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Below is my pelvic healing story & the resources I’ve found along the way. When I started yoga I had no understanding of my anatomy and a horrible relationship with my body, on or off the mat. On the mat, I pushed my body far past it’s edge. Off the mat, sex & menstrual bleeds were either numb or painful. I saw both as an inconvenience.
My pelvic healing started by tapping into my body on the mat, took me to acupuncture, pelvic yoga, physical therapy & beyond. This pelvic healing journey is far from over, but I don’t want to wait until the end to share all of this information. So here are the people, podcasts, books & pelvic magic I’ve found so far. I will continue to add to this as the journey continues, to share my story & to help light the pelvic path a little brighter for others!
Trigger Warning – this is a story of my pelvic pain, healing & the people who helped me along the way. I hope by sharing my story & these resources, other women will find the healing they need faster.
Growing up I didn’t get much of a sex talk. One day I excitedly told my grandma about my first kiss & was scolded “I better never hear about you doing anything like that ever again.” She never did. I kept my sexuality to myself, even when I was taken advantage of in high school. I thought I would get in trouble for being out or drinking. I thought they’d blame (or at least shame) me.
This was before the end of puberty & set a tone. Sex became painful, shameful, secretive & unsatisfying. Sometimes it even felt like my partner was stabbing me. Partners would become discouraged & often gave up on trying, making me feel undesirable & unwanted.
These are just some of the stories of my pelvis. Don’t worry, my story starts to get a little brighter!
Before you read on, what stories does YOUR pelvis have to tell? Write down your pelvic story in a journal.
I originally started visiting Ashlee, owner of Jade Moon Wellness, for night sweats. She helped me with those immediately and we started to look at other things.
A few acupuncture visits into treatment, Ashlee put needles in my lower abdomen (always the most sensitive needles for me). I started to feel this weird sensation. It felt like darkness crawling out of me. If you’ve ever seen Harry Potter, it was like a dementor was swirling out of my womb space. I had no idea what to make of that experience but I felt lighter after.
Sometimes during deep meditation, it would feel like the needles were still in my body & the darkness was swirling out of me. Each time felt like a call to remove my birth control, which I eventually did. I am grateful this treatment helped guide me to remove my IUD and even more grateful for her help rebalacinging after 15 years on hormonal birth control.
Ashlee introduced me to Dr. Kim Bryant, pelvic physical therapist & owner of Thrive Pelvic Health.
Through pelvic physical therapy I learned that my pelvic floor is what they call “hypertonic,” which basically means it’s tense AF! Remember that “stabbing” I described during sexual intercourse?? My pelvic floor was so tense, it had knots. It was like someone was constantly poking my pelvic trigger points!
Dr. Kim has amazing bedside manner. She holds space for the waves of emotion that come with treatment. She walked me through everything without dumbing it down or talking above my head, which put me more at ease. She helped me learn how to properly kegel, how to stretch my pelvic floor and really helped me connect my breath & pelvic floor movement.
I highly recommend everyone with a pelvis see a pelvic physical therapist & if you’re in Arizona, I definitely recommend you check out Dr. Kim!
Around the time I connected with Dr. Kim, I’d was reading “Pelvic Liberation” by Leslie Howard which introduced me to the concept of Pelvic Yoga. It blew my mind!
It was like yoga + the sex education. Until then I didn’t realize how counterproductive yoni eggs and kegels could be for some people. This book makes it so clear that a”one size fits all” approach doesn’t work for pelvic healthcare OR yoga! No two pelvises are the same. It’s time we start looking at the root issues, rather than just telling everyone to “kegel, kegel, kegel.” Kegels were actually making my period cramps & painful intercourse sooooooo much worse.
This book helped a ton with self discovery, self diagnosis (which I later confirmed with Dr. Kim) and ways to modify yoga poses. I highly recommend this for yoga students with pelvic-related issues and yoga teachers interested in learning more about pelvic yoga.
Both Dr. Kim & Leslie recommended therapy during treatment. With great power comes great responsibility, so it is MY responsibility now to recommend the same to YOU! If you want to dive deeper into pelvic yoga or yoni healing of any kind, I highly recommend therapy.
I thought I was “healed enough” to opt out of this on my journey. Looking back, this was clearly a bad idea. The intense sadness & anger coming up from these practices became so overwhelming that I had to temporarily pause pelvic yoga teaching & pelvic physical therapy.
Please learn from my experience. If you’re attending my pelvic yoga classes or trying any of these pelvic healing modalities, I cannot stress enough to make sure that you have professional emotional & mental support on your journey.
I’ve come so far in my healing journey, but I know this is just the beginning. Pelvic Yoga is such a new field with so much to learn, both as a teacher & student. I’m so excited to see where this path leads me next. Wherever it leads, I promise to continue sharing.
This information is not common knowledge YET, but it can be. Please share this page or specific resources you find helpful with the women around you. Share this information with your daughter, your mom, your grandma or your friend. Together, our pelvic stories will help so many women heal!
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