Aliya Dhalla: Finding her balance as a physiotherapist

Season 2 Episode 8: Aliya Dhalla is the founder of Box Wellness & Co and podcast host of "Not Your Mother's Pelvic Floor".  Hear her journey from figuring out what she didn't want early in her career to ultimately finding balance and a passion for women's health.

Check out her website: https://boxwellness.co/ and check out her Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Unexpected Career Podcast, where we share stories of real people and the twists and turns they have taken along their career journey. I am Megan Dunford, and as someone who found myself in the payments industry, largely by accident, I'm fascinated by how people's careers unfold and how they've gotten to where they are today. It's also why I'm passionate about reducing the pressure on young people, about going to university, what to take in school, and on getting that right first job. Today I'm speaking with Aliya Dhalla, a pelvic floor physiotherapist with her own clinic, women's health expert and host of her own podcast.

Megan: 0:42

Hello. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Are you feeling better? Yes. Thankfully I'm excited to chat with you. Yeah, me too. Thank you so much for for doing this. I think your career is super interesting and you've done so many different things. I'm really excited to jump into all of that.

Aliya: 1:03

Yay, me too. I prepared some answers on the back of an envelope, which is how I like to function, so hopefully will be good. We have some direction there.

Megan: 1:11

Cool. Yeah. Post-it notes are my usual little prep. Yeah. So I always start from the beginning of when you were small, did you have an idea of what you wanted to be when you grew up? I was thinking about

Aliya: 1:26

this because that was, something that you had prepped me for the question. I don't remember as a child what I wanted to be at all. But in all fairness, I don't actually have too many memories of my childhood. I have some for sure, you meet the people that are like, oh, I knew since I was little that I like, wanted to be a doctor or teacher. Like I'm sure I had ideas and I said things, but I don't remember them. When I was little, little.

Megan: 1:55

How did you, as you were getting older and having to make decisions about whether to go to university and what to maybe take in school, how did you make those decisions? Did you go on to post-secondary and if you did, what did you take and how did you make those decisions? Mm-hmm.

Aliya: 2:10

I did go on to university. I. Did first my Bachelor of science and I majored in psychology and I minored in international development, so very random. And then I went on to get my master's in physical therapy, so I did move on to, higher learning. Mm-hmm. And I honestly think that it was never an option to not do that. To not go to school beyond high school. Yeah. Being a child of immigrants and a big emphasis on education and getting as much education as you can and. People can take things away from you, but they can't take away your brain. They can't take away what, you know. So I think it was unspoken. You will go to university. That was always like an emphasis. It wasn't even a discussion. When I was in high school, I did have some kind of a little a shoulder injury and I went to see a physiotherapist. Now looking back on it, it was like. Some random hospital clinic that wasn't bad, but it wasn't like a place that I would wanna work in now. But I was just intrigued by the whole kind of profession. I think this is like a really common origin story for many people, but I was like, oh, this is interesting. Like you can help people with like exercise and help them feel better and help them recover from different kinds of things. Okay, maybe this is a good idea. So I think it was maybe in the back of my head for no other good reason. I was active as a young person. I played sports at school. I went to the gym even as a teenager. So movement and activity was always a mainstay in my life. But then when it came to applying to university in high school, I think I just applied to all the universities in Ontario. And I ended up going to school in Montreal at McGill. And I honestly think. The reason that I went to McGill was because my brother had done his undergrad there and I had gone to visit him and I really liked the school and I grew up going to Montreal'cause I'll have a lot of family there. So it was kind of familiar. It was also far enough away from Toronto that you could go and like have another adventure, another experience. And at the time that I went to university, they had a physiotherapy program, like a professional program, but it was. You could go into it and get a bachelor of science in physiotherapy and you could go into it like in your second year or something like that. So you could have a fast tracked way to ending up with a professional degree. So I think that was like, okay, I'm gonna do that. And then I went to university and I had a great time and I didn't get good enough marks to even apply for that transfer. Which was probably good because. I didn't really know if that's what I wanted to do. So I explored a whole bunch of other things. Graduated, ended up taking a couple years off before going on to do my masters, and that's where we met actually. And then I ended up doing my master's in, at the end of the day physiotherapy. And I've practiced pretty much as a physio since then.

