like, you know, whenever you come up with a name, you have to make sure the acronym doesn't suck and or like doesn't unintentionally spell something dirty or offensive. So that was, that was okay too.

That's awesome. I mean, you're already thinking and bridging the gap right there, which is awesome between actual, you know, the physical therapy and then also including many different backgrounds and wellness and, you know, encompassing all that care. And I know for us too, we think of it like that too, like a big puzzle piece and how can we put it all together? And when you have that multifaceted approach, it just works so much better than strictly just treating it from a physical therapy standpoint.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, that's great. So your current space is not like that. Yeah, so let's talk about that. So what does your current space look like right now?

Yeah, so it's really small. I'm still in that chiropractor's office, actually. So the way that it's set up is that if you come in, there's a waiting area and then there's a small room immediately behind the desk, which is where I started because the rent was really cheap. And. And now I moved into a bigger room on the right hand side. And the chiropractor is actually in a, in a bigger space next door. So it is really small. It's just me. I don't have any admin or clerical staff. Although I really, from my own business standpoint, really need to change that sometime. Hella soon. But it's really quite small. I work in an old building. I have some complaints about it mostly being that there's no elevator. So it's not very accessible. And I have gender bathrooms, which I see gender non conforming, trans, non binary folks. And so that really makes me mad. We're working on it. I'm going to be finding a new space here by the end of the year. That's all in the plan. But it was what I could afford at the time at which I was doing it when I started. And actually other people in that building are really cool. So a lot of business owners, a lot of people who work solo practitioners and acupuncturists, a massage therapist, a cranial sacral therapist, a chiropractor, all women, some home birth midwives, all women, all own their own practices. So that's been awesome too.

That's fantastic. So have you guys been able to create a community and be able to refer to each other and have you been able to like cross collaborate and do workshops together? Has that been something that you guys are doing? And if it is, is that something that has been super beneficial for you?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because that was the original. So we created this kind of co op. It wasn't necessarily intentional. It was all from a networking group, but it has, it grew and it had a lot of potential for that. And. And we were starting to do that, and then Covid really blew up. And so then like we were doing, we were planning in person networking things and in person workshops, and then that was no longer available. And in the process of everyone pivoting and like, figuring out how they were going to keep their businesses open, that part that like, collaborative part kind of got dropped. And now everyone's really busy. And so we're still trying to figure it out. For me, I think I do work with a lot of postpartum folks, but honestly, I see way more painful sex. I see way more persistent pain. I see way more gender affirming care after gender affirming surgeries, Gender affirming care, which is what I prefer. I would prefer to do that. So while I love everyone in the building, networking with people who do a lot of post pregnancy, postpartum stuff isn't necessarily my jam.

Isn't your jam? Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's really interesting because I actually have a fair amount of people right now that I'm coaching that are going kind of into this situation and they would be saying, kelly, is this a good thing for me? Is this, you know, is this really good to have all these other people collaborate? And sometimes people can view it as a threat, and sometimes people can view it As a collaboration, I always believe that there's enough people out there for whoever you want to treat and whoever you want to collaborate that there should be no need to worry about, hey, is this person my, you know, my. I don't want to call it my enemy, but my competitive. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

No collaboration over competition all the time.

Yeah.

Honestly, like, I think that that mindset, if you go into it thinking, is this going to be bad for me? Because there's not going to be enough to go around. That scarcity mindset isn't going to serve you in my experience.

I 100 agree. It's only going to worry you more. You're going to lose focus and you need to stay focused and just.

And it shows up in your energy, I think. And people can read that. So there's a massage therapist who does a lot of prenatal massage. She does a lot of massage, like ayurvedic massage. So she like my abdominal massage. She treats folks who have pelvic pain. There is never at any appointment, any competition between the two of us. Her people are one. Are just different than my people. Like the people who gravitate to her and will be benefited the most by her care and she's so great at what she does, are just different than the people who are going to gravitate to me and be improved by my care. So I love getting to connect with her. We have similar values around a lot of things. And so I love getting to talk to her about that sort of stuff. And it's always been good. And she refers me folks. I refer her folks. And it's really not. It's not a problem at all.

Yeah, that's fantastic. That's the way it should be. So build community. The lesson here is build the community because it really will benefit you and do not think that anyone else is your competition because they're not. Because everyone's different. Everyone's personality is different. It's just they're not.

