Holistic Pelvic Care™
(for women and menstruators of all ages and stages)
It’s for you if you’re experiencing pelvic or vaginal pain or health challenges, infertility, menstrual health problems or you’ve experienced trauma in this area of your body.
Over the past decade as a dancer, Osteopath and bodyworker I’ve devoted thousands of hours to studying and offering somatic movement practices and healing modalities, and I find Holistic Pelvic Care™ to be one of the most empowering approaches to women’s health.
Please scroll down to find out more about how HPC™ could help you, and please get in touch if you’d like to know more or book a session.
“I continue to witness a universal pelvic disconnect. Sometimes the detachment is physical: a woman has difficulty feeling her vaginal muscles. Other times it is emotional: a woman disassociates herself from her pelvic space as a way of coping with painful associations regarding femininity or her body. More subtly, this pelvic disconnect is energetic.”
Tami Lynn Kent, founder of HPC
If you’re seeking support for your female body or pelvic health but are unsure about booking an HPC™ session or whether you need osteopathy or HPC™, you’re welcome to book a free call with me to find out more.
I offer Holistic Pelvic Care™ at Butterfield Osteopathy in Stoke Newington in North London and at The Little Escape Therapy Rooms in Crystal Palace in South East London.
At it’s heart, Holistic Pelvic Care is about bringing more presence and connection to your pelvic bowl.
This means that if you’re not able to come for an in-person session, we can work together online to help you make progress with your health challenges.
Through guided visualization and breathing practices you can begin to map your inner landscapes and how you relate to your pelvic bowl to reveal physical and emotional patterns and trauma imprints, so that we can restore balance and health.
What is Holistic Pelvic Care?
Holistic Pelvic Care™ is an integrative gynaecological approach developed by Tami Lynn Kent, a women’s health physiotherapist based in Portland, Oregon. It incorporates a range of therapeutic practices to restore balance in a woman and menstruator`s pelvis. HPC combines gentle internal work on the pelvic floor muscles and fascia with techniques that address core patterns (including emotional imprints) held in the pelvic area. This may include guided dialogue, visualisation, breathwork, and external abdominal contact. The treatment supports pelvic floor balance and enhances circulation to pelvic organs, which can help alleviate various symptoms.
What can I expect at a treatment?
The initial consultation is 75 minutes and includes a detailed case history, discussion of treatment aims, basic introduction to female pelvic anatomy, a pelvic floor assessment and treatment. With your consent you will be asked to remove your lower underwear so that the practitioner can assesses the pelvic muscles intravaginally (like a “squeeze” exercise). This is done with a gloved, lubricated finger inserted in the vagina. Pelvic muscle engagement, trigger points, tension and pain patterns are noted.
The assessment is followed by a treatment to balance the pelvis. Techniques include intravaginal massage with myofascial release and trigger point work assisted by breath-work and visualisation tools for both physical and energetic balance. Follow-up consultations are 60 minutes and begin with a brief re-assessment and then focus primarily on treatment. The pelvic work is gentle and respectful, following the lead of the body. It should never hurt, and the response of a woman’s body guides the depth and direction of the hands-on work.
The number of treatments depends on the extent of a woman’s symptoms and how long she has been having them. Usually, three sessions are recommended and encouraged to restore basic pelvic balance, but this will be discussed with our practitioner Flurina during the first consultation. She will also be able to recommend if you benefit from an Osteopathic session as part of your management plan.
What can Holistic Pelvic Care support you with?
There are many reasons women and menstruators seek out and benefit from HPC™. It may support you with the following:
Prepare for pregnancy, physically and emotionally.
Post-partum recovery: including episiotomy and c-section scar work, pelvic prolapses and the experience of birth traum.
Menstrual challenges, irregular cycles, painful cycles, endometriosis
Urinary leakage, incontinence
Pelvic organ prolapse, uterine prolapse, cystocoele
Pain during intercourse
Vaginismus
Coccyx pain
General pelvic pain
Improve pelvic floor tone
Enhance general health and wellbeing
Fertility challenges
HPC™ is basic women`s health and is encouraged to receive yearly to prevent pelvic health issues in the first place. Treatments can also offer help for women who seek to reconnect with their pelvic space, natural cycles, and creativity.
Can I have treatment when I’m pregnant?
Internal pelvic work is not done during pregnancy, but the process of postnatal recovery is greatly assisted by HPC. Any pelvic floor imbalances that may have occurred during pregnancy or birth can be addressed early on. Six weeks post-partum is a good time to begin but it can be useful months, even years, after birth.
What if I have a caesarean birth?
Women who have had a caesarean birth will benefit from HPC as well, with fascial work directly to the caesarean mark and internal work to address the imbalances caused by any prolonged vaginal birth attempt.