Holistic Pelvic Care™
Holistic Pelvic Care: Feng Shui for the Pelvic Bowl?
“The primary goal of HPC is to empower a woman to inhabit her pelvic space and occupy her feminine ground physically, energetically, emotionally & spiritually”: Tami Kent
Holistic Pelvic Care – you may be just starting to hear about it or it may be something completely new to you. This is a therapy based on 25 years of work and research by Tami Lynn Kent – a female physiotherapist based in Portland in the US and author of Wild Feminine, Mothering from your Centre and Wild Creative. Amazingly Tami came to London last July to train practitioners for the first time and more amazingly still, I got to train with this most beautiful soul who just oozes a truly rooted & grounded powerful energy: A true inspiration if ever there was one. It has been my mission since then, to get this therapy out into the world, because for me, it personifies ALL that as women we need to bring us back into ourselves, our bodies, our pelvic bowls, our Divine Feminine and so our POWER. So often in the feminine experience we have been penetrated in ways that are mechanical, toxic, against our will or just plain brutal. Here is the antidote. To be touched in a non-sexual, healing, sacred, affirming way is really quite radical & pioneering & I honour any woman who is ready to take this next step into themselves and find out exactly what it is that has been holding them back from their true selves. Here then are all the questions you’ve been dying to ask in a nutshell. So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty – what it is, how it works and who is it for. Hold onto your hats- this is a supersonic ride and the techniques although magnificently simple are equally cutting edge and powerful. BE warned though, this therapy is a huge agent for change in your life; you have been warned…..
By following the creative energy flow in the body – this place where spirit meets physical form – women can identify and reshape the essential patterns that govern this energy: Tami Kent: Wild Feminine – a revolutionary guide to the feminine.
What is it?
This is energy work through the fascia (connective tissue), which surround all the organs and muscles of the body. This is internal work, yes, you heard that right, an intra-vaginal massage where we work both physically and energetically. On a physical level, the treatment is about fascial holding patterns and trigger points, scar tissue and restriction. The work centres overall of the pelvic region, so as well as the massage, the abdomen is also palpated, and restrictions released. Pain in this area can be very specifically related to experiences, so by honestly working with these, putting in the healing, we can start to cleanse, clear and rebalance. On a spiritual/energetic level, it’s about connecting more fully than you had thought possible with your Divine Feminine energies & your ability to be able to truly co-create in this world. This space holds our her own SHE medicine, the antidote and SHE has been waiting so very patiently to be found and to be heard.
These physical & energetic qualities work to enhance the natural vibrant flow within the pelvic bowl (the area between the Mound of Venus, the tips of the hip bones and the sacrum at the back). As an experienced energy reader & fertility/womb massage practitioner, interpreting energy patterns of clients is second nature for me. What really appeals to me though as a system of healing, is that as the practitioner I am just the guide, it’s you, the client/SHE who does the healing; who is then able to go on and consciously cultivate the energy of the “root” and use it as guide to daily living – now THAT is empowering.
“The primary goal of HPC is to empower a woman to inhabit her pelvic space and occupy her feminine ground physically, energetically, emotionally & spiritually: Tami Kent
How does it work?
Practicalities – you’ll be lying on the couch, bottom half covered in your favourite shawl, rebozo or towel – it’s up to you which is going to feel most comfortable. Your knickers are removed, and I will be sitting to your left, so I can insert my left forefinger into the vagina (gloved & lubricated), whilst my right hand is used to palpate the abdomen. First, we assess the muscle contraction of the pelvic floor and how even the right/left/front and back of the vagina are – is it even, how well do the muscles recruit? Are there areas which are numb, too tight, tender? Are they able to contract and relax equally? Is there a sense of congestion? Or a sense of emptiness?
Next, we bring presence to the pelvic bowl to release and clear congestion. Most women have chronic holding patterns due to menstrual products, stress, trauma, scarcity patterns, lineage/ancestral patterns, holding our stuff & everyone else’s. However, the natural energy flow of the bowl is to hold and release. Our menstrual cycles and pregnancy followed by birth are good examples of this pattern in action. Working the fascia to release and smooth, only then does it become apparent how much tension we hold here, perhaps our only way to protect the sanctity of this Divine space – often shamed, traumatised and lessened. This level of protection may have become so second nature that we don’t even realise that is what we are doing – it’s become normalised.
We then bring presence to the grounding connection – from bowl to earth. We check in with the womb and the right and left ovaries and the story they have to tell, bringing greater connection through breath and visualisation. The ovaries are our creative jewels and relate to the mother line (left) and father line (right) – pathology here – cysts, fluid, endometriosis all have their metaphysical tales to tell, just waiting to be heard and bought into to our awareness. By bringing in balance we can begin to restore their dynamic flow. Then we “bless” the bowl, connecting with energy, colour, spirit – whatever is needed. And then we re-engage the pelvic floor to help with integration and for the body to sense the new pattern emerging.
During a session, you’ll feel completely and utterly plugged into Moma earth. The grounding rod that you create connects the pelvic bowl to the earth – she, the Great Mother transmutes what needs to be cleared and you get to feel fully supported and connected. The pelvic bowl holds all the medicine that we need to heal our scared feminine energies – yes that’s right, as we work, we get to unravel and reveal the beauty that is held within the bowl, our very own medicine bowl, so that we can be our own healers. This is TOTALLY transformative and empowering. Our vaginas are our connection to the outer world through the vesica piscis, the Divine Gateway into the most holy of holy’s – the cervix and the wombspace.
Who is if for?
Honestly? We all need this
We need it, our men need us to have it and our world needs this to be the reality – women rooted & connected and sitting comfortably in their own power:
If you have pelvic/menstrual pain, then this is for you
If you feel disconnected and shamed, then this is for you
If you have been traumatised then this is for you
If you are trying to conceive then this is for you
If you are wanting/needing to help to raise the consciousness of this world then this is DEFINITELY for you
If this resonates with you on any level, then please do get in touch and we can chat. Working with a Holistic Pelvic Care practitioner alongside working through the exercises in “Wild Feminine” will completely change how you move forward in your life. When we change and grow, so too do our relationships and we can more fully embrace our Divine Feminine energies in a more wholesome way.
On a personal level, after my training, what I came away with was the realisation that I had never really been present in my bowl and so had no sense of being able to resource from within. I had repeatedly resourced externally, and I came to realise that this strategy was leaving me vulnerable to others and not fully in command of my own energy and power, besides leaving me woefully unequipped to tap into my own innate creative essence. I left me feeling fully “plugged” in, resourced and connected with Mother Earth.
When we are Rooted, we can Rise
Andrea Clarke is a Midlands based women’s health practitioner, specialising in fertility and menstrual cycle awareness. Her practise has developed over 20 years as she delves ever deeper into those aspects that hold us back from wholeness and true presence.