Book Review: Wild Feminine by Tami Kent

Tami Kent is a leader in women’s health and developer of Holistic Pelvic Care - a system of internal vaginal massage and energy work that helps women to restore balance to their pelvic floor and energetic root. Her book, Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body, is considered a staple in the women’s pelvic health field. Filled with case studies, personal reflections, actionable exercises, and affirming insights, it is easy to understand why both practitioners and the general populace reach for Wild Feminine to support them on their journey to self healing and self connection.

While Kent’s practice as a physical therapist is based in physical medicine, she has also discovered the high importance of the energetic systems in our bodies and their relation to healing. Wild Feminine focuses on this energetic aspect of the body and the ways you can harness energy work for self care. Staying true to the spirit of feminine energy, the book is circular; the beginning is better understood once you engage with the end. Considering each chapter division as its own chapter, and each chapter as an organizing section helps to process the information. (This might seem like a minor detail, but if you are a person who devours books like I do, the change in distinction helps to remember to slow down.) Slowly is definitely the best way to read this book. Taking the time to actually do the exercises and meditations as they are presented will help you reap the most benefit from the pages. I recommended doing one visualization/ritual a day at most. This pace is also reflective of the content; an exploration of a woman's natural cycles of outpouring and retreat, productivity and contemplation.

For those that are not comfortable working with energy or considering it as part of their healthcare, there are suggestions for where to find a Pelvic PT, an Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® practitioner, and other health professionals such as psychologists and uro-gynocologists. However, the meat of the physical self work is broad stroked and general.

One of the biggest drawbacks of this book is that it is attempting to address a cyclical issue in a linear fashion. Information in later sections inform information in the former sections as much as the closing thoughts build upon ideas in the beginning. Basically, full understanding of “feminine range” only comes at the conclusion of the book. (Admittedly even then it is a little murky, but that is also the subjective nature of the concept of “feminine.”) However, there is a wealth of information in each individual part and this work offers a wonderful guide to defining the individualized feminine. The other best way to read Wild Feminine - if following each exercise as it comes is not your style - is to read it twice. Once to get the whole picture and feel out where is most appropriate for you to start, and again in pieces to offer substance to the visualizations you choose to use to create your “root medicine” and support your “feminine ground.” I found the emphasis on ritual and its importance in daily life most profound. Ritual in this context refers to an action done in honor with full presence and clear intention. So much of the pain - physical and emotional - I see in my clients is a result of rushed and unconscious action. Within my own day, it is the times when I approach life unfocused and hurried that I notice the most discord in my body and the greatest feelings of being lost. Ritualizing self care, prioritizing that which brings joy to your life, is a valuable permission to embody.

Have you read Wild Feminine? What was the most important thing you took away from it? I'd love to read your experiences in the comments.

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