In our weekly feature section, Pelvic Rehab Report is proud to present this interview with newly certified practitioner Reeba Varghese, DPT. PRPC.

How did you get involved in the pelvic rehabilitation field?

I was asked to attend a course by my director back in 2008 because they wanted to expand pelvic rehabilitation services to a few of our company's locations. I told my director I did not think this specialty was for me but I would be willing to attend one course and see how I felt. When I attended PF1 I was immediately drawn in by the wealth of knowledge I gained. Learning the intricacies of the human anatomy, specifically the female anatomy just completely opened my eyes to one of Gods most amazing creations. Also, the passion in the instructors was contagious. When I returned to work and started to see patients with incontinence and listened to their stories my passion for supporting these individuals in their rehabilitation journey began to grow. As I continued to expand my knowledge base by attending more courses through Herman and Wallace I realized I had found my niche in the world of physical therapy.

In our weekly feature section, Pelvic Rehab Report is proud to present this interview with newly certified practitioner Amy Robinson, PT, PRPC, CLT.

What/who inspired you to become involved in the pelvic rehabilitation field?:

I first learned about pelvic rehabilitation while I was a student at the Indiana University Physical Therapy program. The instructor brought in speakers for special topics sessions and I must admit I knew at that moment that pelvic rehab was an area of interest for me. However, I was hesitant to start in the area of pelvic health as I felt I needed to gain experience as a new graduate, and I also wasn’t sure I would feel comfortable performing pelvic examinations. I chose to work in a hospital setting for one year, a long term care setting for 2 years, and then transitioned into outpatient physical therapy. There were numerous times in each of those settings that it was apparent pelvic rehabilitation was the missing link in the patients’ treatment plan. In 1998 we had a physician, Dr. Scott Miles, approach the president of the rehabilitation company that I worked for and request that they train a women’s health physical therapist. This was my opportunity and I took my first course with Kathe Wallace, PT. I remember thinking that she was a wealth of knowledge and her enthusiasm allowed me to get over the trepidation of performing pelvic examinations. She allowed me to focus on the examination process itself, how to apply critical thinking to the patient symptoms and evaluation findings, and how to pick the appropriate treatments. I was hooked! I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to participate in several continuing education courses all over the country from so many very talented Pelvic Health Practitioners and each and every one of them have inspired me in some way to continue to learn and perfect my skills as a pelvic practitioner.

In our weekly feature section, Pelvic Rehab Report is proud to present this interview with newly certified practitioner Amy C. Sanderson, PT, OCS, PPRC.

Describe your clinical practice.:

I am a co-owner of a private physical therapy practice in the Spokane, Washington area. We currently have 3 clinics and staff 14 providers overall. I have been an Orthopaedic Certified Specialist since 1996, and our clinic is primarily an orthopedic setting. We do, however, provide several specialties, including Pelvic Rehab, Vestibular Program, and Video Gait Analysis for athletes.

In our weekly feature section, Pelvic Rehab Report is proud to present this interview with newly certified practitioner Michele Syska, PT, PRPC

Describe Your Clinic:

Orthopedic manual based.  I love figuring out how mechanical issues may be affecting the current presentation.   I would also characterize my practice as open.  I’m up for trying new ideas either from course work, other therapists or patients.  I enjoy learning from the experience of others and have an open mind to many techniques.

Maureen Brennan, PT, PRPC graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign with her Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology, 2001 and then completed her degree in Physical Therapy from the Chicago campus in 2003. She achieved her Pelvic Rehabilitation Practitioner Certification in 2014.

Maureen has enjoyed treating patients at Rush University Medical Center for over a decade where she established a Women’s Health program and then expanded it to also include men and children. She is delighted to be part of the hospital’s Program for Abdominal and Pelvic Health which is a true multidisciplinary team that meets monthly to collaborate about challenging cases and offer continuing education opportunities for other health care professionals with an emphasis on the importance of teamwork.

