Trauma Informed Yoga & Movement Therapy & Holistic Pelvic Care™ in Ōtautahi, Christchurch & Online
Holistic Pelvic Care™
for women & those who menstruate
Holistic Pelvic Care™ is for you if you are struggling with pelvic pain and needing an informed, yet compassionate and holistic environment that honours the multi-dimensional layers of what can contribute to pain, and inhibit feelings of safety, ease and aliveness in a woman's body.
For the past 15 years I have been studying and training in Yoga & Body Centred healing. In that time the most profound shifts in my own life and for many of the women I have worked with, has been embodiment that centres reclamation of the pelvic bowl and female, cyclical body intelligence. HPC™ has largely contributed to this with its beautiful, integrated approach to understanding and reducing core tension patterns, pain and restoring full creative range.
This modality can support fertility or menstrual health difficulties, changes to your pelvic bowl and tissues after birth, trauma or menopause, fatigue and depletion, or those struggling with low libido, or sexual specific concerns. It is also for women who simply long to feel more at home and and educated about their female body, nervous and hormonal system and receptive, feminine core.
I have a Somatic and Trauma Informed approach that allows the wisdom and pacing of the body and person to lead. To know more about this work, there is plenty of information below. To book a session or call, reach out here.
What is Holistic Pelvic Care™ (HPC™)
HPC™ is an integrative modality created by Tami Lynn Kent, an experienced pelvic physiotherapist and leader in the field of women’s pelvic health in Portland, US. It combines a range of therapeutic techniques to help restore balance and presence in a woman’s pelvic bowl. Tami created HPC™ to support both the body and energy interface, combining gentle, internal massage, guided visualisation, directed breath-work, external touch to the lower abdomen and sacrum, and creative practices, to support ongoing wellbeing.
Her body of work is in service to helping women activate their creative energy and reclaim the natural, instinctive wisdom of their pelvic home. With extensive background in physical medicine and a revolutionary vision to healing the wild nature of the feminine, Tami has created a profound way of supporting the female body, which I feel honoured to share.
How I offer sessions
I recommend two to three sessions although some people might need or want more.
An initial session is an intake session to hear more about your symptoms, goals what you are longing for from our time together. We finish with a brief pelvic assessment which helps inform the pelvic bodywork in session two.
A second session will offer a full pelvic treatment, where we take time to arrive, settle in and integrate at the end.
A third or final session is optional but I recommend it to support the process to feel fully complete, and to offer ongoing support for you to continue to feel empowered toward your own healing.
Some people might require or want more than three sessions and this is fine.
If you have lingering questions to help you feel supported before booking, I offer a free 20 minute connection call if we haven't worked together before. You can book that here.
What can HPC™ support?
🔻menstrual cycle challenges
🔻postpartum care and recovery
🔻sexual specific concerns
🔻pain, numbness, congestion
🔻fertility challenges
🔻early births and loss
🔻female body literacy & deepening
🔻restoring safety and connection after trauma or surgery
🔻feminine reconnection
🔻fatigue, burnout, depletion
🔻supporting the emotional body
🔻developing healthier relational boundaries
🔻and more
Women may also come to session because they want to explore a holistic approach to gynaecological work, one that guides with consent as part of the healing process, honours your pace, integrates body awareness and breath to encourage reconnection, and is held in a relaxing setting to help you get a sense of how our outer environment is an important part of helping your body experience safety.
How this work has supported me.
Pelvic work has helped me move through shame that I didn’t realise I was holding until I made physical contact with my own tissues. This was inhibiting how I felt about my body, my cycle and experience of intimacy. It it also helping me heal cervical trauma from a mirena coil implant in my twenties. It continues to nourish the health of my tissues, supports lower back pain and has helped me experience greater safety, belonging and pleasure in my own body that I didn’t realise was possible before this work. Put simply, I have found it life altering and affirming work that continues to be an integral part of my own self care.
Skills and qualifications
🔻Holistic Pelvic Care™ Practitioner 40hours + continued study over 10 months
🔻Somatic Pleasure and Intimacy Coaching 80+ hours + continued study
🔻4 years of self directed study on trauma
🔻Somatic mentoring (over 6 months) for adapting yoga therapy for complex trauma
🔻Seven years of cycle tracking and ongoing study
🔻Certificate in conscious dance (rooted in dance psychotherapy) and experiential movement
🔻2 year Yoga therapy Diploma
🔻200 hour Yoga Teaching Qualification
🔻100 hour Yoga Immersion
The benefits of intra-vaginal fascial work
The inner fascial release has multi-layered health benefits at all stages of life, and is the most supportive practice for pain and congestion, yet at the heart of Holistic Pelvic Care™️ is the simply truth that ALL of our body is worthy of caring touch. Sadly, most women will never think to receive touch here that is not either sexual or medical. Much of the touch we have experienced in those areas happens before our body is ready and can contribute to pain and disassociation. Holistic Pelvic Care™️ aims to restore this fracture of touch and teach women valuable ways of how to up their standard of care with their intimate body.
What others say
"I didn’t know much about pelvic work initially, but I knew in my body that there was something important there. I think now about how often I’ve gone to physio if somethings off with my feet, or going to a massage for achy/tense muscles, and it simply makes sense to do pelvic work for an area of my body that hosts so much of me, my past, and my hurts located in that region. But what I’ve experienced with Ellen is so much more than what I’ve received from any healthcare professional."
"With Ellen, I feel safe, welcomed, and relaxed. For me personally, as a woman who tends to function high to service the needs of others, Ellen’s practice introduced to me to a version of me that can rest in another person’s guiding care—more specifically, a woman’s guiding care, which has something unique and healing in it, and it’s upped my standard for healthcare. I have a greater sense of my pelvic health and its interconnectedness to my Self and body as a whole, she greets me how I am in the day and there is always an expansive acceptance for who I am, what I want to leave at the door, what I want to bring out with me post-session, and who I am becoming in the process. I don’t need to perform, please, mask, shut down, or any of that repression/suppression crap we’re all collectively getting tired of, I show up and am immediately welcomed, accepted, and I truly feel the capacity and desire to rest in her care while she guides the session. I am a better woman in so many regards because of my sessions with Ellen, if anyone can resonate with this who has not seen her yet, I encourage it wholeheartedly."
Sessions are held at The Stables in Ōhinehou, Lyttelton and are $100 per session.
"The stables is an environment where practitioners take a collaborative approach to serve the needs of our clients. It is all about honouring people with empathy and compassion, working together for the best outcomes. All life is connected, no part is indispensable."
Robin Kerr, Director
This is a warm, cosy and quiet space where all are welcome.
Contact me at here to organise a connection call.