Pelvic Steaming

What Is Pelvic Steaming?

Pelvic Steaming Setup

Pelvic Steaming, also known as V-Steaming/Yoni Steaming/Bajos, has been practiced by many lineages and traditions around the world for centuries.

During the Middle Ages in the British Isles, as women and womb carriers were persecuted for practicing natural medicine, steaming became almost lost to the following generations.

But the gift of steam has a way of rising, and this practice is once again being embraced as a holistic tool for women and gender expansive folks of all ages and life experiences for their embodied pelvic and womb awakening.

The Gift of Steam

Steam is incredibly supportive on it's own and can encourage circulation, cleansing and healing. The addition of natural herbs can be of great benefit, further aiding cleansing, relief and restoration.

This gentle hydrotherapy works by sitting/kneeling above a bowl of steaming herbs or using a dedicated steaming sauna.

We are still learning the science behind this healing tool, natural holistic approaches in pelvic health care are woefully under researched. Currently, we believe that the warm steam reaches the pores and tissue of the labia, softens and relaxes the cervix, carrying the herbal properties through the skin, tissues, bloodstream and cervix and into the uterus and pelvic bowl, supporting regular and healthy menstrual cycles, easing symptoms of PMS, strengthening the uterus and vaginal tissues, soothing infections, nurturing post-partum healing, and much more. A gift of holistic well-being and embodiment.

Pelvic Steaming As Trauma Informed Bodywork

Our pelvis and our womb can often be experienced as our ‘centre of gravity’. We experience our sexuality, our cyclical nature, from our pelvis. We experience rights of passage and transitions from deep within the well of our pelvis. It is the space from which life-projects, dreams, authentic leadership, and sacred lineage medicine can live.

But it is also more often a space of deep wounding, a place where we have stored our sexual trauma, shame, anger, lack of self-worth, contracting and constricting over and over again, until patterns of shame and doubt have become a habitual repetition that keeps us stuck and misshapen, separated from our artful pelvic and energetic womb presence.

Pelvic Steaming is a trauma informed bodywork.

“Trauma is not in the event, it exists in the body.”

— Peter Levine

Pelvic Steaming & The Imprint of Trauma

Trauma remains in the body when we are unable to discharge, or more aptly, sequence, threat energy and orient to our safety. This residual undischarged energy can affect our entire organism, often in strange and mysterious ways.

Pelvic Steaming can work with the imprint of stored trauma that is left in the body, and support meaningful ways that you can work with nervous system regulation techniques to somatically release, integrate and restore the temple of your sacred pelvis, and the remembrance of your original essence as always whole, sacred and wildly alive.

Pelvic Steaming guides you to cultivate a sense of loving compassionate pelvic presence. You discover how to deeply honour your bowl medicine as a sacred wisdom keeper. Working with touch, focused breathing and visualisations, the song of your soma is supported to bring the body into adaptive nervous system regulation. When the nervous system is regulated in this way, new neural pathways and muscle memories can be created, tissue health can be restored and old memories and trauma can be integrated.

Who Can Benefit From Pelvic Steaming?

Many steamers report a wide range of benefits from using Pelvic Steaming as a supportive holistic practice. Take a look below at some of the many ways in which steaming has been found to support pelvic wellness:

Benefits

  • Supports menstrual cycle regulation

  • Can benefit menstrual cycle dysregulation

  • Reduces period pain

  • Aids postpartum recovery

  • Supports uterine fatigue and short cycles

  • Supports heavy bleeds

  • Supports long cycles

  • Supports menarche journey

  • Supports prolapse recovery

  • Soothes haemorrhoids

  • Soothes infections

  • Decreases and aids pain relief from pelvic congestion

  • Can benefit relief from fibroids and cysts

  • Reduces pain in sex and intimacy

  • Helps to relieve the symptoms of hypertonic pelvic tension conditions such as vaginismus, vulvodynia and painful bladder syndrome

  • Supports fertility health

  • Supports labour preparation

  • Invites gentle sexual and pelvic trauma release and integration

  • Supports pregnancy loss and miscarriage healing

  • Supports abortion healing

  • Aids peri-menopause transitions

  • Increases lymphatic circulation

  • Nourishes vaginal atrophy

  • Cultivates embodied womb wisdom and pelvic presence

  • Awakens cyclical and postcyclical awareness

Womb Work As A Calling

I am incredibly passionate about embodied womb work! I first discovered the art of pelvic steaming from the lineage wisdom of my Grandmother Esther, who was also a sister in nursing, and worked with steaming postpartum. I am eternally grateful for this connection to pelvic steaming through my heritage and for my grandmother’s determination to keep alive this lineage practice.

As I began my own healing journey, the remembrance of my Grandmother’s wisdom led me to seek as much education as I could on the art of pelvic steaming, and I began studying with Keli Garza of SteamyChic.