Megan: 5:02

Amazing. So you took some time to get some life experience And explore before taking that leap or next step of I really do wanna try physiotherapy and get my Master's and pursue that.

Aliya: 5:16

It was, yeah, that's true. What you said is accurate, but it was also like, it wasn't acceptable, like for me and even unspoken, to just not have a plan or not have a career. You know, when I met you, I was still in my undergrad'cause I was doing like a summer job and then I came back like for a full-time job after I graduated. Mm-hmm. And that was in like the corporate foreign exchange. World. Right? Something I had absolutely zero education on at all. Yeah. and so it was a good confirmation that actually wasn't interesting to me at all. Yeah. And maybe like that type of work and that type of industry wasn't, it wasn't for me. So, yes. Part of it was like I took some time to see what else was out there, but more, it was like I took time to figure out what school am I gonna go to next? What program am I gonna go to next? Yeah. Because I needed to have an end plan and I don't know that at the time, I didn't think that I would be able to like, work my way up into a company. Mm-hmm. And now looking back, 20 plus years, 20 years, that was absolutely like the right determination. I could never have done something like that just because it wouldn't have fit with my personality and what makes me feel, I think good, which I literally just figured out maybe this year.

Megan: 6:29

Yeah. It takes a long time to figure those things out, but. In a way by having that early experience and at least learning, okay, maybe this sort of corporate world isn't the right fit that's really helpful information. Even if it was potentially always a stop gap before you went on to the next thing. Mm-hmm. So you said when you did finish your master's, you did go on to work in physio. Can you tell me like a little bit about that journey and is that still what you're doing? And if not, where has it taken you since then?

Aliya: 7:03

Yeah, so when I, my first job. After I graduated with my degree and passed all the sort of provincial licensing like regulations and got my license to practice here in Ontario. My first job was just in a clinic. Like, if you hurt your shoulder or your knee, you'd maybe go to a clinic that was like in a plaza near your house. I just worked in a clinic like that. And that was. Fun. It was really far away from my home where I was living at the time, but it was still a great experience. I worked there and then I also worked by doing home care. Mm-hmm. Which is like going into people's homes, people who can't go out to get physio at a clinic or at a hospital. So I saw all different kinds of people and I was doing it in the city of Toronto. Like in downtown. Correct. And so it was. Really interesting, not just because the varied types of cases that I saw, like I saw and help people after having a stroke or after having knee replacements or hip replacements, or after having major surgeries for cancers or other things. Helping them just with their, being able to move around their house safely or doing specific rehab exercises or learning how to use the stairs again. So it was. Really varied in terms of the types of people that I saw, but also I saw people across all socioeconomic statuses. I saw like people who were very low on that ladder and people who were living in the biggest houses that I didn't even know neighborhoods like that existed downtown. So that was just a really interesting experience. I even went to, a men's shelter. Mm-hmm. And it was called Seton House. And I didn't know too, too much about it other than it was. A rough place, and maybe I was too young to know that maybe I should be like a little bit scared, but when I got in there, you sign in, they buzz you through like a hundred doors. You have to have a name tag, all this stuff. And I had a one-on-one security guard that literally was with me as I was. Wow. Yeah. So it was like. Oh, maybe these are dangerous people here. Or maybe I'm like very vulnerable in this situation as like a young lady in a men's shelter. So I got to, honestly, I got a, like a lot of really interesting life experience and perspective through that job. And then from there I worked like at a, another similar kind of clinic that you would go to if you had a, an injury. And then I started working at a hospital.

Megan: 9:07

That must be, I don't know, is that quite different being in a hospital compared to a clinic?

