[00:00:00] Hey, Hey, Hey y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the Vagina Rehab Doctor podcast. This is exciting because we're in April y'all. We are in April now and the good thing is that, listen, spring has sprung. The weather is getting warmer. Things are blooming. Things are opening up. Hey, things are opening up.
The flowers outside are blooming open. So, you know what happens in the spring for us too? We bloom, right? We bloom, whether that's emotionally, we open up, whether that's physically, we get more limber and more mobile, whether that's our pelvic floor, it starts to open up, right? Y'all let's talk about group coaching for vaginismus.
So I have completely switched from in person pelvic floor physical therapy to 100 percent remote care. So to give you a background for those of you who are new. I'm a doctor of physical therapy. So I went to physical therapy school after already getting my bachelor's degree, got my doctorate in physical [00:01:00] therapy after working for a while, with orthopedic care.
So my foot hurts, my low back hurts, my shoulder, knee replacement, all that good stuff. After doing that for a couple of years, I started doing traveling physical therapy and I got into women's health. At that time it was called women's health and not pelvic health. Okay, so at that time I got into women's health physical therapy and I Decided to work with incontinence urinary frequency urinary urgency That was supposed to be a three month contract as a traveling therapist, but I got so Addicted to it that I renewed my contract to six months and then at the end of six months I was like, oh my god Uh, I want to do it for three more months and then it became 12 months.
And so at the end of that year of working in California, with urinary incontinence and bladder issues, I was like, I want to specialize and actually become a specialist. And so to become a pelvic floor physical therapist, you can do it just from experience, right? Working with, [00:02:00] with different people who have pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.
You can do it by taking some courses, but instead of going that route, instead of just getting the experience, I wanted to go to residency. So I moved to Loyola. I went from California to Loyola university here in Chicago. And I did a one year long residency in what is now considered pelvic health physical therapy.
And so that was great, challenging, but I got through it. And then I took the WCS, which stands for women's certified specialist. So now I'm board certified as a specialist in pelvic physical therapy. And I worked in Chicago here for about two years in person with the urogynecology team at the hospital that I was at.
And so it was great. I loved it. I learned a lot. I did a lot of stuff like, um, third and fourth degree tears after giving birth. So when you give birth vaginally, there's a chance that you could tear. So a lot of times there [00:03:00] is like a stitching, like you'll get stitched up. and so that can cause pain with sex that can cause.
just perennial pain, pain with sitting, it can cause other issues and other things that happen postpartum like incontinence or prolapse. I got a lot of experience with that, but then also some experience with sexual pain and vaginismus in person. After two years of treating at the hospital. And also sharing my info online, I started to realize that people were hungry for more education online.
And so when I started teaching more, doing more courses, doing more classes, I decided to start helping people remote, Fast forward, I ended up realizing that I didn't really need my hospital job anymore.
It was not a need. I did not have to go. I actually went to work one day and I was like, why am I here? Why am I here? Like, seriously. I was getting experience, yes, but I already had experience. I was doing [00:04:00] it for two years. Before that, I did residency for, for a year. Before that I was working with bladder dysfunction and stuff in California.
Before that I was doing physical therapy, orthopedic. So it wasn't like I didn't have experience. And so I was like, huh. I guess maybe I should consider like going independent. Few months down the road I did gather the courage to go ahead and quit. And so now vagina rehab doctor is my thing. So that is my business.
But I want to talk to you about how I made the switch from One on one coaching to now group coaching. And how does that work remotely? So when I decided to leave my job completely and only depend financially on my own resources, my own content, my own business. I was primarily doing one on one coaching in addition to the classes and courses and e guides.
But one on one coaching for people who wanted help to overcome incontinence, [00:05:00] vaginismus, sexual pain, prolapse, all of it. And I started to see results. I began to believe more in the remote care. So for me, it was like, okay, yeah, y'all are better, which is great. Congrats. And listen, you're feeling better in your body.
That's the goal. In addition to that, though, for me as a clinician, I developed a higher level of confidence in remote coaching for pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. And so I am not a coach. I am a doctor of pelvic floor therapy, right? So I have the skill, I have the understanding. but in terms of doing it, I do like to give it that name of coaching so people don't confuse it with in person medical care that is run by insurance and state legislation and all of that.
So I do coaching to make it very clear it is not the exact same thing from a legal standpoint. When I started doing the one on one and believing and seeing that people were having sex without pain, getting it in, doggie [00:06:00] style, no pain, listen, having orgasms, stronger and better than ever, from remote care, not peeing in their pants anymore, jumping and doing jumping jacks and working out and not feeling like they have to go pee and, vaginal laxity getting better, sex drive returning.
I was seeing all the transformations happening remotely and when I started seeing more vaginismus, I started to realize like, Hey, I love working with pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, but I love, did you, did you hear the difference? I love working with pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. I do, but I love of working with vaginismus and sexual pain.
I do, baby, I do. It's my thing. And so naturally I started talking about vaginismus more when I realized that it's poorly understood and that so many people are struggling silently, struggling silently with so much shame, not telling mom, not telling siblings, not telling [00:07:00] anyone just so ashamed that they are not able to.
Use their vagina, Tampons not going in or maybe so, but struggling. So many people in relationships struggling with the inability to have intercourse or the inability to do it without paying. And it's causing a lot of strain on millions of relationships. And so when I realized that one, it was a poor understanding, I started digging into research.
I'm talking about staying up until 1, 2 a. m. looking at the research. I wanted to understand this thing. And so I started to pull out things, realizing that there was so much misunderstanding. It wasn't an automatic muscle spasm. It wasn't something that needed to take a year or several months to overcome, Yes, it was psychosexual and it's neuromuscular. Talk therapy helps a ton. But for most people, the pelvic floor has to be directly addressed most people. And so I started to understand it better and that led to people getting better quicker one on one. Then I came to this place where I was like, I want to [00:08:00] try my hand at group coaching.
