Today we’d like to introduce you to Carol Harmon.
Hi Carol, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I had never heard of the profession of Occupational Therapy until my young son was referred for an Occupational Therapy evaluation. My son was an incredibly bright child, but at the same time he struggled with anxiety and ADHD that really started impacting his school learning. After his amazing experience in Occupational Therapy, I was inspired to re-career out of Education into Occupational Therapy myself. As a single mom of 3 young children, this was a scary decision. But I saw it as an investment in my and my children’s future for me to be able to work in a field with excellent job security, flexibility and to be able to be an expert advocate for my child should he need it in the future.
Much to my surprise in OT school I fell in love with working with older adults rather than with children. After graduation, I worked for years with the geriatric population and started/grew several of the OT programs in the independent living and assisted living communities in San Diego. One issue that I found to be an almost universal experience among aging women in particular was incontinence. In fact, I was shocked to learn that incontinence is the number two reason contributing to women ending up in skilled nursing care. I was moved by these women’s stories and struggles and determined to help them.
I learned that there was an area of specialty for Occupational Therapists called Pelvic Floor Therapy, that specifically treats bowel and bladder disorders. I immediately embarked on training for this specialization. As I started working with older women and helping them resolve their bowel and bladder issues, I became more and more aware that this was not just an issue that affected older women, but in fact, affected women of all ages and even children too. Core Functional Wellness was born out of the desire to help women and children across the lifespan. So far, the youngest client I have worked with is 2 years old and the oldest is 101.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It was most definitely not a smooth road! It was hard being a middle-aged woman, newly divorced going back to school to re-career with 3 young children to care for. And then I later started a private OT practice in a niche that was not only little known but also no one really wanted to talk about (incontinence?!) I was filled with self-doubt at so many points along the way.
But my biggest struggle was probably time. It seemed there were never enough hours in the day to get done what I needed to do as a mom, an OT employee, and as a new business owner. When I began building Core Functional Wellness, I did so while still working my full-time OT position in geriatrics. I would put the kids to bed and then work on my business until the wee hours of the morning. Then wake up at 6 am, get the kids off to school, work my full-time OT job and then squeeze in seeing a few patients for Core Functional Wellness before rushing home to make dinner and starting the cycle all over again.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Core Functional Wellness?
Core Functional Wellness is a pelvic floor occupational therapy clinic that specializes in helping women and children who are struggling with issues “down there” that nobody likes to talk about but are actually quite common. Things like urinary and fecal incontinence, constipation, overactive bladder, pelvic pain; and the trauma and anxiety that can accompany these issues.
We are known for taking a very holistic approach to treatment, looking at the whole person and addressing the entirety of factors that may be contributing to a client’s issues. For instance, a woman who is dealing with pelvic pain may also be affected by anxiety or poor sleep. And a child who is having accidents due to constipation may have behavioral or sensory issues that are contributing.
The Core Functional Wellness program combines a unique blend of pelvic floor occupational therapy, psychology, education, biofeedback and neurofeedback to help clients resolve their issues. Medical insurance may cover all or part of treatment. To find out more you can schedule a complimentary consultation at:
https://www.corefunctionalwellness.com/
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
To those in mid-life who may be considering a career change or starting a business- I say yes you can absolutely do it! But give yourself some grace. Your path may look different than someone doing this in their 20’s. In the beginning I burned the candle at both ends, worked a lot of 16+ hour days trying to do “all the things” I thought my business needed. Now I just say no to 16-hour days, and I realize that I don’t want or need to do “all the things”.
One thing I’ve let go is social media. I don’t enjoy doing it and I’m really not good at it either. I would rather focus my time and energy on working directly with my patients then coming home and being present with my family. I pride myself on delivering a high-quality service to my patients. In turn happy patients tell friends, family and their doctors and refer more patients to me. So, while my social media may not be getting the word out about my services, my satisfied clients are.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Leslie Hoffman
