Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Sarton.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Overall, we wanted a clinic like no other—a signature practice that would bear our name on the outside, and our vision of an extraordinary healing experience on the inside. In 1999, I took my first steps toward becoming a specialist in pelvic floor physical therapy. I was influenced and guided by my late uncle, Dr. James Carter, a dynamic OB-GYN who was known nationally for his treatment of pelvic pain and served as one of the founding fathers of The International Pelvic Pain Society.
During my first 7 years of pelvic floor practice, I was given the unique opportunity to not only mentor under my uncle, Dr. Carter, but also lecture alongside him at The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology annual meeting in 2003. It was exciting to discover that my uncle’s passion was to become one of my life’s passions, and it has been an honor to carry on his mission in my own unique way.
Over the past 2 decades, I have had the opportunity to treat thousands of patients suffering with pelvic pain and pelvic floor dysfunction, delivering a message of hope and healing, which I dreamed of since the beginning.
As part of the nation’s 1st group of 60 physical therapists to be awarded advanced board certification in women’s health through the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), I have had the privilege of mentoring and training some of the best pelvic floor physical therapists in the country. After spending almost a decade in the university setting, I was called to create Sarton Physical Therapy, a specialized boutique style practice serving women and men suffering with pelvic floor dysfunction. Over the last 6.5 years, Sarton PT has grown to include the following providers and offerings:
7 of Southern California’s best pelvic floor physical therapists with a team led by those who have achieved advanced board certifications in Women’s Health and Orthopedics.
A unique Pelvic Floor Pilates Program
2 Massage Therapists
1 Acupuncturist
1 Guided Imagery Therapist
1 Psychologist specializing in Sexual Pain and Dysfunction
1 Integrative Medicine Practitioner
Routine yoga workshops
The most supportive administrative staff out there, who work tirelessly to provide a superior experience to everyone who walks through our doors.
Beyond service, the element of education is also something I want to embrace within the pelvic floor community. Based on the belief that knowledge is power, I recently co-founded The Pelvic Education Alliance, a continuing education program for physical therapists wishing to learn about the pelvic floor world. Course participants learn how to evaluate and treat such an underserved population by integrating an orthopedic and traditional pelvic model together. Today, my vision remains the same: to deliver unparalleled care in my practice, be an agent of change and a pelvic floor warrior, educating the next generation to help carry the torch.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road by any means! There have been many sleepless nights, even missed holidays and moments when I thought I was quietly going insane wondering how I could keep up with it all.
From a clinical standpoint, when we first started, it was really hard to find other pelvic floor clinicians to hire as pelvic floor physical therapy was not standard of care by any means, and patients were truly suffering with every few options. This still is challenging years later and for our last PT hire we had to advertise nationally and bring in a phenomenal PT from out of state who just recently joined us.
Additionally, there has definitely been a lack of recognition and/or referrals from other providers in the community, however, this is improving. For example, we had a male pelvic pain patient who found us online after flying to The Mayo Clinic to get a diagnosis of pelvic floor muscle dysfunction as the root cause of his “prostatitis”. Come to find out that his Urologist was only 10 minutes away from our office – the patient was understandably very upset when he found us so close to his MD who had unfortunately not referred him over or recognized that pelvic floor PT could help him.
From a personal standpoint, the biggest struggle I have faced is the fact that I initially felt like I needed to do it all and be an expert in every aspect of the business. For example, I thought I had to be the expert lead clinician, manager of the practice, be the one to develop new programs, seek out growth opportunities, market, educate and meet with MDs/other referral sources, handle human resource issues, etc. Two years ago, though, I had wakeup call – I remember starting the day so incredibly fatigued that I didn’t know how I was going to make it through that day treating patients let alone get out of bed. This scared me on every level, and reminded that I needed to stay healthy for my most important role of all—being a mom to my 2 amazing children. I was diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue and Hashimoto’s Disease, and quickly realized that I could no longer continue at this work pace. I also realized that there were others out there way better at wearing the various hats I was trying to wearing the business while burning myself out, so I started to officially offload and outsource many of the various roles I was trying to juggle. I now have surrounded myself with some of the most brilliant people who are better and more talented than me to help with various facets of the business.
I have been waiting for the day for over the last 6.5 years when “things will get easier.” While my responsibilities have changed, and my load is lighter, this business is still one of the hardest things I have ever done. You carry it with you 24/7. You feel every possible human emotion there is to feel, from joy to despair.
Despite it all, I wouldn’t change the journey a bit. I am blessed to do what I love every day, and witnessing lives change continues to fuels the fire.
As I continue down this path, I remind myself that the only two types of decisions are good decisions and lessons learned. In my eyes, everything played out the way it was supposed to. We couldn’t be more thankful to be where we are at now, with tools that will help us to take pelvic floor physical therapy to even greater heights in the future.
Fortunately, Pelvic floor PT is finally becoming standard of care and truly has started to explode. I’m proud to say I got to be one of the first early movers, and have had the experience of watching it unfold. With the advances of the internet, over 50% of our patients now find us online – it is fantastic that patients have access to so much information that can help direct them to find solutions. Seeing the abundance of resources available to those suffering now vs. 20 years ago is really rewarding.
