The Story Behind The Cheerful Pelvis: Where We Came From (and Where We’re Going!)
March 7, 2025
It’s been five years since our clinic owner Anniken was inspired to start The Cheerful Pelvis! The reason? She couldn’t help but notice that, despite the best intentions of individual practitioners – herself included – the practice of pelvic health physio was a bit all over the place.
There are a lot of reasons for this. Pelvic health is a complicated field with a lot to learn, and there’s a big difference between taking a course or certification and actually applying the knowledge to a real-life client. Anniken noticed this gap between theoretical learning and clinical practice early on in her career, and she had to push through it the hard way: alone, doing her best, but always wondering if it was good enough.
Clients with pelvic health issues tend to present more complex cases than in other areas of physiotherapy, and there’s no standard road map for creating a treatment plan. From a physiotherapist’s perspective, this can feel like a constant challenge to fill in knowledge gaps to meet the needs of the client in front of you. And unfortunately, that can mean that clients don’t end up getting the specific care they need.
Clearly, more on-the-job training and mentorship were needed to help pelvic health physiotherapists bridge the gap between theory and practice, and gain experience and confidence in handling complex cases. So, Anniken decided to create the type of environment she wished she’d had when starting out: a clinic that proactively and transparently set a high standard for quality of care in pelvic health, and that supported new pelvic health physiotherapists on their career journey.
Soon after, The Cheerful Pelvis was born!
Growing Pains
Pelvic health is still a relatively new field that’s changing and developing quickly. Although this is promising in terms of being able to address more clients’ needs, in practice, the demand for pelvic health services can create pressure on clinics to hire more therapists – many of whom may have only completed a weekend course or a broad module on pelvic health topics.
And without the professional support they need, it’s only natural that therapists might start to feel overwhelmed and lack confidence in their work, which can lead to burnout and sub-par client care. It’s also easy to see how, with a dearth of on-the-job training, a new physio might even be put off from continuing to work in the pelvic health field.
At The Cheerful Pelvis, we’re working to break this cycle. Our goal is to build a culture of mentorship, integration, and continuous learning that supports our staff and ensures every client feels truly seen and cared for.
Team Work Makes the Dream Work
Each new Cheerful client starts by filling out a Match Me form (or working through it over the phone). This allows our team to recommend a physiotherapist that will best suit their needs and helps us ensure that the physiotherapist working with any given client is equipped with the knowledge to address the client’s case. Meanwhile, we’re looking out for each physiotherapist’s strengths and potential areas for development to allow them to grow their clinical skills at a sustainable pace, creating more wins for clients and staff along the way.
When it comes to mentorship, we hold a weekly “in-service” session that focuses on a certain topic or aspect of pelvic health, bringing it to the team for learning and discussion. We dive deep into the research but also focus on how to apply our knowledge practically to real client cases. This helps our team understand, collaborate, and troubleshoot together, leaning into their unique strengths while tapping into our collective expertise. We also hold bi-weekly 1:1 sessions for specific problem-solving, and of course, there’s nothing like ongoing peer-based learning in the form of staffroom chats.
Our mentorship initiatives have been so impactful that we decided to turn them into something of their own: The Cheerful Academy. So now, physiotherapists working in rural areas or clinics without the same level of support can access training from our senior mentors.
Continuing to Grow
If you’ve kept up with us over the past while, you probably already know that we moved into a new clinic space in late 2024. (We’re still beaming about it!) You can read more about it in this blog post, but suffice to say that having a purpose-built space that accommodates the needs of our staff and clients is truly a dream come true.
We’re so grateful for all the learnings and experiences we’ve collected over the past five years, and proud to be able to offer the type of mentorship environment we wish we had when we started out. Now, some of our original team members are starting to mentor our newer staff and the folks in our Cheerful Academy cohorts – a truly Cheerful circle of life!
We hope that by continually developing our practice and building each other up – in and outside of the clinic – we can help raise the standard of care across the pelvic physiotherapy field.
Curious how our team could help you? New clients can take our Match Me quiz to find the right practitioner for their needs, and current client can book in here.
Interested in working with us? Check our Careers page for current opportunities.