How to Recover from Migraines, POTS & GI Issues Through Your Nervous System

[00:00:00] Before the mind-body healing method, I was having migraines probably three to four times per month
[00:00:07] and they were lasting around three to four days at a time and different cluster of symptoms of
[00:00:13] course with with migraines but also a lot of GI symptoms and hints of like orthostatic symptoms
[00:00:20] too related to POTS and cyclical vomiting as well. So pretty intense before mind-body
[00:00:27] healing. Now I only have a migraine once a month and it only lasts about a day if even and I think
[00:00:37] shifting my relationship to my symptoms and shifting away a little bit from a bit of a victim
[00:00:43] mindset with migraines thinking that it was going to control my life and I had to just accept it.
[00:00:49] That shift has been really empowering and it I now no longer have to over plan or anticipate
[00:00:57] that I'm gonna have to drop all my plans either all of the sudden so it's really given me my life
[00:01:02] back and it's been amazing too. I would say being skeptical is also a part of the work and I would
[00:01:12] encourage listening to some of your podcast episodes and other success stories and just
[00:01:19] absorb it be open to it and hear from other people how this has been helpful and that
[00:01:24] would be my biggest encouragement. That's what helped me get to the point to being ready
[00:01:29] was hearing how other people were doing it and that it was possible. Hello hello and welcome back
[00:01:35] to the Heal with Grace podcast. Y'all I have a really special story today. I have a previous
[00:01:40] mind-body healing method student who's also a therapist so I think this is a really special
[00:01:46] episode because it kind of gives you a behind the scenes of hey what do we go through as
[00:01:50] therapists when we deal with our own chronic symptoms and pain and then also how she's now
[00:01:55] integrating that into her therapy and really helping her clients in a like totally new way
[00:02:00] and so if this resonates with you if you start to hear your story and you're like that really is
[00:02:06] sounds like me and I would love to get that support I just want to remind you that the
[00:02:11] mind-body healing method small group that we start on April 22nd and as of this recording
[00:02:17] which is last week that this is airing or the week before this airs we're recording this
[00:02:24] and we have two spots left in the small group and the reason why I'm just calling it essentially
[00:02:28] a small group is because the mind-body healing method is a full program it's a full course that
[00:02:33] you can go through on your own at self-paced so if that feels better for you great but I'm
[00:02:38] adding on this small group which means it's only six people so it can be really intimate
[00:02:44] and help you dig into what's stuck what's not going well or what are you missing so that you
[00:02:50] can really get the support and accountability to do this work and so it's for three months
[00:02:56] we meet twice a month and then you get full access to the mind-body healing method course
[00:03:00] and program and Kayla mentions it a little bit in this in this episode of how supportive and
[00:03:05] helpful it was to be in a group format so that she could you know resonate with other
[00:03:10] people and how we can really help you personalize this process to get the best results so if you
[00:03:17] are interested um I highly recommend finding the link below let me know if the small group
[00:03:23] sounds interesting to you and you want to join and I will talk with you to make sure it's a
[00:03:28] right fit because I'm only allowing the people that are the right fit that work together
[00:03:33] in the small group so this is for you if you've maybe kind of listened to this podcast
[00:03:38] for a little bit right you kind of understand that your nervous system affects your symptoms and
[00:03:42] your brain affects your symptoms but you're not totally sure what's missing or
[00:03:47] why it's not clicking for you why maybe you're not making progress that is exactly why I created
[00:03:52] this group so two spots left we start April 22nd I would highly recommend getting in now I
[00:03:58] don't know when I'm offering it again and I will see you if it's right and if not you
[00:04:04] just want to listen that is wonderful as well okay I will go ahead and let you listen and jump
[00:04:08] right in hello Kayla thank you so much for coming on the podcast I'm excited for today's episode
[00:04:14] hi Grace I'm excited too you have a really cool story and especially being a therapist as well
[00:04:20] so I love this combo there's a lot of us out there with chronic symptoms and we can dive
[00:04:27] more into what what that crossover is because I don't think it's really known or talked about
[00:04:32] as much but first and foremost um introduce yourself tell us a little bit about you um maybe
[00:04:38] where you live and why you're here yeah yeah so uh Kayla Jacobson a licensed clinical social worker
[00:04:45] and mental health therapist I am located in the Minnesota area and uh yeah I've been a therapist
