The methods I draw on

Part of the method is working with the three layers of the pelvic floor muscles. The goal is both strengthening them and, above all, their proper coordination, timing and engagement during everyday movement and activities.

The pelvic floor consists of three voluntarily controlled functional muscle layers. Closest to the surface are the SPHINCTERS, which tend to be the strongest and easiest to feel. In reality, however, they should be engaged rather GENTLY – and THE LEAST OF ALL 3 LAYERS.

Above them, BETWEEN THE SITTING BONES, lies the middle layer of the pelvic floor muscles, and still closer to the centre of the body the LAYER BETWEEN THE TAILBONE AND THE PUBIC BONE. Together they form a SUPPORTING CROSS important for stability, breathing, organ support and proper cooperation with the abdominal and back muscles.

In therapy we focus both on muscle strength and, above all, on how the muscles cooperate and engage at the right moment.

These parts of the body influence each other more than we often realise. If one of them isn’t working optimally, it can affect how the others function.

For example, pregnancy and childbirth can change how the pelvic floor works, which sometimes also shows in the position of the feet or a drop of the arch. The result can be foot pain, poorer stability, or a sense that the whole body is less fit.

Similarly, problems in the neck area – including the condition of the thyroid gland – can relate to how the core and the pelvic floor work, or how we load our feet during everyday movement.

The goal of therapy is to see the body as one connected whole and look for links – the cause may even lie on a different “level” than the current problems – and to balance out what we discover.

To explain what “the body as a whole” means, let me – Jitka – offer my own view. In therapy we can pay attention to several interconnected planes – the physical, the psychological, and the plane of inner experience (emotions, feelings).

• The physical plane covers the body itself, its movement, posture and the function of its structures.
• The psychological plane relates to how we respond to stress, strain or difficult life situations.
• The inner‑experience plane concerns how we perceive our body, how we feel in it and what experiences we carry within us.

This doesn’t mean every pain has a psychological cause. In practice, though, we often see that long‑term problems are influenced by several factors at once, and understanding them can be an important part of the path to improvement and healing.

This also includes the energetic plane. Just as blood flows through the body, you can imagine energy flowing through the whole body too. When it gets blocked somewhere, pain or discomfort can arise.

An example from everyday life for the “body as a whole” three: when I’m stressed, I know I breathe differently, walk differently and dance differently than when I feel joyful. So my muscles and joints also respond to how I’m feeling.