Did you know that your foot can affect your pelvic floor? Foot and ankle positioning has an effect on the pelvic floor by influencing changes in muscle activation up the legs ultimately resulting in changes with pelvic tilt positioning. There are biomechanical changes from the ground up. The connection in brain mapping of motor and sensation- the genitals and …
Tight Lipped: You’re Not Alone; Patient-Led Communities
By Tight Lipped, guest blogger. “My doctor in college told me that my partner simply ‘didn’t know what he was doing’, and that’s why it felt like his penis was hitting a wall inside me.” “When I saw a doctor for my vaginal pain, he told me to use a cucumber to stretch out my vagina.” “So many doctors …
Pain in your tailbone? You are not alone: Michelle’s Success Story
By Jennifer Keesee, PT, DPT, PHRC Westlake Village Michelle is a 39 year old patient who was referred to PHRC by her pain management specialist for evaluation and treatment of tailbone pain, known as Coccydynia. Her symptoms started one year after giving birth to her second child, and had continued off and on for about three years. Michelle did …
Setting Up for Success after Endometriosis Excision Surgery
By Jennifer Keesee, DPT, PHRC Westlake Village & Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas Congratulations on taking the next step in your healing journey! You’ve found a great doctor and decided to proceed with endometriosis excision surgery. If you’re like me, after many years of managing endo symptoms, you’re probably excited to address the root cause. If you have …
Endometriosis: A PT’s Journey to Diagnosis & Treatment
By Jennifer Keesee, DPT, PHRC Westlake Village March is endometriosis awareness month, and here at PHRC we want to help spread the word about this complex disease that is often hidden in plain sight. Endometriosis is a condition that affects approximately 10% of women, which also includes trans-men, and those who do not identify as a woman, but were born …
World Physical Therapy Day- A Q&A about Pelvic Floor PTs
September 8th is World Physical Therapy Day! To celebrate, we wanted to do a little Q&A about pelvic floor physical therapy and what it’s like to be a pelvic floor physical therapist! What is pelvic floor physical therapy? In a nutshell pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT) is the branch of physical therapy that is focused on conditions …
Patient Success Story: Dealing with Prolapse and Menopause
By Karah Charette, PT, DPT, RYT When I first met Sara* (name changed for the story), I knew she was going to do well with pelvic floor physical therapy. She was motivated, curious, and engaged in her healing process. She came in with questions and reflections each session, and was open to learning something new every time we met. …
Pregnancy Awareness Month- Pregnancy & Postpartum Services
By Stephanie A. Prendergast, DPT, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles With May being Pregnancy Awareness Month, we wanted to share an overview of the pregnancy and postpartum services we offer here at the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center. Along with the overview we will discuss what to expect in your appointment with additional blogs, videos and general pregnancy and postpartum …
A Case of Pelvic Pain and Sexual Dysfunction- Clyde’s Success Story
By Morgan Conner, DPT Clyde’s symptoms started about one year before he first came to physical therapy. They started suddenly after he forced an orgasm by squeezing his pelvic floor while enjoying morning sex. Later that day he started feeling pins and needles in his prostate, pain at the tip of the penis, and burning with urination. When the …
Pelvic Floor Muscle Function: Breathing Into Sexual Pleasure
By Karah Charette, DPT, PHRC Berkeley & San Francisco As a human being, you have a right to pleasure- safe, consensual, and sexual pleasure. We are fortunate to participate in a culture where conversations about sexuality and sexual function are becoming more mainstream and accepted. We are now having nuanced conversations about the myriad of factors that affect …
5 Ways to Relax Your Pelvic Floor!
By PHRC Admin Do you ever wonder why it is important to relax your pelvic floor? Even if you know you should, do you find yourself wondering how to do so? As a pelvic floor physical therapist, I often have patients who wonder what the value is in being able to relax the pelvic floor. In a culture that …
Pelvic Pain Through the Lens of Curiosity: What Can You Learn?
By Karah Charette, DPT, PHRC San Francisco & Berkeley Pain might be one of the most pesky forms of mindfulness. When you are in pain, it is usually all you can think about. It draws you into the present moment whether you want to be or not. In this moment, there also often comes the fear that you have no …
How to Use Mindful Somatic Movement for Pelvic Pain Relief: Video Included!
By Maryssa Steffan, DPT, PHRC Berkeley Pelvic pain can feel like you are stuck in an endless cycle of symptoms. It may feel like you are doomed forever. When your body is tense and your fear is feeding the pain response, moving your body may be the last thing you want to do. You may wonder how you can possibly …
EmBODYment
By Maryssa Steffen, DPT, PHRC Berkeley Have you ever noticed the relationship between your feelings and your bodily sensations? For example, have you ever noticed that gut-wrenching feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know something is wrong, or you just got bad news? Or your heart rate suddenly increases when you get scared or nervous? …
We’ve Got Your Back!
By Karah Charette, DPT, PHRC Berkeley People with pelvic floor symptoms often ask if their back and hip pain is related to their pelvic floor dysfunction. The answer a majority of the time is an unequivocal YES! Pelvic floor physical therapists are first and foremost physical therapists– meaning we can and do work with the whole body! We start with …
Bridging the Gap Between Orthopedics and the Pelvic Floor: Why So Separate?
By Emily Schlaefer, PT, DPT Earlier this year, Emily was going to spend her final clinical rotation of PT school with us here at the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center. Unfortunately, COVID hit and after only one day Emily sadly had to leave the rotation. She shared this blog post regardless about her experience as a PT student observing …
But is it really Interstitial Cystitis?
By Morgan Conner, DPT, PHRC Los Gatos Recently, I decided to look into the confusion surrounding Interstitial Cystitis. A couple searches down a Pubmed rabbithole, I realized there was much more to it than I initially realized. In order to really make sense of what might be going on, I decided to go back to the basics and to the …
A Polyvagal Map to Pelvic Health
By Maryssa Steffen, DPT, PHRC Berkeley “It doesn’t matter how much you drive around, you will never get to where you want to go if you don’t have the right map.” – Stanley Rosenberg During this unprecedented time to slow down, shelter at home, and physical distance, I have taken the opportunity to dive deeper into embodied practices. In other …
Movement for the Movement: Pelvic Floor Release and Fundraising
By Karah Charettte, DPT, PHRC Berkeley On Saturday July 25th 2020 at 11:00 am PST, the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center is hosting a virtual fundraiser via Zoom combining two things we care deeply about: pelvic health and racial justice. Doctor of Physical Therapy and yoga instructor Karah Charette of PHRC Berkeley will be teaching a 60 minute movement workshop entitled …
No-Equipment Workout for a Happy Pelvis and Strong Core
By Courtney Edgecomb, DPT, PHRC Los Angeles Even before gyms and group fitness classes closed for COVID-19, I was a big fan of at-home workouts. Don’t get me wrong, I love the community, atmosphere, and variety of equipment available from gyms and classes, but the price can get high and I run like the wolves to avoid traffic or parking …
Have a pain in the a** while sitting on your bike saddle? Optimize your saddle using pressure mapping!
Guest post by Justin Lucke and Morgan Conner, DPT, PHRC Los Gatos In bike fit, oftentimes small changes can lead to profound improvements, but in practice it can be hard to quantify the impact. In this blog post Morgan talked about her quest to find a better seat and how using trial and error found something that worked a lot …