OTs In Pelvic Health

How Digestive Health Can Help Us Interpret the Language Of Our Body

• Season 1 • Episode 83

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More About My Guest:
Jessica Dobson can be found on IG at @pelvicyogiOT 

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Lindsey Vestal What an honor to have Jessica Dobson on the OTs In Pelvic Health podcast today. Jessica has been in O.T. for over 12 years and has been working in Pelvic health for the last three. She is a lifelong learner and is currently deep diving into all things digestive health to help her clients. She is a self-described health and wellness cheerleader. She is passionate about helping others learn how to connect with their bodies and promoting wellness through nutrition, stress management and life balance. She's a certified yoga instructor, functional nutrition and form practitioner and Reiki practitioner. Her favorite quote is by Oscar Wilde and it's be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. Let's get into today's conversation. 

Intro New and seasoned OTs are finding their calling in Pelvic health. After all, what's more, ADL than sex, peeing and poop? But here's the question What does it take to become a successful, fulfilled and thriving O.T. in Pelvic health? How do you go from beginner to seasons and everything in between? Those are the questions and this podcast will give you the answers. We are inspired OTs. We are out of the box OTs. We are Pelvic health OTs. I'm your host Lindsey Vestal and welcome to the OTs and Pelvic health Podcast. 

Lindsey Vestal Jess, thank you so much for coming on to the Odds and Pelvic health podcast to talk all about nutrition, pelvic health and all of those overlaps. I am so grateful you're here. 

Jessica Dobson Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here and allowing me to have this platform that I'm so passionate about digestive health, nutrition and just overall health and wellness. 

Lindsey Vestal Yeah, yeah. All of those things are so in OTs scope of practice. And I think sometimes it is so worth it to have a conversation to see how they all fit together. I think intuitively, intuitively we know they do. But you're a practitioner who is doing this day in and day out and helping us illustrate and crystallize what we can do even even more to step into these topics that intersect with Pelvic health is so important. So I'm so glad you're here so that we can really crystallize this. 

Jessica Dobson Thank you. I'm excited to dive in deep. 

Lindsey Vestal So I'm going to start with a really, I guess, like a foundational question for this conversation. Do Ottps have a role in nutrition? Is it actually in our scope of practice to address these things with our clients? 

Jessica Dobson Absolutely, yes. My goodness. I love this question because more recently I've gotten back into AOTA , who have been diving deep into the Ottps and learning a little bit more of how I can expand my nutrition health and how I can justify it to other people. And absolutely the newest practice framework. So for those of you who don't know what that is, that's our otters, quote unquote Bible. Everything we do, a lot of our guidance and how we frame how we work with our clients is embedded in this extensive document. I think it's about 87 pages and going through it's quite intense, even though it's that big. It's still very vague in different areas. And I love that I have grown to just love the gray area as a note because I think it allows us more space to implement what is happening in current research, what's happening in society and in our cultures. And right now, we're really in this phase of a lot of education and information that's out there in the world on digestive health, on nutrition. And the practice framework does involve nutrition. So I pulled it up recently and under Occupations are for you, I think a few pages in it discusses nutrition management. And what it says is. Nutrition management, implementing and adhering to nutrition and hydration recommendations from the medical team. Preparing Meals to Support Health Goals. Participating in Health. Promoting Diet routines. And to me, that that encompasses a lot. And it gives us the wiggle room if we're passionate or if we're finding that with our clients to work on. Digestive health. 

Lindsey Vestal I am so glad you brought up our Bible or our practice framework. You know, Jessica, if you happen to have it in front of you, can you read us the part that specifically says that nutrition is in our scope of practice? 

Jessica Dobson So what I just read is under occupations. So it's part of the occupation is nutrition management. I had like, I would have to go in deeper to see if we can find more. But health and wellness is a big push in the life that we've seen this shift in the past few years. And that is, I mean, health and wellness and supporting our clients. That's nutrition, that's meal planning, that's learning about meals as part of our adls and ideals. So I really think the specificity of it there isn't as pointed out, but I think it really allows this expansive underlying of utilizing health and wellness for every client across the lifespan nutrition and dietary needs and dietary guidelines. Start from neutral all the way to our aging population. This affects every single one of us and our clients. 

