Dr Isabel Fernandez
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Isabel Fernandez sees patients at Fernandez Psychology, Kingsley.
Therapy for Persistent Pelvic Pain
Evidence-based psychological therapy services designed to help you manage pain, improve your quality of life, and live according to your values and goals.
Table Of Contents
Our Approach
At Elara Women's Health, we understand that persistent pelvic pain can significantly impact every aspect of your life. Our clinical psychologist works collaboratively with our multidisciplinary team to provide patient-centered care tailored to your unique needs and circumstances.
We offer specialised psychological therapies that are backed by research and clinical evidence. These therapies don't just focus on your pelvic pain—they provide you with tools and techniques that can be applied to all areas of your life, empowering you to navigate challenges with confidence and resilience.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a form of psychological therapy that focuses on the way people think and act in certain situations. It considers how our actions and decisions, or behaviours, are influenced by the presence of our thoughts (cognitions) and feelings (emotions, physical sensations).
The focus on behaviour is an important component in CBT and is linked to what we do to cope when faced with the experiences of persistent pelvic pain.
How CBT can help you:
- Identify whether your coping behaviours are helping you manage your pain in ways that allow you to live life consistent with your values and goals, or whether your behaviours are getting in the way
- Recognise patterns in your thoughts and behaviours that can maintain distress or difficulties
- Develop practical skills to manage pain and its impact on your daily life
What to expect:
CBT is an active therapy—this means that it takes some practice of the skills that you will learn to experience positive change. Practicing the information between sessions is an important aspect of successfully engaging in a CBT program. The skills you acquire can be used to help with all areas of difficulty, not just your pelvic pain.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a form of CBT and can be particularly helpful if you experience strong or intense emotions that feel difficult to control. DBT assists with managing strong emotions and the difficulties that you may experience because of your emotions.
DBT may be right for you if you experience:
- Feelings of emptiness or hopelessness
- Poor self-worth
- Strong or intense mood shifts
- Difficulty in your relationships with others
- Episodes or thoughts relating to self-harm or suicide
Core therapeutic components of DBT include:
- Mindfulness – learning how to connect with the here and now so that you can respond rather than react
- Distress tolerance – understanding and managing difficult emotions
- Emotional regulation – being more aware of your emotions
- Interpersonal effectiveness – learning how to ask for what you need
DBT skills focus on increasing self-acceptance, learning how to regulate your emotions, and improving your relationships with others. These skills can be used to help with all areas of difficulty, not just your pelvic pain.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Unlike some treatments for persistent pain, ACT doesn't focus on curing or controlling your pelvic pain or other symptoms as its primary goal. Rather, the focus is on assisting you to develop coping behaviours and decisions guided by what matters to you most—your goals and your values.
How ACT works:
ACT aims to alter coping behaviours by changing the way you experience your thoughts, feelings, and sensations, rather than specifically trying to change the thoughts, feelings, and sensations themselves. This reduces the struggle you can feel when pelvic pain becomes the focus of your decisions.
Primary treatment processes from ACT include:
- Acceptance
- Distancing from painful thoughts, emotions, and sensations
- Value-guided decision making
- Maintaining a connection with the present moment
ACT is particularly useful if there is a sense of loss or grief associated with your experience of persistent pelvic pain. ACT can include mindfulness-based methods and other skills training, depending on your specific needs.
Trauma-Focused Therapies for Persistent Pelvic Pain
For many people, their experiences of persistent pelvic pain can be associated with different forms of trauma. This may include trauma associated with early life experiences, including emotional or physical neglect, or emotional, physical, or sexual trauma.
The experience of diagnosis may also be associated with experiences of minimisation or invalidation, and this can lead to similar trauma-type responses, such as avoidance of healthcare, fear associated with engaging in treatments, difficulty managing emotions, and dissociation.
We offer specialised trauma-focused therapies to help you address difficult memories and reduce the ongoing negative effects on your life.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
CPT is a form of CBT that has a strong evidence base in reducing trauma symptoms that have developed after experiencing a variety of traumatic events, including traumatic early life events, sexual assault, exposure to natural disasters, and medical trauma.
What to expect:
CPT is generally delivered over 12 sessions and assists you to learn how to challenge and modify unhelpful beliefs related to the trauma, resulting in new understandings and reducing the ongoing negative effects on your life.
Treatment focuses on:
- Trauma psychoeducation, including thoughts and emotions
- Writing down what happened and your understanding of how it has influenced your view of yourself, others, and the world
- Addressing thoughts that may be impacting your capacity to feel safe or resolve the trauma
- Learning adaptive strategies to improve overall functioning and quality of life
Sessions may also address areas affected by both trauma and persistent pelvic pain:
- Safety
- Trust
- Power and control
- Self-esteem
- Intimacy
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR combines the use of exposure to memories of difficult or traumatic events with eye movements (or other forms of bilateral processing such as audio tones) to transform painful memories and feelings.
How EMDR works:
EMDR lowers the level of emotional distress associated with difficult or traumatic experiences and develops new associations unconsciously. For some people, this may mean experiencing a sense of distance when asked to recall an experience or a decreased or neutral emotional and physical response when recalling the event.
EMDR is not intended to change the facts associated with an event, but rather to alter your perspective so that reminders of the event are not as painful or difficult for you here in the present.
Benefits of EMDR:
- Reduced pain and emotional distress
- Improved coping
- Relaxation and decreased ability to worry
- Feelings of detachment from the problem
The bilateral stimulation and focused attention of EMDR has been linked to physical, mental, and emotional changes. Research focused on the use of EMDR for persistent pain has reported reduced pain, reduced emotional distress, and improved coping.
Meet your Pelvic Pain Psychologist
Frequently Asked Questions
We are a specialised women’s health service delivered by a highly skilled, multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals dedicated to evidence-based care and advanced women’s health expertise. Meet our team.
Dr Sharon Vasey holds the Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK), and Dr Aye Kinzanar holds the Diploma from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG). Both doctors are members of the Australasian Menopause Society.
If you would like the opportunity to discuss your health issues with one of our doctors and receive guidance on next steps for your health journey we can offer a bulk billed video discovery call. Find out more.
Women’s health can be complex and require a longer appointment. At Elara we offer appointments ranging from 15 minutes to an hour.
For or latest fees, check out our pricing page.
1/165 Grand Boulevard, Joondalup.
Review our contact page for full contact information and how to find us.
For answers to more questions, check our frequently asked questions pages for patient information, menopause, endometriosis and contraception.
Why Choose Elara Women's Health?
Best available research
All our therapy services are grounded in the best available research and recommended clinical guidelines. You can trust that the care you receive is safe, credible, and effective.
Clinical Expertise
Our clinical psychologist has specialised training and experience in treating persistent pelvic pain and trauma-related conditions, working as part of our experienced multidisciplinary team.
Patient-Centered Approach
We take the time to actively listen and understand what is important to you. In partnership with you, we create an individualised treatment plan with realistic and achievable goals that align with your values and life circumstances.
Getting Started
If you're experiencing persistent pelvic pain and would like to explore how psychological therapy can help, we're here to support you. Our team will work with you to determine which therapy approach best suits your needs and goals.