PERSONAL HISTORY
Gillian graduated in 1998 at the age of 22. After a couple of years of work in public practice, Gillian began her private practice career here in North Vancouver. She raised her family in Lynn Valley while continuing to work locally. Her own journey into motherhood drove her to explore her fascination with pelvic health, a pandora’s box from which she has been unable to look away. She can be found in the woods, or on the ocean or on her bike, or wandering the vibrant streets of Vancouver’s West End where she recently moved after becoming an empty-nester. She can be heard on her health podcast Small Conversations for a Better World with her co-host, Susannah Steers exploring the greater themes of health through interviews with health experts, thought leaders and influencers, available wherever you find podcasts.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Gillian graduated in 1998 from the University of Alberta. Gillian has worked in North Vancouver for the better part of her career while raising her family in Lynn Valley. She has taken numerous post-graduate courses in acupuncture, becoming certified by the Acupuncture Foundation of Canada Institute 9 years ago. She has her level 2 Manual Therapy credentials through the Orthopedic Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. She began her Pelvic Health journey almost 20 years ago, taking many courses in assessing and treating incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, painful sex, constipation and pelvic pain in all adults of all genders. She spent 11 years working for Dr. Linda-Joy Lee, founder of ConnectTherapy™, where she worked in the clinic, attended and led many inservices and training, assisted on courses and used the model on all patients.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
Pre-natal, Post-partum, pregnancy. Issues of pelvic health such as incontinence, constipation, pelvic organ prolapse, painful sex. Sport and performance – from armchair athletes (like musicians and gamers) to olympians. Gillian utilizes a whole-person, whole-body approach to unpacking the reasons for dysfunction and pain and treating the cause through manual release, dry needling, imagery, exercise, and whole body dynamic movement. Gillian encourages participation from her clients in their rehabilitation, allowing them independence and freedom from treatment with better understanding of their own bodies’ movement systems.
PHILOSOPHY
Gillian is a registered physiotherapist with 24+ years of experience as a clinician. She believes that everything in the body is connected, and the way through pain and dysfunction occurs most smoothly when all aspects are considered, prioritized and addressed. She utilizes ConnectTherapy™, a whole-person approach to all pain and dysfunctions using a movement assessment of the whole body to determine the first areas in the kinetic chain where dysfunction occurs that lead to the experience her client is having. These areas are called the Drivers and this is what Gillian treats through manual release work, movement retraining and patient exercises that range from imagery to dynamic whole body exercise. This can look like releasing and training someone’s foot to alleviate their back and pelvis pain, or helping a runner feel like their right leg is working as smoothly and strongly as their left by treating their thoracic rings or their neck.
For almost 20 years Gillian has treated Pelvic Floor dysfunctions such as urinary and fecal incontinence, constipation, pelvic pain, painful sex and pelvic organ prolapse for adults of all genders.
More can be found at her website, physiogillian.com or on social media @physiogillian.
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