Sarton Physical Therapy – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Sarton Physical Therapy was built on a specific dream—bringing conditions that are not easily recognized, nor treated, in the medical community to light. With a commitment to clinical excellence and our sights set on delivering hope and healing for those suffering from pelvic floor dysfunction, we embarked out on a journey to make pelvic floor physical therapy a recognizable, readily available, and overall positive experience for those who need it. Most have no idea what pelvic floor PT is at all until they suffer with their own problem/issue. It is our goal to make this specialized type of physical therapy standard of care for all during every phase of the lifespan.
The pelvic floor is a term for the muscles, ligaments and connective tissue that support the pelvic organs, which are hugely important in the human body. They play an important part in everyday essential functioning including urination, waste elimination, sexual functioning, the stability of the body, and many other functions.
Pelvic floor physical therapy focuses on these muscles and the fascia, connective tissue, ligaments, soft tissue, and associated organs.
Pelvic floor physical therapy then focuses on any of the multiple dysfunctions that present within or related to the pelvic floor. These are wide-ranging, but can include incontinence, urinary urgency, constipation, pelvic pain syndromes (interstitial cystitis, vestibulodynia, pudendal neuralgia), sexual pain, pelvic prolapse, and pre- and post-natal issues. We also see and treat many patients with low back pain, hip pain, tailbone pain or other orthopedic pain that is associated with the pelvic floor.
Even something as simple as sitting through a meal or a movie is nearly unbearable for some of our pelvic pain patients. We’ve made it our mission to give our patients their life back, and make these types of issues easier to talk about and not taboo.
Though there are many Sarton PT differentiators, what we believe that sets us apart more than anything else is that we offer something most don’t get other places these days – and that is true compassion and authenticity in the medical arena. We have inherent compassion for those hurting and connect with them naturally allowing them to be seen heard and understood many times for the 1st time. Our practice style is a result of often getting out of our heads and into our hearts and listening to our intuition when treating. I believe this is one of the biggest reasons the practice has grown so quickly over the last 6-7 years.
Additionally, we are well known known for our longer treatment times, extended business hours, various locations, innovative treatment approaches, complex case innovation, and our team’s unmatched experience levels. Sarton Physical Therapy is undoubtedly the most experienced pelvic floor physical therapy practice in Orange County, with over 35 years in combined practice. I have been coined the “great grandmother” of pelvic PT in Orange County as I started the 1st hospital-based pelvic floor PT program 18 years ago (before founding Sarton PT), where I created a fellowship training for physical therapists who wanted to specialize in pelvic floor work. Below is a summary of what sets us apart overall from other practices:
Longer Treatments: Our 55-minute treatment times allow for faster results with fewer treatments.
Extended Hours: For the working professional, we offer much needed treatment flexibility with hours that extend from 7am to 7pm, and routine Saturdays available in our Tustin and Seal Beach offices.
Multiple Locations: Offices strategically located throughout Orange County allow for our specialized services to be available to patients whose pain levels prevent them from traveling far distances. (We have been humbled to treat patients who have visited us from all over the world though!)
Innovative Treatment: Our treatment takes into consideration both the body and the mind.
Complex Case Innovation: It is not uncommon for patients to have seen anywhere from 5-8 different practitioners before walking through our doors. We often get the most challenging cases, which haven’t seen success elsewhere, and we are able to help. See our Patient Testimonial page for firsthand accounts of these complex case success stories.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
We are proud of the lives changed by what we do day in and day out by being in the trenches treating patients whose voices have not been heard, whose bodies have been bounced from practitioner to practitioner and whose lives have been interrupted/ affected in the most basic and personal ways. There is no greater feeling than helping a patient reach his or her goals and watching them get better! We recently had a patient who was suicidal when she 1st came to us due to horrific pelvic pain preventing her from sitting for even 1 minute and from lying on her back – she achieved a pain-free state and returned to a normal meaningful life after moving here from Northern California to undergo extensive treatment with us. We are blessed to walk healing journeys with all of our patients and often learn just as much from them as they do from us. Not all stories end the same but we keep persevering to do what we can to help those who need it.
If I had to pick one thing from the business side that I am most proud of it would be the following: We started Sarton PT just a few years after the market had crashed in 2007. My husband, Kyle, and I took a risk like we had never taken before. We knew the statistics were really daunting for startup new businesses……80% of small businesses fail in the first year. On top of this, no one was lending out money back then due to the recession. I distinctly recall taking my business plan down to our local bank/ lender we had used for years for our personal banking needs and getting denied for any funding to start our practice. Not only were we denied from them but from multiple establishments in the community. We quickly realized that if we wanted to make this dream a reality then we would need to scrounge up every penny we had from our own savings and make this business happen ourselves.
Looking back, it was a bit crazy and risky……we had a mortgage to pay and two kids to support but to go for it anyway to get my dream off the ground (yes, I have the most supportive husband ever). Our clinic was bare bones when we opened- in fact, we decorated many of our treatment rooms by pulling artwork from the walls of our house and buying used treatment tables online! In retrospect, however, taking that leap of faith, was the best thing we could have ever done. Slowly but surely, the business has grown and we now have 3 locations. I’ll never forget that I had colleagues and physicians telling me that I was crazy for starting a practice at the time I did. Once you get bitten by that that entrepreneurial bug though it’s hard to ignore it!
Contact Info:
- Website: pelvichealing.com
- Phone: 714-770-8222 / 714-770-8228
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sartonpt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PelvicHopeAndHealing/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sartonpt
- Other: https://vimeo.com/sartonpt
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