Why Thresholds Pelvic Health?
When I consider the breadth of what we do as pelvic floor physical therapists, it feels hard to encompass in one name. Even as niched down as it is anatomically, we still care for a wide variety of patients. Renaming the clinic from Dr. Mandi Murtaugh Physical Therapy & Yoga to Thresholds Pelvic Health feels like an important way to acknowledge the deeper work that we do.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines threshold as “the level or point at which you start to experience something, or at which something starts to happen or change.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a patient say “I wish I would have started this sooner.” Many were referred years–even decades–ago by their provider, and it just felt too scary or weird or just wasn’t the right time to embark on such a personal journey. I always assure them that they haven’t missed out, that they simply weren’t ready back then–but now they are.
The day you start getting help is the day you were supposed to start. It’s the point at which you choose to start experiencing something new, and when things start to change. You’ve chosen to step over the threshold.
Of course another definition is “the part of a floor at the entrance to a building or room.” Honestly, it’s brave to walk into your first pelvic floor PT visit. It can be a scary thing to be so vulnerable, to tell someone your stories and to be cared for in such a personal way. It takes courage to cross that threshold.
In anatomical terms, the opening to the vagina is called the vestibule, defined as “a space in the body that is an entrance to a passage or another space.” This is where our work as pelvic floor PTs takes place. We assess and treat the pelvic floor by gently moving beyond the vestibule, past the vaginal entrance, over the threshold into the pelvic bowl. This is very intimate work; it involves trust and care, and is a threshold I approach with respect and reverence for the energetic work that it inherently is. It is an honor to be trusted by a person for this particular type of care.
Beyond the physical work that we do, we walk with patients through many seasons in their lives. We see them just before they cross the threshold from pregnancy into motherhood, then again on the other side as they get acquainted with their new body. I have sat with women through new diagnoses and divorces, pregnancy losses and surgical procedures. We have a unique window into their life, sometimes for a brief period of time, and sometimes over the course of several years, through subsequent pregnancies, new flares, or when something new comes along.
Thresholds Pelvic Health is a name that encompasses this work. When someone decides to start on the path of pelvic floor PT, they are choosing at that point to experience something new; they are choosing to change their life. And Thresholds Pelvic Health is where I meet them.