Aliya: 9:13

Yeah, so I actually over the years, like I've been practicing since 2009, so it's many years, but I. One of I, so I ended up working at two hospitals along the way. One of them was at the Sunnybrook Hospital, and it was on a floor where people were recovering after having knee or hip replacements. So that would be like, someone that had one or both knees replaced, or one or both hips replaced, and it's the day of their surgery or the day after. And the surgical team and the hospital has like a plan to discharge that person mm-hmm. In two days or one day I think is the rule now. And so that was interesting, right? You're getting someone up outta bed when they haven't gotten outta bed after surgery, you're walking with them down the hall, up the stairs, doing some exercises. So that was very different of course, than working in a clinic. And so I, I did that kind of part-time on the weekends I kind of casual work and then my full-time job. I was at another hospital and I ended up staying at that job for like over a decade. And that wasn't working with an inpatient population helping people after surgeries or illnesses or anything. It was actually working at a clinic within the hospital where people who got injured in workplace accidents would come for care. And they were not like. People that maybe had just pulled their back or hurt their shoulder. Mm-hmm. These were people with like more involved injuries who would often need surgery, either neurosurgery, spinal surgery, or orthopedic surgery. So it was very interesting and a lot of interesting learning and relationships built.'cause I got to work with a lot of the city's top. Orthopedic surgeons, which was really neat. So it gives you like a different perspective. Mm-hmm. So I did that for a while and as the years went by and honestly after I had my son, I moved out of doing more of that clinical work and into doing more kind of administrative, like clinically administrative work. It was really hard to juggle seeing patients and also having a small kid and. When kids are really small and they start going to daycare school, like they're sick all the time. And so if they're sick all the time, then I'm leaving work all the time. So it just didn't make sense for me to do clinical work because I was always putting someone out. So I was able to transfer to something that wasn't clinical, but literally my brain was rotting. Mm-hmm. It was not stimulating, it was not exciting, but it worked for my life. So I did that for a while. And then somewhere along the way, after my son was born, I got really interested in this sort of like subspecialty of physiotherapy and it's dedicated more so to women's health and pelvic health. And so I sort of like dove into learning and getting trained to be able to provide this type of specialty care. That's like where I just pivoted and I was like, I think for the first time in a really, really long time, I feel alignment with my career. Maybe for the first time ever I felt like, oh, this actually makes sense for me. I feel very passionate about the people that I'm helping. Mm-hmm. And how I can impact them. I really felt, and I still feel like there's a huge need for us to be talking and learning about our bodies as women. Yeah. And there's not enough being open about

Megan: 12:08

it.

Aliya: 12:09

Yeah, and there's not enough people to help all of, all of us. So I just felt like there was alignment there. And so I pivoted to doing that. So I do still practice as a physiotherapist, but I only see women. I. And I only kind of work with people on any kind of pelvic floor dysfunction. So that is, stuff that's going wrong with their bladder, bowel function, sexual function, pain. So I see a lot of pregnant people, postpartum people and people going through kind of perimenopause, menopause, and people that don't fall into really any of those categories. But they, they leak a little bit when they cough or they have pain with sex, so. I talk about things in my clinic with my patients that, like most of us don't talk to anybody about. And so I really just enjoy that the work feels like very much aligned. So I do that, but also somewhere along the way I realize that I, I enjoy the nonclinical work, but more like the educational work. Like just. Like talking about this stuff to people, whether it's teaching workshops or doing community events or educating online or yeah. So that's where I am and it actually feels like a really nice fit finally.

Megan: 13:18

It's amazing. And I think the work that you're doing now is so important because when I think about my mom or certainly like our grandmothers. They didn't talk about this, there wasn't this information. And as someone who is going through perimenopause it's just nice that there is a, at least the conversations there. Sometimes the science is still working its way up, but the conversation is there and there is some information and it's. I can't even imagine going through this without that. So yeah, the work that you are doing and supporting women is so important and I think it's really interesting what you said of for the first time in your career of just feeling that kind of passion and alignment with what you're doing. I think that's really. Interesting because I think people, and I know certainly when I was young you think you're gonna get a job and you're gonna feel that right away. And it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes it is a journey.

