Finally Fearless with Dr. Mel

You had a baby. Or tore your ACL. Or injured your back. You still feel like a hot bag of garbage. But your MD says all imaging and labs look great and you can just ease yourself back into your "normal" activities. Except nothing about how you feel feel normal to you. You ask if there's anything else that can help. "What about PT?" you say. "Nah, IDK what they would work on since it looks like you'...

Ever follow a health & wellness "guru" on social media, only to find out, down the line, that what they were saying holds no merit? I say it often: social media is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it allows us to connect with professionals all over the world in so many ways; however, because there isn't really a way to regulate the content accounts post and sell (especially if they sk...

I was scrolling through my IG wall the other day; the two things I post about most are the pelvic floor (cuz, duh!) and the absolute nonsense that is diet culture. I started thinking "here I am, a physical therapist, talking about the harms of diet culture; do people understand how closely this intertwines in traditional healthcare?" The answer is, I'm not really sure. After working in traditional...

Today, I'm challenging how you go about your workouts, especially if you're doing them in the gym. In this episode, I am reviewing 3 of the most common mistakes I see in the gym that I wish more people were aware of: because your body will thank you for it! Healthcare is a difficult territory for women to navigate, as many of us are left feeling dismissed and unheard, our concerns being chalked up...

This week, I ventured into one of the places I hate the most: the fitting room. In the past, trips like these would send me into a spiral of striving to squeeze my body into the size I believed I "should" be, not being "successful" in doing so, then going down a spiral of self-loathing followed by shame followed by vowing to increase restriction in my diet and increase my workout efforts. And gues...

"Once I lose 20 pounds, I'll go on that trip." How many of us create this compromise? That if we lose weight and reach a certain number on the scale, that THEN our life can really begin? How many times have we put off going on a life-changing trip, joining a gym, trying a new restaurant, buying a new outfit, all on this condition that IF we lose this arbitrary amount of pounds, that THAT will be w...

You've skipped your workout for the 3rd time this week. Or you've eaten a slice of pizza instead of your usual kale salad for lunch. Does this make you "bad?" Many of us "fall off the wagon" in regard to whatever plan we have for our eating and/or exercise and then go ahead and label ourselves "bad" for doing so. Did you know that doing so can actually make you less likely to follow through with h...

Someone sent me a post from a very large social media account, spreading all kinds of misinformation about what pelvic rehab professionals do. No, we don't "finger" people. No, we don't have your legs up in the air. Not only was I upset that messaging like this deters new professionals from entering a field where we need more clinicians, but it also may be deterring people like YOU from seeking ou...

I'll often have someone reach out after following me for YEARS, finally asking whether working on their pelvic is "weird" because they're young or have never been pregnant. It's so dismissive that we've been led to believe that we are freaks for experiencing leaking, pain with penetration, pelvic pain, pressure in our pelvis, or back/hip pain that never goes away despite our imaging being "normal....

Have you ever felt guilty for calling in sick? Or forced yourself through a workout, despite not feeling your best? In today's episode, we are talking all about nervous system up-regulation , which is fancy talk for a body that constantly feels stressed out and doesn't know how to calm down. Remaining in this constant fight-or-flight state actually can keep us from getting over a sickness, and inj...

How many of us think of exercise as a way to get/stay "healthy," ie lose weight? What if I told you we are going about it all wrong? The reality is, if you're checking out and just going through the motions of a workout without actually paying attention to what's happening in your body, THIS is when we may start to see things like increased risk of leaking, prolapse, and overall injury. In today's...

Women are so afraid of lifting heavy shit for reasons that are all untrue, still feeding into the idea that...⁣ You're gonna get bulky (you won't).⁣ It's dangerous (it's not).⁣ You don't have the strength to do it (you do).⁣ And, my personal favorite myth (and the entire reason why I created 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝): lifting weights causes things like prolapse and leaking and :insert all pelvic floor stuf...

I went on a trip recently and you know that whole spiel they do with the oxygen masks on a plane? The one where they tell you to put your child's mask on before your own? Well, that got me thinking: why are we always putting others' masks on before our own? The truth is, if you're not filling your tank physically, mentally, and emotionally, burnout, stress, and injury risk go on the rise. Yet, we...

