Founder of Rebound Injury Clinic, Shannon Byrne graduated from Portobello with a BSc (Hons) in Sports Therapy in 2020. It was a long and winding road for Shannon who, after completing her Leaving Cert, went on to do a PLC in Coláiste Íde in physiotherapy. Thanks to her superb results, she was able to go straight into the second year of the Sports Therapy course.
“I got all distinctions in that so I was delighted with that. That led me to Portobello where I started in the second year. Because of my results, they let me bypass the first year which would have been a foundation year. Did the two years then, in order to get the undergrad degree and I would have finished up in May of 2020," she said.
Before going to Coláiste Íde, Shannon developed a keen interest in sports science and the impact of injury on the body.
“I was a dancer myself in multiple different styles. It always led to injuries here and there," she said.
However, her sister and her difficulties growing up also helped to form that interest.
“I have a little sister who has special needs as well, so she underwent an awful lot of physiotherapy and speech and language therapy in her early years.
“We were told she’d never walk or talk and sure now she’s at stage school singing and dancing and acting. So, when you see it first-hand it’s definitely more inspiring to get into it," she explained.
But it was more the sports side that Shannon wanted to get into and in October of 2020, just five short months after finishing her bachelor’s degree in Portobello, she opened up her own injury clinic.
“Usually, you’d go work someone first. But what happened for me was that we were in lockdown, and I just had an idea.
“Back in March when lockdown kicked in, we had one business module, a hypothetical what would you do if you opened your own business and what you needed to know. I said I’ll do it on a clinic.
“My sister does digital marketing, so I asked her what would I need. She made up a logo. My sister kept saying ‘I made that logo and it’s so nice and it’s not going anywhere’.
“Then I was off on annual leave and a guy I know years who owns a gym, he plays for Dublin GAA, gave me a ring, and asked was I qualified yet and I said yes. He said he had a room in the back of the gym, and he had this idea of opening an injury clinic in the gym and having a person on-site so that if someone in the gym gets injured, we can have somebody to send them to. There was a bit of back and forth and eventually, I said why not, let’s go for it. If we can do it in the middle of a pandemic, we can do it outside of a pandemic. We painted the room ourselves and we opened it,” she said.
In addition to running her own clinic, Shannon assists her former thesis supervisor, Cathal Brady, run the degree she gained in Portobello in 2020. The role allows Shannon to pass on the useful knowledge she has picked up inside and out of Portobello.
Shannon will bring her knowledge and first-hand experience of her journey through Portobello to our webinar 'How to Become a Sports Therapist' on April 7th at 7 pm. Register here.
She joins fellow graduates Conor Sheils and Seán Moriarty in discussing their experiences with Portobello Institute and what their qualifications have allowed them to go on to do. You can sign up for the free webinar here.
The 'How to Become a Sports Therapist' webinar is part of our sports webinar series supporting you to choose the course for the career you want. How to Become a Sports Performance Analyst will take place on May 5th and How to Become a Sports Psychologist will be on June 2nd.
If you’d like to hear more about the course from our graduates you can check out their stories in the success stories section of our website here. Visit our sports department here.
Get in Contact
If you are interested in any of our sports courses or have any questions you can book a consultation call with our expert sports advisor Jo Shaw here, email jo.shaw@portobelloinstitute.com or call 01 892 0024.
