Pelvic rehabilitation is a constantly evolving specialty, and your ability to offer high-quality care grows when you have access to a diverse set of tools. Modalities play a significant role in strengthening clinical precision, improving neuromuscular learning, enhancing patient engagement, and expanding treatment possibilities. When you integrate evidence-based modalities into your practice, you elevate the effectiveness and individualization of your patient care.

Here are the top five reasons modalities matter in pelvic rehabilitation, along with examples of tools that can support your work

1. Modalities Improve Your Clinical Precision

Pelvic health presentations often involve complex relationships between muscle tone, coordination, pain, biomechanics, breathing patterns, and emotional factors. Modalities help you see these interactions more clearly and treat them more effectively.

Are you a clinician passionate about pelvic rehabilitation and ready to take your expertise to the next level? The Pelvic Rehabilitation Practitioner Certification (PRPC) from Herman & Wallace is designed to recognize advanced practitioners who provide comprehensive pelvic health care to patients of all genders and ages.

Whether you’re a physical therapist, occupational therapist, nurse, or physician, PRPC sets you apart as a leader in the field—backed by rigorous standards and national recognition.

🗓 Upcoming Exam Window: November 1–15, 2025

Application Deadline: October 1, 2025
👉 Apply Now

We are excited to share that Allison Ariail, PT, DPT, CLT, BCB-PMD, PRPC, longtime faculty member and Content Developer, is stepping into the role of Director of Education at Herman & Wallace.

Allison has been teaching with H&W since 2011 and has played a major role in developing courses such as the Capstone, Oncology series, Anorectal Ballooning, and the Peripartum series. With 25 years of clinical experience and expertise in oncology, lymphedema, and rehabilitative ultrasound, she brings both depth and vision to this position.

This transition follows Holly Tanner’s decision to step away from the role after 15 years of leadership. Holly’s contributions include co-developing the PRPC certification, guiding new course and faculty development, and helping to steer H&W through the COVID pivot to online learning. Her impact has shaped the education of more than 30,000 therapists and we are deeply grateful for her dedication.

There’s something special about gathering in a room with colleagues, exchanging ideas, practicing hands-on techniques, and learning from expert instructors in real time. While virtual education offers flexibility and accessibility, many pelvic health practitioners are eager to get back to the connection, feedback, and tactile learning that only in-person courses can provide.

If you’re ready to step back into a live classroom, Herman & Wallace has a robust lineup of in-person courses designed to sharpen your clinical skills, deepen your understanding of pelvic health, and connect you with a like-minded community of learners.

Here are some of the in-person courses currently offered:

Pelvic rehabilitation professionals know that working with athletes requires a unique lens—and when your client is both an athlete and navigating the perinatal period, the clinical complexity deepens.

That’s why Herman & Wallace is excited to announce the High Intensity Perinatal Athletics Practicum, coming to Somerset, NJ on September 27–28, 2025. This two-day course is built for pelvic rehab practitioners who want to elevate their skills in evaluating and treating pregnant and postpartum individuals engaging in high-intensity interval training (HIIT), including activities like weightlifting, gymnastics, plyometrics, and running.

The practicum blends pre-course videos, targeted in-person lectures, and hands-on movement labs. You'll explore:

Ramona C. Horton MPT, DPT is a rock star in the realm of pelvic rehabilitation! What you may not know about Ramona is that she has developed and instructs the Herman & Wallace visceral and fascial mobilization courses.

Most therapists have a variety of manual therapy techniques in their toolbox. Manual therapy often targets muscles, joints, and bones and encompasses a broad range of techniques for treating musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction. While visceral mobilization is a specialized type of manual therapy that focuses on the internal organs and their surrounding tissues and fascial mobilization, also known as myofascial release, focuses on the fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds and connects muscles, organs, and bone.

Herman & Wallace extends a heartfelt congratulations to the newest group of PRPC-certified practitioners!  The above practitioners all sat for the May 2025 exam administration and earned passing marks - identifiying them as specialists in the field of pelvic health.

What is the PRPC?

As of February 2025, 574 bills that restrict the rights of transgender people have been introduced in 48 states.¹ Many of these bills seek to limit the inclusion of transgender and nonbinary people, including limiting educational discussions (both anti-LGBTQ+ and gender-focused) and limitations on access to public places or services (e.g., bathrooms). Twenty-five states have now banned best practice medical and surgical treatments for transgender youth². More notably, in six of these states, providing some of these best practice treatments is now a felony².

These legislative actions directly contradict the clear positions of leading medical groups, including but not limited to the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the World Health Organization, all of which support access to gender-affirming care. The impact of these anti-transgender laws is devastating. Young transgender and nonbinary people living in these states with bans on gender-affirming care are suffering, with suicide attempts spiking by 7% to 72% over the prior year.³ Transgender adults are not immune to the effects of these regressive laws, as they are also experiencing increased rates of depression and anxiety.

Furthermore, while these laws are aimed at impacting transgender and gender diverse populations, they are negatively impacting intersex populations as well. Many of these laws restrict gender-affirming care for transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGD) people, but there are exceptions within these laws that allow non-consensual, non-medically necessary, usually genital-based, surgeries on intersex infants and children to continue. Per the Human Rights Watch, “These surgeries have been deemed human rights violations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, and other authorities.”⁶

Did you know that HWConnect will feature several Breakout sessions where you can receive hands-on learning from HW faculty?

These Breakouts include:

• Rehabilitative Ultra Sound Imaging of the Bladder and Transverse Abdominis with Allison Ariail, PT, DPT, CLT-LANA, PRPC
• Inclusive Care Roleplay Workshop with Ken McGee, PT, DPT
• Squat Analysis Lab with Brianna Durand, PT, DPT
• Acupressure: Self-Regulation Acupoints with Rachna Mehta, PT, DPT, CIMT, OCS, PRPC, RTY 200
• The Pelvic Rehab Provider’s Role in Infant Care: Managing Reflux, Constipation, and Colicky Babies with Mora Pluchino, PT, DPT, PRPC

On top of this, our Vendor Hall is PACKED! Starting with our event sponsor, CMT. Their booth will include shockwave, and Stacey Roberts will be on hand to demo this modality and answer any questions.

Does this scenario sound familiar? You are treating a patient with chronic pelvic pain who isn’t responding to conventional treatments. Maybe you are working with a client who has a prolapse, but no matter what you do, nothing is helping. You’ve tried everything and the underlying cause has you stumped.

You’re not alone. Dr. Julie Baron discusses the diagnosis of what is now known as Pelvic Venous Disorders (PeVD) in this short interview and explains how it is missed every day. "We aren’t taught about it in school or in our continuing education. The concepts that are taught center around outdated research and misleading terms like “Pelvic Congestion Syndrome” that can negatively impact diagnostic imaging selection, treatment, and overall patient outcomes."

Up to 30% of people with chronic pelvic pain have PeVD, yet the average time to diagnosis can take years simply because providers just don’t know any better. One of the biggest risk factors for the development of PeVD is pregnancy. Who better to screen for and identify this often-overlooked condition than you — a pelvic PT/OT?