EP 171 The Transformative Power of Somatic Pelvic Care with Dr. Tara Morrison

Discover the secrets to reclaiming your body and emotional well-being postpartum with our special guest, Dr. Tara Morrison, a doctor of physical therapy and women's health and intimacy coach.

In this episode, Dr. Morrison shares her innovative Somatic Pelvic Care methodology, which blends traditional hands-on pelvic floor therapy with emotional and energetic wellness.

Learn how stress and trauma manifest in the pelvic floor muscles and why reconnecting with yourself after childbirth is crucial for long-term health.

Through a compelling personal story, we highlight the transformative power of seeking pelvic floor physical therapy, even years after giving birth.

Join us as we explore the evolution of somatic pelvic care and its profound impact on healing both body and mind.

Hear firsthand accounts of how internal exams and myofascial release can unearth deep-seated emotional disconnections, leading to significant breakthroughs.

We discuss the journey from conventional physical therapy to a comprehensive approach that incorporates yoga, meditation, and a deep understanding of the nervous system's role in chronic pain and recovery.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Tara Morrison and find other valuable resources regarding pelvic and postpartum health! 

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Transcript

Maranda Bower: 0:02

Depression, anxiety and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it's supposed to be. There is a much better way, and I'm here to show you how to do just that. Hey, my friend, I'm Miranda Bauer, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care. Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body and soul in the years after birth. Hey, hey, everyone, welcome to the Integrative Therapies for Postpartum series, and today we are talking with Dr Tara Morrison. She is a doctor of physical therapy, women's health and intimacy coach and creator of the Somatic Pelvic Care, her signature methodology that really blends traditional pelvic floor physical therapy with emotional and energetic wellness. For this holistic approach that guides women in reclaiming confidence to their body, their self, their libido and all things. So, tara, welcome, I am so excited to have this conversation with you.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 1:16

Thank you. I'm excited to be here and chat with you and share.

Maranda Bower: 1:20

Yeah, so let's start off the conversation with some basics, right? What is somatic pelvic care?

Dr. Tara Morrison: 1:28

Yeah, that's a great question. So somatic pelvic care is? It's really a blend of traditional hands-on pelvic floor work, but also looking at the lens of the pelvic floor beyond just physical muscles that maybe need stretching or strengthening after having a baby. So we now know that there's like a huge emotional connection to the pelvic floor muscles and that we can carry stress and trauma in our pelvic bowl and in our pelvic floor. And so what I've found through my experience working with the body, and especially over 13 years working with women who've had chronic pain and chronic pelvic health issues, is really understanding all the layers that play into a woman's health and wellbeing. Right, and I feel like when we have a lot of pain, when we've had a traumatic or challenging birth experience, when postpartum has been hard breastfeeding we're really depleted. Right.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 2:34

We often women like lose connection with themselves, with their bodies. There is this like rite of passage of becoming a mother. Right, it's like all so intertwined in there and so much of our like self, energy, of who we are, is located in our pelvic area. Right, when we think about, like the chakra systems, our root chakras, our sense of safety and security in the world, our sacral chakra is like our sexuality and our life force, energy and our creativity is there, and our solar plexus, which is like our sense of self and our power, and we really need that connection of all of them to feel like we are like embodied in connection to ourself, right, and and also, I think a lot of our intuition as a mother and mothering wisdom comes from that place.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 3:23

So we all know that when we have a challenging time we can become disconnected. So, seeing how we can blend that emotional, energetic piece of what it means to become a mother, what it becomes, what it means to be embodied in ourself as mother, and how that actually plays into the physical aspect of the pelvic floor and and part of my way, which I think is a little different than how other people have look at this is really through a lens of like parts work or internal family systems work, and really looking at how the pelvic floor often when we carry tension or pain, sometimes it can be. It can be protective parts, it can be parts of us or inner children that need some tending to or healing, right. Or maybe it is more energetic, right? So there are these other layers that we can look at when treating the pelvic floor and the pelvic wall. That can really help bring someone back into a deeper self state of wholeness and connection with self.

