Why Groove: My Why for Starting This Practice

If you’ve read my bio, you know that the story behind Groove began long before I ever became a physical therapist.

As a musician, I was often under-insured. By the time I finally went in for a long-overdue GYN exam in Middle Tennessee, I hadn’t seen a provider in years. The questions about my sexual activity were, as they often are, entirely heteronormative. They didn’t reflect my experience as someone in a long-term, monogamous relationship with a woman. When I disclosed that, the provider’s entire demeanor changed. She became brusque, cold, and rough during the physical exam.

It was the first painful pelvic exam I’d ever had; and the experience was bad enough that I didn’t see another provider for six or seven more years.

The Problem with That Experience — and Why It Stuck With Me

Now, with the lens of a healthcare provider, I recognize just how problematic that interaction was. If care is so uncomfortable or invalidating that someone avoids future exams, that’s not just a personal issue, it’s a public health issue.

No one should be dismissed, hurt, or emotionally shut down because of who they are or how they identify. And yet, these experiences happen all the time – especially to folks in queer, trans, and other marginalized communities.

I believe healthcare providers have a responsibility to examine their own beliefs and biases and actively learn about communities they’re not part of. That’s the foundation of cultural safety: a principle that goes beyond cultural competence. It asks providers to consider the power dynamics in the room, to recognize how intersectional identities shape the clinical experience, and to understand that it’s the client, not the clinician, who gets to define whether care feels safe.

Why I Built Groove

From the start of my career in pelvic health, I knew that technical skill wasn’t enough. I wanted to be clinically competent in working with all genders and orientations — and just as importantly, to reflect on how my own identities, assumptions, and positionality could shape the care I provide.

Groove was created to center the people who are often overlooked in traditional pelvic PT:

• Queer and trans folks
• Cisgender men
• Anyone navigating sexual health concerns that don’t fit into narrow models of care

My mission is to serve people who often get fewer services, who are misunderstood or dismissed, or who are passed along in healthcare systems that weren’t built with them in mind.

If You’ve Felt This Way — I See You

If you’ve had an experience like mine, one that made you feel small, invisible, or unsafe, I get it. I’ve been there. And I want you to know it doesn’t have to be like that.

You deserve care that listens to you, respects your story, and works with your goals.

Contact me here — let’s talk about what working together might look like.