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? …
More on Mindfulness for Pelvic Pain Relief
By Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington What comes to your mind when you think about the word mindfulness? Perhaps a sense of calmness. Maybe serenity or focus or peacefulness. All of these would apply. Or maybe you have no idea what mindfulness is; if that is the case then check out this blog post first: What is Mindfulness and …
Treating the Whole Person: Trauma-Informed Care Part 2
By Jillian Giannini, DPT, PHRC Westlake Village Just like it was discussed in our previous post it is not within the scope of practice for a physical and occupational therapists to treat trauma; however, educating yourself on ways to implement trauma-informed care can help you to provide a safe and conducive environment for a patient’s path to healing. In …
Treating the Whole Person: Trauma-Informed Care Part 1
By Jillian Giannini, DPT, PHRC Westlake Village Whether you are a clinician, a patient, or someone who wants to learn more about the concept of trauma, learning more about trauma can be beneficial for your life and for others that you encounter in your life. Trauma often plays a role in our lives, even if we are not fully aware …
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 and occupational therapistss are first and foremost physical and occupational therapistss– meaning we can and do work with the whole …
Behind the Mask: Perspective in the time of COVID
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington We are all getting used to a new idea of normal since COVID-19 became more prevalent. Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a few things that I wanted to share. We are doing our parts at PHRC to stay safe and protect ourselves and each other by wearing masks. Below I share some …
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 …
What is Mindfulness and How Can it Help Pelvic Pain?
By Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington If you’ve been a patient of mine, you probably remember me talking about the mind-body connection. This is especially important when it comes to pelvic pain and pelvic floor dysfunction. The pelvic floor muscles are innervated by the pudendal nerve which contains both motor and autonomic nerve fibers. Most other skeletal muscles (like your …
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 and Occupational Therapy and yoga instructor Karah Charette of PHRC Berkeley will be teaching a 60 minute movement …
The DUTCH Test: a new approach to hormone testing
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas The DUTCH test is a newer technology created by Mark Newman, MS. He has spent many years with various labs specifically on developing and testing hormones until he created his own lab, Precision Analytical Inc. and the DUTCH test is his flagship product. The name stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones. …
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 …
Health Disparities in the LGBTQ Community
By Elizabeth Akincilar, PHRC CoFounder As a once long time resident of San Francisco, June was always one of my favorite months of the year. “June Gloom”; many coastal Californians often refer to it for its frequent foggy weather and consider it one of the worst months of the year. Yes, even with its foggy weather, I still looked forward …
Racial Disparity in Healthcare
By Elizabeth Akincilar, PHRC Cofounder The last several months have undoubtedly tested the resilience of the world. The coronavirus has caused severe economic hardship, serious emotional and psychological stress, and most importantly, and devastatingly, significant loss of life. In addition to the seemingly endless challenges caused by the pandemic, in May, all within roughly one week, our country witnessed the …
PHRC is Open and Policy Updates
The past month has been a trying time in the world. Our company has clinics in California, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire and while physical and occupational therapy is considered an essential business and permitted to be open, we chose to close 8 of the 9 clinics due to COVID19 uncertainties. Fortunately we have been able to offer telehealth appointments to …
Tips for Managing the Stress of COVID-19 and Your Pelvic Floor
By Morgan Conner, DPT, PHRC Los Gatos A lot has changed in the past few weeks and days. Since, the WHO has declared a pandemic for the novel coronavirus (the virus itself is called “SARS-CoV-2” and what it causes is the “Covid-19” disease),1,2 many of us have probably seen our daily routines put in a blender or chucked out the …
Truth and Friction: Is Your Vaginal Lubricant Helping or Hurting Your Pelvic Health?
By Melinda Fontaine, DPT, PHRC Walnut Creek You may have read my last blog on lube, Slippery When Wet, but when I read it again recently, I realized I have more to say now. 65% of women report using personal lubricant in the last month, and why wouldn’t you? Lube makes everything better, simply because it makes things more slippery. …
Pelvic Health Products We Love: Part Two
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas Here at PHRC we regularly discover all sorts of new and cool products that are available for people’s pelvic health needs. I am amazed at some of the products available and that are being developed and am so thankful there are people that are creating these products because they are SOOO helpful! Pelvic …