Your Pelvic Health Therapist will help you discover the root cause of your symptoms, and design a customized program for lasting relief! Below is general outline of the patient experience.
“She made me feel very comfortable when sharing about the pain I was experiencing. I felt very heard throughout the process.”
Each patient experience begins with a phone call with Kelly or Priscilla to make sure you are in the right place. They will answer any questions you have about our services, and find a new patient visit appointment with one of our Pelvic Health Therapists. They can schedule a two-hour visit for our out-of-town patients, or those with more complex medical histories.
You will receive a thorough health history intake packet to complete in your portal before the visit. You’ll be invited for a cup of tea in the lobby upon your arrival, and then be taken back to a private treatment room with your therapist.
Next, you will meet with your Pelvic Health Therapist and spend 10-15 minutes talking about your symptoms, history, and goals before the physical exam. Many patients have already been to 2-3 other therapists before finding Triad Pelvic Health. We are expert detectives in discovering the root of your symptoms.
We continue for another 15-20 minutes with a head-to-toe assessment to examine your posture, abdomen, hips, and back. If indicated, we will discuss an internal pelvic floor exam to determine to what degree it is playing a role in your symptoms. The patient is always in control of what is done in any visit. Your therapist will always discuss the treatment options and ask for consent.
Once we have gathered all of the findings, we hop right into treatment for the next 15-20 minutes of your first visit if applicable. Treatment might include manual therapy, scar massage, pelvic floor relaxation or strengthening, breathing exercise, or functional lifting. You will have a customized exercise program on an app to track your progress and advancements.
Most follow-up visits include a combination of education, manual therapy (internal and/or external), as well as exercise and movement practices. We may suggest certain books or therapeutic tools optimal progression at home between visits. We often invite partners to come at certain points in care in order to get the whole team on the same page.
We describe the “arc of treatment” in three phases: recovery, stability, and wellness. During recovery phase, we are actively treating the impairments, and your symptoms should steadily improve over time. Depending on how long you have experienced your symptoms, this can take weeks or months.
Once you feel stable and your goals are in sight, we begin decreasing treatment frequency as your symptoms stabilize. You may still experience occasional flare-ups when life gets stressful, busy, or illness or travel throw a wrench in your routine, but we develop plans to manage the flares and get you back on track.
Finally, we look forward to helping you build resilience in your body and symptoms to the point where they are a memory, and you are confident and independent in managing your care. We look forward to this phase of wellness, and are here for you the whole journey! Sometimes folks will even return monthly or quarterly after this phase for a “check in” or “tune-up.”
If you’re a nerd (like us) and want a detailed list of therapeutic techniques and modalities that we most commonly use, click here.
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” - Maya Angelou