QC: You Can Learn To Notice Tension Before It Becomes Pain

Your pelvic floor might be doing its job a little too well. When stress hits, many of us brace without noticing and that tension can land deep in the core, shaping everything from pelvic pain to how safe we feel in our own body. We sit down with Karla Ehlers, a pelvic health occupational therapist and founder of Ocupelvic Health and Wellness, to connect the dots between nervous system states and pelvic floor dysfunction in a way that feels practical, human, and doable.

We talk about the pain cycle: fear and past trauma can trigger a protective “guarding” response, which ramps up the sympathetic nervous system, which then feeds more pain and more threat. Karla explains why fight or flight is not the villain, we need it for energy and everyday function, but we also need an off-ramp back to parasympathetic regulation. You will hear concrete examples of where people hold tension most, including pelvic floor tightening, jaw clenching, upper ab gripping, and glute squeezing, plus how sensory stress like constant noise can push the body further into dysregulation.

We also dig into interoception, the skill of sensing what is happening inside your body. Chronic pelvic pain, chronic stress, and neurodivergence can make those signals either harder to read or so loud that everything feels like danger. Carla offers a steadier approach: build functional awareness first, notice early signals before they reach 10 out of 10, and practice small releases that support lasting change.

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Transcript

Quick Connect Format And Disclaimer

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Life moves fast, and so should the answers to your biggest questions. Welcome to Endo Batteries Quick Connect, your direct line to expert insights. Short, powerful, and right to the point. You send in the questions, I bring in the experts, and in just five minutes, you get the knowledge you need. No long episodes, no extra time needed. And just remember, expert opinions shared here are for general information and not for personalized medical advice. Always consult your provider for your case-specific guidance. Got a question? Send it in, and let's quickly get you the answers. I'm your host, Alana, and it's time to connect.

Meet Pelvic Health OT Carla

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Today I'm joined by Carla Ellers, a pelvic health occupational therapist and the founder of Ocupelvic Health and Wellness. Carla's work goes beyond just the physical side of pelvic health. She focuses deeply on the connection between the nervous system and the pelvic floor, and how our everyday lives, stress, and routines shape how our bodies function and feel. She's helped thousands of individuals navigate things like pelvic pain, dysfunction, and disconnection from their bodies, all through a really holistic, compassionate lens. What I love about her approach is that it's not about the quick fixes. It's about meeting people where they're at and giving them tools that actually support real lasting changes. Please help me in welcoming Carla Ellers.

Stress Trauma And The Pain Cycle

SPEAKER_01 1:28

How much of our fears and our freeze and our flight modes and all of that really translate into not only your whole body, but like I really felt in my core, like in my pelvic floor, when you have a minute to disassociate from some of these things that stop you in your path and cause you to like get in that sympathetic system even more. When you have time to downregulate that or more upregulate your parasympathetic system, it releases that tension that you're holding on to. Like there were like simple things that we could do that you walked me through. But then on top of that, if you have pain and you have trauma within that, I just I imagine like a lot of times our automatic response in that scenario is to tighten that, is to protect and to guard. And when that happens, then we see the fallout through our whole body, not just our pelvic floor, but everything in our body. And it translates back into the brain. It feels like a circle, like that cycle, that hamster. The pain cycle, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When we get into that mode, are what are some like practical tools that you like to use for people that are in that state of heightened sympathetic system and we are tense everywhere, which I tend to be quite often, and I don't even realize I'm

Practical Tools For Downregulation

SPEAKER_01 2:50

doing it.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

So the first thing, and then we had talks about this, is that functional awareness. We have to have awareness around something before we can truly make some sort of change, right? And so just being able to be like, wow, I am getting a little upregulated. I'm feeling more anxious and driven. And one thing that a lot of people don't talk about is like we do need some of that fight or flight to get through our day that gives us that energy, you know. So it's the same as with inflammation, both like fight or flight inflammation, inflammation, it gets kind of a bad rep, but we need both of those things to have homeostasis within our body. So, but it's identifying um and noticing that shift within ourselves. So maybe for some people, a lot of the women I work with, especially if they have pelvic floor dysfunction, it's that tightening within within the pelvic floor. Maybe it could be tightening in the jaw or in the upper abs. That that was me actually, my upper abs. I was an upper ab gripper. We're just holding on, trying to suck it in, looking good, right? And or maybe in our in our glutes. A lot of people hold a lot of tension in their glutes. So it's kind of identifying and bringing some mindfulness to your daily activities of, you know, maybe I'm just sitting here waiting for a doctor's appointment, but I'm so nervous and I'm literally squeezing my glutes. And can we bring some awareness to that or wherever you're at, whatever daily thing is is causing you stress? Maybe for for some moms, it's it's you know, children screaming, and that's something we can get into too, is this part of our nervous system, you know, is that auditory processing. And so even that can make us feel even more into dysregulation without even realizing it. So it's kind of noticing cha subtle changes within our body before it gets to 10 out of 10 pain.

Interoception And Reading Body Signals

SPEAKER_00 4:50

And so there's a term it's called interoception. And this is where we can have identifying sensations within our body of hunger, needing to go to the bathroom, pain. And when there is chronic, chronic pain, um, any kind of um neurodivergence, interoception is um it's kind of diminished, or it's either it it's it can be hyper, hyper-aware to a point where it's hard to even identify other sensations that are happening within the body. So it's kind of that finding that that happy medium of can we bring some mindfulness to the body outside of just pain.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

That's

Wrap Up And Send Questions

SPEAKER_01 5:34

a wrap for this quick connect. I hope today's insights helped you move forward with more clarity and confidence. Do you have more questions? Keep them coming. Send them in, and I'll bring you the expert answers. You can send them in by using the link in the top of the description of this podcast episode or by emailing contact at indobattery.com or visiting the Indobattery.com contact page. Until next time, keep feeling empowered through knowledge.