Female emPOWERED: Winning in Business & Life
Female emPOWERED: Winning in Business & Life
Episode 297: What Makes a Women’s Wellness Clinic Truly Transformational? A Deep Dive with Dr. Jennifer Gelfand, DPT
From Changing Room to 3 Locations: Jennifer Gelfand’s Journey to Building a Transformational Wellness Brand
In this episode of the Female emPOWERed Podcast, I’m joined by Jennifer Gelfand, pelvic floor physical therapist, yoga teacher, and founder of Root to Rise Physical Therapy in Maine. What started as a one-woman show treating patients in a yoga studio changing room has grown into a thriving, multi-location, multidisciplinary wellness practice—and it didn’t happen overnight.
We dive into Jennifer’s personal health journey with PCOS, how it inspired her to enter pelvic health, and the lessons she’s learned building a business she never imagined she’d own. From scaling a team to embracing her role as CEO, Jennifer shares the real (and often messy) behind-the-scenes of running a values-driven practice.
Whether you’re a business owner, clinician, or aspiring entrepreneur, this episode is filled with insights on leadership, systems, boundaries, and the power of numbers.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Jennifer’s personal health journey with PCOS and how it led her to pelvic floor therapy
- How she went from treating patients in a yoga studio changing room to running a 3-location practice
- Why Root to Rise focuses on integrative care—blending PT, yoga, acupuncture, and more
- The mindset shift from practitioner to CEO (and how mentorship helped)
- The growing pains of hiring, leading a team, and building systems from scratch
- Why “feelings aren’t facts” became a powerful mantra for managing growth
- How the Inner Circle helped Jennifer become more confident in her numbers and vision
- The importance of creating a collaborative team culture in wellness
Links & Resources:
- Visit Jennifer’s clinic: https://www.roottorisephysicaltherapy.com
- Follow Root to Rise on Instagram: @roottorisept
- Want support like Jennifer’s? Learn more about the Inner Circle Mentorship: christagurka.com/mentorship
- Subscribe to the Female emPOWERed Podcast for more inspiring business stories
Hey there everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Female Empowered Podcast. I'm your host, Christa Gurka as always, and I have a guest today. I am really excited to have Dr. Jen with us. Dr. Jen who is the founder and CEO of Root to Rise Physical Therapy. And Pelvic health.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):I would love for you to introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about who you are and how Roots to Rise came to be.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Thank you so much for having me here today. I am so happy to be on the
Christa Gurka (she/her):I'm excited too.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I am a doctor of physical therapy. I'm a pelvic floor specialist, a yoga instructor. I dabble in a little bit of bar teaching, so I love teaching intentional movement. I would say, before I introduce how Eyes came to be, I would say that how I got into Pelvic Health is a, it's a good story and I actually had a patient Tuesday ask me, I was about to do our treatment and she just like out of the blue, asked me, when you got into Pelvic Health, did you know you were gonna start a business I knew I was coming on the podcast with you actually in a couple days, and I was like, that was timely. But it was so easy for me to say no way. Like I had no idea that starting a business would be a possibility, something I could do, like any of that. But when I think about why I got into pelvic health, I think it's really a very similar thing that kind of got me starting a business. I don't know, do you mind if I share a
Christa Gurka (she/her):I'd love to hear people's origin stories. Absolutely.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I started thinking about pelvic health because I had my own pelvic floor, pelvic health journey. It wasn't exactly pelvic floor, but it was a women's health condition. I was diagnosed in my early twenties with PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I'm not in my twenties anymore. And it was quite a while ago, and they didn't really know a lot about At the time. but I was trying to get off birth control and so it had been years I had been on it and I wasn't able to get my period back. And so I went to my doctor and they were just like, just wait. then I'd go back to my doctor and they'd just be like, just wait. finally I went to a doctor who was like, okay, we'll run some tests. So they ran some tests and I got a voicemail on a Friday that told me that I had polycystic ovarian syndrome that I should probably just Google it. Basically the the treatment would be to go back on birth control and that some people are helped by losing weight. In my early twenties, I was a runner. I was really lean, that piece of advice wasn't helpful. And going back on birth control wasn't really what I was going for because I was really trying to figure out my health journey. Eventually I wanted to be a parent. All of that. I really felt lost. and I was, I spiraled for a while and then I found a group in California that specialized in polycystic ovarian syndrome. once I found them, I was a travel physical therapist at the time, by the time I found them. And it was a whole group of people all with different specialties, all spending all day, every day on that condition. And so while obviously they didn't cure it, I found, I felt seen, I felt cared for. I felt like these people were willing to help me. At the time, there wasn't a lot of research. They asked me to be a part of the research. But that story really got me thinking about my own career. And I loved supporting people in, getting back to the things they love to do and having shoulder pain and knee pain and foot pain and all those things. But I started realizing I really wanted to dive into something that. Could be that life changing and With a more intimate sort of just like very more complex perhaps in some ways setting. And so I was like, I heard about this pelvic floor thing and, but when I was in PT school, I actually, when I first got there, didn't even know there was a pelvic which is mind blowing to think about. We learn all parts of the body and they just like skim right over that part.
