What makes FPH different than all the others?
If you’ve ever been to physical therapy through the traditional insurance-based model, you may have experienced the routine: you’re given a set amount of time, your therapist is juggling multiple patients, you’re working through a list of exercises, and just when you feel like you’re getting somewhere… your appointment is over. See you in two or three days. Over and over. For a good 6 to 8 weeks.
This doesn’t work well for Pelvic PT in my opinion.
As a pelvic floor physical therapist, I believe that meaningful care requires time, attention, and the ability to treat the whole person—not just a diagnosis or a collection of symptoms. I was getting really frustrated at not being able to treat a person’s ankle dysfunction because their PT script was for pelvic pain. Guess what – it’s all connected!!! The desperate need to shorten treatment times and add more patients to keep the lights on was getting exhausting.
That is why I am different.
One of the biggest differences you’ll notice is simply how much time we have together.
In my practice, your appointment isn’t designed around an insurance company’s rules about how many patients I can see or how many units I can bill. Instead, your time is focused on you. We have all the time to chat first, to get to know each other and to learn what is important to you. We can slow down. We can talk. We can ask questions. We can reassess. And we can spend the time necessary to understand what’s actually going on.
Because pelvic floor problems aren’t always straightforward. SHOCKER – they tend to involve things like hormonal changes, nutritional issues that impact your gut health, mental health issues that are impacting your body and more!! Who’d have thought? Umm, us women did. We KNOW that our bodies are complex and that everything is playing into how we feel on a daily basis.
You are not a diagnosis. There is more to your PT than what it says on a script. Two people can come to me with the same diagnosis and need completely different treatments. Uour history, lifestyle, goals, symptoms, movement patterns, pregnancy or postpartum experience, stress, activity level, and previous treatments all matter.
Rather than following a predetermined treatment plan, I build your care around what your body needs and what you want to get back to doing.
Pelvic floor symptoms don’t always originate where you feel them.
Pain, pressure, leaking, constipation, painful intercourse, abdominal discomfort, hip or back pain, and other pelvic floor symptoms can be influenced by the way your entire body moves and functions.
Having the time to look at the bigger picture allows me to investigate why you are experiencing your symptoms—not simply treat the symptom itself. This usually involves looking head to toe. Understanding how your feet, ankles, knees and hips are all playing into your pelvic floor. How your posture is impacting abdominal muscle function. How the fascia that connects to your organs is moving. ALL THE THINGS.
I don’t want you leaving your appointment thinking “what was the point of that?”
I want you leaving understanding your body. I want you to know why we’re doing something, what you’re working toward, and what you can do between appointments to continue making progress. I want you to feel able to reach out to me in between sessions, to ask questions when they pop into your head, to feel like I have your back even when you aren’t sitting in front of me. Not having to see 25 patients a day means you get so much more of me!
We are allowed to pivot if things aren’t working great. We are allowed to expand our treatment if your goals change. If you show up to my door with a headache instead of a pelvic ache we are able to shift our focus and get all of you feeling better without the restrictions.
There isn’t a limit on the number of sessions you have with me. There isn’t a certain date you have to be healed by. There aren’t a certain number of goals we are allowed to address at one time. It’s about you, your goals, your schedule. Period. The end.
I chose this model because I wanted to create the kind of physical therapy experience that I would want for myself or someone I love. If you’ve read my blog in the past you’ll know that I have been through my own journey through pelvic pain before every getting pregnant and then two postpartum journeys. I know what I wish I’d had back then.
A provider who didn’t make me feel like a number. A place where I could questions that weren’t “TMI.” Someone who felt like they actively cared about how I was feeling.
Ultimately, I believe you deserve to have a say in how your healthcare is delivered.
Your body deserves time. Your questions deserve answers. And your care should be built around your goals.
That’s why I practice differently.
And that’s why I believe this model allows me to provide the kind of personalized, one-on-one pelvic floor physical therapy that my patients deserve.