4-D Member Spotlight: Dr. Alexandra Milspaw
Dr. Milspaw has been practicing counseling and providing educational seminars and trainings since 2007. She is a Certified Master NLP Practitioner, Certified Consulting Hypnotist, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Trainer and Consultant, and she specializes in relaxation and stress management as well as chronic pain and trauma. Dr. Milspaw is also a professional presenter for sexuality and reproductive health education for local colleges, community agencies, and national conferences, and she works with a variety of clients, including those coping with chronic pelvic and sexual pain in an effort to reduce pain and associated emotional and psychological stressors. She also has experience working with the LGBTQIA population, including those in transition. Sexuality encompasses all that you are and how you relate to the world around you.
We recently interviewed Dr. Milspaw about her experience with the 4-D Network, and how the 4-D Network has helped her clients:
1. Can you tell us about your introduction to the 4-D Wheel, and what motivated you to learn more about the wheel and the 4-D Network?
My first introduction to the 4-D Wheel came when Gina came as a guest speaker to my Women’s Health Studies graduate class at Lehigh University in 2007. It was love at first sight! I didn’t even know “sex therapy” was a thing until Gina walked into our classroom. I immediately began training and supervision with her, attending multiple 4-D Wheel workshops, including in La Boca, Mexico, and at her home in Massachusetts. I fell in love with the utilization of movement and object symbolism, as well as the invitation of spiritual aspects into the conversation of our lived experience. The 4-D Wheel offered an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the client’s perspective, especially within the realms of chronic pain, illness, and trauma. The 4-D Wheel invites the client to be the expert in their own lives, as they walk the map of the 4-D Wheel in an embodied way. The 4-D Wheel approach made my world (personally and professionally) make sense and provides an effective clinical lens through which to assess, treat, educate, and support my clients.
2. How do you use the 4-D Wheel, and what is your specialty?
I am passionate about bridging the gap between the medical and psychological worlds. I specialize in chronic pelvic and sexual pain disorders, trauma, and sexual health. Some of my favorite moments in my clinical work is helping women rediscover pleasure within a body that’s experienced an abundance of pain and trauma. I also love helping people have babies! It’s extremely rewarding when I work with a client who has been told they are “infertile” and/or when they’ve gone through multiple IVF procedures that have failed. Often, after they walk the 4-D Wheel and go deeper into their experience, their perspective on what’s possible shifts, and, low and behold, their body relaxes, heals, and gets pregnant! Truly a magnificent honor and privilege to have this experience as a therapist. Watching the magic of the body healing is so joyful!
3. What do you hope to do more of in the world using the 4-D Wheel as one of your tools to help heal people, and what is your vision or mission for this work?
I hope to bring the 4-D Wheel to women all around the country who are experiencing chronic pelvic and sexual pain disorders. As I travel the country to train therapists in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain, I plan to provide day-long 4-D Wheel workshops for clients in that region. I also hope to provide in-person trainings for any clinicians who seek to learn more about the 4-D Wheel and how to incorporate it into their practice.
4. What message do you have for other 4-D members?
Connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, and through my website at www.dralexmilspaw.com. If you sign up for my email list by visiting my website, you will receive updates as to when I will be in your region of the U.S. and offering workshops for clients and clinicians. I hope to see you soon!