[00:04:53] for a little over five years now so still getting my bearings in the field as well for them
[00:04:59] for the most part but a lot of my work is relational already incorporating a lot of nervous system
[00:05:07] regulation education understanding I have always been interested in the mind body
[00:05:15] connection but I think my first introduction to it was the mental and physical health
[00:05:20] connection so started my work as a medical social worker really seeing those gaps in the
[00:05:27] physical health uh world as well um and then kind of shifted into the clinical space working
[00:05:35] directly with clients a big part of some of the work I've been doing is working with people who
[00:05:40] identify as highly sensitive and also having a background of identifying with feeling highly
[00:05:46] sensitive as well and with doing some of this work noticing a huge correlation of chronic
[00:05:53] symptoms pain migraines showing up in my office too so some of the personal work I've done has
[00:06:01] blended very nicely with the professional work that I'm doing too yeah so you have a background
[00:06:08] in working with physical conditions as a mental health therapist social worker which is not common
[00:06:14] even outside of this this is even more of a specialty I would say than the broad just
[00:06:18] working with chronic symptoms illness pain medical conditions so I don't want to get ahead
[00:06:25] of myself I want to know what you learned now that you didn't learn then working with people but
[00:06:30] first and foremost you came to this work I mean I'm assuming you watched me for a little bit right
[00:06:34] but you came into the mind body healing method for yourself so why did you want to do that for
[00:06:39] yourself yeah yep um I think in what's perhaps common with a little bit of a therapist part
[00:06:47] I think this perhaps resonates with a lot of people who enter into being therapists um in this work is
[00:06:55] I definitely felt more comfortable like wanting to better understand other people and their
[00:07:01] connection to mental and physical health that felt safer for me of exploring those connections
[00:07:07] and I think I deep down knew that that was definitely a part of my own experience and so
[00:07:13] like yeah in the hospital setting I saw it in big ways um and then it wasn't until I would say maybe
[00:07:23] maybe three three years ago when my migraines hit a point where I was really questioning if
[00:07:28] I could stay in the field that's when I really kind of had to I was just craving I need to
[00:07:35] better understand what's going on and what is out there and that's when I think I kind of
[00:07:42] just stumbled upon a lot of different spaces yours in the mind body healing program was a huge one
[00:07:48] and it just started with me putting my headphones in and listening in and learning about what else
[00:07:53] is out there and how people are blending the work as well now that helps so let's back up then to
[00:08:00] when when did you first start having migraines I first started having them when I was around
[00:08:08] 10 or 11 years old is when I first that's pretty young right yeah yeah yeah yeah when since you've
[00:08:17] been in this work now do you know or can you identify where there are other types of symptoms
[00:08:23] health things that you've been through or have it has it really been migraines it's like you're
[00:08:26] the thing that your body does yeah it first started off with like a cyclical vomiting
[00:08:33] for me when I was younger so it did kind of start start off a little bit more gi related
[00:08:39] and a lot of motion sickness and feeling sensitive to yeah light sensitivities noise
[00:08:48] and then that's where the head pain came in I did I got a lot of like throat infections when I
[00:08:53] was younger too which migraines used to really accompany there was a blend of and if you
[00:09:00] ask some of my family members what some of their memories are of me it is always a story of me
[00:09:06] getting physically sick in the car or at a sleepover and so it was a really big part
[00:09:13] and I'm reminded of that frequently um of growing up a lot of kind of different clusters
[00:09:19] of symptoms yeah but I do remember at least you saying starting that my body healing method
[00:09:25] that it was really the migraines that had kind of taken over yeah like they'd gotten
[00:09:29] progressively worse is that right over time absolutely there'd be ebbs and flows throughout
[00:09:36] my life and now knowing this work and seeing it back with a different perspective I now know that
[00:09:42] those huge flare-ups were often either at the very beginning or the very end of extremely
[00:09:48] transitional periods of my life whether it was starting college graduating high school starting
[00:09:55] a new job it was usually like this high energy I would have of getting through this big transition
[00:10:01] in my life and then I would likely crash and there was microcosms of that too when they were at their
[00:10:08] worst I would say I was having a migraine that would last like four to five days and having
