Pelvic Potential Physical Therapy

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Aptos, CA
Pelvic Potential Physical Therapy

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Specialty Clinic in Santa Cruz, CA focused on improving pelvic floor function integrated with whole body wellness.

Conditions treated include incontinence, pelvic pain, pelvic organ prolapse, pain with s*x, diastasis recti,

06/27/2024

Still reflecting on the most ENERGIZING, SYMBIOTIC, HARD WORKING group I had the pleasure of teaching PNF to on behalf of the at . The more I study PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) the more literal magic I feel in it and genius I see in it. FOREVER grateful for my mentors at where I spent almost 5 years, and for pushing it further (and for their personal mentorship and lastly, to all of my son’s teachers!! If you are in a teaching capacity, do whatever you can to observe awesome elementary school teachers!! Teaching to every level, maintaining a sense of calm, conveying necessary information and making sure kids still “like coming to school”. That to me sums up what I want in an instructor and have worked really hard to emulate them!

Many grad programs are moving away from teaching it in schools after a (imo VERY poorly written and not well researched) opinion paper came out from the neuro section at APTA claiming that manual skills weren’t necessary for motor control training. I wish every one of the people responsible for that paper, the heads of all PT programs and anyone with similar thoughts could be in my classroom, because they would walk away believing in the power of this work. I used to give up 4 days of patient care, pay for childcare and drive up to San Francisco every fall to volunteer to teach in my old grad program and due to this paper, we have not been invited back (students for decades said our class was the best part of the neuro class and some of the only manual skills they were taught).

PNF is learned like a package from Etsy, not amazon: it takes a lot of practice and dedication, but it’s fu€king worth it. It “turns on” muscles that were not as engaged, it connects extremities to the core, it mobilizes joints, soft tissues, neurovascular structures and viscera. It feels good because it taps into our DNA and how we were designed to move and feel to survive. It will always be my first PT love and the foundation of everything I do♥️

04/15/2024

My #1 favorite and my OWN mama is 70 today! She is the favorite person of so many people, especially her family, grandchildren and the children that she has cared for at her LEGENDARY preschool, Rocking Horse Ranch for the past almost 40 years! My mom has taught me so many things:
✨how to love big
✨how to expect the best out of people
✨how to look for creative solutions
✨how to trust your intuition
✨the power of how moving your body makes you feel
✨how to walk through life with enthusiasm
✨how to see beauty existing all around you all the time.

She has overcome so much in her life and done so many big things that ripple out to so many people. It is an honor to be her daughter and I try to pass her light on all the time.

📸: and

03/28/2024

I was talking to a new mom the other day and told her that the only thing I regret from the kids being babies was not taking more time for myself. Fast forward to today with a 5.5 and 8 year old! Mama had track practice and Dada had to work late so to the track during dinner time the boys would go! I basically did extra intervals racing around my house to make dinner and pack all the things we needed. And then it started raining. So I added two beach chairs to the car and away we went. I almost turned around a gazillion times. Was it better for them to be home? Was I putting myself first at their expense? Fast forward to Mama getting an EPIC workout, the boys happily playing under an overhang before watching a movie on a tablet as soon as their watch hit the agreed upon movie starting time and then the rain cleared up enough for them to run around the field and tackle football dummies. Driving home they said it was the best night! And even if it wouldn’t have been their best night, they deserve a mom who has harnessed the joy from having HER best night. So maybe you don’t want to do something as unhinged 🤣🤣as dragging your kids to the track in the rain, but take that extra few minutes to put yourself first. Eat some of those expensive out of season berries instead of giving them all to your kids. Take a 10 minute walk in the morning. Let them watch that extra show so you can take a shower. You are doing a good job🫶♥️🫶

03/27/2024

is one of my faves muses in the physical therapy space and just one of my favorite people in general! Having the opportunity to collaborate with her before she got pregnant, during pregnancy and postpartum with Sophia was such a ride! We had a lofty goal: get her through pregnancy and to the start line of the Olympic marathon trials after birth, healthy, and strong. We LOVED having this conversation with on her epic podcast “Active Mom Postpartum” talking all about that journey! Hopefully some great take home points whether you are pregnant, post partum or a practitioner who works with those populations! Also, shout out to the whole “Team Steph” who are SO great to work with: and of course

