Holistic Pelvic Care

The bodywork practice itself consists of internal vaginal massage. The practitioner wears a glove and inserts one finger into the vagina. We assess the tone of the muscles, and, engaging the breath, offer healing massage techniques that release tension in the muscle and fascia.

In our current paradigm, there are many ways to identify along the spectrum of gender. Holistic Pelvic Care™ is available to people who have an anatomical vagina.

Though the work is gentle, the results are often profound. The touch the pelvis receives tends to be either sexual or medical, in nature. Receiving healing touch in this area brings a different level of internal awareness in the pelvic bowl. Many experience this as a sense of well-being, as the massage increases the flow of blood and energy, revitalizing the pelvic center.

Pelvic massage is meant to be gentle and nourishing. As with most massage, we are working on muscle and fascia and sometimes touch upon tender spots. If there is tenderness, we invite the breath to direct itself to the area of tension and work with the response of your body to guide the depth and direction of touch.  

Six weeks postpartum is a good time to begin postpartum HPC. The bodywork can support natural postpartum healing as well as offer support to healing from any birth trauma that might have occurred. In the case of healing from birth trauma, if internal bodywork feels too invasive, external energetic work and visualization exercises can be offered. External or energetic work can begin anytime after birth to sooth your spirit and ease your transition into motherhood.

If you have had a Cesarean birth, HPC can still support your healing. It can address the imbalances in your pelvic bowl that result from pregnancy, extended labor or the emotional experience that arises from having had a Cesarean, especially where a vaginal birth was the desired outcome.

HPC helps on the physical and energetic levels. It offers healing to the muscle and fascia of your pelvic bowl and it also supports your reconnection to self after a deep loss. Whether the loss be chosen or not, HPC offers comfort and healing in your time of grief and letting go.

Gentle, steady pressure and slow breathing are the starting point. Lie on your back with your knees bent, rest your hands on your lower belly and the inside of your hip bones, and breathe slowly into your hands, letting your pelvic floor soften on each exhale. Many women brace without knowing it, so learning to let go often helps more than squeezing harder. More Kegels are not always the answer.

Some trigger points sit inside the pelvic bowl and are best reached with internal work. I can offer that in a Holistic Pelvic Care™ session, or teach you to do it for yourself. If your pain is sharp, getting worse, or new and unexplained, please see your doctor or a pelvic floor physical therapist first.

Yes, with consent, clear communication and some guidance. External work around the belly, hips and sacrum is a good place to start, and many couples find it brings closeness as well as comfort. Internal pelvic floor massage asks for more care: you set the pace, you can stop at any time, and it should never hurt.

I teach women, and their partners if they want, how to do this safely and in a way that feels good. If you are pregnant, have recently given birth, or have pain or signs of an infection, check with your provider first.

The body often responds to stress and trauma by bracing, and the pelvic bowl is one of the places women brace most. Over time, that holding can contribute to pelvic pain, tightness, urinary urgency or pain with sex. In my years of practice, many of the women who come to me with pelvic pain also carry a history of trauma, sexual or otherwise.

That doesn’t mean every pelvic pain has trauma behind it, and it never means the pain is in your head. Gentle, consent-led bodywork and nervous system practices can help the body feel safe enough to soften. I work alongside therapists, and I refer women to trauma-focused care when that is what they need first.