Women’s Inspire: ‘Being someone that women can trust is amazing’

By Donegal Woman • 5 years ago

Mar
2019

Lorraine Boyce – Down Below Physio

Lorraine Boyce from Letterkenny has been running her own physiotherapy clinic for the past seven years and has found great fulfilment in helping women feel like themselves again.

As the founder of Down Below Physio, Lorraine treats pelvic floor and women’s health issues and is not afraid to tackle taboo subjects.

Lorraine is set to bring her expertise to Women’s Inspire Donegal next month. The seminar in Harvey’s Point on April 10th is set to be one of the largest gatherings of the year for local women interested in business, learning and motivation.

In Lorraine’s talk, entitled The Big Taboo… Let’s Talk About That!, she will be breaking down barriers in a fun and interactive way.

Before this, we caught up with Lorraine to hear her own business story – from New Zealand to new ventures in Letterkenny:

Me and My Business – Lorraine Boyce, Down Below Physio

I’m Lorraine Boyce and I am Down Below Physio. My private Physiotherapy Clinic in Donegal specialises in treating Pelvic Floor and Women’s Health issues. You can see me 1-1 for a clinical appointment for internal Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy or Musculo-Skeletal treatment.

I treat bladder and bowel incontinence, prolapse, chronic pelvic pain, tummy muscle separation “Diastasis Recti” and much more, and specialise in pregnancy and postnatal fitness.

I’m very excited about my new online ‘Down Below Fitness’ Packages which allow you to benefit from my expert advice and information, and all the right exercises from the comfort of your own home, 24/7!

So no more pads, no more leaks, no more pain, no more “mummy tummy”! I can help you with all of these issues at Down Below Physio!

downbelowphysio.ie

What you can look forward to from my talk at Women’s Inspire Donegal:

I’ll be talking about the difficulties we have as women accessing appropriate pelvic health services and how challenging it can be to open up and talk about our pelvic health. Women are often not prepared fully for the scale of change their body goes through with pregnancy and childbirth and often feel very alone coping with issues like bowel incontinence after perineal tears, painful sex, bladder leakage, prolapse.

So I’ll be talking about how best we can overcome these challenges and hopefully it’s a step forward in making Down Below Health’ less of a taboo topic!

How I got to where I am today:

I started off working as a Physio in New Zealand in private practice, and it’s definitely been a journey going from working with rugby teams over there to doing pelvic floor and pregnancy Physio here! I set up my own clinic in 2012 offering general musculo-skeletal Physio, and since then I’ve trained as a Women’s Health and Pelvic Floor Physio.

One of the highlights for me has been developing my online Pelvic Floor and Pilates programmes which have just launched in January.

One of the biggest challenges over the years has been learning the business side of things, from accounts to websites to social media, that’s all out of my comfort zone having had no business background, but you learn as you go!

downbelowphysio.ie

My business network:

I’ve worked with a lot of other businesses over the years in order to develop my own business, and I worked with the ever inspirational Emma Boylan from Outside the Box in particular to rebrand and develop a social media presence and grow my business into what it is now, so I’m always very grateful to Emma for her help.

We started out in business within a few months of each other so in some ways we’ve been on the same journey over the years. I cannot recommend her highly enough!

She also put me in touch with the talented Catching Dreams Web Design who created and designed my gorgeous new logos and branding, and the beautiful bespoke website I have today, where my online programmes can be accessed, and of course DNK Media for the fantastic job they did recording all my video content.

downbelowphysio.ie

How being part of the Women’s Inspire Network has helped my business:

It has really helped my confidence as a business woman, and to view myself as a female entrepreneur.

I have often focused on myself as a Physiotherapist and the clinical aspect of what I do, but being part of the WIN has helped me develop my mindset as a woman in business and all the potential that comes with that, which in turn helps me to reach more people through my Physiotherapy, and reach the right people in the right way.

Working with Samantha Kelly, Tweeting Goddess and CEO of the Women’s Inspire Network, has been fantastic and I’m very excited to sponsor the upcoming event in Harvey’s Point in April.

We are thrilled to have Lorraine @BoycePhysio supporting our conference in #Donegal on April 10th @HarveysPoint
Book your tickets now: https://t.co/ukLY60kHW5 pic.twitter.com/RhnFjoVENA

— womensinspireIE (@WomensInspireIE) March 21, 2019

The most rewarding thing about my work:

Being that someone that women can trust and open up to is an amazing thing, and I think one of the most rewarding aspects of my work is seeing someone improve over the course of their Physiotherapy treatment, physical improvement absolutely but also feeling better in themselves, more confident, able to get back to exercise, back to work, back to themselves again.

Who or what inspires me to succeed:

I think I’ve always been a very driven and ambitious person about anything I’ve done since I was very young, but the fact that I’m so passionate about the work I do now as a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist and Fitness Specialist is what makes a difference in keeping me motivated and moving forward.

My goals for the future:

To continue to grow ‘Down Below Physio’ and to reach more people through it so that every woman has access to good quality information and services. (and I still want to travel to some more amazing places in the world so if I can fit that in as well it would be great!)