Lindsey Vestal Yeah. I couldn't agree more. And I think that for every occupational therapy practitioner, you've given an incredible overview explanation. But I want to step more deeply into pelvic health occupational therapists now, because I think even more so, even more so. These are overlapping content, you know, overlapping concepts that are coming in all the time. And so I was wondering, since you're already doing this in such a beautiful way, can you help us understand a little bit more specifically like how you incorporate nutrition into your work with clients? Do you mind like walking us through a typical client? 

Jessica Dobson Yeah, absolutely. So to give you a little background, I work in an outpatient clinic and I typically see a wide variety of pelvic health issues. So I would say a majority of my referrals are for digestive health related diagnosis, such as bowel dysfunction, constipation, fecal incontinence. So those type of patients I'm definitely talking about nutrition, but I'm really talking about nutrition and digestive health with everyone that walks in my door because it affects everything we do. And there are ways we can promote health with every single one of our clients, whether it's your postpartum mother or someone recovering from prostate cancer. And I think there's so much we can do to just help and assist. So to give you a little example of maybe more of a typical client, I see would be someone who comes in with constipation. So I do my email intake paperwork and I go over all the different things that I treat, explain to them some anatomy of the pelvic floor muscles and how they relate. And then I talk about abdominal space. I give some context of what could be going on digestive Lee to help plant that seed in their brain. For us having that conversation on nutrition down the road. I always have to remember that what I deem as important the client might not. So their doctor may have discussed with them a possibility of a muscle dysfunction in their pelvic floor. So when they come to me, that's on their brain. They're not necessarily thinking I am going to see this person to work on my nutrition and fix some things going on in my lifestyle. So I'm very aware of that. And so I introduce it in a way that makes sense. And if that client is interested off the bat and is already asking me questions about digestive health based on what information I've given them, then I might dive a little deeper sooner. But all of my clients leave that first evaluation with a diary to fill out. Some of them are more in depth, so I have two different versions. And it's usually a bowel bladder. So I want to know what they're eating, what they're drinking when they're using the restroom, what their bowel movement consistency is, what their urgency level is. And then my other version is a little bit more in depth of what kind of proteins, what kind of fiber they're having. And I usually reserve that for somebody who is very knowledgeable about their dietary needs. Or we've already been working for a while. So the client will take that home and fill it out for at minimum three days. And that is something I do recommend too, if you are providing a diary because you need a spectrum. And we all know we don't do the same things every day. And we may have a really good day and then we may have a day. We're not having such a good day. So at minimum, three days seven is great. Usually does not happen, but around three days the client will then bring that back on their next visit and that's when I give more nutrition education. I want to have some contacts and I want to ask them, What did you learn from filling this out? What does your daily food habits look like for you? What do you think you might be lacking in? And they might not know. They may have zero idea because, again, this is not necessarily on their brain. So that's when I discuss some things like the recommended water intake being half of their body weight in ounces as kind of the best estimate. We talk about fiber and why fiber is important. It is the fuel for our digestive system. So for in order for our body to break down the foods we're eating, we need fiber. And we talk about how you can get fiber from foods. You know, we talk a lot of them do come in on supplements and we talk about that. I always try to push Whole Foods more than supplements and packaged food items, but I'm always meeting people where they're at. If I can get them to take a supplement. And they're not going to eat any vegetables right now. It's okay. Right. Meeting our clients where they're at. And we kind of the journey never looks the same because everyone has such a unique set of personal life stories, lifestyles, genetics, situations that guide us on our path. On working with nutrition. But I use what I can and try to introduce it right away. And if it doesn't hit home right away, I circle back. We working for a while. We've worked on the muscles. The muscles are doing great, but we're still having these loose stools or we're still having these hard stools. And I will bring up, Hey, let's talk about nutrition. Let's just kind of see what you're already doing and see what we can we can adjust. 