My extensive training with the Steamy Chick Institute affords me the ability to offer dedicated steaming guidance, protocols and insights. Please do seek guidance for pelvic steaming, I am all about empowering each other in womb work, but I do see a lot of misinformed practice and information.

It is essential that we work with your body and the properties of the herbal allies, with care and consideration for your own needs.

Trainings

PERISTEAM FACILITATOR (2020)

Steam Facilitation

Herbal Formulas

Womb Cleanse Care

Understanding Steam

Vaginal Steam History and Culture

Vaginal Steaming and Racism

Vaginal Steam Critics

Vaginal Steam Practicums

PERISTEAM HYDROTHERAPIST (2020-Ongoing)

Menstrual Cycle Analysis

Pelvic Steam and Anatomy

Folk and TCM Gynaecology

Vaginal Steaming and Uterine Fatigue

Vaginal Steaming in Situations with Dampness and Infections

Vaginal Steaming in Situations with Stagnation

Vaginal Steaming with Cysts, Bumps and Fibroids

Vaginal Steaming for labour preparation

Postpartum Vaginal Steaming

Vaginal Steaming with Organ Prolapse

Vaginal Steaming for Pregnancy Loss

Vaginal Steaming to Regulate Long and Missing Cycles

Vaginal Steaming and Sex

Vaginal Steaming Benefits for Recovering from Sexual Trauma

Vaginal Steaming for Fertility

How to Sync with The Moon

Vaginal Steaming for Menarche

Vaginal Steaming for Menopause

Vaginal Steaming Postmenopause

Understanding OB/GYN and Vaginal Steam

Steam Therapy Plans

Steam Therapist Practicums

What To Expect

It is essential in Pelvic Steaming that we work with your specific needs and desires, so your consultation is lovingly and compassionately tailored to your individual needs. Therefore, please note that the following 3 steps are to be taken as a guide as to what to expect when you book your Pelvic Steaming Consultation, and what you may expect during your session.

Step 1…

Intake Form

Firstly, once you book your Pelvic Steaming Consultation, you will receive a Pelvic Steaming Intake Form straight to your inbox. The Intake Form is a space for you to share with me your primary concerns, needs and desires. It is helpful for me to understand some of your pelvic history and experience, as well as where you are currently at in your pelvic health, and your desires for working together. I understand that the nature of the Intake Form can address some sensitive areas. Please know that I witness anything that you share with loving compassion and confidentiality. As standard practice, I comply with privacy requirements to protect your personal data and information.

Please only share what you are comfortable with, and we can navigate with care from there. Please note that you will need to return your Intake Form to me a minimum of 72 hours prior to your Pelvic Steaming Consultation.

Step 2…

Online Consultation

Welcome to the Zoom-womb! In your 90-minute 1-1 consultation, we will review your Pelvic Steaming Intake Form. We discuss any imbalances that may be presently affecting your cycle. You will be offered a recommended steaming plan in accordance with your suitability for steaming, and a steaming protocol that supports your needs. You will also discover which Pelvic Priestess Herbal Blend is recommended for you, and will receive the complimentary blend in the post after our call!

I truly believe that Pelvic Steaming is an act of artful devotion. Therefore I have created some sacred resources to invite you into supportive practices that call you deeper into connection with The Temple of Your Sacred Pelvis, bathing you in the waters of your own embodied-mystery and guiding you into the spiral path of your own energetic womb wisdom.

Post-consultation, you will receive...

  • Your Herbal Steaming Blend

  • Pelvic Steaming Aftercare Guide

  • A Castor Oil Guide

  • A Self Womb Massage Guide

  • A Breast Massage Meditation and Guide

  • A Seed Cycling Guide

Step 3…

Free Follow-up Consultations

It is super important to me that you receive the ongoing support that you require with your Pelvic Steaming journey, so that we can work with your body as your ritual space.

For that reason, I offer you up to four optional quarterly follow-up consultations free of charge, to be taken during the 12-months following your Pelvic Steaming Consultation. These consultations last for 20 minutes.

CONSULTATION

£150

  • 1X 90-minute Pelvic Steaming Consultation
  • 1X Complimentary Steaming Herbal Blend
  • 1X Aftercare Guide
  • 1X Castor Oil Guide
  • 1X Self Womb Massage Guide
  • 1X Breast Massage Meditation and Guide
  • 1X Seed Cycling Guide

FOLLOW-UP

FREE

  • A 20-minute consultation to discuss your progress, make amendments to your Pelvic Steaming Plan, and ask any questions
  • Available quarterly (max 4 times per year) following initial Pelvic Steaming Consultation within previous 12-months

About Aurora

Hey Wild Love! My name is Aurora, and I am your Pelvic Priestess. I offer Coaching and Therapies in Somatic Sexology, Holistic Pelvic Care, and Fertility and Reproductive Health.

