Contemplation: Transitioning from Physiotherapy

I only started working as a physiotherapist a few years ago and already knew I wouldn’t be able to work in this profession for long. I knew I needed to make a change but wasn’t sure when that would happen. Well, COVID-19 happened and the world got flipped, turned upside-down. Canada went into full-lockdown from mid-March and so I was stuck at home like everyone else in the country. While many of my friends were able to start working remotely, I was not as fortunate. The thing about physiotherapy is that the work you can do virtually has its limitations. You can’t complete a hands-on physical assessment, you can’t observe the way someone moves right in front of you, and when necessary, you can’t provide hands-on treatment.

I also started getting to know more people who were working in tech and business. Many of them were fortunate to continue working from home without any impacts on their salaries. On the flip side, if I wasn’t working and seeing patients, I wasn’t making money. As nice as it was to have a bit of a vacation during the early months of the COVID-19 lockdown, the stress of not working soon weighed heavy on me. My friends were also working towards vertical growth in their careers, which often meant opportunities to develop their skills, transition into management roles, and eventually receive promotions with higher salary. In physiotherapy, there are a few ways in which you can grow vertically: additional courses/education, specialization, increasing your split with a clinic, opening your own business, and putting your head down and seeing more patients.

I decided to finally start looking at other options when three things happened:

1. None of the options to grow in physiotherapy appealed to me
   Only a few years out of school, I was already making an annual salary that I had set out as a goal. I had already spent thousands of dollars on continuing education courses, which I do admit helped in my growth as a physiotherapist. In particular, acupuncture and the McKenzie Method (MDT) were excellent adjuncts to my traditional education. My clinic was incredibly generous in the split and I loved the working environment. I can say with confidence that opening a clinic was not something I wanted to do. Simply put, I wasn’t willing to build a business around a field I wasn’t passionate enough about. My last option was to continue seeing more patients, which would have a direct impact on how much money I was making. The amount of money I could make as a physiotherapist depended on how many physical hours I could dedicate to seeing patients. That seemed daunting and finite.
2. I couldn’t see myself working in physiotherapy past 40 years of age
   It’s no secret that physiotherapy is a physically demanding career but more than that, it’s mentally demanding day in and day out. You are constantly empathizing, problem solving, critically reasoning, drawing upon research, and in the end making small talk for hours at a time. I loved these skills required for physiotherapy but started to dread them in the context of physical pain. In particular, my ability as a physiotherapist to make a tangible change in a person’s experiences of pain felt limited. In the end, a person’s experience of pain is incredibly complex and subjective. I felt I just couldn’t help as much as I wanted to, at least not as tangibly and consistently as I wanted to. It’s common for people in helping professions to burnout and physiotherapy is no different. People switch careers all the time and I figured, I’d rather make a switch in my early 30s than later on in life.
3. I realized I had nothing to lose (except time and money, but hey, at least I tried!)
   I had spoken with a friend who was enrolled in a UX/UI bootcamp (DesignLab) and learned about their Design Foundations course. For $500 I could dip my toe into a field I could see myself in and decide if it would be worth pursuing. The course could be completed between 4–8 weeks depending on the amount of time you’d be able to dedicate to it. I thought, there’s really nothing to lose (other than time and money) but if I didn’t take this step, I’d have more regrets down the road than I would by taking a chance.

So here I am, through the Contemplation phase and entering the Preparation/Determination phase. That’s for next time.