Also, being a business owner can be so lonely. It can be so lonely. Especially if you're a small private practice owner doing your own thing where it's just you. Especially when you're starting, when you're like, I don't know what's normal, what did everyone else experience? And like, groups like this are great. And I love, like, building that community in person. I think there's just something about in person that, like, is different.

It's my jam too. I love in person. I love talking to people. It's just the connection and the Vibe and the energy that you can thrive off of is just phenomenal. So. Okay, I want to pivot here. Let me ask you this. So any big problems that have come up over the last couple of years? I know there's probably many, but anyone that you're like, you know what, I'm super proud that I was able to kind of pivot and keep going and just, you know, keep rolling with the punches here?

Yeah, that's a good question. I feel like a lot of my problems have honestly not been necessarily about running the business. That's been relatively straightforward. Okay. It's honestly more about, like the marketing aspect. So a lot of. So I spend a lot of time on Instagram and putting out information and educating. And in addition to running my private practice, I also do trauma informed care trainings. And so I'm just pretty consistently surprised at how people, even within the field, or like, we're talking about the field, talk about things so differently than how I talk about them. So, you know, like, I don't market to women because I'm seeing people across the gender identity spectrum with a variety of concerns and a variety of genitals and a variety of sexual identities and gender identities. So sometimes that becomes sort of interesting because I think a lot of, even in my own community locally, a lot of people will market to women. It's really important to them that they're women. And even in our discussion, right, I was like, all of these women owned businesses, like, that's so freaking cool. And it is. And I want to be able to provide like this specific type of medical care to folks regardless of their gender identity. So that's just been kind of an interesting navigation that brings up a point.

So, like, does sometimes you feel kind of lonely, like, being like, hey, guys, like, anyone else, like, feel my vibe, like, feel me on this? Or like, you know, how do you kind of get over that? Not even get over it, but how do you kind of be like, okay, it's okay that I'm not marketing the way everyone else is marketing?

Yeah, well, I think about my values a lot. Like, honestly, I go back to my values. I go back to that image, even though that's so far from what I'm doing. Like, that image of who I wanted to be in a space together and what I think it'll take to get people in that space together. And I think about ultimately a large part of why I started my business was because I really believe in health equity and I want people to have better access. And I think part of the way we can do that is through direct communication with consumers of health care and making things approachable and accessible. I think trauma informed care is another way to increase access because there are so many people who don't seek out pelvic floor care because they're so afraid and they've been traumatized and for all very valid and good reasons. So I just remind myself of why I do the thing, and then I just stay true to what, what that feels like. And if people don't vibe, like, they don't vibe. And that's also okay.

And that's okay because there's, like, we just said there's someone for every single person out there. And whether or not you connect with that person or not, like, that's. It's your choice, their choice, or whatever else. So you're basically saying your Instagram, really. Because we all love it. Your Instagram is really how you are providing care maybe for people that you don't even potentially know and that potentially, you know, they're having access to you based on this app, based on Instagram, that they can actually get some valid information from and potentially be like, oh, okay. That actually resonates really well with me, you know?

Totally. And it's. I mean, some of it has to do with identity, but some of it's just even, you know, cisgender women who are moms but, like, don't like being referred to as mama all the time. Like, there's so much mom marketing in postpartum care and perinatal care that really gives people the ick. And so actually talking about things in a gender neutral way that doesn't assign value to these things that we typically consider, like, related to motherhood or parenthood or birth really feels good for folks.

Yeah, no, that's awesome. Yeah, you're definitely, I have to say, hitting it from a different aspect. And I can see the marketing kind of being a little challenging because you're kind of like, hey, I'm kind of over here. All you guys are over here. But that's okay. It's completely fine. But I could see that being like, okay, yeah, I'm just doing it differently. And that's cool.

And the thing that happens is, like, the people that are historically, you know, cut off from care, and that's not just based on gender identity, but can also be sexual orientation, can also be race. Like people who feel marginalized in health care, that actually resonates with them very much. Like the trauma informed lens and the affirming care aspects of the way That I talk about things that I think people do read as different. And so that pulls those people to me, which are the people that I like to work with anyhow. And so that's really good. The flip side is that there are people who absolutely like my stuff does not jive with. They get very angry, and then I hear about it. Really? Yeah. Not business owners usually. It's normally like people on the Internet.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Making just comments because they're behind the computer screen.

Yeah, there's definitely an amount of that. I just had a real do pretty well that was all about inclusive care or inclusive language, rather, in healthcare, and it just blew up, and not in the best of ways. So then I just have to figure out how to navigate navigating other people's comments and opinions that, like, absolutely do not align with my values in a way that does align with my values. So that's one of the things that, like, is ongoing.

