Rise Women's Core Wellness

04/05/2025

How it has been 1.5 years since I did an introduction, I do not know 😳

At any rate, hello! I’m Dr. Katie! I’ve been a practicing clinician since 2011. The PNW has always been home and I often think if I were to leave, “where would I go?”

I began my women’s health journey in PT school when I became enamored with helping women who struggled with basic functions (bowel, bladder, s3xual) and started my clinical education and post-doctoral studies in my third year of my graduate program. As the saying goes, the rest is history!

I became certified in dry needling in 2015 and use it as a main modality clinically. It has transformed both my life and the lives of many others physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Exercise and music have always been my medium. I grew up a competitive dancer and at 16, was accepted to attend Joffrey Ballet in Chicago (which I declined because I didn’t want to leave my boyfriend at the time 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🙄). As a senior in high school, I struggled to know if I should pursue collegiate studies or performing arts. After getting cut at my Juilliard audition in my first year of college, I reconciled it was the Lord’s plan for me to complete the former and I have no regrets!

I became a mama in my 30s and my son is my greatest joy and will always be my most prized calling. Walking life with him and having the chance to steward over such an incredible human is the coolest thing in the world.

I love coffee, sunshine and CrossFit. I am a water baby to my core; give me a paddle board and a body of water, and I am immeasurably happy! As I’ve said before, I love to hold stories and I cannot wait to hear yours! Thanks for stopping by!

09/02/2024

Dry Needling

What is it? Is it right for me? Will it hurt? Slide left to find out.

10/21/2022

TOTs: Tethered Oral Tissue

As clinicians we have skills to screen things, diagnose things and provide treatment that is within a paricular scope of practice, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, said skill is useless. In addition, I commonly hear clients express that if they do know they have TOTs or their children do that it’s “just a little bit.” Folks,TOTs (tongue ties, lip ties, buccal ties) are black and white: you have them or you don’t. It’s either there, or it’s not. The DEGREE of TOTs can vary, however. 

A normal lingual frenulum is about one half of the tongue. You should not see any blanching or restriction of movement, particularly when taking the tongue to the top of the palate. 

Today I had a follow up visit with a client who on her evaluation with myself was informed she had TOTs. You cannot appreciate the degree of her tie in the picture, but you can see that it is greater than the length of her tongue, blanching is visible and she cannot open the mouth more than what is seen because her tongue is so restricted in it’s mobility secondary to that tight piece of tissue. She talked with her dentist about this who then sent her to an ENT; as I understand it, both concluded that she has “no tie.” So where does that leave her? With two providers telling her she doesn’t have something and one who does, which is a really unfortunate place to be. I don’t know if she’ll pursue a release or myofunctional therapy to help her symptoms, but I do believe by not making that choice that she will likely continue to suffer. 

As providers, we need to do better. If we don’t know the answer or have the education to answer, we should be resourceful enough to help get our clients to places or individuals who can help. 

TOTs are not a “trend.” They are HIGHLY genetic and if you have them, your children will likely have them as well and often to a more severe degree. 

Some other signs of TOTs:

✅Dentition issues / crowding / over or underbite / inversion / gapping
✅Mouth breathing
✅Long face syndrome
✅High palpate / bone on top of the palate (palentine tori) / narrow palate 
✅Headaches / migraines

09/18/2022

Let me buy your coffee around two!

Good morning friends, how is your Sunday treating you! Let me make it a little bit sweeter!

Like this post, share it and your stories and tag us, , And DM me your Venmo to be entered to win a free coffee! Three love you beautiful souls will be chosen before 1 PM.

Much love to you all!

08/16/2022

Hi friend! Let me buy your coffee today! Like, dm, save, share and send me your Venmo!

04/06/2022

Tongue Tie Morphology

Decades ago, tongue tie was considered to be one thing: a tight band connecting the tip of the tongue to the top of the gumline. Over the last 15 years, we have increasing evidence that tongue ties can occur in different places. Here's a nice picture by Mikel Newman, DDS, a dentist in Indianapolis.

03/22/2022

02/23/2022

Sometimes all it takes is speaking to a physio to start connecting the dots to what is causing you pain. 💬

A physio's job is to not only ask you about your pain, but also your nutrition, water intake, birth control method, activity level, s*x life, bathroom habits, and more. And if they don't ask you those questions? 🛑✋🏼🚩All of these questions help us pinpoint exactly what is going on. And since pelvic pain can come from so many different areas and not just localized to the front of our bodies, sometimes it takes some real digging to get to the root of the issue.

If you're having to limit aspects of your life to avoid pain, that is NOT normal and you need to speak to a physio about it. If you're local to the Spokane/CDA area, I am currently accepting new patients. Go to the link in my bio to fill out a contact form so that we can work together 💛 🤝