The Special Care Needs of the LGBTQ+ Community

Happy Pride Month!!!! We are reposting an old post broadly discussing the LGBTQ+ community, with special focus on transgender individuals. Please keep checking back as we continue to discuss specific issues relating to the care of the LGBTQ+ community.   Amy Stein PT, DPT and Fiona McMahon PT, DPT Who are LGBTQ+ individuals? At Beyond Basics …

How to Improve Bladder Health

Fiona McMahon, DPT The bladder, not super complex right? Just a tupperware for pee, holding your urine until an opportune time to go. The bladder is so much more than that, integrating information from the brain, muscles of the pelvic floor, and responding to stretch to efficiently serve its purpose. We never think of the …

What is Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

By Amy Stein, DPT and Fiona McMahon, DPT As physical therapists who specialize in abdomino-pelvic pain disorders, one of the toughest parts of the job is meeting people who have suffered with pelvic pain for years, only to be told by their doctors/healthcare providers that there is no help for them. It is not uncommon …

Can Treating Your Pelvic Floor Beat the Bloat!?

Fiona McMahon PT, DPT Bloating is the worst. It hurts. It makes us feel uncomfortable in our clothes and can be super unpredictable. There is so much that can cause bloating and many times bloating can be caused by more than one thing: diet, gut flora balance (the ratio of good gut bacteria to bad), …

Endometriosis as a Feminist Issue

Fiona McMahon PT, DPT March is endometriosis awareness month. March is also women’s history month. It seemed like the perfect time to discuss how poor detection and treatment of the disease affects the welfare, social, economic health, physical health,  and quality of life of women. Endometriosis is a feminist issue. Here, at this blog, we …

What is Myofascial Release and Why do We Always Talk About it So Much?!

Fiona McMahon PT, DPT If you follow anything in the physical therapy world, you probably have heard about myofascial release, or MFR if your hip to our abbreviations. It has been a darling of the manual therapist’s tool kit for some time. But did you know their many different camps of physical therapy and these …

Pelvic Floor Mythbusters: Is kegeling the one true way to a healthy pelvic floor?

Fiona McMahon PT, DPT. Is kegeling the one true way to a healthy pelvic floor? Not always. We can end the blog here. Just kidding, of course there is nuance to be considered here. But as pelvic floor physical therapists, nothing is more cringe inducing than hearing the phrase “just do your kegels” thrown around …

Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The Ins and Outs of Colon Health

Fiona McMahon PT, DPT So what's IBS? IBS is a condition affecting the large intestine aka the colon. The colon is the next to the last stop in the digestive system, before the anus, and its function is to draw out water from the feces, so we don’t get dehydrated. It is possible for people …

Fight or Flight? Rest and Digest? Optimizing your Life with the Power of your Autonomic Nervous System

Fiona McMahon PT, DPT, She, her, hers You aren’t a zebra getting chased down by a lion on the Serengeti. You know that. But your body might not. Our modern day stress usually doesn’t involve us having to defend ourselves against wild animals. It often involves chronic seemingly unrelenting stress of work, relationships, and life. …

Pelvic Anatomy and Physiology – A Starting Point for Children

Eliza Etter PT, DPT, CLT Sometimes, we all have a little bit of trouble talking about what is going on “down there”. But it is paramount that even from a young age, we learn the proper words for our parts in order to make them more familiar and less embarrassing to talk about. Even though …