Lindsey Vestal It was such a beautiful portrayal of of your very thoughtful work. And what really resonated with me is how you kind of brought up at the very beginning this idea that it could be a little bit of a of what could feel like a bait and switch to our clients. You know, they came in for one set of concerns. And here we are bringing in, you know, nutrition or if they came in for urinary incontinence, even talking about bowel health, it could feel it could feel really foreign to a client. And I think I often feel this way around nervous system techniques. I, I feel like when we when we talk about the nervous system, when we talk about nutrition and all of these things, it it is so important to bring the client in, into our motivation, into our rationale, into our reasoning, and to look at it as if it's the first time we're hearing it. Because while we understand the relationships and the connection so innately, this is the first time the client is hearing it. And so kind of bringing them in and explaining the relationships and the connections and why these things matter, you know, I think is incredibly important for that intrinsic motivation piece. 

Jessica Dobson Absolutely. I look at it kind of this way. It's like you can have the key as the practitioner, as the pelvic health therapist, but if the client is standing in front of the door, it doesn't matter. It has to matter to them. They have to be willing to step outside of that safety zone that they've created around themselves and the ideas that they have to accept that information. And a lot of the times I find that clients are not able to accept the amount of information I could give and with nutrition. Small steps matter. Small little changes that they can make. And often times and you may feel this way, too, with the nervous system when they see the changes. It might be more willing to accept that deeper information and deeper connections into what it all means. 

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Lindsey Vestal Yeah. I mean, that's. That's client centered work at its finest. You're. You're exactly right. You know, Jessica, I know you have a big passion for digestive health. Can you tell us a little bit more about about what that is and what you wish every client you ever saw and knew about it? 

Jessica Dobson Well, loaded question. Beautiful, though. Digestive health is really passionate to me, based on my own life journey and my client's journey. Going into Pelvic health, I never envisioned that this is where it would end up. I was brought to here because this is where the clients led me. Clients, I think, drive what we become passionate about sometimes. Innately we want to help people. I think as public health practitioners, we really are root cause practitioners. We want to know the why and the why is. What brought me to digestive health is I kept seeing clients defeated. Had gone to several specialist. Came to us almost as if this was the last. Stop on the train is possibly the muscles or possibly pelvic health could help you, but they had no context in the why. And it really brought me to question what else I could know, What else could I be doing? Because I was finding that so many people were not getting answers and really not getting a lot of education on nutrition in their digestive health. And this even goes to those who are menstruating people. Hormone health. That too. I kept seeing this disconnect with nutrition. As in, why are we talking about how we can support your hormones that are involved so much in your digestive process? And so for me, it was the Y and my clients that drove this. And B, being on my own health journey off and on my whole life had really made me feel passionate about diving in deeper and equipped to because I had gone through different phases of my life and in different health journey. So I knew a little and I knew enough, but not enough to really help people the way that I wanted to. So for me, digestive health is that little missing piece of what we're all doing in health. We're all trying to find out where the pain is coming from. Why is the urinary incontinence happening? And the piece of the puzzle of digestive health is so big in this that I think we often just aren't sure what to do with it. So that's a great question is what I wish everyone knew. I wish everyone knew that their bodies are not broken and that we are able to help ourselves and our bodies are trying to communicate with us when we have symptoms, digestive symptoms, constipation, when we have hot flashes or constant thirst. Those are all signals that our body is trying to tell us something is not right. Something is off and we can listen to that and we can learn how to interpret our bodies language, how to fix what we can with new tools. And so that's a very big part of what I wish we all knew. But I wish we knew that what we eat and how we can really help our mood. There's so much to do with depression, anxiety that it is affected by how our gut is functioning, how we could help ourselves with hormone regulation, how we can help ourselves with digestive stomach pains, with all over body ailments, with just learning a little bit about nutrition. 

Lindsey Vestal You are you are one. I mean, I could not I could not agree with you more. And I really love how you described finding your path. Your you're exactly right. I think our clients do lead us down and help us discover our passions. And speaking of passions, I know that hormone health is another really, really important topic to you. I'd love to learn a little bit more about how you approach hormone health with your clients. 