How the heck do you handle that? I mean, how do you handle that? I don't know if I could handle that. I really don't.

I remind again, I start with my values. Like, what do I want to get out of this? Because something that I realized pretty early on is that because in the beginning, when you start, you know, marketing on the Internet or talking to the Internet, it feels like you're yelling into the void. And, like, no one's ever reading your stuff.

No one listens, no one sees you. There's no. There's like maybe one. One person that ever saw it. Yes. Right.

And even still, like, sometimes my views will go down. Right. Algorithm changes, all this sort of stuff. And I still feel like I'm yelling into void. And I have over 20,000 people that I technically know are on followers or whatever. So with that being said, it can feel really scary when people start responding all of a sudden and it's negative. But I have to remember what my values are, and I have to remember that I have been saying the same thing in the same way long before I had followers, and I will be doing it long after I have them anymore. And so I start with that. And I also realize that more people are paying attention than you know. So even when it feels like you're going into the void, people can be paying attention. And I think about what my goal is, and my goal continues to be to promote affirming care in affirming healthcare, both to patients so that they can advocate for themselves and to providers so they know they can provide it. So I know that if I go off the rails. And people don't like the way that I say something that. That can impact my mission. And so I try to like it gives me that little extra. Okay, I'm gonna take a deep breath here. I'm gonna rephrase this. I did a series, so if you go check out that reel and then the comments on it, there were some gnarly comments, and I responded to them in videos. And some of those videos I had to tape multiple times because I was getting hella angry and sassy, and I had to reel that back in. So it's not that I'm not human. I have those reactions. I get triggered. I have my own trauma shit that comes up, and I have to be like, okay, well, there can be space for that, but not right now. So if I can't respond in a way that feels like I'm centering my values, that I'm centering the other person, that I'm leaving space for that other person's experience, I don't respond. I don't leave the comment. I could delete it. I could just move on and come back around. I could just hope the person has the day they deserve.

Right, Right. Okay. So sometimes you respond, sometimes you don't. Depending on what the response looks like, I guess.

Yeah. And my capacity to do it and what I think their intention was. So, for example, I responded to three different comments. Two of them were not in good faith. And I had said straight up in the caption, like, I'm happy to discuss this in the comments, but I will not tolerate things that are harmful to an entire group of people or harmful to me. And also, I will only respond to comments that are only engage in discussion that's in good faith. So two of them weren't in good faith. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I asked some more questions, I provided some more information, and they doubled down, were rude, and responded in a way that didn't jive. And I just called that out and was like, okay, that's the end of this conversation. But then the other. Another person asked a question that when I first read it, especially in the context of these other two commenters, I was like, oh, this is icky. Like, this is not. It didn't. I wasn't sure if it was in good faith, but I went forward assuming that it was. I went forward assuming that this person was doing the best they could. And then at the end of it, they learned something. They thanked me for what? My instruction. Other people left comments that were really helpful and it ended up being a really positive experience. So I try to take things at face value. I try not to attribute whatever I'm feeling to the situation. If things are unclear, I ask more questions. And I lead from a place of like, I respect you and your lived experience. And so if I start with that, where else could we go?

Yeah. Wow.

Wow.

Yeah, that's. That's a lot. I mean, how much time do you allot for Instagram a day? I'm just curious.

Yeah, that's a good question. Oh, it's really hard to track. I would say probably at least an hour, but it's probably closer to. I ultimately end up spending probably closer to two and a half. And it's not necessarily always responding. A lot of the time it's like, at this point, I'm also a content creator, so I'm like, yeah, I definitely have my business, but I also have all this content creation stuff and I don't monetize that necessarily, but it does drive people to me. And so I do a lot of, like, I do a lot of consuming of social media in addition to creating on it.

Yeah, I feel like, I mean, I am not a big social media person, just in general. It's just. I would rather just like hang out with people. That's just my vibe. But, you know, these days we all have to get on social media and do our thing, right? So, you know, it's kind of like, how much time do you actually produce things and then how much time do you actually consume things on it? Because I feel like you have to actually consume it to kind of know what's kind of what you kind of need to be putting out there, like these song trends or something like that.

