Building the gold standard in pelvic health education — one clinician, one patient, at a time.

Pelvic Health, Finally Taken Seriously

For a considerable amount of time, the pelvic floor lived in a blind spot. Patients struggling with incontinence, pelvic pain, postpartum recovery, sexual health concerns, or the quiet after-effects of cancer treatment were routinely told their problems were rare, embarrassing, or simply something to live with. The clinicians who wanted to help them often had nowhere to go for the training they needed.

Herman & Wallace exists because two physical therapists refused to accept that.

A Friendship, Then a Movement

Holly Herman and Kathe Wallace crossed paths sometime around the early 1990s, both already drawn to the deeply human areas of rehabilitation medicine — the conditions patients were often too embarrassed to mention, and too often dismissed when they did. They began teaching together in 1993. For more than a decade, they traveled, trained, questioned the evidence, refined their clinical reasoning, and built something rare in continuing education: a curriculum that respected both the complexity of the pelvic floor and the dignity of the patient sitting in front of the clinician.

In 2006, they formalized that work as the Herman & Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute. It was a small beginning with a specific conviction — that pelvic health deserved the same rigor, the same evidence base, and the same investment in hands-on teaching as any other specialty in rehabilitation medicine.

What the Institute Became

Nearly two decades later, Herman & Wallace has become the name clinicians trust when they want to do this work well. More than 100,000 physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, physicians, and other allied health professionals have studied with the Institute. Our graduates practice in academic medical centers, outpatient clinics, hospitals, private practices, and specialty clinics across North America and beyond.

Herman & Wallace is widely regarded as the gold standard in pelvic health education, and the Pelvic Rehabilitation Practitioner Certification (PRPC) we award is considered one of the most rigorous credentials in the field. However, ask any of our faculty what they are most proud of, and you probably won't hear about the numbers. You will hear about patients. The new mother who can lift her baby without fear. The cancer survivor reclaiming intimacy and confidence. The runner back on the trail. The veteran finally sleeping through the night. Every course we teach is aimed to help these patients, as well as all others that have pelvic dysfunction.

Our Mission

Herman & Wallace's mission is to foster an interdisciplinary approach to patient care, support multi-site research, and encourage consistent evidence-based growth for the clinician. In practice, that means providing the most comprehensive, hands-on, evidence-based curriculum available for treating pelvic floor and pelvic girdle dysfunction in all people, throughout the entire life cycle.

Our courses span urological, colorectal, gynecological, obstetrical, and orthopedic presentations. They speak to pediatric patients, birthing patients, athletes, aging adults, LGBTQ+ patients, oncology survivors, and everyone in between. The goal is not to produce technicians who can run a protocol. The goal is to produce clinicians who can think — critically, compassionately, and in real partnership with the person in front of them.

How We Teach

Everything Herman & Wallace does is built around its faculty. Our instructors are practicing clinicians first and educators second. They see patients in the morning and lecture that same afternoon. They update their own courses as the literature shifts. They argue with each other productively, and are constantly learning and searching for new information. If you have ever taken a Herman & Wallace course and asked a hard question, you know the answer you received was not rehearsed.

We teach in the ways that work, not the ways that are simply cheapest to deliver. Our course formats include:

• In-person lab courses, where hands-on skills are developed under direct instruction
• Satellite courses, which bring the same live instruction to regional host sites across the country
• Remote courses, designed specifically for online delivery — not simply lectures streamed from a laptop

A New Chapter: Partnering with Summit Professional Education

In August 2025, Herman & Wallace entered a partnership with Summit Professional Education, one of the country's leading providers of continuing education for healthcare professionals. The decision was not about changing what Herman & Wallace is. It was about making sure more clinicians — and, by extension, more patients — can benefit from what the Institute already is.

Summit brings operational scale in the places where a faculty-led institute naturally has limits: modern learning technology, broader enrollment and student-support infrastructure, and the platform capability to deliver flexible learning at a higher quality bar. Academic decisions — what is taught, how it is taught, who teaches it, and how rigor is maintained — remain firmly with Herman & Wallace faculty leadership.

As Summit CEO Ken Ramirez put it at the time of the announcement: "Herman & Wallace is the most trusted leader in pelvic health education, known for clinical excellence, depth, and a strong community of rehab professionals." The partnership exists to bring that excellence to more clinicians who care deeply about patient outcomes.

Put plainly: the story is the same. We simply have more hands to help carry it.

What Is Not Changing

It is worth stating plainly:

• The Herman & Wallace curriculum remains the foundation of every course we offer
• Our faculty remain central to course design and delivery
• Courses continue to be evidence-based and clinically driven
• The PRPC certification remains rigorous and respected, with no change to its requirements or administration
• In-person, satellite, and remote course formats all continue

What changes is our reach: broader access to pelvic health education, better technology behind the learning experience, and more flexible options for clinicians at every stage of training.

The Invitation

Pelvic health is still too often treated as an afterthought. Patients still hear "that's just how it is" when their problem is, in fact, treatable. Clinicians still graduate from their training programs unsure of how to help individuals with pelvic floor dysfunction.

Herman & Wallace was founded to change that, and nearly twenty years in, the work is far from finished. Whether you are a clinician looking to add pelvic health to your practice, an experienced rehab professional ready to pursue PRPC, a course host considering a satellite site, or a patient trying to understand what a well-trained pelvic health provider looks like — you are in the right place.

Welcome. The work continues.