By Elizabeth Akincilar, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Merrimack Over the last couple of years PHRC has shared many YouTube videos and educational material on Instagram educating our viewers and readers about pelvic health. We have received an overwhelming response to several of our posts discussing pudendal neuralgia. Listed below are some of the most common questions we’ve received and our answers. …
Lj Powerhouse and Jandra Mueller of PHRC: IG Live Endometriosis Q&A
By Lj Powerhouse & Jandra Mueller, DPT, PHRC Encinitas In December 2020, PHRC physical therapist, Jandra Mueller joined Lj Powerhouse on Instagram for a LIVE Q&A. It was awesome to answer all of the questions you asked and we were bummed we couldn’t get to all of them! Here is a re-cap as well as answers to many of the …
A bike accident caused vulvar pain. Ally recovered, check out her Success Story!
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Ally is a lovely 64 year old woman that I’ve been working with at PHRC Lexington since April 2019. During the course of her treatment, she read my previous success story and told me how it inspired her and that she believed she would find the same success some day. I’m so happy …
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 …
Period Health 101: Everything You Should Have Learned in 6th Grade, But Didn’t… Part 2 of 3
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas In case you missed it, here is Period Health 101: Everything You Should Have Learned in 6th Grade, But Didn’t, Part 1. What are your hormones doing throughout the various phases? To understand this, refer to the chart below. It is actually helpful in understanding the hormonal shifts throughout the various …
Period Health 101: Everything You Should Have Learned in 6th Grade but Didn’t, Part 1 of 3
By Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas As menstruating people, you would think that we would understand what a period is, the purpose of it, and all of the information it can give us. Unfortunately, we do not, and this is not okay. Our periods are more than a sign we are not pregnant, more than an inconvenience, more than …
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 therapist 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 a 2018 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …