Dipping your Toe into Pelvic Health: Reflections by Julia Soffa
I'd like to share a piece from a guest blogger, Julia Soffa. She was a recent teacher trainee in a group I lead through a modified yoga teacher version of my Retreat to Your Root in Nicaragua. I love her thoughtful reflections after our immersion into the multifaceted-ness of pelvic health and wanted to open the conversation up in a more public format. Enjoy!
“What do you know about the pelvic floor?” asked Casie in the first question she posed to ten women in our yoga teacher training.
The unspoken collective response was perhaps, “this is weird, we’re uncomfortable and have no language for this discussion.” For me, there was a slight anxiety (on which I could not put my finger) regarding the forbidden subject matter and the fact that we’d spend several afternoons in the lecture on the pelvic floor. This also sounded potentially boring. My knowledge of the pelvic floor and pelvic bowl (that’s a thing too!) was limited to call outs in yoga and postcards promoting to “unlock” the mysteries equated with same a part of the body in the vestibules of yoga studios.
Casie told the story of how she came to the profession, it’s exploratory way of healing her. Casie’s self-awareness, humor, and vulnerability (not to mention doctorate in Physical Therapy) created trust. For the record, I don’t think one can just “create trust.” Spewing trauma or personal history can at times be obnoxious and, especially amongst women, illicit subconscious competition.
For me, pelvic health (though I’d not conceptualized the term until the retreat) is an intimidating subject, mysterious-seeming and fiercely private. My short, unexpected time with Casie cracked open a place in me I’d skillfully protected, a connection to my pelvic bowl. A space that I’d intended to release (or start to) without even knowing it. Before we have answers, we first have to ask questions. Below are some of mine as I digest my formative time retreating to my root.
What if we (participants in society) had precise and positive language for addressing sex, sensuality, femininity, our bodies and cycles? For example, I discovered that I (and basically everyone I know) refers to the vulva as the vagina! What could we achieve as humans if we had the language to openly address pain during sex, chronic UTIs, or lack of sexual pleasure? Changing linguistics can stretch and evolve “normal” conversation.
Why don’t I talk about this with my over-educated feminist community? How did our well-meaning mothers, teachers, doctors, and sisters miss this? Did they even miss this or have I not been paying attention?
What are the deeply held narratives, traumas, and physiological patterns that physically manifest in my body and experience as a sexual being? I had an “aha” moment around my constant urge to pee, my chronic-seeming infections when having regular sex, realizing that these could be connected to my myofascial system.
What if my insurance company (which offered 64 sessions to covere my ACL rehab), covered pelvic health consultations and therapy? What if we normalize discussions around working through the muscular and fascial tension around the reproductive organs like we do with other body parts?
What if we treated the region of the body, the organs that grow life and nurture our species, with reverence and respect instead of shame and disgust?
This slow peeling back or cracking open cannot be forced (just like recovery or spirituality or getting in shape needs to be the decision of the actor). I have many more questions and more deep work to do. If you chose to explore this vein however, you might create more space for yourself, a place to be gentle with your body and experience within a knowledgeable and supportive community. It might seem new and brazen, part “woo woo” and part western sanctioned science, but you might as well dip your toe in and ask a question.
Interested in exploring more about what Julia shared and "peeling back" the layers of what might be supporting or limiting your pelvic health? Feel free to contact me for one on one PT treatment, attend any of my upcoming workshops or join me for my next Retreat To Your Root.