I work with a wide range of sexual and pelvic health issues, however, I specialise in working with those that have experienced sexual trauma and subsequent pelvic pain and dysfunction. I believe that healing sexual trauma, shame and pelvic pain is blood, breath and bone work. To come home to your body, sexuality, and pelvic temple is a mythic, poetic and somatic journey. It is the slow, compassionate and full sensory remembrance of your original essence as always whole, sacred, and wildly alive.

Connect with me and discover which somatic sexuality, holistic pelvic care or bodywork therapy is best suited to your needs.

Your sacred remembrance awaits you…

With Love and Artful Devotion,

Aurora

F.A.Q.

Yes! All of my trainings have a deep grounding in trauma informed care, practice and methodology. I also continue to deepen my understanding and widen my trauma education and am constantly expanding my capacity to hold safe enough space in a wide variety of ways. I am also in the process of transitioning from trauma informed to trauma qualified as I continue some extensive trauma trainings to hold my work and offerings, which I will be sharing more about soon!

Absolutely! At the heart of my work is the premise that your sexuality is sacred, and that with loving compassionate presence, you can come into connection, belonging and aliveness with your body, sexuality and pelvis. I believe that is truly every being’s birthright. Ultimately, as your Pelvic Priestess, I am devoted to your embodied-mystery!

Pelvic Steaming is contra-indicated during pregnancy until the 37th week, at which point you can work with Pelvic Steaming to support your body for labour preparation. It is essential that you work with a Pelvic Steaming practitioner that has education in Pelvic Steaming for pregnancy and post-partum

When we have experienced loss in our pelvic bowl, the imprints of grief, rage, shame and so much more unique to your own personal experience can be present. I personally experienced many losses, and my own journey with Pelvic Steaming has been one of honouring, grieving and restoring life to my pelvic bowl. I highly recommend Pelvic Steaming if you are healing and integrating your experience of loss. We have truly lost the art of grief-tending in our communities, of being fully witnessed in our stages and experiences of loss. Physical and energetic touch can play a vital role in allowing us to process, co-regulate, and access our thriving.

Great question! Pelvic Steaming is used across the globe as a supportive healing tool for postpartum mothers, helping them to complete their postpartum ‘Lochia’ cleanse, ensuring that they have released any remaining afterbirth and fluid. Steaming may also support gentle tissue repair and uterine toning, and soften remedial scar tissue. During postpartum care, steaming can also deeply acknowledge a mother’s experience, creating a held and sacred space for her to process the rite of passage of the birth experience, gently tending to a mother’s healing and connection with her body and experience with artful devotion.

Unfortunately, and quite unbelievably, trauma is woefully neglected in sexual and pelvic health. It is unlikely that any specialist has actually asked you about your trauma history sensitively. Our medical professionals are expertly trained and have valuable skills, however more often than not, trauma is a very minimal part of medical training. There is also a lack of whole-body, whole-person perspective in Western medicine, and we are paying the price for the overly medicalised interventions of medication and surgery for pelvic health issues, and the outdated reliance on talk therapies as a sole method of trauma healing. This is why trauma informed, somatic and holistic bodywork is truly revolutionary in terms of sexual healing and pelvic health.

Pelvic Steaming is highly beneficial for those experiencing menstrual cycle dysregulation. However, it is contra-indicated to steam when you have any active bleeding from menstruation, or any irregular bleeding or spotting at any other time during your cycle.

As with any type of bodywork there are soft and hard contraindications for working together. It is highly recommended that you inform me on your Intake Form of any of the following so that I can make informed recommendations:

  • Spontaneous heavy bleeding within the past 3 months
  • Two periods per month (i.e. a period every two weeks) in the past 3 months
  • If you are pregnant
  • If there is a possibility of you being pregnant
  • If trying to conceive, and you are past ovulation or IUI/IVF transfer
  • If you have an infection characterised with a burning itch
  • If you have tubal coagulation
  • If you have a birth control arm implant
  • If you have had a uterine ablation procedure
  • If you have an Essure insert/IUD

Pelvic Steaming Consultations are available online (via Zoom), or in-person, at my therapy home, Suffolk Yoga, in Ipswich. I have a beautiful, quiet and peaceful private room with access to bathroom facilities. Suffolk Yoga’s ethos is one that my heart and womb can align with. The entire space and the offerings available are truly centred in a whole person, whole body, holistic somatic approach.