I guess, especially with reels, especially with video, because it's like they're like living memes, they're like living names. And so you have to understand the meme and the trend to be able to like, do it the most effectively. Oh, gosh. Yeah. I mean, real talk about social media stuff. If. So if you're, if you are an independent, like private practice, you, your own boss, you do your own stuff. If you don't like social media, don't think that you're going to get into it and it's going to be a good time.

Right?

It was really good that I liked social media before. That's what made this possible. But it would be really freaking miserable if I didn't like it.

That's me.

Yeah. It's hard, man. It's so hard. Time.

Yes.

It Takes so much time. You do have to deal with a lot of nonsense constantly changing as. That feels fine to me. When I'm like, when it's good that I liked it, because when things are not going well, it keeps me. It still allows me to be consistent in a way that if I didn't like it, I wouldn't.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's why you have great content. I mean, we love it. We always. We always share it at Orthopelvic, so that's amazing. Yeah. And I know a lot of people. I see it reposted a lot, too. So keep doing your thing. Clearly you're good at it. Some of us not so. So lucky. But that is a.

Okay.

But these days and age, I mean, you just have to be on the media. You know, you got to be on there.

You have to have a way for people to reach you. And that can look like a lot of different things, though. I always, when people ask me about social media, I'm like, if you don't like it, don't dedicate a big percentage of your time to it. I get. I do a lot of marketing, social media, but I like doing that. So it, like, picks up and it's fine, but you don't. Don't do it.

So where do you see Inclusive Care going in the next year? Like, what's your vision?

That's a great question. My vision has changed pretty significantly at this point. So I thought a lot about, like, all right, do I want to try and grow and mentor and, like, expand the brand? And the conclusion I've come to is, like, actually, I really don't. My mission at Inclusive Care is that I want to be able to change the fundamental relationship between patients and providers and to one that isn't, like, hierarchical, but one that's collaborative. I do that actually, in a lot of ways. Some of that's through the individual provision of pelvic floor physical therapy services. So me actually seeing patients one on one. But some of that is from the trauma informed care trainings I do for providers. Some of that I'd really like to get into consulting and inclusive and affirming care consulting for bigger companies and doing some trainings in that regard as well. So my vision at this moment is that I will stay relatively small in terms of space, in terms of number of people being seen, but being able to do it in a way that allows me flexibility to be able to go and do consulting and leaves me flexibility to go and do trainings, because that's the impact I want to have on the healthcare field more generally.

That is awesome. And that is an amazing approach to take, guys and to know that you don't necessarily have to make your impact. Just treating one on one and one on one patient care, it is great. We all love it. It is very rewarding a lot of times for us. But she's thinking bigger picture here. That is amazing. You're going out trying to get corporations, trying to empower pretty much everyone and anyone, whether or not they're corporate healthcare, whatever, really kind of making sure that we're all really educated. Because when you talk about gender differences or general changes that are happening, it can be really. Some people can shy away from it, some people can be really gung ho about it. And then some people are like, I just don't know what to say or do. And I think having someone that's a leader that could navigate this better and really have a platform for that is huge.

Yeah. Those people who are in the middle that are like, this is something I care about, but I don't know what to do. Those are my people and those are the companies I want to work with and those are the organizations that I want to work with because it's like, we know this is important. They might not even know all of the reasons why it's important. And it's not just like because it's nice or anything like that. It has a lot to do with health equity. It has a lot to do with fixing health care disparities and even our individual provision of services. How good we are at making people feel better is related to our relationships with them. And so trauma informed care is a really important aspect of that. So. But people who like have this inkling, I think there's something here, but I don't know what it is. Those are my people.

That's awesome. That's awesome, guys. Yeah. So if you're out there and you're like, man, I don't, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. Contact her.

Instagram's great. It's a good place to start.

Yeah. You know what, actually this leads us right in. So why don't you tell everyone where they can find you if they are already don't know about you and like any of your website, ig, all that stuff.

Yeah, Instagram's probably the best. So it's just my first out last name, Christina Holland. My name has Y's in it. So just so you know. And then Inclusive Care LLC is my website. It is definitely the weaker link. We need a good audit and a little update. But you can get on my email list from there or from the link in my Instagram bio if you're interested in any trauma informed care trainings. That's all in my Instagram bio as well. Perfect.

Thank you so much, Christina, for coming on here. We really appreciate all your knowledge and we can't wait to see you blossom out in this next year and see what's to come.

Thanks so much.

Yeah. Thank you.

If you are ready to change your life, click the link in the show notes to get your ticket to Pelvi Biz.

Let's go, Sam.