Visceral Manipulation is a gentle manual therapy technique that aims to encourage normal tone and movement both within and between organs and their surrounding tissues. Our organs need to be able to glide and slide between one another and surrounding tissues during daily movements, and also need to be able to move to perform their functions. For example, your bladder needs to be able to expand to fill and contract to empty. Read the full blog to learn more.

I previously wrote a blog about pelvic pain during pregnancy and what should be considered “normal”. You can check that blog out here. Many aches and pains that are normalized during pregnancy actually can be improved with pelvic floor therapy. But what about during the third trimester? With so much pressure on your pelvis and pelvic floor muscles, is there really anything we can do? Read the blog to learn how pelvic floor therapy can help with pelvic pain in the third trimester of pregnancy.

As a pelvic floor physical therapist, I see a lot of patients in my office who are experiencing constipation, bloating, gas, and general abdominal discomfort. Sometimes these symptoms come and go, and other times they are pretty consistent. There are many things we work on to reduce these symptoms. In this blog post, we’ll dive into how visceral manipulation can help reduce bloating and improve digestion.

In the past few years there has been a lot more awareness brought to pelvic floor therapy, and we are so excited about that! But did you know that your child may also benefit from pelvic floor therapy? There are quite a few common problems that kids experience that indicate they would benefit from a visit with a pediatric pelvic floor therapist. Pediatric pelvic floor therapy visits also look a little different than adult visits. In this blog, we are going to dive into how to know if your child needs pediatric pelvic floor therapy and what to expect.

I began taking Visceral Manipulation courses with the Barral Institute in 2021. A friend of mine and I decided we wanted to try something new, and VM was a totally foreign concept to our orthopedic PT brains! We showed up the first day and as the course began, we looked at each other and said, “what the heck did we sign up for!?”. Read the blog post to learn more about who visceral manipulation is for and some of the diagnoses that can benefit.

We are absolutely thrilled to begin offering pelvic floor physical therapy services for the pediatric population! Children with bowel and bladder disorders are unfortunately at a disadvantage because there are very few places that provide pelvic floor physical therapy. We plan to help bridge this gap. Read the blog to learn more.

Prenatal pelvic floor therapy has been getting more attention lately, and I’ve been having more and more expecting mom’s reach out to me to schedule. I absolutely love it! One thing I have noticed is that most of the time I get patients who are expecting their first baby and planning a vaginal delivery, are expecting a second, third, + baby and had previous vaginal deliveries, or are trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). I don’t have many mom’s who are planning a scheduled c-section reach out to me for prenatal pelvic floor therapy. Read the full blog to learn why you should see a pelvic floor therapist before a planned c-section.

One of the questions I always ask patients in my office with pelvic floor dysfunction is if they feel any pelvic heaviness. I will be the first to say that the term “pelvic heaviness” is pretty vague and likely interpreted differently from one patient to the next. BUT, I actually love that this is a vague term because if the answer is “yes” or “sometimes”, we can jump into further discussion about what exactly they feel and when. (If the answer is “no”, I still ask some follow up questions just to make sure we are on the same page). Read the blog to learn more.

If you have followed me on social media or read any of my previous blog posts, you likely know that I do not like blanket statements when it comes to most things in physical therapy. Exercise in pregnancy is absolutely one of those things! Over the years there have been a lot of movements and exercises deemed “pregnancy safe” or “not safe”, most of which do not have substantial evidence to support that stance. In this post, I’m going to dive into what is and is not recommended, as well as my stance on exercise during pregnancy.

In previous blog posts (like this one) we have talked about the link between the pelvic floor and hip pain. In this blog post we talked about the link between pelvic organ prolapse and hip pain. But what about pain further down the leg? Could pelvic organ prolapse be causing leg pain outside of the hip? Let’s dive in.

Symphysis pubis dysfunction is common during pregnancy, but it is not something you have to suffer through! In this blog post I’m going to explain what symphysis pubis dysfunction is, and what you can do about it during pregnancy.

Part 2 of 10 things I’ve learned in 10 years as a physical therapist.

May marks 10 years since I graduated from Mount St Joseph University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. I started doing a series of posts on Instagram last week about 10 things I’ve learned in 10 years as a PT. I figured this would also be a great topic to put into a blog post, so in this post I’m sharing the first 5 things I’ve learned.

You may know conscious breath work, or pranayama, can help manage pelvic pain. But how? Read the blog to learn more.

In this blog, Dr. Alexis shares her birth story of baby #3.

The foot is commonly overlooked when it comes to pelvic floor symptoms such as leaking, heaviness, and prolapse. Read the blog to learn about how the foot ad pelvic floor are connected.

Yoga is a helpful adjunct tool to traditional medical care and pelvic floor physical therapy. How is yoga beneficial for men and women healing pelvic pain? Read the blog post to learn about how yoga can help relieve acute and chronic pelvic pain.

Pregnancy aches and pains, especially pelvic pain, has been normalized. Women are often told it’s part of being pregnant and will get better postpartum. Although many of these aches and pains are common during pregnancy, there is a lot we can do in pelvic floor therapy to reduce pain and help you have a more comfortable pregnancy.

In previous blog posts (like this one) we have talked about the link between the pelvic floor and hip pain. The muscles in the pelvic floor have a significant effect on joints in the area, including the lower back, SI joint, and hips. But what about pelvic organ prolapse (or POP)? Does pelvic organ prolapse cause hip pain? Let’s dive in.

Most of my prenatal and postpartum patients have heard (or seen on social media) mixed things about postpartum exercise. Can you start doing some type of exercise right away? Should you be staying in bed for the first 5 days? Should you be back to your pre-pregnancy exercise routine by 6 weeks, or are you supposed to start exercising at 6 weeks? All of these questions (and so many more) come up in these appointments. Let’s unpack this topic!