Hello and welcome to our blog. I’m really excited about the opening of 4 Life Physio Pinjarra next week (Monday 25th March 2018 to be exact) and I hope you are too. We are aiming to update this blog regularly and will try to keep all posts as interesting and informative as possible. I thought that I better start by introducing myself, so I have done a “Who am I & why does it matter to you” post, so just bear with me on this one.
My name is Dominic Stockdale and I am the Principal Physiotherapist at our new clinic at 2 Peel Street, Pinjarra. I am originally from Manchester in the UK and have been living in Australia since 2012. Although I always wanted to work with people and have a massive interest in sports, my interest in physiotherapy began during my time playing college soccer in the US. I ruptured my ACL and whilst completing my rehabilitation I saw the work the physios were doing with myself and the many other athletes around and found it fascinating. The following year, I returned to the UK and enrolled in a physiotherapy degree course, graduating from the University of Bradford with First Class Honours in 2012.
I then set off on a round the world trip with my girlfriend (now wife) Ashley. We spent 6 months travelling Asia before arriving in Australia, planning to work for a few months to repair the bank balance, before moving on. That was 7 years ago and we have been here since falling in love with Australia, particularly WA. We have bought our first house in Mandurah and will be here long term. We are due to attend citizenship ceremonies later this year to complete the transformation into “true blue Aussies”. The blue passports will allow us to get in the same airport immigration queue as our son, Elijah who was born here in Peel in 2018.
I have worked as a physio in private practice for the last 6 years around Australia before we moved back to WA in 2017 when I started working for 4 Life. During that time I have completed several external courses in areas such as dry needling, vestibular rehab, Pilates & football medicine, among others. I have also worked with different sporting clubs from Soccer, AFL & Rugby League to Swimming & Gymnastics covering lots of others in between. My goal was always to have and manage a practice one day and I have always made sure I paid attention and learnt from the way other people manage theirs, both the good and the bad.
Some of the most important things I have learnt during this time are about what patients want when they come to see a physio. There are many different ways people end up at a particular physio, this can be via referral from a GP or specialist, friends or family, or simply the convenience of the closest or easiest practice to get to. However people get there, they all have a problem and want this fixed ASAP. To achieve this, people expect an expert, experienced physio who knows what they are doing and how to get them back pain free quickly. I am confident that the knowledge and experience I have enables me to do this with even the most complex cases that come through the door. This is not all people expect however, and I have learned this from seeing some very experienced physios run unsuccessful practices.
Most successful physios seem to share some common traits. These are attributes like being warm and friendly, and always greeting with a smile; being open and honest with the patient, communicating with them about their injury, how long recovery will take, what treatment will involve and even sometimes when we think we can’t do anymore and input from other professionals is required. Other important traits are maintaining the caring and compassionate side that made us become physios in the first place (that some do seem to lose along the way) and being organized and on time (I hate to run late myself so hate to make others late even more).
There are also factors that can make the process seem less of a chore, like keeping treatment sessions and rehabilitation programs interesting and I find that having a sense of humour along the way always helps everybody involved.
I will strive to bring all of these qualities to 4 Life Physio Pinjarra just as Grant, Jye & the team have done for the past 8 years at 4 Life Mandurah and hope we can become a trusted part of the Pinjarra community. I look forward to introducing more of our team and meeting some of you soon.