Reflections on partnerships, community building and leadership
When I first started my pelvic health practice and stepped into the world of continuing education, I was absolutely overflowing with ideas.
Ideas for programming.
Ideas for advocacy.
Ideas for helping clinicians across disciplines provide more psychologically-informed and trauma-informed care.
Honestly, it felt like my brain was firing in about 47 directions at once.
And naturally, my initial instinct was:
“Perfect. I will chip away at it all one project at a time.”
Asking for help has never come naturally to me. Trusting that other people will show up with the same care and investment that I might have in a project is difficult.
If you are reading my not-so-subtle control issues between the lines here, you would be absolutely correct.
But about three years ago, as ideas kept flowing, it became incredibly obvious to me that if I wanted the vision I had for OTs in the pelvic health space to become a reality, partnership and community-building were not optional. They were necessary.
And honestly? These past three years have been some of the greatest personal growth work of my life.
Meaningful partnership has required me to loosen my grip on needing to hold everything alone. It has challenged me to listen more deeply, to process diverse perspectives, and to recognize that the strongest missions cannot possibly be achieved by one person. It has taught me that collaboration is not about losing your voice, but about allowing the work to become richer through collective wisdom and shared effort.
It has also been one of the greatest privileges of my career.
I have had the opportunity to partner with incredible and aligned clinicians, educators, organizations, and friends who have helped move the needle forward in ways I never even imagined was possible. Together, we have begun creating spaces and resources to support OTs entering this practice area and to support clinicians in becoming more attuned, psychologically-informed, and trauma-informed in their care.
There is something incredibly powerful about people rallying around a shared mission.
Of course, partnership and community-building are not always sunshine and roses.
Sometimes people overcommit and disappear.
Sometimes accountability fades when things become inconvenient.
Sometimes the language of “shared mission” shifts toward self-promotion over collective contribution.
A good friend recently said to me:
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
I’ve wrestled with that advice because I want to believe context matters. We all screw up. We all have so many balls to carry, it is inevitable that some will be dropped. I want to extend grace. I want to believe people are capable of repair and growth.
And I still believe all of those things.
But I’m also learning that skilled leadership requires discernment. It requires us to trust our intuition when something feels off.
I can give grace AND set difficult but firm boundaries in order to protect the mission of the collective.
And when those boundaries are repeatedly stepped on or ignored, it is necessary to acknowledge the pattern and step away.
For a while, experiences like this made me want to retreat back into hyper-independence and control.
Back into:
“It’s safer to just do it myself.”
But when I move too far in that direction, I lose sight of something equally true:
These experiences, while emotionally salient, are actually few and far between.
Because community-building also means that there are more people in my circle consistently showing up. More people helping carry the vision forward. More people filling the gaps when a ball gets dropped.
And honestly, moments like this have clarified exactly which relationships deserve my energy.
The people who quietly fill gaps.
The people who protect the mission even when nobody’s watching.
The people who care more about collective impact than personal recognition.
Those are the relationships I want to keep nurturing.
And to be clear, I am a firm believer in self-promotion and visibility when they are rooted in authenticity and meaningful contribution. I think it is critical that we take time and space to celebrate well-deserved wins and share the meaningful work that we are doing. Advocacy requires visibility and a healthy dose of self-promotion.
In leadership, however, there is a noticeable difference between someone who consistently contributes to the collective effort alongside promoting it and someone who primarily appears for social media moments while repeatedly disappearing from the less glamorous behind-the-scenes work.
I’m learning that intentional community-building is not about trusting everyone blindly or endlessly accommodating requests for grace. It is about recognizing when there is a fundamental misalignment. It is about developing the discernment to recognize where words aren’t matching actions.
The right partnerships expand you.
They soften fear.
They challenge rigidity.
They remind you that meaningful work was never supposed to be carried entirely alone.
I am still learning how to lead without over-carrying.
How to trust without overriding my intuition or abandoning my boundaries.
But more and more, I find myself returning to gratitude.
Gratitude for the people who have rallied beside me.
Gratitude for the collaborators who show up with integrity and humility first.
Gratitude for the partnerships that have expanded my vision and mission to even bigger possibilities that I never dreamed were possible.
Thank you! The risk and occasional frustrations are well worth the reward!