Jessica Dobson Hormone health. The big one, Right. It's such an interesting topic to me, especially as I go through life as I age. Now I'm a mom of two kids, and the other side of that has really made me, for the first time, look in depth about hormones. We don't get a lot of information. It's it's really unfortunate and a disservice that we aren't taught about what happens during our menstrual cycles and what a normal period should look like. So hormone health to me, I love to start with menstrual health. If it's a menstruating person and look and having people take a deep dive into that if they're willing. Because it is a report card. It tells you what is going on with the rest of your health. When you're looking at your menstrual cycle and you look at it month after month, you can notice the changes that are happening in your body and support your health. So I love working with menstrual health. I also love educating others on cortisol, on the thyroid adrenal glands because that is all embedded along with our sexual organ health and our sexual hormones, but also with our digestive health. So we think about it separately, but really they're all intertwined. And so when I got into digestive health, it led me over to hormone health because I started to learn about cortisol levels and how high cortisol levels can affect your blood sugars, but also affects how your estrogen is in your body and how you can become estrogen dominant with lots of cortisol in your body and that can decrease your progesterone during your cycle. And all of that can show up when you record it because the length of different parts of your cycle will change and your symptoms will change. And when I really looked at that whole picture, I really thought, Wow, one hour cycles are amazing. But two, if we all could just spend a few minutes a day to write down how we felt that day and what was going on with our body. How much more we could be prepared for, how much more we would understand about ourselves, the gassing of. I don't want to go out to this event tonight because I don't feel well and I don't know why. But we go and look at our chart and realize, well, it's the week before our period and our body is resting or preparing. How great that knowledge is when you learn it is. It's a game changer. It changes how I do my work, how I show up for events in my life. I really think hormones need a little bit deeper to look at on an individual basis. So I love using that with my clients. I love using charts, documentation, conversations. Just even the education pieces is such a brain switch for people. wait. So like, this could be normal. 

Lindsey Vestal Yeah. I love how you refer to it as a report card. I think that is so spot on. And in even in my own private practice, I. I really became aware of how important this was with prolapse. Know, So I had clients I my private practice was in New York City. There was a lot of Type A, you know, very driven clients that I had the privilege of serving. And, you know, very often they would say, okay, you know, and more than likely this was around ovulation time. You know, they felt great. They were asymptomatic and then come to the time around their period, it it changed and they thought, what did I do wrong? Did I do do one of my exercises wrong, you know, with my breathing mechanics off? And they would kind of go through this litany of things that made them feel like it was their fault. And once I started talking a little bit about how the vaginal wall changes with when we're menstruating versus when we're ovulating, and they could predict and maybe even shift what exercises they were doing that week instead of doing CrossFit. Maybe they were doing some restorative yoga and it gave them the choice on what to anticipate. And that pattern recognition made them feel like it was wasn't their fault, right? That it was actually just a rhythm, a soundtrack of their life, that if they could just listen to goodness, what a what a gift to be able to understand what these signals mean. 

Jessica Dobson Yeah, absolutely. That really common problem that I see women coming in with the prolapse symptoms and then questioning why it's changing or when they're getting exams from their medical practitioners or therapists. You know, it shifts throughout the time so it can make them feel crazy because one time they see it and then the next time they don't. But that recording really helps them see why I keep having the same symptom of heaviness and it's the same time. And yes, that connection is so helpful in healing because when you know and you can kind of identify, you can prepare and you can understand it. I use that with nutrition, too, with looking at the cycle. There are ways to support yourself so your periods are not as intense that may be there. You're not getting the. Premenstrual symptoms of pain, heavy bleeding, and you can adjust some of that by working on things like lifestyle changes, but also nutrition. Also, how can you set your body up so you can handle and get through your period? One thing that we're talking about cycles and prolapse is and such. Is really a organ that I love. I love the liver. The liver is my new just I need to make an ode to the liver because that is one powerful organ. And we use that organ with our hormones during our cycle. Our liver is detoxing us from our hormones, and that has a lot to do with what's happening with the endometrium and the lining of our uterus during our cycles. And so liver support is something that I love talking with menstruating women on is how you can support your liver before your cycle starts and during your cycle. And that can be digestive health and nutrition recommendations along with maybe taking out some of those triggering things that make it harder for the liver to do its job. 