Maranda Bower: 4:26

This is really powerful. I and I want to share a story, a personal story, when I was getting pelvic floor physical therapy done after the birth of my third. Well, actually it was. It was about two years after and it was the first time that I had gone to physical therapy. A pelvic floor physical therapy after three babies, which is crazy, go after every single one. But I didn't realize that at the time.

Maranda Bower: 4:50

But anyway, I remember she was doing like an internal exam and she is very much into somatics, which I didn't realize at the time she was very much into. She did a myofascial release and all those things. And so she was doing an internal exam and she's like do you feel me? And I said yes, and she said, well, can you tell me if I'm on the right or the left? And I was like you're on the left and she's like no, I'm on the right. And I was like no, you're not, you know, and and we couldn't like I, I, I remember not believing her.

Maranda Bower: 5:21

And she was like, no, really feel into this. And I remember in that moment, just like melting, I started crying, I was, um, the emotions of understanding, I think in that moment, how disconnected I had been from my body that I couldn't even tell the right from the left was and and I remember the, the emotional unraveling that happened through that space and it was like months of work that and I looked forward to it I really did but every time it was like there was so much energetic release from pelvic floor physical therapy Like it was mind blowing to me. Yeah, totally yeah.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 6:03

Yeah.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 6:04

I mean it is incredible and it's incredible when you approach care that way Right and kind of one of the biggest issues is that most, most providers in traditional pelvic floor rehab don't always approach it that way Right, with the ability to hold space for all of those emotions and understanding how to work, work with it. And so, you know, part of my journey was, after having my two kids and really after my first birth, of like really feeling into you know how much like my sense of self-worth was tested in that birth experience and really wanting to understand the deeper impacts that birth can have on on ourselves and and um, on helping like be a mirror to the parts of us that need to grow, you know, in order to step more into our power, into our fullness of who we are, um and and into our ability to mother our children Right and um, through that just kind of evolved into this like deeper viewpoint of of treating the whole body and the pelvis this way as well.

Maranda Bower: 7:18

That's amazing I would really love to know what inspired you to kind of move outside of this traditional box of what we see for pelvic floor physical therapy into this kind of healing model and the creation of what you now have is the somatic pelvic care.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 7:36

Yeah, it definitely started really early on in my career.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 7:40

I've been a PT for 13 years and it definitely started really early on in my career.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 7:43

I've been a PT for 13 years and early on, you know, I thought I wanted to work in like a sports clinic and do all of that.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 7:49

And I was working in a sports clinic but, being the new grad, I was getting all of the really complicated cases that no one else really wanted to handle and I started to realize at the time I was like really deeply in my own yoga practice and learning about meditation and kind of going on my own journey and I started to realize that with people with more chronic issues there is this you know, often the tools we learn to address the physical body wasn't really enough in these clients and so I just started diving into like yoga as medicine and meditation for chronic pain and, um, I did a whole apprenticeship in a Pilates studio, really understanding that like mind, body connection, like how we connect to our core or breath, like really understanding the connection of our respiratory diaphragm and to our pelvic floor and the alignment of our body and just really looking at at everything from a different viewpoint, more of like a nervous system based.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 8:48

Um, and then I, you know, started going into my own mothering journey and and wanting to dive more deeply into pelvic floor and understanding that and it's just, it's just kind of like, you know, you go on your journey and and and I don't know if you do human design, but I'm definitely one of those people that I, like, I learned through, I learned through my experience and I'm a one three, so I'm very like, I'm an investigator and a martyr.