Christa Gurka (she/her):totally.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):But it got me really a lot more curious than I ever had been. I started taking courses and like really seeking out mentors and things like that. And then it just all made sense and then I like fell back in love with PC and and especially as I started integrating yoga and being a yoga teacher and movement teacher, bringing those things together made so much sense. And then when I was trying to do that in my regular jobs, so we moved to Maine once I got pregnant and I was just working regular job PT jobs, but they're really fast paced in network. One of the places I was at, I remember trying to get a yoga mat on the floor just to get patients to get on the floor and do some yoga and it just wasn't the kind of floor you really wanted to get on, it just,
Christa Gurka (she/her):I hear that
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):It didn't work the way that I felt like in my heart it could have. And when I had so many patients at once, I couldn't call their therapist. Talk to their personal trainer. And so it just got really, it really draining. one day I was taking a yoga class in a studio that I was teaching at, and I just had this vision. I was like, what if I did this here? And so I was like, okay. And I like, was friendly with the owner. And so we ended up having a six hour conversation and we figured out that I was gonna start treating patients in the changing room.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Oh my gosh. I love it.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):so I brought in a plastic tub and a massage table and my pillow and my lubricant and like all of my equipment into this changing room behind the front desk of this yoga studio. And I basically just paid them for when I saw a patient in there. And I would see patients in there in between basically people changing, like some people would come in and they'd is anyone in here? Can I change? And I'd step out.
Christa Gurka (she/her):You make it work.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. And so my major plan there was that I was gonna just treat patients in there when I could. And then I worked at the nursing home for extra money'cause we still needed to pay the bills. And I was like, okay, this is good. This is better than what I was doing before. And then it was five months before the pandemic. And so thankfully at the time I didn't have a lot of overhead. But I did have to burn the ships on the nursing home because of the pandemic. Have support, like childcare support and be working in the nursing home. so I decided to just all in and I just never really looked back. I got really busy pretty quickly and. Didn't have any boundaries because I was in this whole like, survival mode,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):making it work. And so I treated patients all the time myself and never really put any systems together. And it was like Sunday night at eight o'clock and I was treating a patient, that kind of thing. And it started to get to the point where I realized, I was like, need to get some help. I can't do this all myself. So that's
Christa Gurka (she/her):you gotta put some guardrails up.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So that's when it evolved and I started looking for support. And I was lucky enough that a friend of mine who's also an acupuncturist was home on maternity leave. So she jumped in and helped me with some backend things and we brainstormed together and then she started treating patients. And so then it was the two of us. And then I brought in my first pt, and that was probably like a year in.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay. But you, are you outta the changing room at this point?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I'm out of the changing room.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I guess I could you on that story. Yeah. So we got outta the changing room, but actually when I first, my first PT that I hired, the original plan was for us to take turns in there
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):the studio had since moved to another location. I actually got to rent one, treatment room full-time. And so we did take turns in there, but at the same time I opened the first clinic in SoCo. so by the time I had my first pt, we had a standalone place that was ours.
Christa Gurka (she/her):So exciting. And so was this after 2020 or like in the middle of 2020?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):yeah, it was a little bit after 2020, like maybe, so it was May 21, 22, 23, 24. Yeah. So it was May of 2021,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I believe is when we started getting into the Saco clinic. And once Daisy started with me, she was our first pt.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah. And then how long until you opened your second location in Scarborough?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So that was actually, so we kept the yoga studio treatment room. And so we had these two locations basically pretty close to the, since the beginning. Us would be up in that treatment room and the rest of us would be in the SoCo clinic. And then eventually, about two and a half years ago, we realized we had so many, so much need in Portland.'cause that studio was in Portland, that I was gonna start to look for another space. And that's when we found Scarborough.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Got it. Got it. So it transpired from like the cleaning room, the changing room into the, yeah. I think that, thank you for sharing your story by the way, and I'm sorry to hear about your, your PCOS diagnosis and then the what transpired. Unfortunately, I think a lot of women experience this and whether it's PCOS, whether it's, I actually. Crazy aside, but I was listening to a podcast that's called The Retrievals. I don't know if you've listened to this podcast. That's like about them retrieving eggs and the person, it's like crazy. So if anyone hasn't listened to it, I'm just gonna tell you like it's about egg retrieval women that are having infertility and there was a nurse at the clinic that was changing out the fentanyl that was supposed to be the painkiller and putting saline in it'cause she was a fentanyl addict. And the women kept telling people, I feel everything. I feel everything. And nobody believed them. And it's a crazy it's just a testament to sometimes when women. Explain their symptoms and people dismiss us from pain with sex. Oh, just have a glass of wine or PCO here's my symptoms. Oh, you just have to lose weight or Google what you have to do. Or, I am literally feeling the needle that you are putting into my uterus and then telling me that's impossible. You can't do it. So it's a testament, I think like a larger scale thing of what happens to women globally. And you and I happen to be white women, the prevalence that this happens to women of color is five times to eight times the amount that it happens to
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):women. So if people like you and I get dismissed, imagine like a woman of color. That doesn't have a voice. I think too, when you have, you find a passion of something, so thank you so much for sharing your story. And I also think sometimes it's the same thing with starting a business. Like most people, most of the women in the inner circle, if you asked all of them I say the same thing I'm an accidental entrepreneur. I had no desire to open my business. I didn't know that was a thing. And so most of us are accidental entrepreneurs, which is also sometimes why we have no boundaries and guardrails.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):exactly.
Christa Gurka (she/her):So now we're at what gosh, four years since everything came to fruition. So tell us what your day-to-day looks like now. So what is the setup? You have two locations. Do you still have that, like third one where you have okay, so give us a rundown of where everything is, how many people are working for you. Also a little bit about your Route to Rise Studio, so you have some wellness component to it also.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. So actually when we started our Scarborough clinic was when we actually had the opportunity to have a studio space because we had this extra room. But just to give you an idea of what the practice looks like now. So we still have the SoCo Clinic. There's three treatment rooms there. Our Scarborough Clinic has four treatment rooms and the studio space. And then we have a clinic that's a satellite space up in a birth center about 50 minutes north of our Scarborough clinic.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So we're up there one day a week. And actually just a really cool side note with that is that we just trade. Our, the mid, the midwives that are up in the birth center come down and go into one of my provider's treatment rooms and they see their
Christa Gurka (she/her):Great.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):there on Fridays, and then we see our patients up in the birth centers. So it just helps us be a little bit more access accessible, To people up north, more north. But it also, we love it because it changes a little bit that standardization of care because one of the big things that we believe so much is that pelvic floor therapy should be standard of care for pregnant and postpartum people. In addition. So many other subsets of our healthcare as well, but that it should be normalized. And so we actually see every one of their clients for a session through
Christa Gurka (she/her):Love it.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):and then, they can stay on with us. So that's been a really wonderful partnership that really speaks to our mission quite a bit.
