The 5 Levels of Care in Pelvic Health: What Is The Gold Standard?

Let's cut through the noise....If someone you loved needed pelvic floor therapy tomorrow, where would you send them?

---

Pelvic PT Rising: The pelvic health tools to make you a better clinician and/or a more successful business owner. We want every single pelvic health practitioner to be more confident and successful in your practice and career!

• Clinical Courses: Game-changing online courses to make you more confident, challenge your thinking and improve patient outcomes

• Business Resources: Helping 500+ pelvic health practitioners confidently start, grow and build their dream business!

---

Let's cut through the noise....If someone you loved needed pelvic floor therapy tomorrow, where would you send them?

🤔 Are there actually different levels of pelvic health care?

We believe the answer is yes.

The interesting part? Most pelvic therapists already act as though these different levels exist—we've just never had a common language to describe them.

Think about it...

If your spouse, your parent, or your child developed pelvic floor dysfunction tomorrow, who would you recommend?

Most of us wouldn't say:

❌ "Just find any ortho PT."

❌ "Start with telehealth or try an online program."

❌ "Here's a great Instagram account."

We'd recommend a pelvic floor specialist.  Someone who is trained and able to perform both an internal and external evaluation and hands-on treatment.

That instinct reveals something important: we already recognize that different models of care have different capabilities.

In this episode, we introduce what we're calling the Five Levels of Pelvic Health Care—a framework for thinking about the different therapeutic ceilings of pelvic health, from free educational resources all the way to the current gold standard of in-person pelvic floor specialists.

In this episode, we discuss:

✅ Why different models of care have different capabilities

✅ What we mean by a model's therapeutic ceiling

✅ The Five Levels of Pelvic Health Care

✅ Why every level has value—and expands access in different ways

✅ Why preserving the gold standard matters while thoughtfully increasing access

This isn't about ranking clinicians or criticizing different models of care.

Every level has passionate clinicians doing their absolute best for patients.

Every level has an important role to play.

But patients deserve honesty about what each model can—and cannot—provide so they can make informed decisions about their care.

If you've been following this series, this episode brings everything together and introduces a framework we hope helps move the conversation around standards of care forward.

There are only two big requirements for us:

1. Be honest about your therapeutic ceiling.

   Don't present your level as though it replaces—or is equivalent or superior to—a higher level.
   

2. Be exceptional within the level you've chosen.  No matter what setting you've chosen to practice in, strive to learn, grow and provide incredible care.

Business Accelerator

We believe improving access starts with building exceptional clinicians and stronger practices. If you're looking to grow your business while delivering outstanding pelvic rehab care, learn more about the Business Accelerator:

👉 www.pelvicptrising.com/accelerator

Learn more about pelvic health with our Clinical Courses

All of the Rising clinical courses are designed to:

• Challenge the way you think

• Make you more confident in your clinical practice.  

• Allow you to go-at-your-own pace (all online!)

• Let you go back to your work: you'll have lifetime access to the lectures and handouts.  Check out all the clinical courses we offer (www.pelvicptrising.com/clinical).

Curious about private practice? Check out our Business Resources

• We've now helped more than 200 cash-based pelvic health practices start and grow.  

• We want to make sure you're building a business that works for you (instead of vice-versa) and actually enjoy the process along the way!  

• See all the business resources we offer (www.pelvicptrising.com/business), tailored specifically to pelvic health!

---

Nicole Cozean, PT, DPT, WCS

Founder of Pelvic PT Rising and PelvicSanity Physical Therapy in Southern California.

Dedicated to forever changing pelvic health with online clinical courses to help you be more confident in your practice and business resources to help start and grow pelvic health businesses.

Jesse Cozean, MBA

Co-founder of the Pelvic PT Rising and the Rising Podcast.

Jesse uses his business experience to help pelvic health business owners start and grow their practices so they can build a practice that truly works for them. From website design, SEO, conversions, marketing, finance and money mindset, he wants to make the process of owning your own practice easier and fun.