The Path Less Followed…My journey in treating patients

My name is Tara McCarthy Sanford, and I am so excited to join the Method Physical Therapy team at their Santa Fe clinic. Having been a pelvic floor physical therapist since 2013, I have found this vocation to be rewarding, challenging, and even fun. Even though I started this journey primarily planning to help empower women with their birthing experience, I came to find so many more ways in which people need the skills I had first honed to help expectant mothers. Now I also have a passion for treating those who struggle with other pelvic issues and chronic pain. I always pictured that as a health care professional that I would be giving to others by bestowing knowledge and practicing healing, but I now understand and appreciate how much my patients bring back to me in my growth and learning.

Here’s my story.

I came into this field because I am one of those women who loved being pregnant and was fortunate enough to have had a wonderful birthing experience. The day my son was born, almost 29 years ago, was one of the most empowering days of my life. I wanted every woman to feel empowered about her delivery and birth experience. And, indeed, a lot of my practice has been watching beautiful baby bumps grow and seeing that sweet munchkin at mom’s first post-partum visit. It is, of course, extremely rewarding and brings me a lot of joy. We help moms get back to whatever their goals are after delivery and to support that 4 th trimester time when life is complicated. I have loved being an important support system for the often overwhelming time that can come after delivery. Being a parent is hard and all the ways we can support new families is so important for our society.

That said, early in my career, I realized the immense need for treating pelvic pain, endometriosis, chronic pain, and bowel and bladder dysfunction. I did not anticipate this being my path, but isn’t it funny how sometimes our best journeys are not the ones we plan? I began to see more people with chronic pain and complicated medical histories. Many of these patients had a great deal of frustration in the types of responses they were getting from the broader medical community. I remember as a young woman, my own very frustrating journey with heavy and painful periods that was never fully resolved. As a patient, I often felt belittled and that my very real symptoms were often downplayed.

Chronic pain and patients who have endured many kinds of trauma can be a difficult population to treat. It can be daunting to hear sad and difficult stories every day. Many patients have endured past medical trauma that makes it challenging to earn their trust. There was a point in my career when I was not sure I had the fortitude to treat these cases. I found it difficult to let go of the stories that I would hear in the clinic and struggled to separate myself from the situation at the end of my workday. It was a fork in the road in my career. I needed to make a choice- treating these patients was really important. Medical trauma is a reality and being the medical professional that can begin to help heal that trauma is a big job. I needed to figure out if I was strong enough to support them. One of the most important things I did before committing to this path was to find my own mental health professional. That was a key part of the process that ultimately led me to accept the challenge. A healthy practitioner is a better practitioner. This includes physical and mental health.

As I moved forward as a practitioner, some of my most challenging patients have given me my greatest lessons. I often reflect back on a myriad of complicated cases that have been rewarding and inspiring. I had one patient who had a teenage daughter and husband, but spent most of her days in bed due to her chronic pain. In her initial appointment with me she shared that sitting was unbearable and that she had not been able to eat dinner with her family in a long time. Another sweet gentleman had bowel and bladder issues due to Parkinsons. He used to have breakfast with friends in Santa Fe, but his bowel issues kept him from meeting with them, despite the fact that in other ways he was very healthy. 

Complicated patients like these require a lot of detective work, patience, and diligence. It took time. We made progress and had setbacks. The patients and I learned from both, but each of these patients had days where we were able to celebrate. Simple goals like eating with family or meeting with friends for breakfast again were cause for great celebration and shared tears. Therapy goals come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes the simplest goals are the most rewarding

I came to Physical Therapy from a background of ballet, fitness instruction, running, and lifting. I pictured, when starting my PT career, that I would be helping patients return to marathons and crossfit competitions and tennis tournaments. My journey with pelvic pain and pelvic floor treatment has shown me that being a physical therapist can be so much more. It can give people the gift of their social lives back. It can bring people the opportunity to celebrate holidays and precious moments that had otherwise been lost. Therapy goals come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes the simplest goals are the most rewarding.

I have loved my journey in the pelvic floor community, but in reflection I am amazed by  the things my patients have shown me. I am excited to continue to serve the pelvic floor community and to learn more about the Santa Fe community specifically. I look forward to helping patients in their journey and I look forward to all the lessons that they have for me as well. I feel so lucky to have crossed paths with so many patients with amazing, sometimes sad, stories that allow me the opportunity to challenge my own thinking. I love developing individualize care to serve them, but more importantly, I have been blessed to learn from every patient- some lessons are easy and some harder, but all the lessons go into my growth as a provider.

To book your appointment with Tara at the Santa Fe office, contact us at info@methodptnm.com or call 505-218-9740.