Aliya: 14:19

Totally. A hundred percent. I agree with that. That until, until, quite recently, over the last few years, I would routinely be like, I cannot do this until I retire. Like, I cannot do this for another 20 years. There's no way. And then trying to think about, okay, well I. My training is to be a physiotherapist, but what else can I actually do? Like feeling really stuck. It's not to say that I couldn't do something else or retrain into another job, but I just felt really stuck into this skill, into this kind of clinical training that I had that how do I move outside of that? And like life is really expensive and is getting more expensive. And typically, like if you work in a hospital system you don't actually make a lot of money as a physiotherapist, as someone who works in the allied health field. There's not a lot of money. And if you, it really felt like how am I gonna make this work if every year at the hospital I get like a 25 cent raise per hour? But it felt really scary to think about doing something else. Mm-hmm. But now that I do feel like. Okay. The click, it doesn't feel as scary anymore. Like those things still, are obviously there, but it feels okay, this is it. We

Megan: 15:32

waited a long time, but this maybe this was the path I was supposed to take. Yeah. And just curious of how. Did you sustain yourself through those difficult times of being like, I don't think I can do this forever. Is there something else? But that takes a while to figure out. And how did you sustain yourself or maybe find fulfillment and kind of other parts of your life or your career?

Aliya: 15:59

Yeah, that's a really good question. I think that part of it was just like, thinking really practically in that phase of life that I was in, at the time my son was smaller, right? My job afforded me flexibility in the sense that when I was doing that nonclinical work, I could work from home if he was sick. Mm-hmm. And during the pandemic I was at home and I could do that. It wasn't a stress when he was still like four and five years old and doing like Zoom, kindergarten, I could be there with him. So it worked. Whereas if I worked in a clinic or tried a new job, like I wouldn't. It wouldn't work. Right? Yeah. And also just again, thinking practically, like it's really hard to get a pension these days, right? I had a pension from that hospital and I was like, okay, so when I do retire, at least there's something, going towards that outside of my own savings. So it was just really like thinking this is not the time to make a crazy change. My son is so small, this is working right now. It's okay if my brain is like kind of dying. But I always tend to have something creative or something on the side. And I think I never thought that I could marry something creative with an actual. Career or a job. I didn't think that there was a way to make that happen. So there was a few years, a number of years actually, where I had a little side business where I was, creating and making natural products and selling them. And I really enjoyed the design and the branding and even like the sort of meditative nature of making these products and packaging them. I really enjoyed that. So I did that on the side and realized that okay, to scale a business like that would be. Really, really hard and I'd have to take it, look at it differently as opposed to being like a side hobby. And so now with the work that I do, I do still get that kind of the clinical piece of it where I see people in my clinic. I. But I run my own little solo practice, so I'm my own boss. I set my own hours. I decide how long to spend with someone or how many patients to see in a day. So I'm able to really manage my own capacity, and then also I'm able to fulfill that creative side of me with some of the content that I create online. And then, yeah. I also have a podcast where I educate there and I get to chat with other people on my podcast too. So I feel very fulfilled creatively. So now my side is more just like kind of fitness and exercise, which I always have been doing since I was very young. But I feel fulfilled from a creative standpoint too. And so that's probably where the alignment comes from. But in those moments when I was like, I can't do this until I retire, I don't think I had a long-term plan. It was like, you just need to do this for right now. And then figure it out later,

Megan: 18:34

one day at a time and keep the end goal in mind of this is working for right now. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That makes sense. And yeah, like you said, you've now found something that kind of marries that creative side with, your clinical expertise and background, which is pretty amazing.