[00:10:14] them three times a week or three times a month well usually so yeah it was a lot of my life
[00:10:22] that I was not feeling well either which was a bummer because it was really during
[00:10:28] huge transitions that I wanted to feel excited for too and how did you handle that same clients
[00:10:36] being a therapist yeah um once I kind of started or my first work with being a therapist it was
[00:10:45] really rough really rough because I felt like I had to do a lot of masking and I think as a beginner
[00:10:53] therapist you're already battling this imposter syndrome of like who am I to be here and being
[00:11:01] such a port for other people and knowing that I was often having to mask pain nausea I did notice
[00:11:09] sometimes those were the days I did my best work because I was so in pain in my physical
[00:11:14] body I wanted to focus on anything else than my own experience so I would listen very well
[00:11:21] those days but then I would crash and I would feel miserable um and it really had a huge impact
[00:11:27] on just my desire to to do the work over time too yeah yeah because it takes a lot
[00:11:34] of energy to mask and to show up and to do your work regardless whatever profession you're in
[00:11:41] right but for you a therapist I mean not only does it take a lot of capacity for us to hold that
[00:11:46] space for other people but then you give yourself migraine symptoms or migraines and anything like
[00:11:53] that that's exhausting that's a lot yeah it it was it was exhausting and embarrassing in some
[00:12:01] ways I remember holding a lot of embarrassment shame because I I think underneath I always did
[00:12:08] think there was a mental health component for me and emotions and kind of this idea of like am I
[00:12:14] really practicing what I'm preaching sometimes because I'm I'm stuffing down a lot of my own
[00:12:19] discomfort and fear and anxiety as well so a big mismatch in that experience initially
[00:12:28] I so resonate with that and I think a lot of therapists helping professionals coaches
[00:12:32] service-oriented people I think will because even if we consciously know we can't be perfect
[00:12:38] you know we can't show up perfectly for everyone that's not humanly possible there's a belief that
[00:12:42] like well I'm helping other people do this why can't I do it for myself or what am I missing or
[00:12:48] I'm not good enough for my own self how can I be good enough for as a therapist I mean there's
[00:12:52] there's a lot of layers there yeah yeah yeah so okay before this what did you how did you
[00:13:01] conceptualize your migraines there how did you understand them or what were you told
[00:13:05] were what the cause did you have a cause or reason yeah what's interesting because I was
[00:13:11] been definitely reflecting on this in the when I would go and get testing or seek out answers
[00:13:17] from like the westernized medical system it was always very underwhelming of what is good on
[00:13:25] it was kind of like this is something genetic this is you're gonna experience this for we don't
[00:13:31] know how long and here are medications so I've tried a lot of different medications and
[00:13:37] at that point thought there was something biologically wrong with me and that there was
[00:13:43] some sort of synapses just not firing right and I have a migraine and I often heard from family
[00:13:49] members too oh yeah my my grandma had those oh this person has a range too so I was like
[00:13:55] okay I guess this is just something I have to accept in it I'll just keep passing it down
[00:13:59] and so western very underwhelming lots of medications that made me not feel
[00:14:05] well either when I would go to a little bit more of like eastern medicine side because
[00:14:11] eventually I was like I want to better understand what is there's gotta be something else going
[00:14:15] on here that would be quite opposite it was an overwhelming experience for me there's lots
[00:14:23] of different thoughts and theories and I could tell that we were we were gonna do mold testing
[00:14:28] and food testing all of these different sensitivities and different systems that were checked and
[00:14:36] initially I was like cool yeah tell me that that seems holistic that's in alignment with
[00:14:41] how I see things and what was sometimes defeating is that for the most part those biomarkers would
[00:14:47] come back normal except I did some sort of test that showed your nervous system is is
[00:14:54] overburdened we we're just getting stress markers that your nervous system is not
[00:14:59] it's under a lot of stress and I did not want that answer I wanted them to tell me it was
[00:15:04] it was mold I wanted them to tell me it was like give me something I because at that point
[00:15:10] around three years ago I was like I I don't know how to work with my nervous system like I
[00:15:16] didn't want that to be the answer it felt really vague of what that would even look like
[00:15:21] I still went through protocols to do kind of the holistic wellness approaches and detoxes
[00:15:27] and I still found that I was having really significant migraines and that's kind of when