Christa Gurka (she/her):It. How many people do you have in your team now?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So I have three full-time physical therapists one occupational therapist
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):acupuncturists that
Christa Gurka (she/her):nice.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):me, and then I have two soon to be three admins.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Love it. So it's grown. So with growing pains obviously come, they're called growing. Pains for a reason. Since most of the audience, the listeners are business owner or maybe aspiring business owners, what are some of the growing pains that you have experienced while growing to this size to where you are today?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. Starting a little bit from the beginning. I just think back to when I used to write my leads on a no notebook. And I didn't know they were called leads, so I just wrote people who wanted to come see me on a notebook. And then of course I had to figure out, who to cross off and all of that. So I would say in the very, be more towards the beginning just building out systems that were better than my notebook and Google docs. So especially once having, a few other providers on board with me really needed to figure out like, I can't use my cell phone anymore and, we need to have a place to really be tracking our patients and all of that in a more sort of professional space. So that big growing pains was just investing in, EMR system
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah. Technology.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Technology getting out of Google. I still use Google Workspace, but I used to manually make all of the superbills on a Google Doc.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Just that was a big sort of first step because all I knew when I went into this was that I was gonna make it work Figure it out, and I didn't really have all of the other parts lined up. and so I would say those are the growing pains in the beginning and then the growing pains end up being about once you have your team, at least for me, about figuring out how to actually be a leader.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I never was a manager of, or a supervisor at any of the clinics I worked at. And love people so much in relationships and building that with patients, but it's such a different skillset and journey with people that join you and on the journey with you Of your team. And so I think it's definitely still an evolution for me. But with every phase of growth, I've learned so much in figuring out how to communicate and structure, positions and have those conversations with people and just develop and really nurture the team and being the one that's responsible for the team culture and
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):all of those parts. Such a learning curve. And that's why having mentorship and support can be so helpful. Because I think that at least for somebody like me, and I think a lot of us that go into this work, we are empathetic, we really
Christa Gurka (she/her):Of course.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):about people, and then we build this thing that's our baby, then we love it so much. We want everyone to love it as much and be happy, and I think my, one of my big, learning, adventures that I'm on right now is learning that I can't always make everyone happy and that, a different dynamic when you're the owner, when you're the boss than when you're just, when you're on the team Role and, being okay with that and learning to grow with that and celebrate that is something that is a journey for me every day.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Every phase of business ownership, especially when you decide, to grow beyond yourself, which at some point that is a decision for everyone because. We all could stay ourselves, but that is a little limiting in the fact that if we don't work, then we don't make money. So when people decide to grow beyond themselves, I think we don't realize that now there's a management component to it and there's, there is a difference between being a manager when it's not your business either. So here's the other part. So yes, it's a totally different set of skills, totally different set of skills to manage people doing the work versus just doing the work, right? But then it's a different set of skills when you're the owner, because the thought process that we have sometimes is as a manager who's getting paid to manage people. Like it's not our risk necessarily, right? It's not the risk of that manager, but for the owners, the management, and if someone fails, the thought process in our head is that's taking money literally out of the food, off of our table. So if someone's failing or if someone leaves or is not performing, or it literally, it's le more than just like not doing a job. It's our, in our head, it's like they're literally taking food outta my kids' mouth or they're taking money outta my kids' college fund. And so it's a whole different set of things. And most of us, I'm gonna make a pretty general stereotype, but most of us, especially as women that are high achievers that open our own business, most of us are perfectionists. We got to this. Place for a reason. We were probably like top of our class in PT school. We learn the thing, we did the work, we get the good grades. And that's not always how business runs. And so it's really hard'cause we're people pleasers? We are sometimes, yes, we're very feeling based people obviously what we got into for a reason. But we're also people pe, people pleasers. We're perfectionists mostly because we don't want other people to see us fail. And so there's all these things wrapped up into us having those difficult conversations with people. And I think I say that's the heavy weight that most of us feel. Even though we wanna point to the, oh, I'm seeing too many patients, or I have too much on my plate, or I have to teach this class or whatever. We wanna point to the binary things. But the truth is being people's emotional, go-to person. Is huge and it care. It's weighs a lot. It weighs a lot. Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):And
Christa Gurka (she/her):And it's really hard.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):and it's something that like also is such a special part of what's evolved to be my role.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I, I think about it and I'm like, I never knew I wanted a business then I never knew I wanted a team. But then when I was just working by myself, I love working alongside other people and I love like having a group effort towards a strong mission and all of those things. And so having the team then becomes like my favorite thing. But it also can become like the thing that I'm like definitely having to like grow with the most
Christa Gurka (she/her):I think that's a really good thing that you just said though. Sometimes we get so in the minutiae and we're like, oh my God, everyone's doing this to me. Woe is me and I'm there. I say it because I'm like, I know what that feels like. But for you to sit and remember. No, I love having a team. I love the collaboration. I love working with other people. It's good to remember this is why we did it. And we do have the power. To control the controllable. We can control, we can't control, and I've said this in the group lots of times, I say, we are not responsible for another adult's emotional reaction, but we are responsible for how we communicate things, right? How we articulate our expectations, how we have the conversations that might be difficult or not fun to have, but if you choose not to have them, you're just choosing a different hard path because not having the conversations creates a different hard path as well. I appreciate you sharing that. What are some of the things that have happened to you that you never even, if I would've told you five years ago, this is where you'd be like what are some of those things that you never even imagined would happen?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Like challenges
Christa Gurka (she/her):No. Like surprise benefits. I.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Oh gosh. I mean it's, if I close my eyes and I think back to five years ago, everything that I'm doing feels like I can't believe it in so many ways.
