Weeks 1–2
Pain
Let the guarding go.
Hands-on work, breathing and down-training help an overworked pelvic floor stop bracing, so the pain has room to settle.
What We Treat
Pelvic pain treatment in River Forest.
The pain you have never said out loud. Sitting through a meeting. Intimacy. The drive home. It is common, it is treatable, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation, one-on-one in a private room with Dr. Rachel Richard.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- Shifting in your chair through a whole meeting, looking for the position that aches least
- Pain with sex, or the dread of it, that you have never said out loud to anyone
- A deep ache low in the pelvis that arrives mid-afternoon and settles in for the night
- Tailbone pain that turns every hard chair and every car ride into a calculation
- Burning or pressure that never fully lets go, months after a delivery or a surgery
- Being told everything looks normal, and still hurting every single day
Two or more? You are not imagining it. Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Pelvic pain is a symptom. Something is causing it.
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles, the same as your shoulder or your hip. Muscles get tight. They get weak. They lose their coordination, and they guard long after the thing that scared them is over. That is usually what pelvic pain actually is: a floor that has been holding on too hard for too long, scar tissue from a delivery or a surgery that never fully softened, hips and a low back that stopped sharing the load, and a nerve that stays irritated because nothing around it will relax.
None of that shows up on a scan, which is why so many people get told everything looks normal and go home with nothing. You are the one who keeps everybody else’s appointments, which is exactly why this one kept getting pushed. A cause-first evaluation sorts out which of those pieces is driving your pain. It happens one-on-one, in a private room, with Dr. Rachel Richard, who is Herman and Wallace trained through Pelvic Floor Level 2. She explains every step before it happens, and nothing happens that you have not agreed to.
The Honest Truth
Pelvic pain does not get quieter for being ignored.
If you keep waiting
- The muscles guard harder, and the list of things that hurt keeps getting longer
- You start planning around it: the chair, the car ride, the trip, your own marriage
- It stops being a problem you are solving and becomes something you have learned to live with
If you start this week
- You know the actual cause by the end of visit one, in plain language
- Someone finally looks at the whole picture: pelvic floor, hips and low back together
- You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits
You have carried this quietly for long enough. Nothing about starting has to be uncomfortable.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for the pelvic floor.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for pelvic pain.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Get the coordination back.
You learn to relax and contract on purpose, and the hips and low back get moving again so the floor stops working alone.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Make it strong enough to trust.
Graded strengthening through the floor, hips and deep core, loaded the way an ordinary day actually loads you.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Put your life back on the calendar.
Sitting, lifting, exercise and intimacy get tested against your real week before you’re finished: that’s the endpoint, not just another appointment.
Rachel is absolutely delightful! Not only is she knowledgeable, but she’s also very approachable. She put me at ease, so I was comfortable sharing sensitive information that was relevant to my health. She helped me understand my body better and learn some good techniques to strengthen my pelvic floor. She also helped to soften the scar tissue that resulted from my surgery. I would highly recommend her!
Shared by Carla L. · Pelvic health
At the start: sensitive things she had never said out loud to anyone
By the end: understanding her own body, and softer scar tissue
Pelvic health
Four phases
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking pelvic floor therapy.
No, and nothing happens without your consent. An internal assessment is one tool, not a requirement, and a great deal of pelvic floor care happens without it. Dr. Rachel Richard explains every option before anything begins, tells you what she is looking for and why, and stops the moment you want to stop. Your visit is one-on-one in a private room, not a shared gym floor. You can decline and still get a full evaluation and a real plan.
Common is not the same as normal. Pain with sitting, pain with sex, and pain that lingers long after a delivery or a surgery are all common enough that almost nobody talks about them, which is exactly why people carry this for years. It is a muscle, nerve and movement problem, and those respond to treatment. You are not broken, and you are not making too much of it.
You will see Dr. Rachel Richard, a Doctor of Physical Therapy who is Herman and Wallace trained through Pelvic Floor Level 2. One-on-one, in a private room, every visit. Your plan runs through the same four phases we use for everything: Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent. You will get the length at your evaluation, once we know what is driving your symptoms, and you will always know which phase you are in and what is left. That is what a plan with an endpoint means. Illinois has direct access, so you do not need a physician referral to start.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon–Thu 7am–7pm · Fri 7am–5pm
- (708) 657-4038 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- No referral needed in Illinois
5.0 · 120+ Google reviews
Typical response: under 2 business hours
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Elevate Physical Therapy and Fitness
- 7607 North Ave, River Forest, IL 60305 (opens in a new tab)
- (708) 657-4038
- Fax: (312) 312-9631
- info@elevateptaf.com
- Mon–Thu 7am–7pm · Fri 7am–5pm