Maranda Bower: 9:12

So I'm a three five, so I'm right there with you. Yeah, I love human design.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 9:18

Yeah, I got to get in the trenches. Yeah, totally. So so much of it is through, like my experience and being able to, to, to teach people through that and also what not to do and what works. So it's really just been this beautiful combination. And and I think when I first connected with you actually was, um, after I had done like a women's health functional certification program and I wanted to start creating stuff more around nutrition and all of that for new moms and I was a new mom and feeling burnout and I loved what you were doing and for me in that space, like something wasn't quite right for me to like fully go into the nutritional piece of it.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 10:03

And because what really fascinated me with that whole program I took was that the nervous system is in charge of so much Right, and that kind of took me back to everything I learned in my nervous system based trainings around the body of like the nervous system is in charge and like what is driving the nervous system. And that dove me into studying things like polyvagal theory again and and looking at it from a fresh perspective now that I'm a mom and the develop of the development of the nervous system and the development of trauma, like how do these imprints get passed down from mom to baby, and it just took me on this whole like self-exploratory journey and really I'm like OK, like this is the somatic pieces in here, so I just started learning and studying and implementing and practicing and it's just, it's just evolved over the last four or five years, especially into what it is now.

Maranda Bower: 10:59

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Maranda Bower: 11:32

Marketwatch says that the afterbirth services and nutrition and support is set for extraordinary growth by 2030. Don't miss your opportunity to help women and families who desperately need your holistic support. Go to wwwpostpartumucom slash membership. We're accepting registrations right now and we can't wait to see you there. It's often that path right. It's like an entry point into so many different other ways of which to know and understand your body and to be able to support it. Like we get to see the interconnectedness between our emotions and how we feel and all of those components, and like how much they blend together with all of this. And I think that leads to my next question for you, for everybody who's listening in to this, like maybe explain what is it that makes this somatic pelvic care different from other forms of pelvic floor rehab? Like if you were a mom and you're walking into a provider, like, what is a regular provider gonna give you? What does that care look like versus the somatic pelvic care?

Dr. Tara Morrison: 12:53

Yeah, that's a great question. So, in like traditional pelvic floor PT and also, I just wanna say there's also nothing wrong with traditional pelvic floor PT. It actually works for a lot of women, right. Like, for some people, that's enough of what they need, what their body needs and what they're ready, ready to receive, right In terms of, like, your deeper level, your consciousness, the kind of care you want and your goals, right, some people just want to get stronger and they're fine with that and that works for them. But I think so in like traditional pelvic floor physical therapy, you're going to go in often the sessions might be 30 minutes long. In some places you may be working with, like an assistant or an aid doing exercises with you.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 13:45

Sessions sometimes can feel rushed, you know, in some places it might even be 15 minutes, right, and so it's really hard when we're in like a medical model that's also controlling, um, what you can and can can't do with your clients, right, so, like in an insurance-based model, there's a lot of control over the treatments that can be provided and the duration of care, right, in order to, um, you know, that's how the insurance controls things, right. So there are limitations in what can be done in the time, because often you know people might be working in bigger clinics where they're trying to see a lot of people in order to make the numbers work on the backend, right, and so it's like there isn't that space for deeper holding which is really required and to do somatic work. It needs to be slower, right, things that are needs to be more space that can be held, um, and just like a deeper, a deeper tending and looking at the body. So often, like a traditional PT might just be looking at like the muscles and the strength and the breath. Um, and, and often what I hear from clients who who come to me, it's like sometimes they feel like it's very prescriptive, like these are the exercises that you do after you have a baby and like go, do them, or you know you might be doing the Kegels and doing all the things, but it's either getting worse or it's not getting better, right, and so not to say there's any, you know those providers are very well-meaning and it's just where they're at in their journey and their understanding of what's important, right, a lot of those people follow the like evidence-based practice is the way to go, right, and when we start looking into holistic medicine we start looking into like somatics.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 15:29

We're kind of going outside of that box of only looking at that this is what the evidence says right, of that box of only looking at that this is what the evidence says right. And we're working much more in um the field of of what's present in the body and, and you know, even though we do know that Eastern medicine is now becoming evidence-based, it's just not always it hasn't totally shifted in terms of what we can offer and other clinics. So, yes, absolutely, absolutely yeah. So somatic pelvic care, we, definitely we. We go slow and we really tune into the body and what the body needs. And this goes like some. For some clients it might actually feel a little bit more like traditional physical therapy. Maybe they just really want that like strengthening piece. Maybe they're not really like wanting to open up and feel the emotions, and that's also okay, right, we can't force.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 16:26