Lindsey Vestal My gosh. We could just. We could totally geek out about all of this stuff because I just feel the layers, like an onion, and it's like I can. I feel your passion through through our chat today and just how I don't want to call it, like going down a rabbit hole, but it kind of is because once that door opens and you get introduced to all these incredibly powerful, embodying ways to serve our clients, it's like it's so hard not to keep opening up the next door and then, you know, before you know it, you're falling in love with the liver. 

Jessica Dobson That is that is awesome. 

Lindsey Vestal You know, Jessica, you are clearly, obviously very self-motivated and, you know, very passionate about all of these topics. For anyone listening to our conversation today who kind of want to start investigating this for their own practice and enhance their knowledge. Are there any particular courses that really influenced you or impacted your career the most? 

Jessica Dobson Yes. So most recently I went to get a certification and the certification is called a Functional Nutrition Informed Practitioner. So that means that I have been functionally nutrition educated and that I can inform others of this knowledge. And it was a game changer for me. It opened a lot of personal things for me. I worked a lot on my personal digestive health journey after going through this course. But I use it every day with my clients. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning more and wants to implement some nutrition education into their sessions. It's through. PESI and there are continuing education company that deals often with mental health. So they use do a lot for psychologist and clinical social workers and psychiatrists and they have a lot of really cool courses on nutrition and mental health. So I think it's applicable for everybody. But I personally think it's a really good way to dive deep in and learn an extensive knowledge of how functional nutrition can help your clients. 

Lindsey Vestal That is awesome and I love that. It's I love that it's delivered by a mental health focused company that is. That's awesome. Are there anything and this can be a hard question to ask you to answer. Are there any topics? Are there any topics that are off limits for us? So let's say we haven't taken a continuing education course. We haven't we haven't taken a certification, we haven't even taken a single course on nutrition. But in a lot of our introductory pelvic health courses, you know, we're taught, we're taught about the balance bladder journal, we're taught about the role of fiber, we're taught about hydration, right? So I think some of these like foundational topics, most occupational therapy practitioners are comfortable weaving into their sessions. But is there a line drawn, Jessica? Is there a line where, you know, we do need like, how do we know when we do need to seek out additional education? 

Jessica Dobson Yeah, that's a good question. And I think about it a lot and I'm always checking myself. I'm always looking at that boundary line that I've created for myself and making sure that it makes sense to me. Can I push it because of what I know now? Or do I need to really stay true to what I am doing as an. But I think it's just coming in intuitively to yourself and what you're thinking. Like if you are thinking, I'm not sure about this, I probably would learn more or defer out if you're not sure. I you know, we we don't want to ever do harm. And I really think if your heart's in the right place and you want to help someone, you're really not going to do harm. But I think it's important to just really think about where your knowledge base starts and ends or use it as an opportunity for both of you to learn together. I will often pull ads. I've got my computer out all the time. I tell all my clients I don't know everything. I don't remember every specific detail for what vitamin is and what food or what supports what organ function. But I'm willing to learn and I'm going to sit down with you, whatever you want to know, let's do it together. Let's facilitate this conversation together. And I'll pull my computer out and Wolf will answer those questions together. And what if we don't know? Then we'll look for an outside source like functional medicine doctor. Holistic medicine doctor. There are functional nutritionist. You can look at dietitian and nutritionist as well. You know, looking for that outside source. But I think it just depends on the person and where your competency is and where your education is. Just like everything else we do in public health. I'm not going to do an internal exam if I've never been educated on internal exams. So I think it just applies the same way. There probably needs to be some education that you have to back up what you're saying. But I think you can use it also as a learning experience with it. 