Aliya: 18:52

Yeah. Yeah. I honestly. Many times over my career I was like, I don't know why I did this. This was not a good decision. This is not something I'm super passionate about. So it's nice to get here, and also, I don't really think it was the wrong decision to go into physiotherapy. I do enjoy science. I do enjoy. The human body and how it works. I really do. Mm-hmm. Also, my personality is I am someone that enjoys taking care of people, so it does mm-hmm. Make sense. That it is a profession that I would have chosen even if I didn't think it through quite so much in the moment. So now it's nice that maybe I just had to be patient to, to watch all the pieces come together. Yeah. Like building

Megan: 19:35

blocks. Yeah. When you look back on your career, are there like, and you maybe just touched on it, of like common threads that you see throughout, whether it's like skills or themes that you see when you look back through the the full journey to till now?

Aliya: 19:54

Yeah, that's a good question. I think that for sure, like with respect to my career as a physio, I think the times where I felt. Like maybe the best or the most satisfied in the work that I was doing was when I was doing like meaningful work with patients. And then also respecting whatever my capacity was. I think it's really common for people in caring professions to burn out just because the volume demand is very high no matter who you're working for, unless you're working for yourself. Because at the end of the day, it's a business. And if it's not your business, then. The people whose business it is, want you to see as many patients as possible and to do the most work as possible. And so it's really challenging to balance, truly caring properly for someone. And also manage all of the paperwork, there's a lot of paperwork or charting that you have to do in order to keep up with my professional guidelines, my professional standards of practice that I'm sworn to. So it becomes very challenging to do that, and it was really challenging at the hospital. The work with patients became less meaningful and then I wasn't doing any patient care. And then it was just a lot of paperwork. I. And that's when I think I felt like the most dissatisfaction and in previous times at that same job, but also at other jobs, the volume was just too high that mm-hmm. I would come home from work and be like completely gassed and also, I think I. With my own personality. I'm fairly introverted. I enjoy one-on-one conversations or small groups, but I also like really need quiet and I really need that decompression time. That when you're working for 10 hours and you're seeing four patients an hour, that's a lot of small talk you're making and that's a lot of giving, and that's not a reciprocal relationship, right? They're there for me to help them and I'm happy to do that, but that's like you just end up feeling drained. I just end up feeling very drained. So. Being able to balance impactful work with patients and then also managing my own capacity. When those things align, then I did feel quite good. And now I have much more control over that. And so generally that's balanced quite well. That's one of my priorities is just to be very aware of. How I'm feeling and how to plan my week so that if I'm coming off a day where I know that I'm really busy in clinic, like the next day, maybe I'm not gonna have a ton of meetings where I'm not gonna, work the whole morning. I'm gonna give myself an hour to do something else. Yeah,

Megan: 22:16

I'm also an introvert, so that sounds exhausting to me too. And that's'cause it's a lot of people time, but also it's a job that. Physical and emotional.'cause you're working with people who sometimes have gone through really terrible things, like a sports injury is one thing, but like when you're at the hospital, you're working with people who are going through really scary, potentially traumatic things. So there's that emotional weight as well. That yeah, that would be really exhausting. And I could see how just in general people would be. Open or at risk of burnout, but then just being an introvert as well, just all that people time.

