Pelvic Resilience

02/24/2026

CBT doesn’t have to feel rigid, invalidating, or overly “heady.”
When it’s grounded in collaboration and curiosity, it becomes something else entirely.

✨ “I really appreciate how tangible this course is. While being a ‘psych’ course, I felt I had small nuggets of gold—word choice, recognition of thought processes—that I could immediately take away and put into practice in my professional and personal life. A lot of it spoke to my soul.”
— Caitlyn Goodfellow, Ortho & Pelvic PT

If you’re looking for CBT skills that feel human, usable, and deeply respectful of lived experience, my newly updated course CBT Skills for Distressing Physical Symptoms is now live.

Lifetime access to lessons + demos, and a year of monthly office hours to support you as you integrate it into your practice.

Register before March 20th and save $200!

https://www.amp-healthcare.ca/course/cbt-physical-symptoms

02/17/2026

When CBT feels invalidating, it’s usually not the tool—it’s the stance.

Collaborative empiricism is the part of CBT that often gets lost… and the part that makes it feel human again.

If this landed, DM me 🤝 and I’ll send you a new e-book from my updated course:
CBT Skills for Physically Distressing Symptoms ✨

02/10/2026

This May in Montréal, the Canadian Pelvic Health OT Task Force is providing a hands-on session at the CAOT Centennial Conference—and we are so excited!

Over the past year, we’ve been advocating for a clearer national understanding of the unique value OTs bring directly to the field of pelvic health. That conversation has evolved into something even bigger:
✨ the untapped potential for OTs across practice settings to become pelvic-health informed.

Think:
• Earlier screening
• Practical, occupation-based strategies
• Stronger interprofessional connections
• Earlier access. More cost-effective care where folks are already accessing OT.

If you’re curious about how pelvic health fits into the work you’re already doing—this session is for you!

👇 Drop a 🇨🇦 in the comments if you’ll be in Montréal this May!

02/02/2026

This work is meaningful.
It’s also heavy.

That’s why we don’t believe in learning trauma-informed pelvic health in isolation.

Every cohort reminds us: the real magic happens in community—where curiosity is welcomed, limits are respected, and no one has to hold the hard alone.

Our doors are open for the next cohort of the Trauma-Informed Pelvic Health Practitioner Program.
We kick off next week.
Lindsey and I can’t wait to see you there!

If you’ve been craving mentorship, connection, and a way to practice that feels more human—this is your place.

💛 Link in bio or shoot me a DM

01/27/2026

The very first time I taught CBT Skills for Distressing Physical Symptoms, it received glowing reviews… except for one.

One participant shared that while it was “interesting,” they were hoping for a simpler and quicker step by step process to change their client’s thinking.

I remember feeling deflated. Perhaps I hadn’t done a good enough job emphasizing this one key truth:
👉 CBT doesn’t work that way.

When we use CBT tools to control, fix, or correct, we hit a wall — and risk causing harm.

CBT-informed work must stay grounded in collaborative empiricism — a stance where the client is in the driver’s seat and the clinician’s role is to create space for curiosity.
We’re not there to prove or disprove, or prescribe lines of thinking, but to wonder together about how thoughts function, feel, and influence behaviour.

That point hit home for most of my participants, but nevertheless that feedback has helped me to reshape HOW I teach this content over time — making this point front and centre and explicitly talking about how and why we, as clinicians, get hooked by the pressure to fix.

✨ The newly updated self-paced version of CBT Skills for Distressing Physical Symptoms is now available — with lifetime access.

Gain a plethora of options for supporting your clients with thinking about their thinking and shifting their behaviour!

👉 Link in bio to join anytime.

01/20/2026

What if we made exposure work in chronic pain less about avoiding discomfort and more about building tolerance of uncertainty?

-therapy

01/13/2026

This experience reminded me how easy it is to shrink ourselves in healthcare spaces — and how much harder it can be for our clients.

Informed consent isn’t about a signature or checklist.
It’s a relational process rooted in safety, collaboration, and co-regulation.
When we slow down enough to explain, check in, and invite choice, we help clients reclaim a sense of agency and trust in their care.

This is especially important in pelvic health, where the vulnerability is often amplified.

As providers, we MUST be sure to create space for curiosity instead of compliance. This is trauma-informed care.

Join our next cohort of the Trauma-Informed Pelvic Health Certification Program to deepen your attunement and level up your practice. Doors open January 26th! (link in linktree)💜

01/07/2026

Join us for our 2026 winter cohort of the Trauma Informed Pelvic Heath Certification!

🚨 Enrollment Opens January 26th!
Become a Certified Trauma-Informed Pelvic Health Practitioner

If you’ve ever felt unprepared, overwhelmed, or unsure how to navigate emotional responses in pelvic health sessions....you’re not alone. The Trauma-Informed Pelvic Health Certification is the first and only program designed to give you clear, confident skills for when trauma surfaces during treatment.

Enrollment opens January 26–30, 2026
Join the interest list now so you don’t miss out:
👉 https://www.functionalpelvis.com/trauma

This 3.5-month certification includes:

-A 9-part self-paced online course (starting Feb 2nd)
-Live coaching calls with expert instructors
-AOTA-approved CEUs (3.2 CEUs, advanced level)
-Step-by-step training to handle dissociation, emotional reactions, and trauma responses with confidence and compassion

You will learn how to:

-Stay grounded when emotions surface
-Communicate with clarity and empathy
-Create deep safety and trust in your sessions
-Integrate nervous system & somatic work into your care
-Protect yourself from burnout while supporting healing

This is the training pelvic health providers have been waiting for.
Join hundreds of OTs and PTs who are transforming their practice with trauma-informed care.

Get all the details + join the interest list:
👉 https://www.functionalpelvis.com/trauma

- Lindsey x Lara D

01/06/2026

Bladder irritation doesn’t always mean elimination. ☕💧

Sometimes, it just takes a bit of detective work to find a small tweak that has the potential to make a big difference.
Curiosity > restriction, every time.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Loved this conversation SO much.

I had the joy of joining Lindsey Vestal on the mic with two brilliant humans — my fellow Canadian, psychologist Dr. Lauren Walker 🇨🇦 and trauma-informed pelvic health leader Dr. Krystyna Holland 🇺🇸 .holland

We talk about what trauma-informed care actually means (no buzzwords), why it’s essential in pelvic health & gynecological care, and how this research came to life — plus the real change we’re hoping to see as it reaches everyday clinical practice.

Also… can we talk about how good a Canada–US research collab is?! When we bridge borders and disciplines, care gets better. Period.

✨ If you care about pelvic health that centres safety, consent, and humanity — this one’s for you.

🎧 Listen via the OTs in Pelvic Health podcast
PelvicHealthOT PelvicHealthPT TraumaInformedPelvicHealth PelvicHealthEducation