Dr. Kailee Venzin, PT, DPT

Hello! I’m Dr. Kailee. I can help you with any orthopedic or pelvic health condition, but I love working with moms who have pain (during pregnancy or any time after babies), preparing moms for uncomplicated and empowering births, and love working with the mind-body connection with any physical problem. I live in Greensburg, PA with my husband, son, and fluffy dog. I love writing poetry and essays, reading psychological thrillers and historical fiction, and am a self help junkie. I love to hike, play soccer, cook while drinking a glass of dry red wine, and go on adventures near and far. 

I began my career in a busy UPMC clinic that treated people of all ages in orthopedics, sports, and chronic pain. I began to notice a pattern in my female patients in their 40’s and 50’s with back, hip, shoulder, and ankle pain: they all had poor abdominal strength and coordination. After talking to all these women, they pinpointed the same turning point in their health: after babies. I’ve always been very passionate about prevention and wondered: I thought, if all these women have the same root cause- pregnancy and not being able to care for themselves postpartum- could we possibly prevent problems years after birth? Turns out there was a specialty in obstetrics and pelvic floor rehab, a topic that was glossed over in my doctoral program. I decided to take an obstetric Physical Therapy course and fell in love. I opened my private practice in 2018 and saw active, busy moms in their homes throughout the city of Pittsburgh and suburbs. Initially, I focused on common problems after childbirth like back pain, hip pain, incontinence, and Diastasis Recti. I used my background in orthopedics, chronic pain, and sports to get moms back to exercise, devising out of the box treatments when common ones didn’t work. 

Then, in 2020, I got pregnant with my son and the experience opened me up to a world that I previously only understood through the lens of a textbook and through my client’s experiences. 

I experienced what unfortunately many women do: sexual assaults in my 20’s. I knew these experiences would shape the way I gave birth, but when I talked to my providers, I came up short. They told me they would support me, but couldn’t give me specific guidance. So, I used my knowledge from my obstetric training, did additional training in trauma and PTSD, and developed a program to prepare my body, mind, and spirit for birth. I was able to have a healing, empowering birth without complications and without tearing.  
After giving birth to my son, the world turned upside down and I found myself, a new mom in the midst of a global pandemic. I was already struggling with back pain, depression, and anxiety, but now, the lack of social support and the uncertainty of the future of my business left me reeling. Navigating through these new challenges I found something her clients already knew but did not voice: motherhood was incredibly isolating. I found it was intricately woven into my pain and mental health. I also began to recognize patterns of generational trauma that showed up again and again in my life and body. I sought care from mental health counselors, psychiatrists, functional medicine doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors. I received some good advice, some bad advice, but again, I felt like the help I received came up short. I wanted true holistic care that treated my mind, body, and spirit, but I couldn’t find it. This time, I dove in head first into reading and training: I expanded my knowledge of somatic healing, generational trauma, healing the nervous system, and the link between trauma and many chronic health conditions. 

I have learned over and over again the short sightedness of western medicine and how it affects women more than men. Healing as a woman is multifaceted and to truly heal, we need to stop slapping band-aids like creams, pills, and advice like “just relax” on the problem. We need to examine traumatic patterns, hormonal cycles, movement patterns, and energy patterns to move past pain and problems. If you’ve been offered a pill or cream or injection to heal, and it hasn’t worked, I’m not surprised. What all of these proposed solutions fail to address is that women are multidimensional cyclical creatures who have trauma from childhood, sexual experiences, and simply not feeling heard woven into their bodies, minds, and spirits. And this lack of knowledge of the female body can create a lack of confidence in your body and ability to heal. 

The problem with most of the traditional approaches to healing (including most Pelvic PT’s and talk therapy) is that they are missing an essential piece of healing: how trauma shows up in the body. Trauma can show up as digestive issues, coping mechanisms, pain throughout the body, pain in the pelvis and pelvic floor, hormonal problems like PMDD, and problems during pregnancy like severe nausea, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia. 

This is why I created my approach to healing. I approach pelvic and whole body health through my extensive knowledge of the body as a Physical Therapist, 11+ years of clinical experience, and incorporate neuroscience backed energy work, somatic work, and research backed trauma healing tools to help clients overcome complex pain throughout the body and pelvis and help women prepare for birth after traumatic experiences.