Dr. Molly Hart (Owner/Therapist)

Hi There!

My name is Molly Hart and I am a Florida native. I grew up on the beautiful beaches of Anna Maria Island with my large Italian Catholic family. My mother was a talented & successful business woman who taught me how to mentally and physical care for myself and others with simple life habits and holistic medicine. My father on the other hand was a commercial fisherman and I grew up on the boat with him eating the freshest seafood, catching seahorses on his crab traps, and running around on the beautiful islands nearby. On top of that I also have three loving brothers who are truly my best friends.

My household was not one with strict rules, in fact looking back we had A LOT of freedom. Jumping on the couch, throwing the ball in the house, having insane pillow fights, and riding down to the beach to catch and sell bait-fish to the tourists was just a part of life for us. We also talked about everything…and I mean EVERYTHING. My mom always shared her crazy stories of things she did while she was a teen and talked to us about drugs, sex, relationships, emotions, and life in general. She allowed and encouraged us to be ourselves, love ourselves, how to listen to the Lord’s guidance, and how to care for our one and ONLY body that God blessed us with. This foundation allowed freedom to be myself and follow the path God intuitively guided me down.

At a young age my parents divorced due to my father’s drug addiction. From age 10 on, I was shown that a female can raise 4 successful children, work a full-time job, start her own side business, get her MBA, and overcome breast cancer. On top of that she also always encouraged us to love my father and to have a relationship with him despite his struggles. My mother’s ability to serve and love those around her was a blessing to witness and learn from.

Growing up I was a competitive soccer player and also passionately participated in volleyball, track and field, racquetball, skim boarding, and kayaking on a weekly bases. I knew as a senior in high school that I wanted to be a Physical Therapist as it would enhance my active lifestyle and allow me to serve others. At a young age I was exposed to PT due to my oldest brother’s Cerebral Palsy (CP) and later due to my own ACL and meniscus injury. I understood the value of this profession and how it helped my family. I knew I never wanted to prescribe drugs due to my fathers drug addiction and saw that conservative approaches was what lead to the most optimal outcome for my family.

I went on to attend the University of South Florida where I played for USF’s Women’s Club Soccer team while getting my undergrad degree in Biomedical Sciences. I catered by entire degree, extracurricular activities, and networking opportunities to get into a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program. I was accepted first round into USF’s DPT program and became the Class President. I was blessed to have a clinical rotation at the VA’s comprehensive Chronic Pain Program that incorporated all health professions. This clinical experience sparked my desire and knowledge for treating chronic pain conditions.

During my undergrad experience my family also went through a rough time frame as my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I attended all of her treatments at Moffit Cancer Center and for the first time I realized how awful the medical system can be to patient's who are suffering. My mom was often treated just like another number - not the beautiful and valuable person she was. Often she would ask to not have new interns perform her treatment and was told NO, she was switched between so many professionals, misguided at times, and never felt listened to. I had to watch my very strong mother be emotionally destroyed by the cancer and her treatment from medical professionals. This experience made me realize that I would always strive to treat every person I had the pleasure to work with in the way I wished my mom would have been treated.

This experience lead me to be tested for the BRCA 2 gene, as my mother tested positive for this gene. The BRCA 2 gene significantly increases your risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, I did discover that I am also positive for the BRCA 2 gene. I then received genetic counseling and was informed that I should receive IVF treatments to select out for the gene if I want to have children and then receive a double breast mastectomy and total hysterectomy after having children as preventative care. I was NOT OKAY with this extremely invasive care as a solution for PREVENTION. I started to do more research myself on preventative care that had a higher benefit to risk ratio and discovered that there IS A LOT OF WONDERFUL CONSERVATIVE care options that do not include invasive procedures and surgical removal of my female body parts. I now understand that prioritizing relationships, being spiritually connected, having healthy thoughts and beliefs, decreasing stress, REST, eating good quality food, moving and exercising your body, and using less toxic products at home are extremely important to protect our health. This journey to protect my female body lead to my strong passion for specializing in women's health PT.

I decided to take my chronic pain clinical experience and combine it with women's pelvic health because I saw there was a massive need. I was aware that women with chronic pelvic pain conditions were being MASSIVELY under served, misguided, mistreated, and unheard. My passion for this work is immense and I do believe God blessed me with this gift to serve women and men with chronic pelvic pain concerns.

I graduated from my DPT program in August 2017 with a career already lined up at an outpatient pelvic health rehab clinic where I received one-on-one mentorship for treating pelvic health dysfunctions. There was a pelvic health team of over 10 women at this company that I had the pleasure to learn from and met with to review research and techniques. I then finished all of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) pelvic and pregnancy/postpartum courses within my first year of practice.

While I was treating at a traditional PT setting, I discovered that I could no longer sit in my little office and wait for women to come to me after years of abuse and pain. Pelvic PT is one-on-one so my treatment sessions were too short at the clinic, we had a 3 month wait list, poor scheduling that didn’t allow me to properly treat patients, and I was getting completely burnt out by the setting and situation I was in. I knew I needed to free up some of my time so I could go out and educate women and men in my local area and online. I also knew that taking on a smaller case load and having longer treatment times would allow me to give proper and detailed care to the women I was serving.

This realization is what led me to quit my clinic job and start Pelvic Balance Physical Therapy. This has allowed me to create a structured and organized approach for treating chronic pelvic pain conditions (Vulvodynia, Dyspareunia, Interstitial cystitis, Painful Bladder Syndrome, Over Active Bladder, Endometriosis, Pudendal Neuralgia, Sacro-Iliac Joint Dysfunction). I have longer one-on-one treatment sessions, constant message support for my patient’s, online programs that compliment our treatment, and the time and energy to invest into a beautiful and healing journey for the women and men that trust me with their care.

The clinic has continued to grow and I realized I needed support and help to keep this mission of healing chronic pain going. Dr. Jordan Schmidt joined the team early on to help cover my first maternity leave for my beautiful daughter in March 2020. I sustained a bad pelvic floor injury during my birth and had to rehab myself using our HappyV Formula program that we use at Pelvic Balance PT. Life continued to hit hard when my dad decided to take his life during the covid shutdown as his depression spiraled out of control from being isolated. My husband was also sent away for months to help with Covid support via the National Guard and my precious German Shepherd dog passed away all in a months’ time. This led for a very hard postpartum healing journey and gave me first hand experience with what a lot of women go through that I work with postpartum.

I started to recover slowly over the year and sadly my mother unexpectedly passed on the exact same day my dad passed 1 year earlier. Her death turned my world upside down and massively altered my family's dynamic. I also found out I was pregnant again and that my husband would be leaving for 1 year for the military. This season of hardship forced me to lean into God for peace and to become stronger than ever before. I had to learn to delegate and lean on others to survive and continue the vision of Pelvic Balance PT. 

Pelvic Balance PT is a team of women who love and support each other so we can continue our mission of supporting YOU!  Our sessions are one-on-one and intentionally focused on your individual healing journey. Dr. Jordan and I are all loving and caring souls with immense empathy gained through our own personal life experiences. This combined with our pelvic health knowledge and science of chronic pain is what allows us to truly help people heal long term.

If you decide to work along side us in healing your mind, body, and soul we will ensure to give you our all and treat you like the amazing person that you are. We care tremendously about your success and ensuring that we give you nothing less than what we would want for our family.

With Love & Compassion,
Dr. Molly Hart, PT, DPT