Q&A | Meet Superstar Miami PT Dr. Megan Stancill

We’re happy to announce the opening of our new Coral Gables clinic in Miami, where Dr. Megan Stancill, PT, DPT, is now booking patients for pelvic floor and whole-body physical therapy. From her inspiring backstory to her holistic approach to healing, Dr. Stancill is an absolute superstar. 

To help you get to know her better, we caught up with Dr. Stancill between sessions and got the details on her successful plus-sized modeling career, breakthrough yoga book, and passionate approach to PT.

If you've been considering physical therapy, here's the extra motivation you need to get started.

Before becoming a PT, you made a splash as a model, yoga instructor, and author. Can you share that story?

In a previous life, I had a multi-decade career as a plus-size model in New York City and I also owned a yoga studio. One of my modeling clients was a clothing company called Just My Size and they were making a line of plus-sized yoga clothing.

I said, you know what? I want to create a plus-sized yoga DVD — if I wear your yoga clothing, would you pay for me to produce it? They agreed. 

It turned out to be a major hit.

It did! There had never been a yoga DVD with a plus-size instructor showing modifications for large bodies. It got national press and I got to take my students and myself to The Today Show. I got to say oooooom with Al Roker. It was amazing. 

A publisher from DK Books, which is a division of Penguin, saw the segment and decided we want that woman to write a book. Something you should know about me is that I always say yes and then figure out the details later. It's very Aries (my zodiac sign). So I said I'll do it.  

The book is called MegaYoga and it’s still used in yoga teacher training programs all over the country, teaching people how to serve special populations. I still teach for yoga schools remotely and in person.

How did that inspire you to become a physical therapist?

After the book came out, my yoga business was booming. I would often get people who were first time exercisers and they would have injuries that I couldn't address. When that happened, I'd send them to PT and they'd get better. 

That made me very curious. What was this magical PT? 

And then I thought, I'm cutting out the middle man. I'm going to go back to school in midlife and become a doctor of physical therapy. Easy, right? Well, I majored in medieval history in college, which meant I hadn’t taken any science or math pre-req, so I left modeling and took night classes at Manhattan community college.

Then I earned my doctorate in physical therapy at Hunter College, where I was the oldest person in my class — the oldest person they'd ever let in the program. Once I’d trained in orthopedics, I went on to train in pelvic floor. 

What words would you have for someone dealing with symptoms who is hesitant to try pelvic floor physical therapy?

I would say that feeling at home in your body is your birthright. 

Yes, you could live with a leaky bladder or pain with sexual activity. You might think, I'll just stop doing certain activities or change how I have sex. Humans are resilient; it’s possible to work around a lot of dysfunction. But I want to give you the hope that you don't have to compromise. 

There is another layer of joy that you can feel in your body. As physical therapists, it’s our privilege to help you access that.

‍PT is so different from other types of medical care. How do you explain it?

This is a type of medical experience that's different from any other medical experience I've had as a patient. I've never been given so much education and responsibility for my own healing.

As a PT, I consider treatment to be successful if my patients can tell their friends what a pelvic floor is, if they can describe the health problem they have in their own language to a friend or a doctor, if they can teach the tools and exercises they’ve learned to someone else.

Ultimately what we want is for you to be able to self-manage your condition so that if bothersome symptoms return you can treat yourself. We want to empower you. 

What determines how quickly a patient will get results with physical therapy?

As a patient, you really can set the pace of your healing journey. We could take the long road up the mountain or we could take the express elevator, but each requires a different amount of investment and work. So it really is in your hands. 

And if you choose the fast-track but then come in one day and say, Megan, I'm not feeling it, I'm having a bad day, my back hurts, or I don't feel like doing internal work, we can always slow down or pivot to something else.

‍You’re also a Pilates instructor. Clearly you can provide people with a lot of choices when it comes to exercise.

I love the creativity of fitting exercise to the patient. I really, really do. If I prescribe an exercise and a patient comes back the next day and says, I hated it, I didn't do it, or it was too easy or challenging, we pick something else. 

And sometimes it’s not the exercise, it's finding the perfect way to work it into your life.I'm by nature lazy. And so I have my yoga mat on the floor next to my bed, so I can't get in bed unless I step over it. This is how I trick myself to do yoga every day. 

Over 2,000 doctors refer to Origin nationwide. Why is it so appealing to providers?

We not only have amazingly qualified PTs, we also take many different insurances. In Miami, we’re one of the only clinics that do, outside of hospitals. Origin’s mission to make pelvic floor PT accessible to the people is so powerful. 

You can treat a wide range of orthopedic and pelvic conditions. Is there anything that you do especially well or just love to treat?

I love working with people with mysterious pelvic pain. I have a lot of tools in my toolbox that help downtrain the pelvic floor, from getting people to relax to working with breathing patterns.

Thanks to my orthopedic training and background in yoga , I'm very good at looking at posture and gait and noticing details about how you sit and move that might be creating pain. 

I have additional training with a group called the Institute of Physical Art. They are experts in skilled manual treatment. My touch and ability to use my hands to give pain relief really improved when I started studying their techniques. 

I especially enjoy treating TMJ, neck pain and folks who suffer from headaches or migraines. Many people with pelvic pain also struggle with these issues, and PT can get very good results.