My Story
Hey, I’m Anniken (she /her)
- I’m a pelvic health physio, clinic owner, coach, and clinical mentor.
I’m trained in physio, somatic psychotherapy, and have a MEd in how we learn through inquisitive reflection. - I am the child of a Norwegian woman and an English man, and there’s definitely some residual Viking in me. I’m fiercely compassionate, with a tender and sometimes blunt delivery. I like to laugh at hard things, and especially love when I can laugh at the hardest parts about myself.
- My super power is clarity. I can pick the truth out of messy facts and feelings for people, and serve it to them with gentle honesty.
- I have run the gamut of private practice physio; from disillusion & burnout, to finding clinical expertise & such sweet success in a profession I once resented.
- This journey was an inwards one. To use a horrible cliche, it was through ‘finding myself’, at least knowing myself, that my relationship to physio changed.
- My therapy and education trainings were vehicles on the journey, but it was the in the muck, and with the hard yards of critical self reflection, that I really found my sense of belonging as a physio.
The exploration of the intersection between ourselves, our work, and our environment.
I have also spent a lot of time reflecting on how my physio education, and the culture of physiotherapy, set me up to struggle as much as succeed.
I was taught that I should know the answer. Knowledge and achievement were celebrated, while intuition and feelings were disregarded.
No one modelled self care, and there was no real space for personal growth or reflection within the realms of ‘professionalism’.
My ambitious drive was founded in imposter syndrome and unhealthy comparison. If colleagues took courses and treated like X (insert trend), then I took courses and treated like X.
This sapped me of all my energy, and while it looked ‘right’ on the outside, it got me no where on the inside.
But through my personal worked I learned there’s another way.
I work to run my clinic in a way that I hope provides for others the learning environment and support that I struggled without. We name the cultural issues in physio, and work to find belonging in our shared experiences, good and bad.
The Art of Physiotherapy
The Art of Physiotherapy is a personal reflective space to share thoughts on the intersection of personal and professional growth, and the cultural influences and challenges of physio.
I am continually struggling, reflecting, questioning and seeking, and have a mission to help others who are feeling as stuck as I did.
I hope to offer food for thought for those who want to ponder, and coaching support for those who want to evolve.
