Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Collins
Hi Erin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have been in health and wellness field for 20 years and a physical therapist for 15 years- 10 of those were as a Board Certified Orthopedic Physical Therapy Specialist. Having worked in and managed various outpatient clinics here in Columbus, I got to see a lot and work with a ton of great doctors and even better patients. However, I dealt with burnout consistently throughout those years due to the inherent limitations of working in an insurance-based model. By the time my 3rd child was born, I was in a position to step away from working to focus on motherhood. After about a year, I missed helping people with their health, but I knew I couldn’t go back to what I had been doing. So, I started a virtual integrative women’s health coaching business that I enjoyed, but wasn’t as fulfilling as I had hoped. The combo of some family medical issues and the pandemic necessitated my stepping back to once again focus on our family.
Over the next few years, I took my time dreaming up my ideal job and decided to create it in The Modern Physio- a place where middle-aged women can find lasting relief from chronic, nagging pain while also reclaiming hope and control over their health. Additionally, offering personalized Pilates sessions allows me to also help women who may not need more intensive PT, reconnect with their bodies, access deep core muscles, and build strength and flexibility in a gentle, mindful way- which is so important for lowering injury risk and enhancing longevity.
Most women who have struggled to find lasting solutions to their symptoms want a new approach: one where they feel heard and like they have a say in the plan. They also want practicality, efficiency, and often, whether they realize it or not, permission to do less.
This target demographic came about through both my professional observations of how patients were being managed medically as well as my personal experiences dealing with pain, fatigue, and other autoimmune-related symptoms since early childhood. I am now on a mission to eliminate the normalization of women’s suffering, one woman at a time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am not sure entrepreneurship is ever a smooth road, no matter where you’re at on your journey. It’s one big experiment- figuring out what works and what doesn’t, what feedback to listen to and what to ignore, when to ask for help and when to figure it out myself, and on and on. It’s very easy to get lost in the noise and go down unnecessary rabbit holes. So, learning how to ultimately listen to myself so that I can be discerning and intentional about various choices has been my biggest struggle thus far.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work with women who have chronic, nagging pain and have struggled to find relief. Often, these women have been to PT before and have tried “all the things” and feel like they have to settle for a new normal, adjusting their lives around the pain. Some of these women were never given the option of PT by their doctors and were told that they were out of options, and I get to restore their hope and control over their health.
I have always had a different treating approach than my colleagues, and now that I have my own cash-based studio, I am not constrained by insurance guidelines or the need to see 3-6 patients at once.
I am able to really listen to my patients and dive way deeper into the nuances of their conditions. My comprehensive, multi-system approach pulls all of the contributing factors together, giving my patients and I so many more opportunities to create change and healing. This allows them to return to the active lives they’ve missed with so much more confidence that they can manage any flare-ups- which are often inevitable.
Because of my own life-long health challenges, I have been repeatedly let down by our healthcare system, and this is my way of righting those wrongs. I get to be the gamechanger that I needed for other women struggling to be heard and helped.
How do you think about luck?
I’m not sure I believe in luck in the traditional sense. I believe more in the euphemism that luck happens when preparation and opportunity meet. Though, I do believe that more often than not, we need to create our own opportunities. In some way, we have to put ourselves out there in order to be available to them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.modernphysioohio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modern.physio.ohio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/modern.physio.ohio