Lindsey Vestal Yeah. Yeah, I think that's fantastic. I think those are those are great reflections because we always want to do right by our client. And it's it's just, you know, being driven by passion and then gaining the knowledge, getting the support that you need to be able to feel confident in and sharing that. Speaking of which, how do you know when to refer out to other specialists, you know, people who this really is their their full time job, you know, prescribing supplements, you know, really focused on on functional medicine. How do you know when to refer to these specialists and who do you think are like the top people you do refer to? 

Jessica Dobson Yeah. You know, that's that's one that I struggle with just based on finding those people to refer out to. It's it's hard. It's hard to find the people. But I'm always very upfront, honest. I tell my clients I am not a nutritionist. I am not a dietitian. These are my passion things and this is my education. But if you are asking me something I don't feel comfortable with. We're going to look for outside sources. And for me, that's I'm not I'm not going to prescribe anything. I'm not going to prescribe a supplement. I'm not going to give someone a specific diet plan. But I will talk about benefits. And I would rather always use whole food sources when I'm talking about nutrition. So I feel pretty good about that. I feel like I can tell them, you know, they're saying, well, my lab values for this or my daughter, my doctor doesn't think I'm getting enough vitamin C or things of that nature We can talk about, Well, hey, let's get you some more orange food in your diet. Let's get some more greens in your diet for that zinc or whatever we're talking about. I feel comfortable with that. But when it comes to prescribing specifics, I would defer out or if a patient is on a lot of medications, I don't I don't want to cause any harm in that. And if they're really asking specific nutrition advice, that's usually when I'm referring out to go back to their doctors or to look for someone who can help with that specific recommendation. Other clients if. If I'm if I am thinking that there might be a mental health aspect of and when I say that, I'm talking more the lines of like an eating disorder. You know, I'm mentally health trained. I'm an attorney. This is within my scope. But that's probably not appropriate for me if there is an eating disorder involved. And so that where I might seek out more help, I'll keep them almost always, because these are my babies. These are my my patients that I put my pride and love into to support them. Digestive Lee But I might refer a client with a question of an eating disorder out so they can get that mental health support that they really need. And then as far as who I'm referring out to, I would recommend for anyone who is in Pelvic health to find a good functional medicine doctor or a functional medicine nutritionist, that's kind of my preferred because they are very knowledgeable on the topic of food as medicine, and that's where I would love. I don't have that where I'm at. I think there's two people in the area and it's very hard to get into. And there's always a cost part that on top of this it's typically out of pocket. But those are my top two favorite to refer to. Also, you can look for the holistic doctors, naturopathic doctors. And I encourage anyone that is thinking about referring out, go meet with these people, go have lunch with them or ten minute phone call and get their vibe about how they treat digestive health in relation to what you specifically do pelvic health your clientele that you're seeing. Because it is really expensive to send people and you want to make sure that it's jiving with what you're thinking the client might need. So I really recommend that you sit with them and talk to them about their philosophies and treatment options. 

Lindsey Vestal I couldn't agree more for a couple of reasons. Number one, typically functional medicine doctors are don't accept insurance. Right? So their their private pay. And number two, I think that not every functional just because someone is a functional medicine practitioner, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a fit for that client. And so I personally loved meeting with naturopaths and functional medicine doctors as many as I could in the community I was living in because there are some of them are a little bit more in like kind of like the airy fairy type, you know. Others are a little bit more evidence based. And I think finding a match for your client is really important. Not that that is, you know, 100% our responsibility, but I think it's a beautiful service to be able to at least do some due diligence to understand the background and the approach. And that also means that you're building in-roads in the community. And likely the more you get to know that practitioner, if they have someone who has a pelvic health need, they'll think of you or they'll think of pelvic floor therapy. So there's a lot of added benefits to getting to know the practitioners in your area. 

Jessica Dobson Yeah, absolutely. I've gone to lunch with 1 or 2 and I've gotten some really interesting referrals back and it actually was a pelvic floor issue and they probably would have never gotten there if I wouldn't have had that step in conversation because nobody was thinking about it. So it is it is always great to find that community because we we should be part of a community. We don't you know, we all say this all the time. We don't have to do it all. And when you can find that other person in your community to help, that's I mean, that's amazing. That's what the dream is. 

