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 …
Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth: Overview and Updates
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas SIBO, aka small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, is bacteria that is an overgrowth of the normal bacteria in your small intestine. In today’s blog I want to provide some more education about SIBO, how we get it, test for it, treat it, and how it has made its way into pelvic health concerns as …
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 …
Childhood Constipation and Bedwetting: The Pertinent Poop
By Melinda Fontaine, Clinic Director of PHRC Walnut Creek Child: “Ms. Melinda, why did you choose to do what you do?” Ms. Melinda: “Two reasons: I get to wear sneakers to work, and I get to laugh at potty humor forever!” Did you know that pelvic floor physical and occupational therapistss also work with children?! I help all people pee …
One-on-One Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy Mentoring is now LIVE!
By Liz Akincilar, PHRC Cofounder We are thrilled to report that after introducing our Online Clinical and Business One-on-One Mentoring Program a few weeks ago, the response was overwhelmingly positive! Stephanie and I were very excited to begin to offer these services, as educating the professional community is so important to us, but we weren’t quite sure how excited the …
Ergonomic Tips and Tricks for Your At-Home Work Station!
By Rachel Daof, DPT Hello everyone! I am writing this in the midst of our stay-at-home mandate and thinking about all of you. I hope you are all staying at home safely and adjusting to your temporary lifestyle. The transition to working at home can be tough and it poses new challenges on your body. A lot of us don’t …
Urination Nation: How Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy Eliminates Urinary Incontinence
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington We often see patients who report urinary incontinence as a symptom of their pelvic floor dysfunction. Incontinence is defined as the lack of voluntary control over one’s urination or defecation. Sometimes this is not the reason they seek treatment, but rather a secondary finding. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard something …
“Can-do” Attitude: Self Efficacy and Graded Exposure at IPPS 2019
By Kim Buonomo, PT, DPT, PHRC Lexington Here at PHRC we often write our blogs weeks in advance. Kim wrote this post shortly after #IPPS2019 in October. Little did we know when she wrote it how relevant it could be for the current times here in 2020. Back in October we did not see this pandemic coming and we hope …
PHRC is Offering Online Mentoring and Pelvic Floor Continuing Education!
By Stephanie Prendergast, PHRC Cofounder As the COVID-19 pandemic continues we are adjusting to the new normal here at PHRC. Our business has been significantly affected, with many of our offices being totally closed for weeks or months. We are slowly reopening carefully and in accordance with the CDC guidelines. We launched a digital health program for patients and are …
Integrative Health & Nutrition Services Now Offered Virtually Through PHRC!
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas I’m Jandra, and I am a pelvic floor physical and occupational therapists here at PHRC, and the Director of PHRC Encinitas. I am very excited to announce that I have just completed my Master of Science degree in Integrative Health and Nutrition from Maryland University of Integrative Health. A little about me: a …
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 …
Pregnancy Hormones 101
Pregnancy is wild. Someone is walking around growing a human being. It blows my mind every time I see a pregnant person and here at The Pelvic Health & Rehabilitation Center, we get to see a lot of pregnant people! Now a lot of things happen during pregnancy, and hormones are a big key player in the process. You may …
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 …
Pelvic Health Products We Love: Part One
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 …