Christa Gurka (she/her):You were literally in a changing room, so like now you have three locations.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. So to answer that honestly, I really could give you any of those examples, whether it's just conversations with people in the community and having them say I've heard such wonderful things about your practice. Or, going by somebody in the waiting room and being like, wow, that person is impacted by what we're doing. And I have never even met them myself. Like
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):idea that we've gotten to this place that really feels bigger than me is something that also is very surprising to me when I actually sit with that. Those are just like, that's just a general feeling more than anything. But I would also say that one thing with working with you and like a big sort of shift for me both from a comfort zone, comfort level, and also just growth, is really looking at numbers. And I think when I went into the business, the practice, all I wanted to do and I think part of it was because the pandemic, right? Like I was calculating out that, oh my gosh, I have to pay. If I just have$700 a month, I can pay my expenses.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):And it felt like wanted to protect that and it was like something very important in that way. And I think I went for a really long time just being like, okay, there's enough in the checking account. I can pay people we're doing, okay enough. And never really had the maybe courage to, I. I don't really know how to analyze this. I don't
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):how to like, and I don't know that I like, have what it takes to like, put myself in the seat to analyze it and to look at it. And one of the things that's just been so invaluable is just having you to be like, look at this, look what you're doing. Look at these numbers actually. And I think that has really helped me grow because a whole nother level of thinking about impact and like what we can do and like what we've already done, which I think
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah. Your numbers are spectacular you could possibly cross the seven figure mark this year. We've talked about that it's a possibility, which is in four years, being able to do that is incredible. Like amazing. Less than 4% of businesses ever cross a seven figure mark, and 2% of those businesses are owned by women, less than 2%. It's amazing. So it's great. It's so great. And, but you're also, you are open to feedback, which is important. Like you're open to coaching and you're open to learning. Like none of us listen, could you imagine if you came outta high school or college and you're like, I'm gonna be a pelvic health pt, I just think I'm gonna do it. And you walked into a clinic and you're like, I'm here. No, we went through two you guys as doctors went for longer than I did, but three years of like full-time school. And then we get into business and we're just like. Oh, I should know this. No, we have to. We can learn it. It's it. It's not, but there is something, and I had this too, like being afraid to ask for help or being afraid to say, I don't know that.'cause they'd be like what business do you have? Again, it's from that judgment of other people versus being like, okay, I don't know the answer to this. I can figure it out. Let me learn it. You're a smart individual. You can make it work. And also learning to then hire for the things you don't wanna do. I don't believe, and I say this to all of you ladies too, like we shouldn't abdicate completely our responsibility. We shouldn't abdicate our numbers. We should be able to look at our books and understand them. But it doesn't mean we have to do the bookkeeping. It doesn't mean we have to reconcile the QuickBooks.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Right. I love your phrase. Feelings are not facts
Christa Gurka (she/her):Feelings are not facts. I.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I do love to, like I didn't have coaching in the first like year or so, and I think that is for me was really good because I feel like it helped me to like trust, to have some trust
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):in like me and what I needed and like to be able to receive feedback well and then to have the coaching once trying to like like muddle through it and then to be like, feelings aren't facts. Feelings are valid, but the facts are actually what helps my feelings. Now I know
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):silly, but
Christa Gurka (she/her):but it's true.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):There have been times where I've felt like so anxious about, X, Y, and Z and potentially with numbers. And then you'd be like, okay, let's look at the numbers. And then when I actually brought myself there, even though I was like resisting it, I was like, oh, okay, okay.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):so they go together. But I
Christa Gurka (she/her):they do.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):phrase because I think it's really powerful and it's just is a good reminder when I start floating in the other direction again, that okay, come back, look at your numbers and it'll be better.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah. I al it's like I could say to you like, I'm feeling that I have a feeling that you're mad at me for something. And you could be like, really, I'm not mad at you at all. I don't, where would you get that? And I could have just misread like an eye roll. Like you literally could have had something in your eye. And so again, feelings are not facts. I could feel that you're upset with me, but you're not upset with me. So that's actually not a fact, right? And so we have feelings all the time, and you're right, feelings are valid. And when somebody says, I don't feel like I could make this decision right now in the business, I. Sometimes I'll push back a little bit to say like, why are you feeling that way? And there are times where people are just like, it's too much. Okay, great. It's too much. You don't wanna raise your prices right now. I understand you're doing a lot of other things. Great. What's one thing you can stomach that will move the needle in your business? And everyone's different. All of us are different. Your business should be what you want for you and your life and your future of your family, right? And it doesn't have to be, nobody else should be able to come in and tell you what to do. They should, I like to present you with the options. And then based on how I know you and all those things say, I know you're telling me you want this, but based on what you've told me before, I'm not sure that's is that really what you want now? Because we all get distracted with new fun projects or, oh, maybe. And I'm like, I think you're just distracting yourself by not focusing on this.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. Perspective from, somebody who's in it with you but isn't you is so helpful and so important. So yeah, that's
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):like a big piece
Christa Gurka (she/her):I love it. I think that I'm, I was super excited to work with, you and your business. And so talk to me a little bit about like the other, so you have acupuncture, you have your traditional, like pelvic health direct service. You also do some, like wellness stuff in terms of like yoga and things like that. What's that offshoot like in your business?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So it started just from the beginning with me as a yoga teacher already. So I was integrating pelvic health and yoga sessions together from the beginning. So that could look like whether we're integrating breath work, mindfulness. A lot of times like with pelvic health we might do like a little yoga sequence before getting up onto the table to do some manual therapy to try to help with the nervous system, things like that. But primarily I was really passionate about bringing those intentional movement type practices to therapy and vice versa, because it really helps to change the paradigm too.'cause I felt like in the medical model with physical therapy specifically, it was like people were coming to you because something was wrong, something was broken, and we had to fix it. And there's this sort of just like doctor's office. going on. And so I like to really think of like how much we can optimize and think about what our potential is. And also think about the fact that maybe there's not something broken, but we just need to like tap into these ways that we can communicate with our body. And yoga, while it doesn't resonate with everyone, and a lot of times in pelvic health, if someone's I hate yoga, I'll just be like, that's fine. We'll just breathe and stretch and we won't do any yoga. That's fine. But it just pairs so well. And so that being said, it's doing that in a group setting is also really therapeutic and healing. And so it just made sense. I love the idea of creating a community and so that we can support our patients. Through all different modalities and so they can, experience some of that healing together. And so once we started having the studio space, we started offering group classes. So yoga for core and pelvic floor, lots of perinatal classes, so prenatal yoga postpartum baby and me yoga support groups. We have a fertility support group. We have postpartum support groups. We might start another type of support group for hypermobility. Different sort of subsets of people's needs where they might feel