You know, some people come in they're like I don't want to like go there, I'm like that's fine, like we won't go there. If you don't want to go there, right, it's like it's, it's, it's working with what you're ready to open up to in yourself and in your life, right, we don't, we don't want to force, force anything to open. Which is what I really love about my approach is that it's really gentle, um, and that we can gently like peel back the layers and not force something. Um. So you know, often if someone like comes in with sexual past history of sexual trauma or, more significant birth trauma, right, it's like we have to go slow. We can't just like dive in. That can create more trauma, right.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 17:08

Then if we we ease into it, we work with other parts of the body. We do a lot of supportive nervous system work, we do a lot of parts work and coaching around the resistance to doing internal work, around the resistance to um, you know what's there? It's like there's so much we can do, um, to support the healing process before we do internal work as well. So, and then, when we're doing internal work, really integrating that piece of understanding how emotions and energy is held inside the pelvic bowl and then how we can weave those pieces together, I see a lot of like maternal line, like people pleasing. You know it's like one spot, I see. So it's like one spot in the pelvic bowl that like it's, it's the same on everyone. You know like oh okay, feel this tightness here, tell me about this, you know it's amazing Like yeah, it's like we can pinpoint those things.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 18:06

Yeah, so you can start to, you know, start to feel like, oh, where are we not able to ask for the support that we need? Where are we not able to receive support and like open up, where are we not able to ask for the support that we need? Where are we not able to receive support and like open up, where are we struggling? Maybe in our relationship to our own mothering, or maybe our relationship to work, or right these just, or the men in our lives, right, it's like the feminine and masculine pieces of of the energetics of that and then how it actually pertains to our physical life as well. So, yeah, it's, it's looking much deeper and holding that space and really meeting the client where they're at and not needing to like rush, rush a process due to needing to check the boxes of the insurance model of care.

Maranda Bower: 18:53

Yeah, that's so true, so true. I mean, that's healthcare in general, right, that's where we are in our current society, which is sad. So it's always nice to see what other people are doing and how they're how they're making a difference, which is why we're having this series, because there are so many people who are not following the mainstream and who are finding their own way and their own path, and it's just such beautiful work that you're doing. So I really appreciate that and I'm so glad that you're sharing this and I, as you're. You're talking and like saying some of the things that are so prevalent.

Maranda Bower: 19:27

I'm wondering, like, how are the emotions and the energetics a part of the healing process? Cause I would imagine and I know that I experienced a lot of this myself that when you're working on the pelvic floor like your pelvic floor and the core of who you are, like that whole center, that mothering center, the creation of life, like everything is in that space and if you're not working on the energetic, are you really able to heal deeply? I mean, I'm thinking, just taking this conversation deeper, like if I were not doing this work, this, this somatic work within my, my pelvic and my core region that's probably affecting every area of my life.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 20:17

Right, it is and that's, and that's kind of the. That's like, it's like a doorway in right, where, like traditional physical therapy is like, yes, we can work on the muscles, we can get you stronger, like maybe we can do some things to relax and open up the pelvic floor, but often if it doesn't open and relax, it's because we need to work these deeper pieces. Right, but it really does. And that's where I, where I almost see um like traditional pelvic therapy can be doing a disservice to women, because it's like we're, in some ways, you're like, accessing this part of someone's body without really being informed on what you're truly tapping into for someone on one level, right, and then on another level, it's like how often are we trying to force something that's not ready, which can also be a disservice, right, versus like really holding the space for someone to open it up into that and feel into that Um, so that is, you know. Coming next is is is having training for providers on that, um way to kind of shift into that deeper holding of space? But, um, yeah it, it really.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 21:25