When you hear the word "relationship," what do you think of? In many cases, we automatically think of our significant others, our romantic partners: but is that all? Granted, these people are so prominent in our lives because, most likely, we share SO much of our life experiences with them. But what if we started thinking about other relationships that touch our lives and add quality and purpose t...

Shoving your feelings down and "getting your therapy" by forcing yourself through a hard workout is the complete OPPOSITE of health. When trainers, physical therapists, etc are advising you to "get over it" for an hour so you can get your exercise session in, they are actually causing more harm than you (or even they) might realize.⁣ ⁣ Health and performance are multifaceted: your physical perform...

Being a pelvic health specialist, I always ask my clients who is working on their care team; in many cases, they'll say they're working with a nutritionist which gets my brain wheels turning. If you're dealing with stuff like chronic constipation, IBS, interstitial cystitis, leaking, Chron's Disease, etc, it's probably a good idea to check out whether any of your symptoms are diet-related: BUT, ar...

It's so easy to say "you need to advocate for yourself" when speaking with someone who is navigating a health situation. Heck, I say this stuff all the time! But it wasn't until I recently went through a scary and trying time with MY health where I actually had to do it in a realm I knew nothing about. Gimme all the muscle, joint, ligament, and nerve stuff: I know how to handle all of that. But wh...

Have you ever started or done a workout program and had this out-of-body experience? Kinda like you blacked out during it but you're panting and sweaty and just standing there like "wtf just happened?" A lot of us do exercise programs where we have similar experiences to this: we think we're getting in "the zone," yet all we are doing is going through the motions to just get through it and call it...

"Just do your kegels." Sounds simple enough, right? And everyone loves simple solutions to complex problems. "Just do kegels" has been pushed as the "fix" for every pelvic floor woe: leaking or peeing yourself? Just do your kegels! Feel like your organs are falling out of your body? Just do your kegels! Sex isn't up to snuff? Just do your damn kegels! Everyone, including your MD and OBGYN, are thr...

You may have heard that high intensity/high impact exercise and heavy weight lifting lead to pelvic floor issues like prolapse, pain, and peeing yourself.⁣ ⁣ It ain't true.⁣ 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔? Our bodies are super smart and love predictability. Once they pick up on a pattern that works, that's their go-to: even if it's not the most efficient way of doing things.⁣ ⁣ Let's take weight lifting for example....

The other day, I was talking with a new pelvic floor PT who wants to open her own practice. "People keep saying I need 5 years of mentorship. That I should work for someone for 10 years first. That you need a lot of capital to start." The list of  shoulds and  have tos went on. "How many of these people actually own their own practice and do what you want to do?" I asked her. The an...

Do you know how your insurance plan works? Like really know how it works?? Lemme tell you: as a healthcare professional, even I get confused about this stuff! Copays, co-insurances, out of pocket maxes, deductibles, premiums: it's enough to make anyone's head spin! Today we are going over the VERY basics on what to be aware of when using your insurance, especially as it pertains to your physical t...

Have you ever had an injury sideline you from doing the things you love? What about pain in general? If you've ever had knee (or hip or back or any kind of pain), you know how much it sucks to have it interfere with your life. It sucks even more when you go to your doctor (or even your physical therapist) and are basically told that it is what it is, just deal with it. Maybe it's your age? Maybe y...

Have you set your new year's resolution goal? I haven't: and here's why.... I find waiting until the new year to set a "resolution" goal (or any goal for that matter) to be extremely stressful and a huge disservice to so many people, especially women. Why do we wait around 364 days of the year, and then expect this ONE day to change our lives forever? We wind up making up these (probably) arbitrar...

Your hip has been nagging you for YEARS and you finally decide to do something about it. You go to your orthopedist who takes an xray and tells you that minus some arthritis, everything looks good. Cool. He also tells you that because you do Pilates every day, you're pretty fit, so you don't need physical therapy. So not cool! Listen, doing Pilates (and really any activity) is super beneficial to...