Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It’s that time of year again, folks. I am headed out on a professional sabbatical. No surprise, the timing coincides with my kids summer break, and I am looking forward to hang time with them. It is also an attempt to maintain some balance for me, my family and my professional opportunities and demands. There is MUCH I hope to do. Projects, programs, curriculums, and courses I hope to build. Blogs I hope to write. Research to explore. But I have discovered there are limits to my super powers to accomplish all that. The big limit to my super powers is that I actually don’t have any. Or maybe my super power is finally learning and knowing my limits, and trying to live within them. I really recognize that moving forward on projects in a strategic and sustainable way, right now, requires a step-back.

So I have made a few decisions to strategically facilitate and keep me focused on some of my overarching goals. The first goal, is to get more info out there and available to fellow pros on how to blend fitness, ortho/sports med and pelvic health. The need for that combo is HUGE. The volume of letters I get from practitioners seeking tools and women in need confirms this. Pediatric pros, you are on my radar too! Shelley Mannell and I are always working towards creating tools to equip peds pros with ideas for postural control and continence in kids with significant challenges.

Last years sabbatical produced my first step toward providing that in a more global way. My live, 2-day foundational professional adult course (Diaphragm/Pelvic Floor Piston for Adult Populations: Part One) and our full pediatric course (Dynamic Core for Kids) are now available as online courses: The Piston Science Series for adult practitioners, and the Dynamic Core for Kids Online for peds pros (alongside Shelley). By providing that foundational info on demand, no longer limited by my ability to travel to a location near you, my hope was, and continues to be, to get the concepts at depth into more hands, quicker. Blogs here and there simply cannot get it out there at the depth that practitioners need to understand it to apply to their local communities.

By having the foundational courses online, this helps me take the info in new directions with courses that apply the concepts into specific populations. To that end, in 2017, I will be piloting a new and improved Part Two in the series. The focus will be on building clinical reasoning skills as we apply the concepts from Part One to 4 live patients over 2-days. We will collectively assess, clinically reason and plan treatment for the patients, who will have a variety of pelvic health (incontinence, prolapse), post pregnancy (diastasis, pain) and fitness needs (running, crossfit). It is Piston Science applied in the real world, in real time. I will be teaching the course in only two locations: Chicago May 20-21 and Pittsburgh Nov 11-12 . Thanks to my friends at Entropy and Embody for partnering with me on this new path! The course is ONLY open to folks that have taken the live Part One course or who have completed the full Piston Science online series (all seven modules) and played with the material for at least three months.

In an effort to create space and time to pursue some of the projects I have works, I have decided to significantly limit my travel in 2107 and I will not be teaching any Adult Part One’s live in 2017.  There is one more opportunity to come to a live version of Part One in 2016. I will be in Boston the weekend of Sept 17-18, kindly hosted by the folks at Marathon PT. This will be your last chance to catch the full course live before I run a Part Two. Can’t make Boston, but want to join the Part Two fun? Get the online version here.

I will still actively be pursuing getting this info into the hands of as many practitioners as possible through online group mentoring. I offer additional group discounts on the already discounted online course bundles for staffs and groups that are interested in the course. Then we can schedule online group mentoring to support distance learning . This actually allows me to interact with more pros in more places then I ever could by trying to travel to them in person! It’s kind of exciting, actually. It is collective continuing education with a rewind button and no travel or time away from the clinic. Followed by supportive face time with the instructor to help answer lingering questions and apply the info into cases and clients relevant to their area of expertise. If you are interested in pursuing this I will be providing group discount codes and scheduling group online mentoring while on sabbatical. Individual practitioners can take advantage of online mentoring after taking the online courses, too. Please contact me at mentoring@juliewiebept.com to get started. This is a great way to get ready to join in on the Part Two courses in 2017.

I have some exciting collaborations in the works behind the scenes and I appreciate the opportunity and time to pursue them. More great content and curriculums are on their way for both rehab and fitness pros.

My other big goal with my time off is to hire an administrative assistant. I recognize that in order to get to focus on what I love to do, I need to create some infrastructure to assist with providing that in a sustainable way. The job description will be evolving, but the basics are: customer support for all products, scheduling support, admin support for course host sites, website updates, patient inquiries, professional inquiries and admin projects as assigned. The time commitment may fluctuate depending on the volume of admin for a given week, but it will start as very part time. Who am I looking for? A background in rehab will help with understanding the lingo, confidentiality, how things like continuing education work, etc. , but is not necessary. Great organizational skills, self-starter, flexibility, hard-worker, web, social media, and tech savvy are highly valuable to score the gig. I know this is sort of a vague job description, but if you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact me at admin@juliewiebept.com with a resume and introductory letter. I will be responding in mid-July.

While I am on hiatus, I will be taking a break from the online world (twitter and facebook). A digital detox if you will. I will check-in regularly with my newsletter subscribers while I am off, with announcements, content and discounts, so if you want to stay in touch please subscribe here.

Sorry, I will not be able to address personal inquiries from individuals or pros while I am away. Please utilize the resources on my site, blogs, videos, and courses. The search function on my site can help you find topical information that you may answer your questions (Ex:  diastasis, runner, etc). I also have courses designed for individuals and professionals. Check out online course FAQs here. If you need a local practitioner, please check out this resource and/or use the #pelvicmafia hashtag on twitter or PelvicMafia facebook page to try to locate a practitioner or trainer near you.

PLEASE NOTE, the hiatus WILL NOT impact current patients, we will still hang out as needed over the summer! However, I will not be taking on any new patients until the Fall. If you are interested in an evaluation, please contact me at evaluation@juliewiebept.com in late August to schedule. Hint, hint, I hope to have admin support in place by then, too!! 

And finally! There are a few other opportunities to connect live before I come back from the break. Here’s the scoop on some of my live teaching gigs in the summer and early Fall, join me in real life!

Aug. 27  NSCA California State Clinic in Santa Monica, California. Colleague Brianna Battles, MS, CSCS are looking forward to sharing concepts with strength and conditioning professionals on the topic of  Coaching the Pre and Post-natal Athlete.

Sept 10-11 Women’s Health and Fitness Summit in Melbourne, Austrailia. I will be speaking remotely (another exciting way to share the love globally through tech, which I am open to doing more of in 2017) on the topic of Pelvic Health Considerations for the the High Impact and High Intensity Client.

Sept 17-18 Diaphragm/Pelvic Floor Piston for Adult Populations: Part One in Boston, Massachusetts. Reminder: This is the last Part One I will teach this year, and before running the Part Two’s in 2017.

Oct 1-2, 2016. Dynamic Core For Kids: Part One in Chicago, Illinois with Shelley Mannell. I adore this class and teaching with Shelley. If you can’t catch us live, consider the online version of the course, available here. Shelley also provides group online mentoring to support groups and staffs that take the course online together. This is a great course for folks in neurological adult rehab. We hope to have a few live courses in 2017 as well.

I think that’s it! The edge of a Northern Ontario Lake is calling my name! Thanks all for your patience and understanding! Have a great summer!

Take care- Julie