You know, I like to think of this like if we're really contracted, like if our nervous system is really um overwhelmed right, and we hold these like contractions in our body, like trauma, is energy that is stuck in the body, right, if we just take it, it's like it could be considered pain stuck in the body, but it's really just energy that's stuck in the body, and often that energy is like stuck in the pelvic floor, muscles right. And so the more we can release that stuckness, the more we can bring more openness into our system, right, we can. We can learn to connect more deeply with ourselves. There's a channel between our pelvic floor and our heart, right, so we can, like become more embodied and open in our heart. And some people are really embodied and open in their heart but they're actually closed off in their pussy. And then there's this disconnection excuse me for using that word.

Maranda Bower: 22:21

Please do not apologize. Please do not apologize.

Maranda Bower: 22:27

I, you know, I love everything that you're you're saying here and you're, you're sharing and it's so interconnected. And for those of you who are listening in and hearing, um, you know the, the words of like, you know energy and and expansion and all of those kinds of things Like this is, this is basic physics, this is not woo, woo. Yeah Right, we, we understand. The body is made of energy. We talk about energy all the time. Energetics is a huge component of healthcare that the Western world has completely ignored on several.

Maranda Bower: 23:05

Yes, it's's it's really crazy to me I just it's mind-blowing to me, you know, and we start, uh, looking, the heart institute is like such a wonderful place, if anybody's like well I I don't. How do I get into this science? Go look at the heart institute.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 23:20

They study the energetic of the heart and the heart, math, yes, and all of that.

Maranda Bower: 23:24

It's just absolutely phenomenal. But, yeah, we have these energetic places within our body and trauma and all of that. And how many of us I mean honestly as women we all have trauma in some form.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 23:39

We all have these stories that have been that we've experienced ourselves, but also that are passed down generally and generationally, that are really intense for many of us, yeah, totally Like shame around our bodies, shame around our vulvas, shame around sex, like shame around, um, our, what our body looks like and what it feels like, right, and and when we dive deeper into, like exploring libido and, like you know, reclaiming that after having a baby, that's one of the you know, so many women are so disconnected from that. It's like we actually have to dig into those layers, because that's what's actually keeping us from feeling safe in our bodies and safe in our fullness and our expression of that of that energy, Right. And then that's how we can work with the nervous system. If we just it's like the nervous system is contracted or it's open, right, it's not, it doesn't have to be so complicated.

Maranda Bower: 24:36

It's not. I say that all the time. Healthcare is not complicated y'all, and I think the Western world has done a phenomenal job of sharing with women that they're just so complicated. You got hormones. That makes you complicated.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 24:51

We can't even have you in medical studies because you're too complicated, you know, and that's not true.

Maranda Bower: 24:57

Like it's, healthcare is not complicated. Thank you, I'm getting on my soapbox now. I'm so appreciative of everything that you're sharing here. How can people reach out to you and find you if they have questions?

Dr. Tara Morrison: 25:13

Yeah, they can. My website is in a rhythm wellcom, and then I spend most of my time on social media, on Instagram, so they can follow me there. My handle is the rhythm mama.

Maranda Bower: 25:26

I love it. Of course, we have those links for you here, so stay tuned to follow her. She's wonderful. I mean, we've been in each other's space now for I don't even know how many years. Yeah, it's been a while, probably like five four or five years. Yeah, something like that. So that's been amazing yeah.

Dr. Tara Morrison: 25:45

Amazing.

Maranda Bower: 25:46

So glad to be finally doing this interview. Yeah me too, sharing your wisdom. Thank you so much. And for anybody who's listening in, please, please, please, go find her, follow her wealth of information and if you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you, thank you so much hesitate to reach out, thank you.

Maranda Bower: 26:11

Thank you so much. I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We've hoped you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review and, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you've learned here, applied it to your own life and consider joining us in the Postpartum University membership. It's a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years postpartum. You can learn more at wwwpostpartumucom. We'll see you next week.