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):and
Christa Gurka (she/her):Like lactation and stuff like that. Yeah. I, to me, there was nothing more lonely than breastfeeding. Every, not everyone has that experience, but it was really hard for me. Some people like are great and easy for me, but I, I just think and I think it's, again, I think it's a thing with women that everyone's just oh, it's natural. It should be natural. And then if it doesn't feel natural to you, you feel like something's wrong with you and you're like, what's wrong with me? I'm a terrible mom. I wasn't meant to do this. And it's all this like crazy stuff. So I love that you have that, all those, and just being able to talk about it.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. And it also allows for a little bit more accessibility for people to receive some of our services and our care and our information without needing to do the, in like the one-on-one sessions, if
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):that isn't fitting for them. So it allows us to really support the community in lots of different ways. We bring other practitioners, people in the community in, we had a nurse practitioner a few months ago come in and talk about perimenopause and menopause. We have other providers doing some different groups in our space. Then we do provide our networking events. So that's really,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Oh, cool.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):that's really rewarding. It's one of those
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Think that'll be fun. And it is fun and it helps, with awareness and things. But what comes out of it is just like that deep connection back to our why.'cause we're all there being like, oh my gosh, we love this work so much. And how we can support each other. And some of my providers will come with me and it really refuels us. It's fun to be able
Christa Gurka (she/her):I love it.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):in your own space.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah, that's really great. Are you seeing, I'm curious for this, are you seeing more women go. Doulas midwife versus like traditional childbirth? Or do you think it what's, how's that playing out in the real world these days?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. It's, I don't have hard numbers. Speaking of numbers and
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah, more like in your practice, are you seeing oh, this is more than I used to see? Does it tend to be certain types of women and families? What are you seeing just in the real world in your practice?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. I would say from the experience that I had just moving to Maine, I didn't know what a do, like I didn't know what a doula or a midwife was when I came here, which still blows my mind with how many people I work with that are them or are working with them. So I do think just in general the awareness around that being an option, working with outside of the traditional sort of OB GYN Is. People are now like, oh, let me choose between. Versus I think that at least my oldest is 11, so at least like 10 or so years ago, that was very much less. I would say just anecdotally that, and then I would say we have a really strong presence of midwifery care and doula work, doula providers here in Maine. And so it's quite common that people will go that route. We have some midwives that are certified nurse midwives and work
Christa Gurka (she/her):Oh,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):And so that's a nice mid middle place if you don't wanna have a home birth or be in a birth center, but you also don't necessarily wanna go all the way to the ob.
Christa Gurka (she/her):it. Yep.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):But we have great practices here that are OB GYN practices and I think. just in the years of root to rise, there's so much more, not just because of us, but in those years, they're so much more open to different birthing positions, going to pelvic floor therapy during pregnancy. We still hear the stories of people that go to their doctor and they say, oh, just wait till you have your babies or wait until it's bad enough. It's not bad enough yet. Or, and they just normalize
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):And my why originally was, my own PCOS journey, but then of course they had my own kiddos and then I hear these stories too. And so that just fuels it even more. But I would say really they are becoming more aware of options they should be recommending to patients. Main Med is the big hospital here and of people say really great things about their experience there. So we just really support it all.
Christa Gurka (she/her):That's great. What are some things that you think physicians should be referring patients to? Pelvic health prenatally like that instead of saying, just wait. What are some conditions that, that maybe women could be hearing this and say, oh, I should speak up if this is what I'm feeling.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yes. Number one, I would say, and this might just be, this is the bubble, the world I live in, but is that if you're pregnant, you should go.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I really do because the thing is that you can get a baseline even if you're feeling really great. I always think of the smaller the mountain to climb, the faster you're gonna get down it probably on the other side. And
Christa Gurka (she/her):It's true.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):we're going in and,'cause a lot of the work that we do in pre, in pelvic floor therapy in general, but certainly definitely in pregnancy is like really building foundations of like breath and. management and posture and movement patterns and balancing strength and mobility and all of those things so that we can, prepare for delivery and have more optimal postpartum recovery. But even if you're feeling great, the body's changing so much that it's, you can build a lot of that foundation before you have symptoms. Or maybe you won't have them because you built that. but I would say that it is pretty common and normal to have leaking, right? Sneezing, coughing, and jumping, running, whatever you're doing, if there's leaking or urgency or frequency, a lot of times the doctors will just be like yeah, you have a baby sitting on your bladder. If there is leaking, even if it's a little, sometimes patients will say, I don't leak just a little when I sneeze. And so then we're like that's leaking. It's
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):it's a little,
Christa Gurka (she/her):I.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):It's telling us a story about the system. And so if we can listen to that story and say there's something that needs some work and some balance, then, ideally it doesn't necessarily get worse. And it's so fun when we're working with people that are pregnant and their symptoms in pregnancy and then we're like, they're like, oh, I didn't even think it would get better till after the baby. And they're getting, growing more pregnant and then they're leaking is going away, right?
