'I study how bodies move and how power moves in healthcare'

By Anchel Krishna

Stephanie Lurch is one of the few Black physiotherapists in Canada working as a clinician, educator and scholar. Her focus is equity, anti-racism and social accountability. In this conversation, she reflects on her path into physiotherapy and why she believes healthcare must become more human.

BLOOM: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Stephanie Lurch: I’m a mom. A clinician. An evolving scholar. Physiotherapist. When I look in the mirror, I see a leader. An activist. And someone who has the capacity to love deeply. I study how bodies move and how power moves in healthcare. It doesn’t sit still.

I work with the most extraordinary people, from kids who are four to 21 years olds. I am a physiotherapist in the children’s development sector and an assistant clinical professor at McMaster University, where I teach social justice education to future physiotherapists. I spent 10 years at the University of Toronto teaching both clinical and social justice education. In addition, I’m pursuing my doctorate in social justice education. I’m one of a few Black physiotherapists who teach in this area and still actively treat patients.

BLOOM: What drew you to physiotherapy in the first place?

Stephanie Lurch: I was first drawn to physiotherapy because I saw a therapist treat one of my field hockey peers on the field when I was 16. He wasn’t standing over my peer. He was eye to eye. There’s so much hierarchy that can be eliminated from not standing over somebody. If you want to equalize power, you go eye to eye. If you want to surrender power, you drop below their eye level. He was speaking directly to my peer, and I can only assume my peer felt like she was the only person on the pitch.

While he didn’t look like me, he delivered care the way I knew I could. His work was not just technical. It was deeply human. That is when I said 'I want to be a physiotherapist.'

BLOOM: How has your relationship with the field changed over time?

Stephanie Lurch: Before working in children’s development, I worked with Cirque du Soleil in Europe as a physiotherapist, with a paraplegic ultramarathoner in New Zealand, and on the West Coast of Africa in a hospital pediatrics department. What I noticed is that power moves just like people. Through people and organisations and systems. It determines who gets seen, who gets believed and, often, who gets to live.

BLOOM: You’re one of the few Black physiotherapists in Canada working across research, teaching and patient care. What has that been like?

Stephanie Lurch: It’s been exhausting. It’s labour intensive to be the only person in the room, the only person in the auditorium, the only person at the front of the class and the only person in the staff room who looks like me. 

BLOOM: Why is it so tiring?

Stephanie Lurch: The silence. Silence is the oldest tool of oppression. There might be quiet agreement, nods, bathroom conversations, but little public support. It makes the work more difficult. It’s not what our ancestors taught us. Our well-being is intertwined with the well-being of others. That’s how I was raised by a Jamaican mom and a Black community that supported me.

BLOOM: Was there a moment when equity became central to your work?

Stephanie Lurch: I don’t think there was one moment. It seeped in. I couldn’t separate equity from who I am and what I do. I’m a caregiver to my mom and once I took her to the emergency room because she was having a hard time breathing. The doctor walked in with his head in the clipboard and didn’t look at her. I leaned over and said: 'Please treat her like a white, middle-aged, middle-class male executive. Give her all the tests you would give them.' Only then did he look up. And they did the tests. This is why equity is embodied in my work. 

BLOOM: What draws you to working with children and families?

Stephanie Lurch: They’re the future. They come uncensored. They’re full of radical possibility. They have stories too. I’m interested in their stories. I never had a provider who saw my possibilities. I’m interested in being someone I never had.

BLOOM: What barriers do families face in healthcare?

Stephanie Lurch: Attitudinal barriers. Low expectations. Language. Money. Racism. The people who speak English get better care. The forms are in English. They can comprehend the information and make better decisions. When you can’t understand, you can’t make good decisions, and then you’re judged for it.

BLOOM: How do race and disability shape healthcare experiences in Canada?

Stephanie Lurch: My worldview is that race shapes everything. It’s the longest-standing instrument of social domination. Daniel Ohaegbu is an inclusive workforce leader in Canada and while attending one of his workshops, he explained that if you don’t deal with race along with ability and class and gender, you get an incomplete solution. A white person with a high school degree is more likely to be employed than a Black person with a university degree. 

BLOOM: How are you trying to change how future clinicians are taught?

Stephanie Lurch: I’m trying to make healthcare human again. We’re very good at separating the body into parts. We’re not good at seeing whole people. We talk about the non-compliant patient. Maybe that patient is overworked and under-resourced. Maybe they didn’t have bus fare. I’m trying to move pathology from the individual to the system. I want students to be critically reflexive, not just reflective. To examine what they don’t see underneath the iceberg.

All my teaching is through storytelling or the arts. I’m relying on the traditions of my ancestors. Dr. Mike Evans is a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, an associate professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute. He talks about stories trumping data and the importance of embedding stories in relationships of care. I’ll remember the story, not the data. Narratives have a beginning, a middle and not necessarily an end. There’s lots of possibility when there’s not an end.

BLOOM: What brings you joy in your work?

Stephanie Lurch: The giggles. The squealing. Being chased by a kid in a walker in a gym class. The pure delight. The smiles.

BLOOM: What is one thing you wish you could change in the system?

Stephanie Lurch: Raise expectations of kids with disabilities instead of lowering them.

BLOOM: What advice would you give your younger self?

Stephanie Lurch: Don’t look away. We’re taught not to stare, but we should be taught to be curious. That involves looking at people and seeing them.

BLOOM: What kind of healthcare system are you hoping to help build?

Stephanie Lurch: One where we can all live a long, happy, healthy life. Whatever that looks like. All is the key word. Not just a few.

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