Meet Heather Jeffcoat | Femina PT | Vaginismus Therapy

Femina PT Founder

Heather Jeffcoat (she/her/hers) is the author of Sex Without Pain: A Self-Treatment Guide To The Sex Life You Deserve and a recognized expert in the field of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy. She is also former President of the Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy from 2021-2024, and she is on the Advisory Board of the International Pelvic Pain Society. After receiving many emails from people around world, she noticed there was a gap in access to quality pelvic floor physical therapy providers, and women deserved answers and a treatment plan for the painful sex they were experiencing. She developed her book as a way to get her proven techniques to all who needed it.

Heather is proud to have opened the first pelvic health physical therapy program in the Pasadena / Glendale area, and has continued to serve the area since 2004. Since then, her staff and services have expanded to Beverly Hills and Sherman Oaks, where her mission continues to emphasize quality of care in order to optimize her patients' goals. With her expanding mission to provide access to the specialized pelvich health services her office offers, she also launched The Origin Fund in 2019, a nonprofit with 501(c)3 status, providing no-cost care to low-income, marginalized populations.

She has been a featured guest on Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Livestrong, Mom.me, ABC Radio, Health Magazine, and many other media outlets.

Heather has contributed to the ICA Update and the International Childbirth Education Association Journal, where she hosted the long-running quarterly column entitled "Perinatal Wellness". She has presented her techniques twice at the American Urogynecologic Association's annual meeting, most recently in 2018 in video format during their general scientific session on the topic of developing a community-based program for treating vaginismus and vulvodynia.

She developed a course to further her mission of improving women's sexual health, and it made its debut in Istanbul, Turkey in Spring of 2019. In Summer 2019, she worked with the Chinese Olympic Committee's summer and winter athletes in Beijing. She maintains her passion for treating sports and orthopedic injuries, and brings a whole-body approach to her work with women's sexual dysfunction and pain disorders. She understands that many of her patients rarely have isolated pelvic issues. The majority also come with hip, back, neck, TMJ disorders or other orthopedic dysfunction that she concurrently treats. She knows that not addressing all of their overlapping chronic pain conditions could be driving their pain further away from a solution unless the bigger picture is addressed.

Heather received her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Duke University and her BS in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego. Additionally, she received her Comprehensive Teacher Training Certification in Pilates from BASI and is a Certified Fascial Stretch Therapist through the Stretch to Win Institute.

She opened Fusion Wellness & Femina Physical Therapy in 2009, owing to the changing healthcare climate at the time that emphasized the quantity of patient care over its quality. In a situation where she had to see two patients per hour that had complex pain conditions, incontinence, or all of the above, she knew that her patients deserved to be provided with actual care, not just the idea of care. With 55 - 115 minute sessions, her office is able to provide the hands-on treatment, skilled corrective exercises and other interventions by specialized and licensed physical therapists so they can get on the path to putting their pain or weakness behind them.

Heather specializes in treating Orthopedic and Women’s Health physical therapy diagnoses through the lifespan, as well as developing personalized Perinatal Fitness programs.

Femina PT offers a full specrum of treatments and modalities for all types of pelvic health, chronic pain and orthopedic disorders including:

vaginismus
vulvar vestibulitis / vulvodynia / vestibulodynia
endometriosis
chronic abdominal and pelvic pain
levator ani syndrome
pudendal neuralgia
interstitial cystitis (IC) / painful bladder syndrome (PBS))
urinary incontinence / bladder leakage
urinary urgency / frequency syndrome
hesitancy of voiding / slow stream
voiding dysfunctions
sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunctions
pregnancy and post-partum related disorders (sexual pain, incontinence, back/hip pain, diastasis recti, incisional/scar tissue pain and burning post C-section, vaginal scar tissue pain, hysterectomy or laparoscopic surgery)
Birth Prep Program
Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Menopause support
persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD)/persistent sexual arousal syndrome (PSAS), painful orgasm, anorgasmia (no orgasm), diminished orgasms
coccydynia (tailbone pain)
bowel dysfunctions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, etc.
neck pain
TMJ disorders (temporomandibular joint or jaw pain / jaw clenching / jaw grinding)
tension headaches
abdominophrenic dysynergia
low back pain
hip pain
shoulder pain and dysfunction (adhesive capsulitis, rotator cuff impingement, bursitis, etc.)
Low Intensity Shockwave Therapy for muscle pain, scar tissue restrictions and more.
Pelvic floor muscle biofeedback
Photobiomodulation therapy

To stay current with the newest research and treatment techniques, Heather is regularly attending continuing education covering various topics in the field of Women’s Health and Orthopedics. She works with physicians and sex therapists internationally and in the community. She is also active in the American Physical Therapy Association’s Academy of Pelvic Health (formerly the Section on Women’s Health) as their most recent Past President (2021-2024), and has also written and edited numerous documents that are currently distributed around the country and available on their website.

Heather Jeffcoat, DPT

You can also stay in touch with Heather and the Femina PT team by following us on Instagram at @feminapt and @dr.heatherjeffcoat.