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femina atlanta

The best kept SECRET in Atlanta

We redefine women's health with a personalized touch, specializing in therapy that empowers and heals. Our studio in the heart of Buckhead is your sanctuary for pelvic wellness, where the SECRET to thriving is not just known but practiced with compassion and innovation. We turn the whispers of pelvic dysfunction into empowering conversations—think of us as your pelvic health fairy godmothers, helping you conquer incontinence, breeze through pregnancy, and soar in postpartum recovery!

Our Atlanta location is convenient to Midtown, Virginia-Highlands, Ansley Park, Sandy Springs and Brookhaven to name but a few!

femina atlanta

The best kept SECRET in Beverly Hills

We focus on women’s health with a compassionate and personal approach, offering therapy that empowers individuals and facilitates deep healing experiences. Our well-designed studio in Beverly Hills serves as a welcoming place dedicated to pelvic wellness, where therapy is practiced with attention, care, and innovative ideas. Consider us your trusted guides as you work toward conquering pelvic dysfunction, navigating the complexities of pregnancy, and excelling in postpartum recovery with confidence and support.

Come see us

9012 Burton Way
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Telephone: (818) 873-1403

Hours:

Monday 1 pm-6:00 pm
Tuesday 7am-12:00pm
Wednesday Closed
Thursday 9 am-1:00pm
Friday 7am-6:00 pm

Our Beverly Hills office is convenient to Mid-Wilshire, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverlywood, Korea Town, Downtown LA, Culver City, Century City, Santa Monica and Malibu.

Specialty Treatments available at Femina Atlanta

Specialty Treatments available at Femina Beverly Hills

Myofascial Release Therapy to Alleviate Chronic Pain

Myofascial restrictions can be caused by postural dysfunction, trauma, inflammatory conditions and/or surgeries. When these restrictions occur, they can produce tensile pressures up to 2,000 pounds per square inch on sensitive structure and lead to chronic pain. It essentially creates a ‘straight-jacket’ of pain around the tissue and can keep you in a cycle of pain.

Read more: Myofascial Release Therapy

Femina PT offers Fascial Stretch Therapy™, an assisted-stretching system that unlocks the flexibility potential in your body! FST™ is a unique system of therapy & training that dramatically improves your flexibility by lengthening your fascia.

Fascia is the connective tissue that envelops all structures of the body, effectively connecting them together. The problem is that fascia will thicken & shorten when any of your tissues are under stress from poor posture, improper body mechanics, lack of exercise, injury, surgery, disease or over-training. This process is accelerated when the body (and, therefore the tissues) are dehydrated.

Read more: Fascial Stretch Therapy

What is Graston Technique?

Graston Technique is a type of manual therapy that uses stainless steel instruments to treat dysfunction and pain in connective tissue. It is form of Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Manipulation. While the instruments may look a bit medieval, treatments should not cause extreme pain. The tools are made of stainless steel and are either concave or convex-shaped. They have rounded edges that are not sharp but can be more precise compared to a therapist’s hands. These design elements assist in diagnosing the location and isolating the treatment of a connective tissue lesion. Graston Technique is well researched and has been proven to improve tissue quality while decreasing healing time. 

Read more: Graston Technique

Couple embracing in a pink sunset
Photo by Travis Grossen on Unsplash

Involving your partner in your pelvic floor therapy may improve your outcomes and your relationship.

Here are some ways you can involve your partner in your pelvic floor physical therapy:

Start Talking About Your Experience.

Both studies and clinical experience have shown that talking to your partner about your sexuality, pelvic floor issues, and sharing the progress you’re making in pelvic floor therapy can improve anxiety, reduce pain levels, and bring more intimacy to your relationship. As you transition to sex with your partner, sexual assertiveness will also help you find activities, angles, and positions that feel pleasurable, not painful to you and your partner.

As we mentioned in a previous blog post, a 2016 study by McNicoll et al. suggests that Sexual Assertiveness, or the ability to communicate openly to your partner about your sexual experience, may reduce the pain experienced with provoked vestibulodynia (PVD), increase sexual function, and encourage your partner to communicate you in ways that help boost your sexual health.

What is Sexual Assertiveness?

Sexual assertiveness refers to the degree to which a person is able to openly communicate his or her thoughts, choices and feelings about sexuality. Sexual assertiveness is further defined as being the ability to communicate about three different areas of your sexual experience (Loshek & Terrell, 2014):

  • Sexual initiation and communicating satisfaction
  • Ability to refuse unwanted sexual acts
  • Ability to communicate about sexual risk and history

Gaining skills in sexual assertiveness can be done by practicing with your partner, opening up to friends, or with a sex therapist.

Invite your Partner a Pelvic Floor Therapy Session

Yes, you can invite your partner to a pelvic floor therapy session! I often work with clients and their partners to do basic education regarding pelvic pain, explain the process of therapy, and help troubleshoot positions, timing, and transition to sex. If you are under the care of a pelvic floor therapist, ask your therapist if they are open to having your partner come to a session. You can also contact us for a telehealth session in California (or virtual consultation worldwide).

Show your Partner your Exercises

While some clients may be uncomfortable showing their dilator kit to their partner, as a pelvic floor therapist I'd recommend doing it and early on in your therapy. It's fun to celebrate getting to the next size with your partner and also to keep them up to date on your progress.