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):is better and then they can go into their delivery with, a system that's certainly more ready for taking on that challenge as well. Pain pressure heaviness that can feel really normal.'cause obviously there's more weight from the baby.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah. I don't think women really understand what that means,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):I don't think they're like, what does that mean? Pressure? Does, is there a description that people that like the difference between this is normal pressure.'cause Yes. As you get further along into your pregnancy, obviously things are gonna just, especially depending on where the babysitting and whether they're breach or not, whatever, but is there like a feeling that people describe to you when you're talking about this is the kind of pressure we're talking about.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):yeah. Yes. There's a few different ways people describe it. So sometimes people just say, it just feels like something's in that space, so like in the vaginal space or something's in the way, or like a tampon is like partially falling out. That kind of feeling. Some people will describe as like a fullness, which is hard sometimes to discern if it's just the weight of baby, but. We really shouldn't be walking around with a whole lot of that.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):ways we can alleviate that. At least getting it. I think if you're having that fullness or that, that feeling like something's in that space, it's worth getting
Christa Gurka (she/her):Check that. Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Because even if it's not what we might be looking for, and I can describe that to you, that would be helpful too. It still can be helpful to learn how to offload and to manage pressure, even if it's not that. It could be something like a prolapse or,
Christa Gurka (she/her):It's not a, a danger sign, but it is happening. And so like, how can we make this feel better now? And I do think, I've gone through two pregnancies and I don't think my OB GYN talked to me anything about that
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):yeah,
Christa Gurka (she/her):ever. I don't remember asking them, asking me any of those questions
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Exactly.
Christa Gurka (she/her):ever.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Exactly. And then, I had a c-section for my second child and they knew what I did for work, but no one ever said anything about doing a c-section scar massage or,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):anything like that. And
Christa Gurka (she/her):My doctor I think I've said this on the show before, but my doctor, who also knows what I do for a living, told me that my incontinence post baby was due because I was very light-skinned and my collagen is not as taught as other cultures.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Oh my goodness.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):And it's so interesting, like the things that our doctors will say,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Like with this. Yeah. I was like,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):that language stays with us. Like I
Christa Gurka (she/her):for sure.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):who outside of like the lens of pregnancy, she was young and she went to a chiropractor who told her never to bend backwards anymore because she had a back. Pain back injury. So she went through up until she's 45 now. We were out for a walk and she's yeah, I just don't bend my back because my, and it's like in her head since she was in her late teens and
Christa Gurka (she/her):Our language is very. How we say things as practitioners, even us as practitioners. You know when, how many people have you heard when someone's oh, your glutes not firing. So I have patients come in all the time and they're like, yeah, my glutes not firing. I'm like, if your glute wasn't firing, you'd be paralyzed. You'd be on the ground, you wouldn't be able to walk. Let's be real. So our language is really important. And I totally agree and I think that's good to know. I never thought about it that way. If you're pregnant, maybe just go get an assessment. Yeah. Just go get, when you're pregnant, they tell you to go to the dentist more like they tell you, like all different. And you don't,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):so that you know that's a good, just go get an assessment.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah, exactly. And then also you just don't have to be in pain. Like even back
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):is not, you don't have to be walking around with back pain just'cause you're pregnant. There's so many things that we can do to support it. And it just becomes normalized and then it's
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):postpartum. But
Christa Gurka (she/her):I.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I think it's just one of those things to just, a lot of times, if the doctors would, they don't have to give the answers. They don't have to say this is how you do it.'cause they're not necessarily trained
Christa Gurka (she/her):Correct.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):retrain people. However, they just need to say, there are people out there who can help support you in this,
Christa Gurka (she/her):yeah. And I think what's different for prenatal patients is like most and again, this is, I, let's just put a caveat, like this is a very, this is stereotype and a generalization. I know not everyone's like this, so don't come at me if you're a doctor and you've never this is not how you practice. We recognize there are some people out there, but a lot of times when doctors, they're trained to my patient has a problem, let me give'em a solution, right? And so oftentimes if like I have back pain, then they're like, oh, take this medicine when you're pregnant, most of the time, unless it's something very urgent, they're not gonna prescribe medication to you. And if they do, even some women are like, I don't wanna take medication while I'm pregnant. So that's where you get to that thing of. And suck it up. Like they can't tell you to drink alcohol. They can't tell you to have some cannabis so you can relax. They can't tell you to do all this other stuff and that. So then their answer is just suck it up versus saying, you know what, here's a referral to a pelvic health practitioner. They could probably give you some strategies to work through this. You don't have to be in pain.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah. Yeah,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):And I,
Christa Gurka (she/her):be so great.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):to be fair too I think a lot of the physical, all us physical therapists are trained a lot of times that like, if it's this do that.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Right.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I think that being in public health has really challenged me in a good way. I think that's what kind of made me love being a physical therapist again, was that I could be really creative because it takes so many different, there's so many systems and it takes a whole village a lot of times, right? And and every person's strategies are gonna be unique and different. And so we can't we can't just be like, okay, this is the thing, or it's nothing. And so that's where the collaboration and like the sort of the mission of our practice is so much that we are gonna reach out to your other medical We're going to work together with your therapist, we're going to talk to each other about how you're doing, so that it's not just do these five exercises and then that's all I got for
Christa Gurka (she/her):yeah. Yeah. So that kind of leads me to another question, like what makes Root to rise different?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):one of the ways we're different is that we have multiple disciplines under the same, not only under the same roof, but like within the same practice. So I think the fact that you can come and see your acupuncturist,
Christa Gurka (she/her):I.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):is also your pelvic floor therapist, and then maybe you have your, the person who's your yoga teacher and then you know, you don't have to play telephone. Telling everyone what everyone else is doing. Like we get together and we talk about it, and we figure out what's gonna make the most sense. So it's that real sense of full support.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):that is a huge thing that makes us different. The other part that makes us different is that we're never going to just say, that's all I've got for you. So speaking of that, like if we get to a place where we've worked on, we've tried all the things, we've brainstormed all the ways we'll be honest about that. And then help our patients find what might be their next, thing that's gonna move the needle. And just not give up on people and like really just be a resource for them through their lifespan. Not always
Christa Gurka (she/her):Oh, good.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):in the middle of, active treatment, but that they know that like we're always there for them that, we're a trusted resource and that we care.
