Understanding the Connections Between Stress, the Body, and Healing for Optimal Pelvic Health
Course Overview
Many people living with persistent pain, pelvic health concerns, digestive symptoms, tension, fatigue, or other ongoing symptoms have been given conflicting messages. Some are told their symptoms are purely physical, while others hear that stress or emotions are the cause.
In reality, the body's systems are deeply interconnected.
Pain is real. Tissue changes are real. Muscle tension is real. Nervous system responses are real. Thoughts, emotions, relationships, movement habits, and life experiences can all influence how symptoms are experienced and how the body responds.
This four-part educational and experiential series explores the relationship between the nervous system, body tissues, movement, stress physiology, and lived experience. Participants will learn practical tools for understanding their body's responses, building resilience, and creating greater flexibility in how they navigate symptoms and life’s challenges.
This course is not about suggesting symptoms are “all in your head.” Instead, it is about understanding how multiple body systems work together in real time and how that understanding can create more options for support, recovery, and function.
Each session includes education, discussion, and guided experiential activities designed to help participants apply concepts directly to their daily lives.
Facilitators
Amber Adkins, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in helping individuals understand the connections between stress, emotions, behavior, and overall well-being. In addition to her clinical work, she is a TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises) provider and yoga/movement facilitator. Her work integrates psychological insight with body-based and experiential practices to help people build resilience, flexibility, and self-understanding.
Rachael Gossett, PT, DPT, SEP is a pelvic health physical therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who specializes in pelvic health conditions, persistent pain, orthopedic concerns, and nervous system regulation. Her approach integrates physical therapy, movement, hands-on care, and nervous system-informed practice to help individuals better understand and respond to their symptoms through the body.
Together, Amber and Rachael bring a collaborative, integrative perspective that bridges psychology, physiology, movement, and whole-body health. This course is designed to support understanding of how the body’s systems interact—without reducing symptoms to either “physical” or “psychological”—and to offer practical tools that support healing, resilience, and meaningful participation in life.
Session 1: The River of Life
Understanding Stress, Safety, and the Body’s Protective Responses
Our bodies are constantly adapting to the demands placed upon them. These adaptations are not random—they are protective, patterned responses shaped by physiology, environment, and experience. Sometimes these responses are helpful and flexible; other times they can contribute to ongoing symptoms such as pain, tension, fatigue, or sensitivity.
Topics
Introduction to the River of Life framework
The nervous system’s role in protection, survival, and regulation
Understanding the Window of Tolerance
How stress physiology influences muscles, breathing, digestion, pain sensitivity, and recovery
Why symptoms often represent protective adaptations rather than damage
A “both/and” model: physical tissues and life experiences continuously interact
Experiential Activities
Mapping your personal River of Life (patterns of ease, challenge, and overwhelm)
Identifying resources, supports, and stabilizing experiences
Guided reflection on stress, safety, and recovery patterns in daily life
Gentle awareness practices for noticing current body state without judgment
Takeaways
A grounded understanding of how the body responds to stress and safety
Recognition of personal nervous system patterns and thresholds
A framework that validates symptoms as real while expanding understanding of their origins
Increased awareness of internal and external resources
Session 2: Building Flexibility Through Awareness and Regulation
Moving Between Activation and Safety Without Getting Stuck
Resilience is not about staying calm all the time. It is about the ability to move fluidly between states of activation, effort, rest, and recovery without becoming stuck in any one state.
Topics
How attention influences nervous system activity and physiological state
The physiology of regulation, recovery, and restoration
The role of the vagus nerve in stress response and calming processes
Understanding pendulation: moving between activation and safety
Why flexibility, not constant relaxation, supports long-term resilience
Building capacity gradually without overwhelming the system
Experiential Activities
Gentle vagal regulation and grounding practices
Orienting to environment and present-moment cues of safety
Attention-shifting between pleasant, neutral, and mildly activating experiences
Guided pendulation exercises (activation ↔ regulation)
Tracking body signals before, during, and after shifts in attention
Takeaways
Practical tools for supporting nervous system regulation
Increased awareness of how attention and environment shape symptoms
Skills for moving in and out of stress states with greater ease
A felt sense of increasing capacity over time
Session 3: The Pelvis Through a Whole-Body, Nervous System Lens
Understanding Tension, Protection, and Sensation
The pelvis is not an isolated structure—it is influenced by breathing, posture, movement, load, emotional context, and nervous system state. Pelvic symptoms and tension often reflect protective patterns rather than isolated tissue dysfunction.
Topics
Gentle introduction to pelvic anatomy and function
Muscle tone, guarding, and hypertonicity as protective responses
How stress physiology, breathing patterns, and posture influence pelvic load and sensation
The relationship between pain, sensitivity, and nervous system regulation
Layered awareness: skin, fascia, muscle, bone, and movement
Why forcing relaxation often increases protection—and what supports change instead
Experiential Activities
Guided body scanning and interoceptive awareness practices
Exploring different layers of sensation and support in the pelvis
Zooming in and out of body awareness to shift threat perception
Gentle movement and breath awareness practices
Curiosity-based tracking of sensation without forcing change
Takeaways
A clearer understanding of pelvic tension as a protective, adaptive process
Improved body awareness and interoception skills
Tools for working with symptoms without force or escalation
A more integrated understanding of pelvic health within whole-body physiology
Session 4: Boundaries, Healthy Aggression, and Moving Toward What Matters
Expression, Protection, and Connection in the Body
Healthy aggression refers to the biological energy that supports protection, boundaries, movement toward goals, and self-expression. When this energy is chronically inhibited or suppressed, it can contribute to patterns of tension, stress, fatigue, or disconnection from needs.
Topics
Healthy aggression from a nervous system and physiological perspective
The body’s protective energy: push, pull, move toward, move away
Boundaries as a physiological and relational process
The relationship between suppression, stress load, and symptoms
Protection vs. connection: when each is activated and why
Aligning action with values while honoring physiological limits
Experiential Activities
Boundary awareness exercises (“yes,” “no,” “not yet” responses in the body)
Exploring posture, breath, and voice in self-expression
Movement-based practices for activation and discharge of energy
Identifying personal patterns of suppression or over-accommodation
Reflection on values, needs, and directional movement in life
Takeaways
Greater awareness of boundaries as embodied, physiological experiences
Practical tools for self-expression and advocacy
Understanding of how protective patterns show up in daily life and symptoms
Increased flexibility in responding to stress, relationships, and internal signals
A clearer sense of moving toward meaningful life engagement
Closing Integration
By the end of this series, participants will have:
A grounded understanding of how the nervous system, body tissues, movement, and life experiences interact
Practical tools for regulation, awareness, and symptom support
A framework that validates symptoms as real while expanding ways of understanding them
Increased capacity to navigate stress, pain, and daily life challenges
Greater flexibility in how they respond to both internal sensations and external demands
The goal is not to eliminate all stress, emotion, or sensation. The goal is to build capacity—so that symptoms and challenges take up less space, and life, movement, and connection can take up more.
Registration & Logistics
This workshop series will be held live online, allowing participants to join from the comfort of their own home. The series includes all four sessions and is offered at a total cost of $325 per participant, paid in advance upon registration. Space is limited to support engagement and discussion.
To register or learn more, please contact Rachael Gossett, PT, DPT, SEP through the Contact page on the Root & Ember Physical Therapy website. Once registered, participants will receive information regarding session dates, times, and instructions for joining the online meetings.
No prior experience is required. Participants are encouraged to attend from a quiet, comfortable space where they can engage in discussion, reflection, and gentle experiential exercises.
