The healing magic of pelvic floor PT ✨
I DIDN’T KNOW what I didn’t know!
Good morning, sunshines! I hope you are having an amazing week, and are enjoying getting back to “normal” after the crazy holiday week 🤗💛💥
There’s something a little different that I want to talk to you about today.
What do you know about pelvic floor therapy/pelvic floor PT?
There’s a chance that you might be one of the relatively few people who has experienced this amazing healing magic 😊
But otherwise, it’s likely that you’ve either 1) never heard of it, or 2) heard of it, but assumed it wasn’t for you (that’s how I was! But more about that below!)
Let it be said that it takes A LOT for me to write to all of you with a blanket recommendation for a specific practitioner and form of care 💥
And it’s not that there aren’t plenty of other amazing healing things out there besides Network Spinal that can and should support you in your health and healing ✨✨✨
It’s just that I prefer for you to consult with me one on one for such recommendations.
Plus, since I only get to write a message to you about once a week, I generally prefer to keep these messages focused on your care with me, and about your spine and nervous system. Because it’s not like you’re getting exposed to that information elsewhere!
But I must tell you, I had an experience recently that was SO incredibly helpful that I’ve been recommending it to many of you already. I am taking the extra step of writing this message because I want to make sure everyone knows about this 💥💥💥
For some years now, I had been aware of pelvic floor therapy, where the doctor, often a Physical Therapist, works with you internally with your pelvic floor muscles.
Over the years I’ve even recommended pelvic floor PT to clients– mainly to folks who either already had a notion that they could benefit from this, or to female clients citing specific pelvic floor issues such as difficulty after childbirth, or pain during intercourse.
Not to get too personal on you (never mind, this is actually about to get VERY personal 😂), but I never had any sense that I had any issues with my pelvic floor 🤷♀️
And although I am cat-mom to Jethro, I’ve never given birth (DON’T tell my brother that I just referred to myself as a cat-mom, as he FLIPS OUT about people who aren’t “real” parents calling themselves “pet parents”😱😂🙏).
So basically, myself with pelvic floor PT was like your average person on the street with Network Spinal (“but I don’t have any back pain, so why would I need that? I’m fine!”) 😂😂😂 #dontknowwhatyoudontknow
(Non)coincidentally, I had also just recently listened to a podcast episode from Kate Northrup with an interview with a pelvic floor therapist.
I had heard it before, and then I heard it again in this ⬆️⬆️⬆️podcast– the problem, generally, isn’t that there is too little tension in the muscles of the pelvic floor. Instead, more often we unknowingly have tight and contracted pelvic floor muscles that don’t know how to relax 💥💥💥
2 weeks ago, I was making plans to go see my friend Dr. Megan Robertson, PT, and having her do some work with me.
I’ve known Megan for 2-3 years, and we have done work with each other periodically. In addition to being physical therapist, she is also an excellent Cranial Sacral therapy practitioner.
Knowing that she does pelvic floor work with clients, and almost on a whim, I said I would try her pelvic floor exam. Literally, for no specific reason besides to see what it was and because the topic was fresh on my mind after listening to the podcast ✨🌀✨
Let me acknowledge that some of you might think it’s a little weird to “just try” something that involves someone reaching up your vagina, no less to have the person doing the reaching being one of your friends and colleagues. But what can I say, we work in healing and this is how we roll! #healingjunkies
Before things got physical, Dr. Megan talked me through the whole process with a diagram, telling me which muscles she’s going to be palpating, where, and when.
Then, when I was positioned on the table with the drape, and the exam began, I noticed myself do something VERY interesting.
I literally observed myself let my eyes kind of roll back and go up to the ceiling, fixating on a point above me.
In other words, I was completely detaching, disassociating, and basically passively just waiting for it to be over! 😱🥲😂
The medical conditioning runs SO DEEP, y’all! 😂😂😂
You know, when a doctor starts poking around, especially in your private parts, and our brains just go somewhere else until it’s over. Let the doctor do their work, right? WRONG. This is NOT healing.
So very quickly after I noticed myself doing this, I snapped out of it. “This isn’t that kind of doctor’s appointment! I have to engage,” I thought, refocusing 💥💥💥
(And wow, with the need to be engaged, the parallels to the interactive experience that is Network Spinal care are strong 🤗)
The first couple of muscles that Dr. Megan checked on the right side of my pelvic floor seemed to feel the way we thought they would. But when she moved to the left I was SHOCKED by what felt 😮
The muscles were tense– even, I would say . . . pinchy? We both noticed this. So Dr. Megan spent the next several minutes holding contacts on the tense areas with me focusing to release/move the energy.
When she got into the deeper muscle layers there were more interesting finds on the left, compared to the right.
There was even a muscle that felt tight but not pinchy this time, instead an almost kind of dead-feeling 😱 Yikes! I’m glad that bad energy isn’t just going to be lurking in there anymore 😅
Another interesting thing about the exam was that I could feel how much tension patterns in my legs, hips, and lower back were changing throughout the process. I have continued to have a sense of this connection in the weeks since the appointment and am continuing to work with.
I just love things that WOW me– in general, but especially in the realm of health and healing. This experience really wow’ed me 🤩
I became aware of so many things– about myself, about tension and pulling in my pelvic floor that I didn’t know existed, about the way that this tension is connected to my lower back and legs, and about my own apparent lack of connection in my nervous system in connecting to these areas. I even had some weird memories come up! 💥💥💥
I am going back for a second appointment as soon as possible, and I strongly encourage you to look into this for yourself ☀️💥🌍🌀💗
To learn more about pelvic floor work with a practitioner, listen to the podcast with the link above.
If you think this might be for you right now, I specifically recommend you that you talk to Dr. Megan Robertson about setting up an appointment. She was simply incredible with her knowledge, manner, and presence during this exam 💛
And because she is energetically aware and knows about Network Spinal and the work that I do with you, I know that I can completely trust her with you ✨😊💕
Thank you for staying connected. I look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you at your adjustments this week (I still have appointments available for today and for Saturday morning!!)
