About Lindsey Vestal, OTR/L | The Functional Pelvis

Hi, I'm Lindsey Vestal, OTR/L.

I built the path I wish I'd had: pelvic health education taught by an OT, for OTs.

It started with my dad.

I've always been passionate about teaching people about the human body, but early on I wasn't sure how to put that to work. By default, I ended up in the windowless office of a software company, spending more time with a computer than with the people I wanted to help.

Then my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

My dad was a proud U.S. Marine who raised four daughters to be as strong and independent as he was. So when the hospital sent him home with run-of-the-mill exercises and a stack of incontinence pads, he wasn't about to take it lying down. And I decided to take a stand with him.

For months I scoured studies and read everything about incontinence I could get my hands on. What I found was that without a functioning pelvic floor, the most basic parts of being human become difficult or impossible. And almost nobody was focused on helping people like my father get back to the things they loved.

Then it dawned on me. If we go to rehab for our shoulders and knees when they stop working the way they used to, why not for the pelvic floor?

I found my dad the right kind of help, and his cancer went into remission. But by then I'd found my life's work.

I almost became a PT.

I was racking up observation hours when the physical therapist I was shadowing called in sick, and the director asked if I'd like to shadow an occupational therapist instead.

After that one session, I knew I'd come home.

OTs do the thing nobody else does: we look at the whole person, in their actual life, doing the things that matter to them. That was exactly what had been missing for my father.

So I started OT school already knowing what I wanted to do. Toileting and intimacy are activities of daily living. This was our work, and it always had been.

The problem was that nobody was teaching it that way.

So I built the practice first.

I founded The Functional Pelvis, a concierge pelvic floor therapy practice in New York City, and the first in-home practice of its kind run by an OT.

I saw clients in their own homes, in the context where their symptoms actually showed up. I heard every version of "I didn't know an OT could help with this," from clients and colleagues alike. And I learned what the textbooks don't cover: how to open a conversation about leaking or painful sex, how to keep someone's dignity intact, what to do when trauma surfaces mid-session.

Everything I teach now came out of that room.

My clinical work has been featured in

The New York Times, Motherly, Romper, Harper's Bazaar, U.S. News & World Report, Icon

Then I built the education I couldn't find.

When I started, I took the PT-led courses because they were the only option. I threw out half of what I learned and spent years adapting the rest. I didn't want the next OT to do that.

So in 2018 I started teaching. Since then, more than 3,000 OTs have learned with me, through free AOTA-approved CEU classes, OT Pioneers, OT Elevate, the Level 1 Functional Pelvic Health Practitioner™ program, and the Level 2 Trauma-Informed Pelvic Health Certification.

And I created the Certified Functional Pelvic Health Practitioner™ credential: the only pelvic health certification for OTs, aligned to over 200 knowledge, skills, and abilities in our OT Practice Framework.

That last part matters to me. We are the only profession with a practice framework like ours. I wanted a credential built on it, rather than borrowed from somewhere else.

And a place for us to gather.

Every year I host the OTs in Pelvic Health Summit, the only in-person gathering of its kind for our profession. Since the first one in 2022, past and present AOTA presidents have joined us in the room.

It sells out every year, which tells you something about how much this profession has been waiting for a room of its own.

Two minutes inside the summit, in the words of the OTs who were there.

What happens next is the part I love

"I have been an OT for 8 years and have always worked in pediatrics... I joined the Level 1 Functional Pelvic Health Practitioner program and I am a changed OT."

Carla Virgin, OTR/L

"I've worked in every setting possible with adults and children. I work in administration now and felt like the spark of OT was gone. Until I attended an OT Pelvic Health Summit... that weekend would open up a whole new world of OT I had never experienced."

Frederica O'Donnell

OT for 25+ years

"I personally would prioritize this over Herman Wallace for the holistic, OT centered approach and many treatment ideas to immediately add to your toolbox. It was the most connected and supportive course I have ever taken."

Jenna Mendiola, CHT

Level 1 graduate

Learn with me for free

Start where every pelvic health OT starts, with a free AOTA-approved CEU class. Take either one, or both.

New to pelvic health?

The OT Practitioner's Role in Pelvic Health

Where pelvic health sits in OT scope of practice, plus simple interventions you can use with clients tomorrow.

Free · 1 hour · 0.1 AOTA CEU

Wondering where it fits in your setting?

The OT's Guide to Pelvic Health Practice Settings

Nine settings where OTs are already doing this work, from hospitals and SNFs to living rooms and L&D units. No private practice required.