And so last year I actually launched, my Vaginismus to Vaginalicious eight week group program. At that time it was actually seven weeks and I gave them a week off, but at the end of the course, Two weeks after the course ended, literally everyone was vaginismus free. Anyone who had a partner and could have penetrative sex, they had it.
They were satisfied, they're having the sex. One person in the group course had vaginismus vulvodynia and endometriosis and she is single. So she has not like transitioned into penetrative sex. But in terms of everything that she's able to do with her body, listen, she overcame that thing too. And so you don't have to be in a relationship to work on healing your body.
Please don't wait. Please don't wait. Why not work on your body now, nurture your body now? And then walk into a relationship feeling confident, ready, and able to do the things that you want to do. And so that course, the completion [00:09:00] of that program last year was wild. When I saw that all eight of them overcame working together in a group setting, that blew my mind.
I was like, whoa, I got to do something different. I got to offer this more. Because people are not just missing help for their pelvic floor. They're missing help to believe in themselves again. You're missing social support. You're missing people that can understand you and say, I've been where you've been and I know where you want to go and we're going to go there together.
We're going to work on this together. And that's what I was able to provide to that entire group. And I feel so grateful that I was able to do that, to give them that experience of overcoming. So it's such a frustrating, even depressing condition like vaginismus and to not do it alone in secret, but to do it with [00:10:00] friends that you've met.
To say that you met friends like through a course online and you're still talking to each other. We still have a group chat where we talk to each other. We update each other, like we check in. It's amazing. And so. I'm excited. I am so, so excited to be doing this course again and y'all, it starts in three days.
I've actually already closed the doors to people to come and join, but we start on April 4th. And so essentially it's a 90 minute course. Where I will be teaching, strategies, skills, mindset shifts, because the mind is such a beautiful thing and it's, it's a powerful thing that we have to include in the healing process.
So there's lectures for the first 30 minutes where I teach on different concepts, strategies, mindset, pleasure, sexual confidence, the public floor, vaginismus, pain, right? Your partner. Before play, I teach on all of it for the first 30 minutes and then the next 60 minutes is more hands on. So we [00:11:00] go into exercises, we go into breathing, we go into dilation.
Whenever we're working on the pelvic floor, of course, cameras have to go off. I keep my camera on at all times, but that's when I really teach how to overcome the pain, how to overcome the fear of insurgent, how to overcome the tightness. And we're progressing week to week and we're doing it together I do give optional support to work with me one on one for people who feel like They just need a little bit more of a push or a little bit more attention That's an option But my goal is to teach so well in the group session that people don't even need that one on one support If they do though i'm there Dr.
Tina, Dr. Tina Moppa, who's my colleague, she's also a doctor of pelvic floor physical therapy. She's also, a professional who's also done the WCS, right? That specialty exam that I did, she also has that qualification. She's been working with me a little bit. Over six months, and she has helped so many people go from literally a Q tip to pain free sex, pain free intercourse.
She's amazing, doing well. [00:12:00] And so she's actually going to be in the program with me to also provide support, also to provide professional support, education, encouragement, all of that. So people, y'all, listen, y'all are getting 90 minutes with us every single week. And so April 4th is when it's starting. I'm actually going to be in Panama when it begins.
And so listen, that's, that's crazy to me that I'm going to be, that's why I love remote care. Not only is it accessible for you, no matter where you are, no matter where in the world you are, you can get coached by us, but then also on our end as the clinicians, I can be in Panama. I can be in Kenya. I can be in Bali working with you.
And that's a beautiful thing. To know that we can get help, but we can also give help wherever we are. And so the goal of the program is definitely pain free intercourse, but confident. Intercourse feeling confident that you can do it that you will do it that you deserve to do it And so pain [00:13:00] free buttery sex is the goal and I just wanted to give you all more details on this group program Why I decided to do it because I see that the social aspect of healing is missing from pelvic floor muscle dysfunction Specifically vaginismus vulvodynia sexual pain.
It's an isolating thing to deal with many people feel alone You Many people feel broken. Many people even feel disconnected from their partners, disconnected from their friends. They don't understand. Like they feel like they don't relate when people are talking about their sex life and like, Oh, it was so good.
We did all these positions and, you're like, listen, I'm just trying to get it in. Like, I'm just trying to have sex and tolerate it and not be in pain for four days after having sex. I love that I am able to provide the social support, the community, but then also give you my expertise. Give you access to my research, my skills, my experiences, my energy. Listen, because when we get together, y'all, one of the ladies that joined the group program last year, when she said this, Oh my [00:14:00] gosh, it blew my mind. She told me that she signed up for the group program for vaginismus because she knew that if she got in my presence.
She could borrow some of my hope. She said that just by watching me on Instagram and hearing me teach, she, she felt like this confidence and this hope that she did not have. And she said, I knew if I got in your presence for eight weeks, I could borrow some of your hope. I literally got chills. I get it right now hearing that because you all.
We have social power, the energy, the positivity can be spread to other people. And I want to spread that to you. And it's not just my program. Listen with your friends, with your family, with your support group, with other people, get into a positive community. If you were not able to join the Vaginismus to Vagilicious eight week group program, the next cohort will begin.
In august, so you can start [00:15:00] saving up now put some coins aside Send me a dm if you want to know more details about the program. You can even email me at janelle at vagina rehab doctor. com Y'all i'm here for you healing is available and you don't have to heal so much for listening and please leave me a five star raving review.
If you've enjoyed this podcast so far, and I'll talk to y'all again next Monday. Bye.