Christa Gurka (she/her):That's a huge benefit. That's a huge difference, and I think that's definitely something that you lean into and I think that, your messaging and your branding speaks to that a lot, but that, when people say things like I'm sure price becomes an objection sometimes for people, but you're not just getting like that service. You're getting literally someone walking beside you through this journey, which can be confusing to some pe like sometimes. Pretty straightforward. You're good to go. But to have a resource, be able to have connections and contacts and it's almost similar to the way that I feel like with my mentorship programs. Like I don't have all the answers. I don't pretend to, but I do have a network of people that I'm like, you need a website. Here's three people I would recommend. I vetted all of them. Here you can go, you need a bookkeeper. Here's my referrals for bookkeepers. They're really great. Here's who you should go to. Do you need advice on investing? Here's a person that I know like it. It's having a network so you don't have to feel so lost with everything. And that's super valuable.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):It's so helpful. Even just as a person in your program, it's so much less overwhelming to have that trusted resource who's gonna then be like that triage a little bit and to be able to do that. Especially'cause so many of our patients are, they've had chronic pain for a really long
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):or they've had, no answers for a really long time. And so it's just something that's really important for us, that people feel really safe with us. And I think that has been one of the, as I've grown, because I can ensure that in me,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):if I'm the one in front of the patient every time or, but to be able to really instill that in my team A lot of time investing. with them and really making sure, like they all know who the best, therapist to refer patients to. Like they all know, what resources are available and that like what we would do with a patient case that maybe wasn't going as expected. And I think having that consistency across the team is hard and good and important,
Christa Gurka (she/her):yeah, I think you've grown an incredible practice.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Thank you.
Christa Gurka (she/her):I feel super, super great and I'm excited to see what the next six months of the year brings for you. If I could ask you maybe, I mean you did talk about how the numbers has really helped, like having you deep dive in the numbers and getting a little support on that. Is there something else that you feel was really invaluable to you in terms of like joining the mentorship program and maybe something that you didn't expect that you would get out of it a year ago when you joined?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Oh my gosh, yes. Yeah. And by the way, the numbers support was not just a little bit of support. That has been really impactful for me. But I would say, so I had some coaching early on that was part of a big group. And while that was, maybe the right thing for me at the time, I think one of the really special things about the Inner Circle truly is that it's not just like a title, like the, there's this really warm, welcoming space that you hold and you hold it really authentically.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Oh, thank you.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):If we have a coaching call day, and I'm like, maybe on the verge of tears, like I don't have to feel like, oh gosh, like I have to show up as this. I can just show up as me and no question is a dumb question. And you just approach it with such like an empathetic. From an empathetic space as well. And I think that then allows at least me to feel really safe in it.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Thank you. That makes me so happy. Thank you.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):during this time of growth, it's the beginning growth is exciting and there's a lot of pieces to put in like the puzzle. You have to figure out all the logistics. But the growth, it's actually like the really, like deep stuff is the
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):at least for me, that has come up later. And that just having you has been just such a big part of getting, I don't wanna say getting through that, but like evolving through it,
Christa Gurka (she/her):thank you. It's hard. It's one of those things where if that's what we, I have found anyways, and going through this myself personally, like if I sold that at the beginning, people wouldn't buy into that'cause they don't see it. It would be like, have you ever had a patient that their body language is like that? Their nervous system is just on like this, and they're like, I don't, but they're talking like this. And they're like no, I'm super calm and they can't. See it and you're trying to tell them that what they need is like nervous system. You have to get them there before they can understand it. And so even though you're a super, you're super intelligent, you're very empathic. I understand you also believe in like authenticity and safe space. It's not that, it's just like sometimes when we're in it, it's like numbers, systems, things. And then it's like we have to be, we have to become a different person as our business is growing and that's where the real magic happens. For sure. But
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):it's hard to get there.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Definitely I
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I agree. And I'm so grateful for you and for this
Christa Gurka (she/her):Oh, I'm so happy you're in the program. I do remember, I, so we had this conversation almost. This time last year because this is when you joined the program and initially you were like, Ooh, maybe I'll just wait till January.'cause we do our July and January cohort and I was like, you can do what? What you choose. I don't want you to feel pressured. I will tell you though, that if you start now, by the time January rolls around and you're ready to like, you'll kick off 2026 feeling in a much more stable place. So how do you feel after decide?'cause initially we're like, I'll just wait. So how do you feel after deciding to jump in last July versus waiting until January
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Oh my gosh. It was the best decision. I think I, I can absolutely say that what you said would happen is happening and did happen. As I'm going into this, quarter, what, where are we? Almost quarter
Christa Gurka (she/her):quarter? Yeah. No, we're at the end of quarter two. We're wrapping up. We're starting quarter three.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yes. Gosh, time flies.