Aliya: 23:00

Yeah, for sure. There was a couple of years when I was working at the hospital. This was before my son was born, so I was still doing a lot of clinical work and I had this really neat opportunity and I still look at it as one of the neatest opportunities that. Any physio could have had, I think in Canada where the hospital that I was working at had a relationship or a partnership with the Libyan government. So Libya is a small country in North Africa. Mm-hmm. In 20 11, 20 12, there was a war, there was a civil war there, there were a lot of injured, there were tons of injured. People, many of them were injured, like freedom fighters or just like regular men that went to fight for their country. And these are war injuries and the country was such that when it fell or when it was in such unrest, there weren't resources or any capacity to help these people. So that government. Made relationships with other governments and hospitals around the world, in Europe, in Canada, and in the States for those injured men to go to and to stay and to have surgeries to fix their wartime injuries and then to have various amounts of therapy depending on what was going on. So I was asked to be a part of this project, and I was the first physiotherapist. There was actually only two of us on the whole project. Over two years I believe. And we had an assistant and we had one or two occupational therapists. And, I got to work for about two years with so many young men that came with injuries that I had never seen, and we don't have, thankfully the opportunity to see these types of traumatic amputations in this sheer number that I was able to work with. So it was a really neat opportunity, but it was also super emotional and I think I had some kind, like I had taken on some of the trauma that these young men had gone through and I actually couldn't stop thinking about it. Even when I came home, I was constantly on Twitter trying to follow what was happening in real time over there. And at one point it had been a little while, I was actually like really tired also it was, there were so many layers to it, but I asked to be pulled off the project. I was like, I've been on this for a really long time. It's consuming my whole entire life. I need a break. And so I got pulled off the project and then shortly after that it phased out. I'm grateful for the opportunity, but that was a lot of blending of a lot of things. And if it wasn't clear before, how, it's not just physical therapy it was pretty clear then.

Megan: 25:23

My mom's a nurse, so that there's always that conversation of oh, you just need to compartmentalize. But when you go into a caring profession, that must be really hard. There's a reason you want to help people and care for people. Creating those boundaries would be really hard. And then for obviously something as traumatic as. Like war injuries. Yeah. I don't know how you would create that separation.

Aliya: 25:53

Yeah. It was hard, but it wasn't as hard as creating that separation was after I had my son. Mm-hmm. I actually feel like once I had my son it, I was like, no longer. I felt, I don't know if this is true, but the way that I felt was like, I can't care for these people who have their own injuries and are going through their own problems. Right. I really can't care for them and also come home and like literally take care of a small baby that is dependent on me to literally survive. I couldn't do it. So whether it was I couldn't compartmentalize or like I was beyond my capacity, or maybe because I didn't have that downtime after coming home mm-hmm. I came home from my job to my son who needed to be, fed and bathed and loved and played with until bedtime. Like maybe that was just too much for me and my nervous system. So that's when I really was like, I actually can't care for people. And care for my family. Like I'm actually not able to do that. And it's no longer the case. He's much bigger now. He is almost 10. But I think that's when it really was like, wow, I have a capacity and this is exceeding it. So yeah, that's when I asked to be pulled off of doing clinical work. And so it was like a balance, right? I couldn't do the clinical work, but then my brain was rotting doing the nonclinical work. But anyway,

Megan: 27:08

yeah. That's, that's tricky. And sometimes you can only learn those things. The hard way. Like you, you only learn it when you're in it. Yeah. You can't know in advance for sure. When you think back, is there like a piece of advice that you wish you could go back in time and give yourself?

Aliya: 27:28

I think that despite the fact that I think that this. Ended up fine. Right. I'm happy where I am. I do feel that alignment. I think that probably if I were to talk to my younger self, I would say trust your intuition a little bit more and trust the signs the universe mm-hmm. Is giving you, even though that sounds like a little bit like a hippie you know, maybe there's signs, like, I didn't get into university, I didn't get into the master's programs that I wanted to go to on my first try. Maybe that was a sign, maybe like I should have just been like, I should do something else. Maybe healthcare is not the thing I need to do, but then you can never tell. But yeah, I would say trust the signs and trust your intuition and don't just like. Go with the flow, which is I think what I did. I just did what I knew that I had to do and it didn't really matter too much if it was the right thing for me to do or not. So that's what I would say, trust my intuition and trust the signs a little bit more.

Megan: 28:21

Yeah, I think that's great advice and something definitely what I think back on my own journey, I never listened to my gut like I was so not in tune with it at all. So yeah, I think that's great advice.

