Vital Core Physical Therapy

09/06/2025

Pelvic floor PT can help with a wide range of symptoms that people think they "just have to live with". Even your doctor might tell you these are just a part of normal aging 🤦‍♀️

If you are unhappy with your pelvic floor function, it's never too late to seek treatment!

I would love to help you meet your goals and reclaim your quality of life.

DM me or shoot me a text at 757-231-5370 to schedule an in person or virtual appointment!

08/31/2025

Big news! Come see me inside of Wave of Life Chiropractics at Landstown Commons for pelvic floor PT and dry needling!

08/23/2025

You should be able to p*e when you want to p*e.

You should not be p*eing if you don’t want to be p*eing.

If any of these bladder dysfunctions are part of your life (or part of a loved one’s life), I’d love to help you regain control. Message me to get on my schedule, no referral needed!

08/19/2025

...Yes!!

Providing education about how bodies work, lifestyle changes for symptom management, and updating self management programs can be done effectively via a virtual platform.

You may prefer virtual PT over in person if:
-you have a newborn or small children at home
-you have a busy job or aren't available during clinic hours
-you don't live near a pelvic floor PT
-the PT near you doesn't treat people of your gender
-the PT in your area has a months long wait list
-you moved to another state but want to continue treatment with your current PT

Virtual care can provide access to pelvic floor PT that people might not otherwise have. At Vital Core, I'm excited to offer virtual PT to close this access gap and meet people where they are.

DM me for direct links to the research and send this info to someone you know who doesn't have access to pelvic floor PT!

08/17/2025

Hi! Welcome to Vital Core Physical Therapy!

I'm Dr. Hannah, and I'm glad you're here. I provide pelvic floor physical therapy to people experiencing incontinence, constipation, sexual dysfunction, or pelvic pain.

Many people think of pelvic floor PT as something for pregnancy and postpartum times, but pelvic health is important for people of all genders, across all phases of life. The medical system is still catching up with this idea, but current research and practice is growing quickly to support the idea that EVERYONE experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction is appropriate for treatment.

I'm also passionate about meeting people where they are, both in location and in readiness/ability to make changes in their health behaviors. After hearing (sometimes for years) that your condition is untreatable, approaching a new provider requires courage and vulnerability.

My biggest hope is to reach people experiencing pelvic floor dysfunction and spread education that pelvic floor conditions of all types are treatable. I also hope to share information about ways to navigate the medical system.

Thanks for being here! I'm looking forward to being stronger, happier, and healthier together.

08/14/2024

This week, I'm visiting a dear friend who just became a mother several weeks ago. She is all the things I was with my first child - hormonal, tired, uncomfortable, in love with her baby, and still adjusting to her new role.

Matrescence, the term for this transition into motherhood, can be challenging, wonderful, and not without grief for the life/lifestyle that used to be. Often all at the same time.

Our book will cover matrescence in the chapter about family roles and responsibilities. Pelvic health PTs are the most obvious therapy providers to interact with people going through matrescence, but I've also encountered new mothers in neurologic rehab due to suffering a stroke during labor, or in outpatient ortho due to shoulder pain from breastfeeding. We should all be able to screen for postpartum depression/anxiety, and we can all be sensitive to the challenges of being thrown into a new role.

While I think about matrescence this week (and soak up baby snuggles while my friend catches up on sleep!), I'm also thinking about the inverse relationship between perfectionism and self compassion. It's easy to get wrapped up in perfectionism during this transition, especially because that's the way our culture presents/judges motherhood. Self-compassion would be so protective during matrescence! More thoughts on that one next week.

08/08/2024

3 years ago, I started writing about compassion in health care. I was fascinated by the research, and I was convinced that, if more people just knew about it, health care delivery in the United States could slowly and incrementally change for the better.

2 years ago, I stopped writing because of some personal life stuff. It was a decision of self-compassion and self-preservation. But that same year, I had the opportunity to start teaching the topics I care so much about to DPT students at ODU.

Today, I'm preparing to teach two classes that discuss compassion in the health care world in the fall semester, one to DPT students, and one to healthcare administration undergrads.

AND I'm thrilled to be writing again - this time a textbook about compassion and other psychosocial aspects of patient care, with a very honest treatment of the realities of today's health care environment. I'm feeling much recovered from the past two years, and I am so honored to deliver the content that I believe in SO MUCH to a broader audience.

I'd love to share my musings as I go through the writing process (with the two incredible women I teach with!), and I'd love any input/advice you all have to share with a first time author!!

08/29/2022

This week's post is a continuation of last week's discussion of the paradox of physical therapy - we need to identify the impairments of people with disabilities in order to treat them, but we need to view people with disabilities as already whole people in order to do right by them.

This post discusses 4 mechanisms by which communication breaks down and contributes to ableism in the medical world. People with disabilities have worse medical outcomes in so many ways, and often it's due to this breakdown in patient/provider communication.

I learned so much preparing for this article, and I can't wait to keep learning.

https://bit.ly/3RfPXF9

08/21/2022

Last week, I got to volunteer with Life Rolls On. I love my job, working as a PT with people who have physical disabilities, but this was different.

The event was infused with the joy of people celebrating participation regardless of physical condition. Impairments don't necessarily have to define participation limitations, and as a PT, it's important to keep that in the forefront of my mind.

Sharing my reflections on this today!

https://bit.ly/3dEYd2N

08/14/2022

I had an article published today (!) about time constraints in medicine. Health care management/administration can encourage compassionate care, but if they also make their employees feel rushed, the compassion won't happen. Perceived lack of time for job duties extinguishes helping behaviors.

This results in poor patient care and burned out employees!

Every management team needs to know this data.

https://www.kevinmd.com/2022/08/a-pervasive-culture-of-time-constraints-in-health-care.html

I want to emphasize that messaging around time constraints impacts helping behavior. If giving people an imaginary time constraint effectively extinguishes their helping behaviors, and our whole system is based around the idea that no one has enough time to complete their jobs, how can we expect peo...

08/07/2022

When I talk to my health care friends, they are not ok. People throw around terms like burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury as though it's normal to feel completely depleted and jaded about their chosen professions. Like your job should really suck you dry every day.

I'm breaking down these terms this week, and discussing how changing medical education to include boundary setting, cognitive vs. affective empathy, and expectation management might protect future clinicians and help to mitigate the health care crisis in the United States.

Systems need to change, but that doesn't mean we should send new clinicians in to the field without the tools to cope.

https://bit.ly/3A2oXmx

As a physical therapist who is married to a physician, and a person with friends in different health care professions, I hear a LOT of opinions about the current climate in health care. People are feeling stretched thin and sad about the ways that insurance dictates which treatments are available, t...

08/01/2022

Every inpatient health care provider has felt the cringe when, on your way out the door, your patient asks for just one more thing.

Management often counsels therapists to say something asinine like "just press your call bell, the nurse will bring you some [whatever they asked for]!" and then to move on to the next patient, remaining productive and efficient.

But what if, as the therapist, you just want to say yes to your patients' most basic requests?

Is it really putting the company in economic harm if I refill a water cup?

Should I face an ethical dilemma every time I recognize a patient's bid for compassion and connection?

A fascinating research study shows that people inclined to be helpers actually stop helping others when they perceive a superimposed time constraint.

This week's article discusses the conflict between the US health system and the research, and the way that it impacts providers and patients.

https://bit.ly/3oLhfab