03/09/2024

When we feel seen, loved, supported and energized, we go out into the world more able to use our unique gifts to change it for the better. When we hold a mirror up to other people and say “THIS is who you are and there is so much awesomeness here” they see it a little more themselves. When we make space to move for the sake of it just feeling good, we claim our right to pleasure, not just existence. When we surround ourselves with people who add life to every room they enter, we are all lifted up! Still not over the incredible energy .t.madison brought to an incredible morning of yoga at stadium with !
📸:

02/23/2024

Best squad cue you probably have never heard? “RELAX YOUR ANUS”!!!! Seriously, hear me out. So many of my patients are squatting while tight gripping through the back half of their pelvic floor, thinking they are “activating their glutes”. Also, some are just guarding through their pelvic floor, unconsciously, while keeping their pelvis tucked under. Some are even doing this thinking they are doing a good thing and “protecting their back”. Many of these patients are also struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction of some kind.

Your pelvic floor should be lengthening as you go into a squat! Sometimes, if you think about this simple cue of letting your a**s fully RELAX AND OPEN as you go down, it clears up other parts of your squatting pattern that might not be serving your body without having to think about a gazillion cues! Try it and let me know how it works! here’s to booties that work and pelvic floor as that can take a break!

02/14/2024

Just finished “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine” by and I can’t recommend it enough for both healthcare workers AND all humans. Dr. Blackstock wove together her personal story (her mother was a physician, as is her twin sister) with a meticulous history of how racism affects health outcomes.

Things that stood out:

✨How f$&ked up the Flexner Report was: TLDR is that it shut down 5 out of 7 HBU Med Schools and we would have so many more black physicians if it hadn’t happened. Research shows that having a black healthcare team improves healthcare outcomes and saves lives, so it is a huge loss for our country.

✨How her grandmother went through nursing school as a single mom to 6 kids and how her mother recognized THAT as a huge achievement (on par with the Nobel prizes won by the parents of other med school classmates…as a mom, I’m ALSO more impressed by her grandmother than by Nobel prize winners as well)!!!

✨The HUGE miscarriage disparities between black and white women before 20 wks

✨Example after example of a the history of mistreatment of black people through a medical lens in our country…too many to name, but SO important to read

✨How important black owned and operated free standing birth centers are to communities, especially given that these communities have had their trust in medical institutions betrayed so many times. SO lucky to have so many amazing midwife/doula/PT colleagues in this space and we need more ♥️♥️♥️

Thank you and congrats on making it to the bestseller list!!! Order her book yesterday team…you will love it♥️

12/20/2023

Have you had a c-section? Or any surgery? Check out this little upgrade for working on your scar and the surrounding areas! One goal with scars and the skin around them is to remind those tissues that they can move without staying glued to the layers beneath them. A free/cheap tool that I LOVE is using a piece of theraband or even a rubber glove. This allows your fingers to stick to the top layers of skin to create a cool movement experience between them and the layers below. We also played with a similar idea in the *EPIC* course I just took with (she is hosting another one in AZ in early April…GO!!!!) where we used a coregeous ball, so that is an option too if you have one laying around. If you haven’t been cleared by your surgeon or PT to work directly on your scar yet, this is AMAZING to do in the areas above an below your scar!! Especially make sure to work on any areas you have numbness or altered sensation AND the border between these and areas you have “normal” sensation to integrate those parts of your body. Remember that “minimally invasive” surgeries are actually quite a big deal, so make sure to work the scars at your portal sites and over any areas you believe your surgeos were working in. also has a GREAT podcast on scars..search “Unreal Results” on apple podcasts….it is great!

Happy tissue moving!!

