How I Came to Work in Women’s Health — And Why It Matters

That’s a question that many a times sits quietly in the background.

Not always asked directly, but often felt that they want to know- How did you come into this work?

How I Came to Work in Women's Health — And Why It Matters

Written by Sachin Joshi

It's a question that doesn't always get asked out loud.

But it's almost always there — in the pause before someone books, in the way a new client looks around the room before settling in. The unspoken version of: How did a man end up doing this work? And why should I trust that?

It's a fair question. An important one, actually. So let me answer it properly.

Where This Began

I was around eight or ten years old.

During her period, my mum would be asked to step aside. Not participate in daily activities. Keep a certain distance from others — including us kids — for those few days. Nothing harsh was said about it. No explanation given. It was simply how things were done.

As a child, you don't analyse any of that. You just feel it.

And what I felt was a quiet heaviness around the whole thing. Like she had to temporarily step away from herself while everything else around her carried on as normal. Like she became, for a few days, someone who needed to be set apart.

At the same time, I was growing up in a culture where the feminine was genuinely revered. Worshipped, even — as Shakti. Powerful. Sacred. Strong.

And I remember sitting with that contradiction without having the words for it yet. Reverence on one side. Restriction on the other. Both existing at the same time, neither one questioned.

Something about it didn't sit right. It stayed with me longer than I realised.

Years Later — The Same Pattern, Different Form

When I began working with Ayurvedic bodywork, I started noticing something familiar again. Not in cultural rituals this time, but in the body itself.

Women who were capable, capable, capable — managing work, relationships, families, all of it. From the outside, life looked full and functional.

But underneath that, many of them didn't feel fully at ease in their own bodies.

This showed up most noticeably around the pelvic space.

Sometimes it was specific — discomfort, pain, hormonal patterns that wouldn't quite settle. Sometimes there was nothing clearly identifiable. Just a persistent sense that something was off. A feeling that women described in different ways, but that almost always pointed to the same thing:

"I don't quite feel like myself."

What I Started Hearing in Conversations

Alongside what I was observing in sessions, something else kept coming up.

Women sharing that they'd been trying to understand what they were feeling for a long time. They'd paid attention. Tracked patterns. Sought answers in different places. And still — something felt incomplete. Not fully resolved.

It often sounded like: "I can't quite explain it, but something doesn't feel right." Or: "I understand parts of it, but I still can't connect what I'm thinking with what I'm actually feeling in my body."

For some women, this had been going on for years. Quietly shaping how they related to their body, their energy levels, their sense of self.

That pattern — of women knowing something was there but not being able to fully reach it — stayed with me. Because it pointed to something deeper than symptoms.

What Years of Practice Showed Me

Working closely with women across different stages — cycle-related concerns, pelvic discomfort, hormonal shifts, fatigue, chronic stress — a clearer picture started forming over time.

What someone feels is rarely coming from just one place.

It's not purely physical. It's not purely hormonal. It's rarely just one thing.

More often it's a combination — the body, the nervous system, past experiences, ongoing stress — all interacting with each other over time, each one influencing the others in ways that don't always show up neatly on a test result.

This is where Ayurveda made deep practical sense to me. Because it doesn't just ask what is happening. It asks why — and what has led to it. Not only structurally, but in terms of patterns. How the body functions, how it adapts, and importantly, what it has been quietly carrying.

What Became Impossible to Ignore

Over time, it became harder and harder to see the physical body, the nervous system and emotional experience as separate things.

They're not. They influence each other constantly. And the body keeps track of all of it.

Modern neuroscience reflects this too. When something is held for long enough — stress, tension, unprocessed experience — it doesn't stay abstract. It lands in the body. It shows up as physical patterns, protective holding, chronic tightness in areas connected to safety and identity.

Often, that's the pelvic space.

Why This Work Actually Matters

When the body doesn't feel at ease for a long time, it doesn't stay contained as just a physical sensation.

It starts to affect everything.

How you move through your day. How you feel about yourself. How you respond when things get hard. How you relate to your own body — whether you feel at home in it or quietly at war with it.

Over time, a lot of women simply learn to live with that low-level discomfort. It becomes background noise. Normal. Just part of how things are.

And that's exactly where this work becomes meaningful.

Not because it offers a quick fix — it doesn't, and anyone who promises that isn't being straight with you. But because it creates something that's often been missing for a long time: a space where the body can slow down, feel genuinely safe, and begin to respond differently.

That shift isn't dramatic. But it's significant. It changes how someone experiences themselves from the inside.

Why This Approach — And Not Another

This is also why everything at Ayusha is deliberately unhurried.

The body doesn't release on instruction. It doesn't open up because you've decided today is the day or because the appointment is 60 minutes long. It responds to safety, to consistency, and to the complete absence of pressure.

When the right environment exists — and when there's time — things begin to settle in a way that simply cannot be forced.

Whether the work involves lymphatic support, marma therapy or pelvic-focused treatment, the intention underneath is always the same: to support the body in finding its way back to a state where it feels more at ease within itself.

The Thing That Actually Determines Everything

Over time, one thing has become very clear.

The most important question isn't who is delivering the therapy.

It's whether you feel safe in the space.

Because that — and really only that — determines whether the body opens or stays guarded. Whether something shifts, or whether you leave feeling like you went through the motions.

In any setting, clinical or therapeutic, trust is built through clarity, through boundaries, and through how a person is made to feel from the moment they arrive. That's the standard this work is held to, every time.

How Sessions at Ayusha Actually Work

Everything here is built around that foundation.

There's always a clear conversation before anything begins. Nothing is assumed. Nothing is rushed. You're never moved through a process — you remain in control of it throughout. If something doesn't feel right at any point, it can be paused, adjusted or stopped. Full stop.

Because without that foundation of genuine safety, the body simply won't respond in any meaningful way. And that would make the whole thing pointless.

What People Often Notice

Most people arrive a little unsure. Not just about the treatment, but about whether the space itself will feel right for them.

What they tend to notice over time is quieter than they expected.

Someone once said to me after a session: "I didn't realise how much I was holding until I felt it ease."

No exggeration in it. Just a simple, honest observation. But it's stayed with me because it reflects something I see regularly. A sense of being less guarded. Breathing a little more fully. Feeling more settled within themselves — not because something was done to them, but because something finally had enough space to settle.

A More Honest Way to Think About Tiredness

A lot of women think they're exhausted because they need more sleep.

And sometimes that's true. But often — more often than gets acknowledged — they're tired because they haven't truly felt at ease in their body for a very long time.

Sometimes what the body actually needs isn't more effort. More supplements. More optimising.

Just the right environment to slow down, feel safe, and gradually let go of what it's been holding onto.

References

• Porges, S. W. — Polyvagal Theory

• van der Kolk, B. — The Body Keeps the Score