What to Expect
Discovery Call (optional)
We understand you might be nervous about pursuing pelvic floor care. Perhaps you’re unsure whether you even have an issue or if we can help you. To assist clients in determining whether our practice and services are right for them, we offer complimentary discovery calls. During this 10-15 minute conversation, a Foundations clinician will listen to your questions and offer their professional insights so you can make an informed decision.
To schedule this call, please contact us at (704) 388-6074 or email us at hello@foundationsclt.com (placing “Discovery Call” in the subject line makes it a tad easier on us to flag your request).
Schedule Appointment & Complete Forms
Schedule your first appointment (here). If you’re having issues or need any kind of assistance, we encourage you to contact us at (980) xxx-xxxx. Our receptionist is kind and helpful, and there’s nothing she hasn’t heard.
Upon scheduling, you’ll receive the forms we require prior to your first appointment. Alternatively, you can find them (here). Additional, more targeted questionnaires may be covered during your first appointment, after your clinician more fully understands your case.
Initial Appointment - Evaluation & Treatment Recommendations
At your initial appointment your Foundations clinician will evaluate your case and define the most appropriate course of treatment. To accomplish these objectives, you and your clinician will first meet privately to discuss your medical history, symptoms, and goals; your evaluation may include an internal or external exam so your clinician can obtain a full picture of your pelvic health. Together, you will also review any diagnoses or information provided by your referring physician. Your clinician will invest significant time in understanding how you define success - what does improvement or a positive outcome look like for you? With this information, your clinician will provide any relevant diagnoses–including details on its complexity and severity–and recommend a course of treatment; the expected duration of treatment will also be provided. Finally, the clinician may begin preliminary treatment.
Our clinicians conduct the evaluation in a very conversational style–not only do they gather information from you, they seek to educate and reassure by sharing their knowledge with you. The organs and muscles affected by pelvic health complaints are hard to picture, making it difficult to truly conceptualize your symptoms and how treatment will address them. Your clinician will often use appropriate anatomical models to explain your case and visually demonstrate their recommended approach. We are dedicated to ensuring you have a clear and firm understanding of the issues impacting you so you’re prepared and empowered to make decisions that promote your pelvic health and overall wellbeing. We want you to leave this initial appointment with the information you need to feel less nervous about the process, more confident that improvement is possible, and relieved you’re found a partner to restore your pelvic health.
Treatment Session(s)
After your initial evaluation, each Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy session is tailored to your specific symptoms, goals, and progress. Treatment sessions may include a combination of education, hands-on techniques, exercise, and movement training designed to improve pelvic floor function and overall well-being.
Your physical therapist may provide:
Education about your condition, pelvic floor anatomy, bladder and bowel habits, breathing patterns, posture, and lifestyle factors that may contribute to your symptoms.
Manual therapy, which may include external and/or internal techniques to address muscle tension, improve mobility, decrease pain, and enhance pelvic floor function.
Therapeutic exercises to improve strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, and core stability.
Pelvic floor muscle training to help you learn how to properly relax, contract, and coordinate your pelvic floor muscles.
Breathing and relaxation techniques to reduce tension and improve the connection between your diaphragm, core, and pelvic floor.
Functional movement training to help you safely return to activities such as exercise, lifting, work tasks, sports, and daily activities.
Home exercise programs and self-management strategies to support progress between visits.
Treatment is always performed at your comfort level, and we encourage you to ask questions throughout the process. Your Foundations clinician will regularly reassess your progress and adjust your care plan to ensure treatment remains aligned with your goals. Our goal is to help you reduce symptoms, restore function, and improve your confidence in daily life.
FAQs
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We employ extensively-trained, highly-qualified clinical experts to deliver one-on-one specialized physical therapy services. All of our clinicians hold the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, with years of professional experience with generalized physical therapy services and pelvic health. Beyond their deep expertise and professional competence, Foundations’s clinicians bring their own embodied knowledge of pelvic floor complaints and recovery to the treatment room. With this blend of experience, our clinicians deliver effective results-driven treatment in a style marked by warmth and approachability.