Lindsey Vestal 100%, 100 percent. So we're on a personal note. Are there any books that you're reading right now that are inspiring to you or podcasts? 

Jessica Dobson Yes. I am reading like five books right now. So, you know, for digestive health, it's actually a book you recommended was a Psycho Biotic Revolution. Yeah. Yes, That one is really interesting. And it's really easy to read. For those of you who want to learn more about digestible health. The Second Brain is a fabulous, intense book about the gut brain connection. But it's it's dense and I'm for menstrual cycles. I'm currently reading the hormone intelligence, which is massive, but also so involved in women's health that I recommend it for anyone who's treating women. It's it's beautiful. 

Lindsey Vestal Is that a V verum? 

Jessica Dobson Yes. Yeah. 

Lindsey Vestal Yeah. 

Jessica Dobson And also recently, I just finished 28 days ish, and it's a podcast some periods and it goes by the day of your period. So it goes. Every episode is day one of your cycle. Day two. So it's really cool if you do it along with your cycle, if you're a menstruating person because you learn a lot about what's happening at that stage along with what else is happening in the research. And it's it's pretty interesting. 

Lindsey Vestal That is so cool. I've never heard of that one. 

Jessica Dobson Yeah, it's and the woman is British and it's just so lovely to listen to. 

Lindsey Vestal She's got a great accent. And then my my last personal question for you is, what do you do for a nervous system reset? 

Jessica Dobson Well, for me or for my clients?

Lindsey Vestal Well, now you've got me that. Now I want to ask you both. 

Jessica Dobson Yes. Okay. So for me, I've recently just really totally fallen in love with myself and my awkward, weird, vibrant personality. And I love that my nervous system reset is dancing and not necessarily yoga, although it can be yoga. And it can be. Meditation when I need more rest. But dancing to Latin music or hip hop is is how I really get my nervous system reset. I feel like I let it let it all out and I bring all the good in when I do dancing. So that's what I love to do. And for my clients, I love providing a way to relax. So I know we're all familiar with that client who tells you they don't know how to relax, hates relaxing, can't do it. So I always find it a fun challenge to figure out what I can do to help them relax the nervous system and reset. And I'll use I always let them choose a music and I don't tell them what we're going to do before they choose the music. And they pick whatever they want to listen to. And I put it on in the room. And then I'll typically, if it's a person that I knows needs movement, we do a real fun just like one of those big therapy balls. Roll it around, pass it to each other, do some awkward movements if it feels good. Stretching the back, doing a lot of spinal extension flexion. And then if it's someone who I know could benefit from the relaxed state and can get there, we get into laying down. I'll do inversion so I get their hips up, legs up. Uncomfortable questions. And then we do a weighted heat pack. And I'll do a guided meditation, just kind of working on identifying pain in their body or places where they're feeling just intuitive, little guided meditation. 

Lindsey Vestal How beautiful is that? my gosh. Thank you so much, Jazz, for for coming on the podcast today and really sharing with us your, your very clear passion for for this area that it just is it feels like it resonates so much with Pelvic health. There's just so much overlap. And I think that the inspiration that you provide it today, I hope will will encourage folks to kind of go down this route and see how they can implement some of these own strategies into their current practice. 

Jessica Dobson Yes, absolutely. I had so much fun. Thank you. 

Outro Thanks for listening to another episode of OTs and Pelvic health. If you haven't already, hop onto Facebook and join my group OTs for Pelvic health, where we have thousands of OTs at all stages of their pelvic health career journey. This is such an incredibly supportive community where I go live each and every week. If you love this episode, please take a screenshot of this episode on your phone and posted to IG Facebook or wherever you post your stuff and be sure to tag me and let me know why you like this episode. This will help me to create in the future what you want to hear more of. Thanks again for listening to the OTs and Pelvic Health podcast. 


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Lindsey Vestal

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