Aliya: 28:37

It's, I think we can, like that's advice for myself right now. Right now to do. Yeah,

Megan: 28:41

me too. And so looking forward, what are you hoping for the future? What's your vision for the future?

Aliya: 28:50

I can see myself doing like a version of this. I can see myself doing a version of this until I retire whenever that is. I think it will look a little bit different based on how you know, world and like technology and how we consume information and where we learn. I think those things will continue to change and I'm confident that I can change with that. But I'd love to do a version of this. I think probably I'll like, I'm 43 and I'm going through perimenopause. Definitely. So that's a personal interest of mine, but it's also a part of life that up until very recently nobody spoke about. Right. Yeah. Just like women's health and pelvic health in general. Perimenopause, like nobody even talked about it. Forget menopause. So I can see myself focusing a little bit more on that as the years go by and helping mm-hmm. Support women, whether it's educational or lifestyle coaching or my pelvic floor physiotherapy practice. Like whatever it is, I feel like I can see myself putting something together to support women holistically in these journeys, which can last many years. I.

Megan: 29:48

Yeah. Which as we were talking about at the beginning it's so needed.'cause I'm also going through it and people I know who are going through it. I have a friend who in the UK who's gone to a pelvic physio, I have a friend in Canada who went to a doctor about having a conversation about perimenopause and maybe she needed to look on HRT, and he was just like, no, you're depressed. You should just be on, antidepressants. And she's no, but I can see that. It's with my cycle you wouldn't even have a conversation. So I've sent her resources now, but they're just so few out there or you don't know they exist. Yeah. And yeah, they're just it's so important and just even having the conversation is so important. So

Aliya: 30:33

Yeah, for sure. For sure. I think it is important and the more that we speak about it and the more that, we talk to our friends about it and the more that we, share resources and we learn how to advocate for ourselves, I think the better that we're all gonna be.

Megan: 30:46

Yeah. And just understanding it ourselves as well. And, it makes a big difference to be like, oh wait, maybe this is something else going on and not I'm losing my mind. Yep. Exactly. Awesome. Thank you so much Aliya. This was really interesting and amazing. Obviously I knew pieces of your journey'cause we worked together. Right when you finished school when your little stop over in the FX financial services world. But it's just, it was really interesting to see the full journey and how you made decisions along the way. And I'm so excited about what you're doing now. And I'm just also so happy to hear you found that place where you could find that alignment with and passion for what you're doing. So that's really amazing. Thank you so much. It was

Aliya: 31:34

fun to look back and think about. How we got here, and I appreciate the chance to talk it through with you. Awesome. Thank you.

31:48

I really enjoy chatting with Aliya, and her journey is so interesting, and I love how she has carved out a way to make it her own at every step. Some of the things I took away from our conversation were, first of all, Aliya took a little time at the beginning of her career to confirm some of the things she didn't want, like a corporate desk job. Sometimes it's a forgotten step of taking that time to not only figure out what you do want, but it's almost as important to figure out, what things you don't want. And second, what Aliya said about finding balance is so important, and that is something she has done in different ways throughout her career, whether it's now where she consciously creates a schedule that helps her manage her capacity as an introvert and as a carer. Or a few years ago where she stepped away from clinical work when she had a young family, but kept some of those side projects to keep her creativity going. And third, ultimately she has found a way to make it her own by marrying science and creativity. She's seeing patients coaching and hosting her own podcast. And that's ultimately what it's all about. Finding a way to make our careers our own. And lastly, Aliya's advice to her younger self I think is so important that keeping an eye out for the signs that are telling you whether you're going in the best direction for you. And that includes, what are the things that maybe you don't like as well as, Hey, this is interesting and I'm gonna lean into that. I think that's really important advice. Thank you for listening to the unexpected career podcast, please follow, share and rate on your favorite podcast provider. The unexpected career podcast is produced, edited and hosted by me, Megan Dunford. See you next week.