Your Body and Mind Are Connected

We Do Not Heal in Pieces

When a woman comes in for pelvic floor physical therapy, she is rarely dealing with just a physical problem.

The mom who has been leaking for two years? She stopped exercising, stopped going out with friends, and feels like a shadow of who she used to be. The woman with pelvic pain? She has been avoiding intimacy with her partner and carrying guilt about it. The postpartum patient who cannot seem to recover physically? She is also battling anxiety she has never experienced before.

The body and mind are not separate systems. They are deeply, constantly connected. And when one is struggling, the other usually is too.

That is why Dr. Danaya recently sat down with Joy Bouchard, LCSW — owner of Lotus Rose Counseling in Orem, Utah — to talk about how pelvic health and mental health overlap, and why women deserve support for both.

Watch the Full Conversation

What Is Lotus Rose Counseling?

Lotus Rose Counseling is a mental health therapy practice that specializes in seeing women. Their clinicians focus on perinatal mental health — postpartum depression, birth trauma, infant loss, and everything that comes with the postpartum period — as well as women’s mental health more broadly, including navigating difficult relationships, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, and grief.

As Joy explained in the conversation: their team does not just see women as a side offering. Women’s issues are what they do, and every clinician is trained specifically for the challenges women face.

Why Joy Chose This Work

Joy has three kids of her own and experienced birth trauma and postpartum depression and anxiety with each of them. She knows firsthand what it is like to need help during one of the hardest periods of your life — and to be looking for someone who actually understands what you are going through.

That experience drove her to create Lotus Rose as a place that would feel genuinely safe for women, especially women who have experienced trauma. A place that is warm, welcoming, and staffed by clinicians who are deeply trained in women’s issues — not just checking a box.

The Overlap Between Physical and Emotional Recovery

In pelvic floor PT, Dr. Danaya sees the physical side of what women are going through. But the emotional side is always there too.

Consider what happens after a traumatic birth. The physical injuries — tearing, pelvic floor dysfunction, pain — are often addressed in the weeks after delivery. But the emotional impact can linger for months or years. A woman might develop pelvic floor tension from guarding, avoid intimacy because of associated trauma, or struggle to bond with her baby because of unprocessed grief or depression.

Joy shared something that resonated deeply: when women come to her for postpartum depression, she often discovers unprocessed experiences from childhood or their past that are resurfacing. The postpartum period does not just create new challenges — it brings old ones to the surface.

This is exactly why treating the body and the mind together matters. A pelvic floor PT can address the physical tension, the muscle dysfunction, the pain. A counselor can help process the trauma, the anxiety, the grief. Together, recovery is more complete.

What Makes Lotus Rose Different

Not all therapy practices are the same, just like not all pelvic floor PTs are the same. What sets Lotus Rose apart is their specialized focus on women and the depth of training their clinicians bring.

Every clinician at Lotus Rose is trained in at least one form of trauma treatment:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) — a specialized therapy for processing traumatic memories
• ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy) — similar to EMDR but uses a different approach
• IFS (Internal Family Systems) — helpful for trauma and navigating life transitions
• Experiential Therapy — a newer approach the team is embracing

These are not generic counseling tools. They are specialized methods specifically effective for the kinds of trauma women carry — birth trauma, childhood abuse, grief, loss, and the invisible weight of trying to hold everything together.

Common Misconceptions About Therapy

Joy addressed two myths she hears all the time:

Myth: Therapy is a quick fix. It is not. Healing takes time — time to build a relationship with your therapist and time to work through what you have been carrying. Most clients at Lotus Rose work together for six to twelve months. The first phase is about education and getting comfortable. Then the deeper work begins.

Myth: Therapy is just talking to a friend. There is a significant difference between a conversation with a friend and a session with a trained clinician who has spent years learning specialized methods for processing trauma. The training, the tools, the clinical experience — that is what makes it work.

Sound familiar? These are the same misconceptions Dr. Danaya hears about pelvic floor PT. "Just do Kegels." "It will get better on its own." "Everyone deals with this." The truth is that both pelvic health and mental health deserve specialized, expert care.

If You Are on the Fence

Joy’s advice for anyone considering therapy was simple: call and ask for a free 15-minute consultation. Meet the clinician. Ask about their approach, their training, their experience. Sometimes just having that first conversation opens the door.

You do not have to commit to anything. There is no contract. You can try a session, and if it is not the right fit, find somewhere else. The point is to start.

The same is true for pelvic floor PT. Dr. Danaya offers a free consultation where you can ask questions, describe what you are experiencing, and figure out if treatment is right for you. No pressure, no commitment.

You Deserve Support for All of It

If you are dealing with pelvic floor symptoms — leaking, pain, pressure, difficulty returning to exercise — and you are also struggling emotionally, know that both are real and both are treatable.

You do not have to choose between your body and your mind. You do not have to power through either one. And you do not have to do it alone.

And if you are ready to address the physical side, schedule a free consultation with Dr. Danaya. Whether you start with your body or your mind — the important thing is that you start.