12/18/2023

Finally got to celebrate turning 40 and my clinic turning 5 this weekend! My heart is so full after being surrounded with people from all of my different ERAS🤣 together in one room. Here’s to community and surrounding ourselves with our biggest cheerleaders. A theme for the beginning of my 40’s is to reject the “boss babe” mentality that was ingrained in so many women in my generation and focus on being more at peace. Coincidentally, I can already see that this approach is letting me see new avenues of treatment for my patients and giving me the space to deepen my skill set. May YOU find grounding. May you find peace. May you feel the love that THIS little cheerleader is always sending your way too😘

11/21/2023

Incredible weekend studying with and an amazing group of colleagues this past weekend!!! I have been following Anna’s work for years and it has just made sense to me deep in my bones. I was listening to her podcast a few weeks ago, again, just feeling the deep resonance, looked up her courses and saw there was one just down the coast in San Diego a few weeks later. I immediately signed up and from then on, kept seeing “bread crumbs” that I was in the right place.

One of the biggest gifts I have gotten from a neurodiverse colleague is the appreciation of how things can be bigger than words and that’s how I felt about this weekend. But it leveled me up personally and professionally so much!

It came to me at the perfect time in my career. It gave me the chance to be surrounded by a room full of women who had truly left their egos aside and expanded their minds to what more can be possible for ourselves and our patients.

And my family and friends know that a weekend of filling my intellectual cup like that with a side of oceanfront morning runs and a mom only hotel room was the best way to walk into being 40!!!!

Thanks Anna and amazing TA’s and ! Highly recommend everything!!!

11/16/2023

Today I’m ✨FORTY✨and Pelvic Potential Physical Therapy is ✨FIVE✨

I’m so proud of where we have been, where we are and where we are going. I’m feeling so grateful for everyone who has poured into me in my personal life AND career. What a f$&king blessing it is to have both my children coming into themselves as people AND my parents here at the same time…it is a huge privilege. How unbelievable is it to have such strong bonds with people through so many key areas of life from childhood, college ( ), PT school (def no mascot at 🤣), residency and from this next phase of life as PARENTS in Santa Cruz. I can pour into my patients because I have a pipeline of love running into me from so many places forever. How special is it to have siblings who double as my besties/ life long cheerleaders?! Especially grateful for Nick (not on IG, but a good IG husband🤣) for everything he has done BTS to help me and PP thrive😍😍😍

I was telling someone this week that practicing physical therapy is my art and it just lights me up. It is such an HONOR to get to work with every person who comes into my practice. I will never stop evolving, growing and making sure I have space for rest/fun/silliness/grounding so I can give you the best care possible. You matter to me more than you know♥️

09/20/2023

Between my friends and patients, it has been a baby boom these last couple of weeks! I wanted to pop on and share my top two post partum tips. No, it’s not core activation or early hip strengthening, this is much more important! Drumroll please… It’s rest, and fueling! Seriously, though! Both these things put important measures in place to help with early tissue healing and minimize further damage!

As far as rest, I like to reference the old advice given to Tour de France cyclists: don’t stand at a time that you could be sitting and don’t sit at a time that you could be lying down. Laying down, especially is important because it takes pressure off of your healing, pelvic floor, perineal, wounds, and or C-section scar.

As far as nutrition, you literally are healing a placenta wound on your uterus, the size of a dinner plate, and any incision or tear areas that have been repaired. Also, for those who are producing milk, a lot of fuel goes into that as well! For a person who was 150 pounds before pregnancy, dietitian, Lily, Nichols recommends 130 g of protein per day during the postpartum period! That’s a lot and you really have to plan to get it! Lean on your friends and family that offer to help! hire a post partum July! If you are still pregnant, fill that freezer with all the nourishing goodies that will help you during this time!

And for those of you with postpartum people in your life, whether days, weeks, months, or years postpartum, this is your reminder to drop off a meal, send a DoorDash gift card or help take some thing off their plate so they can rest!

Address

6233 Soquel Drive Suite E
Aptos, CA
95003

Telephone

+18312198370

Website

http://www.pelvicpotential.com/

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