Sophie Hedlesky
Sophie Hedlesky is a licensed physical therapist and the pelvic floor specialist at Hope Therapy Center. The pelvic floor is a group of muscles most people have never been taught to feel, and it controls more than one job: continence, core support, and pain through the hips, low back and lower abdomen. Leaking when you cough or run. Pressure that will not settle. Pain with sitting or with intimacy. A core that never came back after a birth. These are muscle and coordination problems, which is exactly what a physical therapist is trained to assess and retrain. Louisiana is a direct access state, so you can start pelvic floor therapy here without a physician referral.
What pelvic floor therapy involves.
Care starts with an evaluation and a straightforward conversation about what you are actually experiencing, including the parts you may have been told to simply live with. Sophie explains what she is assessing and why before she assesses it, and nothing happens without your consent. From there she builds a plan around the specific muscles, breathing pattern and movement habits involved, and gives you work to do between visits, because pelvic floor strength and coordination are trained daily, not weekly. Sessions run 30 to 60 minutes, one on one. Most people attend two to three visits a week for four to six weeks, and many notice a change within the first few weeks. If there is no documented improvement within 30 days, Louisiana requires a referral back to a physician, and the front office helps arrange that.