Besides your dilator exercises, chances are your pelvic floor therapist has assigned you some pelvic floor stretches, mindfulness practice, breathing exercises, foam rolling, or core stability exercises to go along with your dilator program. Share these exercises with your partner to help build closeness and to share your experience and journey with them.

Share Educational Resources

Recently there has been more educational materials available to share about pelvic pain, vaginismus, and the lived experience of someone with pelvic pain. Here are some favorites:

Play with Your Partner

Pelvic pain can have an effect on quality of life as well as your relationships. Doing other sensual activities together such as sensate focus, partner massage, or even stretching together can help rekindle a sense of physical intimacy with your partner. Sex therapists often work with couples to help find the right exercises for your relationship.

Plan with Your Partner

Transition to sex with your partner requires planning, working together, and practice. As with the case with any new skill, it takes some patience to build confidence, and sex is no exception. Working with your pelvic floor therapist, you can create a transition plan with your partner so that the transition to sex is informed, comfortable, and pleasurable to both partners.

Check out our list of recommended products that can help with the transition to sex: https://feminapt.com/resources/product-recommendations

Also be sure to read our latest article on sexual assertiveness here: https://feminapt.com/blog/sexual-assertiveness-may-reduce-your-pelvic-pain

Resources

Cano, A., & Williams, A. C. C. (2010). Social interaction in pain: Reinforcing pain behaviors or building intimacy? Pain, 149, 9–11. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2009.10.010.

Loshek, E., & Terrell, H. K. (2014). The Development of the Sexual Assertiveness Questionnaire (SAQ): A Comprehensive Measure of Sexual Assertiveness for Women. The Journal of Sex Research, 52(9), 1017–1027. doi:10.1080/00224499.2014.944970

McNicoll, G., Corsini-Munt, S., O. Rosen, N., McDuff, P., & Bergeron, S. (2016). Sexual Assertiveness Mediates the Associations Between Partner Facilitative Responses and Sexual Outcomes in Women With Provoked Vestibulodynia. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 43(7), 663–677. doi:10.1080/0092623x.2016.1230806

Rancourt, K. M., Rosen, N. O., Bergeron, S., & Nealis, L. J. (2016). Talking About Sex When Sex Is Painful: Dyadic Sexual Communication Is Associated With Women’s Pain, and Couples’ Sexual and Psychological Outcomes in Provoked Vestibulodynia. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45(8), 1933–1944. doi:10.1007/s10508-015-0670-6

Rosen, N. O., Bergeron, S., Glowacka, M., Delisle, I., & Baxter, M. L. (2012). Harmful or Helpful: Perceived Solicitous and Facilitative Partner Responses Are Differentially Associated with Pain and Sexual Satisfaction in Women with Provoked Vestibulodynia. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 9(9), 2351–2360. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02851.x

Rosen, N. O., Rancourt, K. M., Corsini-Munt, S., & Bergeron, S. (2014). Beyond a ‘‘woman’s problem’’: The role of relationship processes in female genital pain. Current Sexual Health Reports, 6, 1–10. doi:10.1007/s11930-013-0006-2.

Smith, K. B., & Pukall, C. F. (2014). Sexual Function, Relationship Adjustment, and the Relational Impact of Pain in Male Partners of Women with Provoked Vulvar Pain. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 11(5), 1283–1293. doi:10.1111/jsm.12484

Get The Book

Sex Without Pain: A Self-Treatment Guide To The Sex Life You Deserve

Haga clic aquí para la versión española Sex Without Pain: A Self-Treatment Guide To The Sex Life You Deserve was written by Heather Jeffcoat, DPT, a physical therapist with countless successes in treating pain of this type. Women with vaginismus, overactive pelvic floor, painful intercourse, vulvodynia, vulvar vestibulitis, vestibulodynia, dyspareunia, interstitial cystitis have all benefited from her unique program. Heather uses her orthopedic background to approach treatment of these muscles like they are....muscles! She utilizes a self-treatment tool called a dilator to provide massage and other muscle relaxation and stretching techniques in a gentle fashion to return a women's muscles back to a resting, rather than guarded, state.


• To order "Sex Without Pain" in paperback from Amazon for $24.99, click here.

• To order an electronic read-only non-printable PDF copy of the book for instant download at $19.99, use the button below:

• To schedule an appointment at one of the Femina PT offices, click here.

• For a list of other trusted health care providers, click here.

Our Atlanta Team

Meet Dr. Erin Policelli, PT, DPT, RN, FST

Dr. Erin Policelli, PT, DPT, RN, FST

Owner of Femina Atlanta

With two decades of experience as a women's health physical therapist, my journey has been defined by a steadfast commitment to caring for my patients and enhancing their quality of life. Every day, I draw upon my passion for this specialty to provide patient-centered care that addresses both physical pain and emotional well-being. My most fulfilling moments occur when I witness the transformative impact of my interventions—when I help women decrease pain and improve their function. Being invested in their unique experiences fosters trust and empowers them, creating an environment where healing truly thrives.

Read more: Meet Dr. Erin Policelli, PT, DPT, RN, FST

Our Beverly Hills Team

Meet Heather Jeffcoat, DPT

Meet Heather Jeffcoat

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 a past 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.

Read more: Meet Heather Jeffcoat, DPT

What Our Patients Say About Their Journey

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