Meet Dr. Grace Abruzzo PT, DPT, WCS, CAPP-OB/PELVIC, SEP
Grief and Grace guided me here.
I grew up with pelvic pain conditions. From a young age, I had slow bowel motility, often going 10 days without having a bowel movement. You could find me in the school nurse’s office with a tummy ache, asking to call my Mom. These issues progressed as I grew older. My periods were excruciatingly painful. Doctors appointments would leave me with diagnoses like irritable bowel syndrome, dysmenorrhea, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMS/PMDD), proctalgia fugax, chronic anal fissures and hemorrhoids, temporal mandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), chronic back pain, and chronic pelvic pain. I was given diets, pills, exercise, but it wasn’t until I found psychotherapy, that I started to connect some of these conditions to my underlying relational hurts and traumas.
Though Western medicine separates Physical Therapy (PT) from Psychotherapy, I learned through my patients that we were both working on similar injuries. After all, how could you work with a Physical Therapist on learning how to walk again without encountering intense emotions? Or more specifically to Pelvic PT, how could you have intense pain in your anus and not encounter deep emotional wounding?
Learning about the connection between our experiences, emotions, body and pain, deepened my own inner-work. My body called me to this work. I learned about my childhood trauma— why was I holding in my bowels for so long? I discovered how scared and over-whelmed I was in my childhood home. The root of my pelvic issues, came from not only surviving my family’s dynamics, but also from my parent’s wounds, and their parent’s wounds. I learned about power dynamics both in the immediate family, but also in the community and the political. I learned about Body Supremacy and how our nervous systems adapt and cope to survive on-going unsafe environments, relationships, and policies.
My work is now in coming home to my body. I learn more everyday about the innate wisdom of my pelvis and it’s ability to connect to the rest of my body, to the earth, to my loved ones. I’ve learned the intelligence in honoring Pain and the Grief/Rage that is the natural response to violence, rupture, abandonment, domination, or simply, a crossing of boundaries. My work of reckoning with the truth of our history is on-going and intentional.
I share my journey and all that I have learned experientially here. Though I am bound by the requirements of my license, I lean into the deep decolonizing work needed to reclaim Pelvic Sovereignty. I honor the reciprocity of our relationship by naming the power dynamics within the standard Physical Therapist to Patient dynamics. It’s important to me, that I do my part to embody a corrective experience of journeying together on your path of self-discovery. I can only go with you to depths that I have encountered and worked with in my own system first, so I continue to prioritize my own healing. Now my healing is specific to repairing harmful beliefs I’ve taken in about myself and my body— I practice challenging the ways I have taken in White Body Supremacy, Ableism, Transphobia, Homophobia, Patriarchy, Capitalism, Binaries, and Colonialism.
My connection with my body and my pelvis is one of profound Grace and gratitude. I am protective and in-tune with my body. I am ceremonial with my grief and rage. I am still learning how to connect to the Land and my ancestors, but I approach this work with humility. Much of this learning and unlearning has come to me through the art, teachings, and work of Black Queer and Indigenous Folx. They have guided me into the folds of a revolutionary transformation and liberation for all. As Fannie Lou Hamer so wisely spoke, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free…” I’m here in response to the call that our freedoms are interconnected. I believe in my freedom and belonging and I believe in yours too. I’m here to alchemize my pain, connect my pelvis to my voice and use my gifts to play my part in our Collective Liberation.
Thank you for coming to me. I know what it must have taken to try this— the hope that lives on in your body that things could be different. I’m here for your journey as long as it may serve us.
A little bit more about me— I am 3rd generation to the US with roots in Ireland and Italy. I am non-binary and use They/Them pronouns. I am queer and Autistic + ADHD. I am happily partnered and we co-live with our dog Arlo, and cat Lola. My partner keeps our home filled with plants and teaches me about caring for them. I am currently training for my first Ironman in California October 2024. I am an adult orphan and the grief journey of losing my parents is what has lead me to loving myself so profoundly. I feel intimately close with grief and rage and am learning more about joy and play. I enjoy hiking, swimming in the ocean, learning new languages and reading. Hablo un poco de Español. Parlo poco Italiano. 조금 말 할 수 있어요. I’ll share more about myself as we get to know each other.
With Grace, Gut, and Love at the forefront, through curiosity, compassion and kindness, I look forward to working with you.
Dr. Grace
I live, work and was born on Land occupied by Settlers originally and still inhabited and cared for by the Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash Peoples.
To read more of my professional history, here is my CV.
They/Them
“The People of the Seventh Fire do not yet walk forward; rather, they are told to turn around and retrace the steps of the ones who brought us here.
Their sacred purpose is to walk back along the red road of our ancestors’ path and to gather up all the fragments that lay scattered along the trail.
Fragments of land, tatters of language, bits of songs, stories, sacred teachings— all that was dropped along the way. Our elders say that we live in the time of the Seventh Fire. We are the ones the ancestors spoke of, the ones who will bend to the task of putting things back together to rekindle the flames of the sacred fire, to begin the rebirth of a nation. ”