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Foundations Pelvic Floor Therapy & Health is a direct-pay practice. We accept debit cards, all major credit cards, and even your Flexible Spending Account (FSA)/Health Services Account (HSA)-issued card.
The direct-pay approach allows us to provide the highest quality treatment without physician referrals, third-party authorizations and reviews, and restrictions on the type(s) of service and number of sessions we can provide you. We have intentionally priced our services to accommodate self-pay and out-of-network clients.
We can provide you with a “Superbill”—a detailed itemized receipt that contains all the information necessary (e.g., diagnosis categories, procedures codes) for you to submit claims to your insurance company or receive reimbursement from FSA/HSA accounts. Dry-needling and cupping services are included within physical therapy fees at no extra charge.
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We believe the direct pay approach is better for both clinicians and clients.
First, it allows us to attract and retain highly trained and experienced clinical experts. Insurance reimbursement rates typically fail to cover the personnel costs of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy, which requires at least some one-on-one treatment. This fact makes it difficult to properly compensate qualified pelvic health clinicians, leading to worse client outcomes. Larger physical therapy practices’ profits depend on clinicians seeing two patients at once—allowing them to bill insurance for 8 units in a single hour rather than 4 units (1 unit = 15 minutes). The one-on-one nature of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy leads larger practices to limit the number of available pelvic health appointments (since clinicians can only see one client at a time) and design clinicians’ schedules to maximize complaints that don’t require individualized attention. This approach leads to clinician burnout and prevents pelvic health experts from fully specializing in their preferred area of practice.
For clients, direct pay allows our clinicians to treat you–and only you–for 55 minutes. Clients benefit from the depth of knowledge accumulated by clinicians permitted to specialize solely in pelvic health. Without restrictions on the services provided or limitations on total visits, our clinicians can deliver the tailored care clients actually need in the most efficient manner possible. This approach enables better client outcomes in fewer visits than in-network physical therapy practices. At an in-network clinic, you might pay a $50 co-pay twice/week over 12 weeks; here you may work with a less-qualified professional or share your clinician with another client at a total cost of $1,200. Alternatively, you can work with a Foundations clinician one-on-one every week or every other week–with all ancillary services included–for 6 sessions at a total cost of $1,080.
Our model allows us to treat the whole person. Insurance limits clinicians’ ability to treat more than one complaint or body part at a time. If your TMJ or plantar fasciitis relate to your pelvic floor complaints, traditional clinics cannot address these issues. Our clinicians can treat the whole body, ensuring you’re not trading one concern for another. This approach allows us to ensure you’re more well overall than when you first sought care. Finally, clients don’t need to delay care while waiting for insurance authorizations or interrupt the course of treatment for after-the-fact approvals.
We gave serious consideration to our payment model and remain confident that our direct pay approach allows us to restore clients’ pelvic floor health more quickly in fewer appointments.
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We know you hate to hear this but it depends! The typical number of visits ranges from 1 to 20. For something like diastasis or stress incontinence, a typical range is 4-7 visits. Cases with multiple pelvic floor complaints will require more visits. However, real progress for most conditions can be made in 6-12 sessions.
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No, you do not need a referral. North Carolina’s “Direct Access” laws allow consumers to seek direct physical therapy evaluation and treatment without a formal referral. However, if you have a referral or prescription, please let us know.
With or without a referral, our clinicians will develop a comprehensive and effective treatment plan for you while keeping your physician informed to ensure coordinated care.
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Yes! Whether you keep your appointment during your period—or not— is entirely up to your preference. If you proceed, simply alert your clinician and they will ensure the session only includes the activities with which you feel comfortable. However, from a medical standpoint, no contraindication (i.e., a reason to withhold treatment) exists for you to forego your session, including internals exams. In short, it’s up to you.