Christa Gurka (she/her):I know. So fast. I.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):but I would say absolutely so glad that I started when I did. I also think that a big part of what I was feeling when I was delaying it was I was feeling scattered. Like I wouldn't be able to jump in and really hit the ground running and do it right and do it well. And I remember you said something like, you can totally come in a hot mess. And then I was thinking
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):will I get the most out of it if I did that? And I think I got more out of it because I did come in then that I didn't come in like January 1st to my pencil like ready to go, like student that I just kinda started when I did. And it really did give me a runway. And also set the tone for just my recovering perfectionism that like I can just be where I'm at and you are willing and fully capable of holding space for me. Then I didn't need to be like ready,
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah, I think that's a really good objection. Not an objection, but like a myth buster.'cause I think one of the things, even in pt, like I'm telling you, like this all goes side to side, right? You might get people that are like, oh, I can't commit to it right now. Like I just, I, it's too, I have too much on my plate. I have two kids, I have this. Or like people come into the program too and they're like, oh, I don't know. This isn't a good time for my business. I don't, I think the thought process, so like in your head, were you thinking, I. I'm wondering if I, was it that you were wondering if the program would work for you because you might not be able to fully commit? Was that what you were worried about or were you worried if I spend the money and it doesn't work for me, like what was coming up for you at that time? Do you remember?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I think
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):it was definitely a combination because I remember talking to my friend who was. Going, the head was about to start. And I remember thinking about, oh my gosh, that's a lot of money.'cause it was definitely more than I had
Christa Gurka (she/her):it is.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Per month for sure. And so I was like, I'll be in a, maybe a better financial position So that definitely crossed my mind. But I think that like, when I really think of what my resistance was, it was really more will I actually go to the coaching calls?
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):if I have like too much to do and it's late at night and I need to sleep? And just knowing myself, like
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):want probably just to take on too much.
Christa Gurka (she/her):And what happened?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I,
Christa Gurka (she/her):it and
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):I did it and it was great.
Christa Gurka (she/her):it was fine.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):good. And
Christa Gurka (she/her):it was good.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):yeah. So I'm really glad I did and I'm a year here and I'm still going, so I'm, yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):I wanted to pull up this spreadsheet that I had? Okay. You made this presentation,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):we were in Atlanta.
Christa Gurka (she/her):January to April of 2025 versus January to April of 2024, your revenue was up 58%
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):and we started working together in July of 2024.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yep.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay. Your profit margin was up 70% from January to April of 2024. Your visits were up 62%.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):and this is metrics that you presented, right? So there, and so when you look at, we started working together in July of 2024. Get having that kind of, and this isn't even looking at what Q4 was for you of last year, but just having that runway that you could hit. January off and you did an extra, and by the way, when we're talking about like 58%, that's almost$200,000 for you.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Yeah.
Christa Gurka (she/her):and
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):team
Christa Gurka (she/her):profit
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):lot since then too, so
Christa Gurka (she/her):it did, your team grew, which meant that you had, but you also then had the bandwidth to grow the team, to train the team, to put the guardrails up for your team. And you've had some hiring challenges, some staffing challenges, a lot in the last, like I know a lot and I get it, but I also think that you are not that you, you came in super strong to the program, like really strong. And that's why I was like, I know that you're going to, I wasn't trying to fit a square peg into round hole. I was like, I know you're gonna do great. I know you are. I also know that because you, because these staffing challenges happened when they did, even though they suck and they were hard and I know how hard they were for you, I think you were in a such a better place to be able to handle it and not like wither, even though it was really hard.'cause I even felt bad. I was like, oh my God, not again.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):to you, and you're like, not, no, not again.
Christa Gurka (she/her):I was like, no, not again. But the, because the problems don't go away. I think that's the difference. I think people think, oh, I do this program and now I no. Like they don't go the same way with our patients. I didn't miraculously make your disc better. Like you, it's still gonna be there, but now you have the tools and you become much better equipped to handle the situation. Yeah. We just get better.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):your PT business. Analogies are
Christa Gurka (she/her):I think as we can understand it from that way.'cause we're the ones giving our patient that advice. And I'm like, it's the same thing just in business. So people can be like, oh yeah, that's true. That's true. Let's tell everyone where they can find you. You know what, we had one of our other businesses in the program actually got a client from listening to this podcast. So maybe you'll get some clients. So say, let us know, let's know, like from your brick and mortar, like what are your handles, your social media and your website, where can people go to look for you?
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):So our website is root to rise physical therapy.com. Our handle on Instagram is at Root to Rise pt. Our Facebook handle is actually at root to rise Pelvic Health. So that one's
Christa Gurka (she/her):Okay.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):a
Christa Gurka (she/her):We'll link everything in the show notes. And then you have an a studio Instagram too for like your wellness class side,
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):that one is at Route to Rise Studio
Christa Gurka (she/her):I love it.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):our studio is located in Scarborough, Maine.
Christa Gurka (she/her):Yeah, and you're in Maine. Love it. So if anyone's vacationing in Maine over the summer, they should check it out, although it's already the end of July, but this actually, this episode airs like less than a week from when we're recording it, so it's already gonna be out. We'll link all of that up in the show notes. I thank you so much, Jen, for taking the time to chat with us and share your story. I literally, really cannot wait to see what the end of the year holds for you, and we might get that extra comma in your top line revenue. I'm very excited for you.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Thank you so much, Christa, for having me. I'm so
Christa Gurka (she/her):Thanks.
Jennifer Gelfand (She/Her):Thanks.