Ground Floor: on vaginismus, vulvodynia, and other ways we brace

Naomi Gale
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Alternative Health
  • Updated weekly

Women's bodies were never designed for permanent survival mode. Reasonable women have done the therapy, the books, the pelvic floor work, and still do not feel a sense of home and belonging in their bodies. Vaginismus and vulvodynia are one example: a vagina that closes involuntarily. At the same time, vaginismus is just one way women brace. This podcast is for women who still feel numb, perform, over-function, hold it all. Hosted by Naomi Gale, a pelvic health educator, mother and author. Each episode moves between real conversations, named myths corrected with the evidence behind them, and the deeper question underneath: what happens when a woman stops trying to fix herself and starts trusting what her body's been saying all along. This isn't a conversation on self-help; it's a return to you: a reasonable woman in an unreasonable world. Naomi is the author of Ground Floor and The Reasonable Woman, published by nomestia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 10 Jun

    When Rest Doesn't Restore: Why the Pelvic Floor Braces Under Chronic Stress

    If your period pain has gotten worse, your cycle's shifted, or sex doesn't feel the way it used to, your nervous system might be the reason. In this episode, Naomi unpacks why chronic stress and hypervigilance show up in the body as literal pelvic bracing with delayed ovulation, flare-ups of period pain, changes in arousal, lubrication, and discharge, even leaking, and walks through her own experience of catching this in real time, mid-hypervigilance, living in a van across Morocco and Spain. Why "just rest" doesn't work when your nervous system doesn't feel safe enough to receive it, and what actually helps instead. Reflection QuestionsWhat is your body's default setting when you finally stop?When you land in rest, do you feel relief, numbness, or something else?What actually brings you back into your body?What would your body need in order to truly receive rest? Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    When Rest Doesn't Restore: Why the Pelvic Floor Braces Under Chronic Stress

  2. 14 May

    Quietly Furious: What Resentment Is Doing to Your Pelvic Floor

    Resentment isn't a character flaw instead it's a signal. In this episode, Naomi unpacks why so many "fine, functioning" women are quietly furious, and why that resentment so often shows up as bracing in the pelvic floor rather than as something named out loud. Through the story of Claire: a composite of women Naomi's worked with we discuss what happens when a body that's been gripping and holding for years is finally asked what it's actually carrying. This isn't about Kegels or a quick fix; it's about what gets released once resentment is acknowledged instead of managed. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Quietly Furious: What Resentment Is Doing to Your Pelvic Floor

  3. 22 Apr

    Why Analogue Feels Like Mothering Myself

    Naomi on the link between digital overwhelm and a nervous system stuck on high alert: flip phones, paper books, Swatch watches, and why she quit Instagram all recorded from a beach in Morocco mid-van-life. The deeper thread: what "analogue" actually does for a body that's been bracing for years, and why healing sometimes looks like less, not more. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Why Analogue Feels Like Mothering Myself

  4. 9 Apr

    You're Surrounded By People: So Why Do You Still Feel Alone?

    It's 2026. We understand the solutions so why aren't we living what we already know? Naomi challenges the idea that women actually want the community they say they want, through the story of "Sophia" (a composite of women she's worked with) surrounded by people, full conversations, a full life, and still lonely, and a real account of a friendship that fell apart mid-van-life the moment the conversation went past small talk. Real community isn't a location problem, Naomi argues, it's a courage problem: what happens the moment someone stops performing "I'm good" and says the actually true thing instead. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    You're Surrounded By People: So Why Do You Still Feel Alone?

  5. 26 Mar

    Meet Jenna: A Body That Closes, a Body That Says No

    Meet Jenna, 35: she lives with vaginismus, where the vaginal muscles involuntarily contract, making penetration painful or impossible. This is a fictitious client profile, one of an ongoing series built from a decade of real work with women, showing what actually helps when someone's done the therapy, read the books, and still feels like nothing has landed. TW: this episode discusses sexual assault and its lasting effects on the body. Vaginismus isn't a malfunction, it's a protective mechanism, and often a clever one. For Jenna, the pain was the trigger, not the cause: an assault she never told anyone about because it left no visible scars, held instead in her body. Naomi walks through why the presenting pain is almost never the real story, what it means to work with a nervous system stuck in freeze, and what changes when a woman's body finally gets a space to speak instead of being fixed. (NHS has basic information on vaginismus if you want a clinical starting point). Naomi's own experience is that even smear-test clinicians often don't fully understand the term. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Meet Jenna: A Body That Closes, a Body That Says No

  6. 20 Mar

    The Hidden Dissatisfaction of Mothers Who “Did Everything Right”

    Meet Sofia: the 'right' education, the 'right' career, two children, a life that looks complete by every visible measure. She's not in crisis. She's in integration pressure: she already has the language, the therapy, the self-awarenes, and none of it has actually landed. This is a fictitious client profile, one of an ongoing series drawn from a decade of one-to-one work. Sofia's trigger to seek this space wasn't a life falling apart: it was sex that had started to hurt, quietly, with no one around her saying that wasn't normal. Naomi on why pain in the body is so often a signal about pace and integration elsewhere, and what it means to look for evidence rather than more answers. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Hidden Dissatisfaction of Mothers Who “Did Everything Right”

  7. 11/02/2025

    Betty Sharpe: Three Years of Unexplained Pain

    Betty Sharpe a Kent-based doula and founder of Folkey Birth Club on three years of unexplained vulvopain that every test came back clear for, and what it taught her about how the medical system treats vaginas and vulvas when nothing shows up on a scan. We talk episiotomy recovery and years of painful sex afterwards, the second-degree tears no one warns you about, why "just lie down and rest" is better postnatal advice than most stitches, and what it actually means to be believed by a doctor even when there's no diagnosis to give. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Betty Sharpe: Three Years of Unexplained Pain

  8. 14/01/2025

    Lindsey Isla: Vaginismus, Being Child-Free, and Learning to Track Her Cycle

    Lindsey Isla: a content creator across lifestyle, interiors and fashion on developing vaginismus at 16, the doctor who dismissed it because her smear test was pain-free, and years of shame and silence before it resolved on its own in her mid-20s. This episode also covers her choice to be child-free within a marriage where both partners agree, and how cycle tracking changed her relationship with her own mood and body after years on hormonal contraception. Three stories, three real conversations. Join our community emails Free meditations, courses and talks on Insight Timer Holding words over on Substack Pelvic Healing Journey Here Postpartum Healing Journey Here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Lindsey Isla: Vaginismus, Being Child-Free, and Learning to Track Her Cycle
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5
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About

Women's bodies were never designed for permanent survival mode. Reasonable women have done the therapy, the books, the pelvic floor work, and still do not feel a sense of home and belonging in their bodies. Vaginismus and vulvodynia are one example: a vagina that closes involuntarily. At the same time, vaginismus is just one way women brace. This podcast is for women who still feel numb, perform, over-function, hold it all. Hosted by Naomi Gale, a pelvic health educator, mother and author. Each episode moves between real conversations, named myths corrected with the evidence behind them, and the deeper question underneath: what happens when a woman stops trying to fix herself and starts trusting what her body's been saying all along. This isn't a conversation on self-help; it's a return to you: a reasonable woman in an unreasonable world. Naomi is the author of Ground Floor and The Reasonable Woman, published by nomestia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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