1 Sorrel Horse Mews
Grimwade Street
Ipswich IP4 1LN

Please note that parking is limited. Usually I can organise a space for you directly outside the building. However when this is not possible, parking is available during the day at Fore St Swimming Pool. Cut through St. Clements Church Lane to Grimwade Street and cross the road. We are located in the white building at the front of Sorrel Horse Mews. I will refund your parking payment for the 90-minute session.

It is super important to me that you receive the ongoing support that you require with your Pelvic Steaming journey, so that we can work with your body as your ritual space.

For that reason, I offer you up to four optional quarterly follow-up consultations free of charge, to be taken during the 12-months following your Pelvic Steaming Consultation. These consultations last for 20 minutes.

Pelvic Steaming alone may be sufficient for you to release, integrate and offer your pelvic bowl the restoration that you need, with love, safety and belonging.

However, for long-term pelvic imbalances, where you may be holding long held trauma and stress patterns, emotional blockages and sexual shame and pain, you may require deepening work to fully unwind, awaken and liberate your pelvic well-being.

My own sexual and pelvic healing journey has absolutely necessitated a multi-layered approach to create the embodied safety that I needed to claim my pelvic bowl as a space of resource, creativity and power.

I have spent the last decade integrating a wide range of sexuality, pelvic and bodywork practices to support your needs and desires. Should you choose, but completely without expectation, you are invited to deepen into a Pelvic Priestess pathway that meets you where you are. This may include coaching, bodywork, sacred sexuality practices, trauma release work. I am continually amazed by the human capacity to heal, and I consider it a privilege to share a thread of that journey with you.

Beautiful! I am so glad to hear that you are ready to answer the call and say yes to your journey. Let’s connect! You are invited to book your FREE complimentary Pelvic Temple Call with me today, where we can learn a little more about each other, and begin to understand what you truly desire to work on in our sessions with regard to your pelvic and sexual health, addressing your most pressing needs and deepest desires. I will also gently hold space for your questions, and any concerns that you may have. This is a call for you to discover more about working with me. There is no obligation to sign up - I understand that commiting to working with any practitioner is a big decision, and it is imperative that we both feel resonant to work with each other and co-create the transformation, beauty and empowered change that you are desiring. If we are aligned to working with each other, I will offer you a pathway that feels right for you. Your complimentary Pelvic Temple Call is 60 minutes long, and held over Zoom. You do not need to have your own Zoom account. When you book your Pelvic Temple Call, you will receive a link that invites you into my personal Zoom-womb!

Okay, let's wade through the bullshit that so often happens in these spaces! Quite simply, I believe the way that you identify. I also appreciate that can change and shift in the most beautiful and organic and creative ways possible. I believe in respecting that, which is why I believe you get to language and express yourself as you choose, and I will make every endeavour to support that. I have experienced containers that have injured my experiences and various identities, and I understand that this is a significant issue in sexual and pelvic healing that I intend to challenge on the deepest level.

I am also aware that your various identities, experiences and intersectionalities will not always be a part of my lived experience and vocabulary. I am in the work to dismantle the vestiges of patriarchy, colonialism, sexism, racism, homophobia and ableism. I accept that there will be times that I get things wrong, need to make repair, and ask better questions of myself. I am committed to continue to learn and discover ways to integrate healing the disconnection that systems of oppression have created.

Click the link to view my Diversity and Inclusion Statement.

Personally and professionally, I am continuing to uplevel my education and unpack the embodied politics of race, gender and sexuality in order to become a ‘safer space holder’ for BIPOC, queer, trans, and GE Folk. As a bodyworker, it is never my place to assert that I can hold safe space. Instead, I work on the premise that as a trauma-informed bodyworker, my commitment is to co-creating ‘safer space’ with the openness to learn, repair and grow.

I am also committed to ensuring that pelvic health care begins to language diversity. I am taking action to bring this into my own work and scope of practice. Please know that as a Pelvic-Priestess I am devoted to your embodied-mystery, and I will do my best to meet you in all of your intersectional whole person identities, deeply listening to how you wish to express and be compassionately met.

Keli Garza

Keli Garza has a Masters degree in International Development graduating cum laude with a focus in nonprofit management and human rights. Keli is the owner of Steamy Chick and the founder of the Peristeam Hydrotherapy Institute. Through her company she raises awareness on the benefits of vaginal steaming, makes supplies accessible, conducts research and trains practitioners. Keli is the author of the Vaginal Steam World Map, Pelvic Steam Testimonial Database, Fourth Trimester Vaginal Steam Study and Steamy Chick blog. Some of her notable work includes executive producing the Hot & Steamy Podcast, creating the annual Vaginal Steam Awareness Month and an upcoming documentary film with the working title STEAM. With over 20 years experience in the nonprofit field, Keli also serves as the founder and president of the Bahia Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to artistic, cultural, physical, educational and financial community wellness as well as the founder of the Good Gynecology Project.

Website: www.steamychick.com

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