In addition, she enjoys instructing a number of educational classes at the medical center that include prenatal education and pelvic floor health for employees and community members. She also presents talks focusing on a physical therapist’s perspective of pelvic floor dysfunction to Rush residents and physicians of neighboring hospitals.

Herman & Wallace is excited to announce that we will be offering a Pelvic Floor Level One course this year in Birmingham, UK!

This course will be hosted at Coventry University and taught by Michelle Lyons, PT, MISCP.? Unlike our usual PF1 courses, the Birmingham course will be a two-day event, starting on November 30^th.

France has it right when it comes to treating the pelvic floor of postpartum women.

On Monday, The New York Times published an article, ?The Re-Education of My Perineum.?? In it, author Ruth Foxe Blader tells the story of her experience in France after giving birth.? As she tells it, her experience in France is close to ideal.? Her physical therapist, Aude, handles the reality of pelvic rehab with the professionalism that is needed:

It is a reality in the world of pelvic rehab that too few patients are comfortable discussing their genitalia, anus, or the functions of any pelvic organ when things are going smoothly, much less when something goes amiss.? Often, questions about them are more likely to give blushes than honest answers.

Role/Reboot, a blog that focuses on gender roles and relations, published a blog this July titled ?The Sex Education I Wish I Had.?? In it, author Marianne Cassidy catalogues some of the main problems with sexual education.? While much of the piece is a litany of ?I wishes? for sexual education, Cassidy?s piece reminds me of the wonderful ?Camp Gyno? video Pelvic Rehab Report discussed two weeks ago. ?It?s refreshing to read a blog that is both honest and to the point about perfectly normal things like menstruation and masturbation.

At the end of her litany of ?I wishes,? Cassidy drives home the ultimate point of this blog, ?Most of all, I wish I?d grown up in an environment where my peers and I felt comfortable discussing sex and asking questions, because then maybe none of the above would ever have been scary or mysterious. ?I wish we had classroom discussions about sex and exams on sex and reflective essays on sex and it was all as normal and interesting and important as algebra or poetry.?

The Las Vegas Guardian published an article yesterday titled, ?Pregnancy Yoga Magic,? that articulates the benefits of yoga for pregnant patients.? Yoga, the article explains, ?can be the perfect choice for helping to increase endurance little by little, as well as improving muscle strength and honing one pointed focus ? important for birth preparation.?

This article does an excellent job illustrating that, while exercise is important for everyone, pregnant women must find exercise that is effective without being harmful: ?Pre-natal yoga practices are often geared to tune women into their pelvis and the flexibility therein as well as breath control and leg strength ? all critical tools to have during labor and delivery.? Unlike walking, weight-lifting or other ?regular? exercise, pre-natal yoga is fine-tuned to specifically prepare women for the birthing experience and to empower them into the knowledge that they can do this.?

However, few moms-to-be get as much exercise as they should: ?as many as 75% of pregnant women don?t do any type of exercise.?? This means that it is critical for anyone working with pregnant patients to emphasize the how crucial of a role exercise takes for both their health and the health of the child.

The Border Mail, an Australian newspaper, published an article today following Brian Costello, a man who underwent a prostatectomy.? Surgery for prostate cancer often leaves patients suffering with erectile dysfunction and incontinence.? However, Brian?s physicians did not send him into outpatient rehab, leaving him and his wife Jill, ?on their own.?

The piece titled ?Sex and Secret Men?s Business,? outlines how important pelvic floor and penile rehabilitation is, as well as how few hospitals are prepared to treat outpatients who survive prostate cancer.

Brian?s wife and daughter Leah started ManUp!, an advocacy organization meant to promote better prostate care in Australia.? All too often they hear stories like Brian?s; physicians who show ?no interest in what happens to their patients after prostate cancer treatment.? One man left impotent and incontinent after his robotic surgery[, and] was told the doctor?s job was simply to deal with the cancer.?