[00:15:32] I stumbled upon your work too and was learning more about how can I actually
[00:15:39] work with my nervous system instead of just absorbing a lot of information and understanding
[00:15:45] like what is going on because that was my initial kind of pendulum swing is oh it's my
[00:15:50] nervous system well I'm just gonna figure it out when I figure out what is what is going on and
[00:15:57] what's all the information and I I um I got really lost in it I would fall asleep listening to
[00:16:02] podcasts and just trying to absorb all of this information which completely overwhelmed me
[00:16:10] and then I was like I think I'm avoiding doing it just by like learning and learning and learning
[00:16:18] so it was once I saw your program you were offering a group approach and I was like I think I need
[00:16:23] someone I need to do this in a community where I can also be held accountable and start actually
[00:16:28] experiencing the nervous system work yeah that is so common I hear all the time all the
[00:16:37] consults I'm on pretty much are like okay by the time they get to me they're like well obviously
[00:16:42] I've learned something about the nervous system that's affecting my body right they're not
[00:16:45] coming to me for medication so but I know so much I've read this book I've listened to these
[00:16:52] podcasts I've learned all these things but nothing's changing and I don't know what to do with it
[00:16:56] because it is overwhelming like so so overwhelmingly so like there's so much information out there
[00:17:03] which on one hand is wonderful and on the other it's like okay cool but what what do I do with
[00:17:08] that now so it sounds like you were pretty clear like okay yeah this obviously is ringing
[00:17:14] true it's like hitting a place where I know this is probably where I need to go but I don't know
[00:17:18] what to do with it yeah yeah so then what shifted once you were in the program like how did you
[00:17:28] start to understand what was causing your migraines versus what you had learned before
[00:17:33] yeah yeah um I think a lot of big things shifted for me I learned a lot about just even the characteristics
[00:17:45] that initially helped me get to where I am which was like that that higher sensitivity perfectionism
[00:17:52] people pleasing I also know they were the reasons why I avoided doing the work as well
[00:17:59] I was really afraid I was waiting for I'll start maybe doing something once I have the energy
[00:18:05] or once I feel like I can put all the time into it and that was just kind of keeping me stuck
[00:18:12] and avoiding everything so I think what really helped me with doing the work was when you were
[00:18:19] so supportive with acknowledging those characteristics of the perfectionism too and I remember showing up
[00:18:24] and being like I'm a terrible student right now I didn't follow up on XYZ kind of bracing for impact
[00:18:30] of like no and you just being so like resistance as a part of this process and offering that support
[00:18:38] helping me have different reframes around what even is resistance it's not something to be shameful
[00:18:43] or blame people about and so that was really huge for me too of just feeling safer and
[00:18:49] acknowledging like okay I think a lot of my history of having migraines has been blaming
[00:18:55] blaming myself I need to be doing more if I'm not doing enough it's not me that these things are
[00:19:01] happening and these flare ups and a lot of shame I think the connection to shame was important
[00:19:05] for me to hear and also get support as well in a community and hear other people say yeah
[00:19:11] I'm feeling that way too yeah that if you're listening what what you just said what Kayla
[00:19:20] just said right now about understanding how you're treating yourself blaming yourself
[00:19:24] perfectionism like waiting for something to be okay or have enough space to do it that is
[00:19:31] nervous system work it's so hard to explain sometimes actually it's not that hard we just
[00:19:37] explained it but people often think there's like this secret sauce like steps to doing it
[00:19:45] a lot of it is shifting your belief systems your mindset how you treat yourself that's so
[00:19:49] much of it I mean you just described it so yeah I remember those being really big pieces for you
[00:19:55] in the beginning and after that clicked for you there was a lot of momentum so talk about
[00:20:00] that like what kind of started gaining traction how you started to notice
[00:20:04] your symptoms shifting like what was going on yeah um kind of reflecting back on it it feels
[00:20:13] so long ago it really like too long ago I think it just exploring my life a little bit more in this
[00:20:20] lens of creating more conditions for safety compassion and not that I had to do a lot of
[00:20:29] and I think there's a therapist part of me that's like geez but like emotion regulation isn't getting
[00:20:36] rid of an emotion it's how can I create more space to be with this discomfort um for me
[00:20:43] particularly like anger was a really big one um that I had to learn how can I access that how
[00:20:49] can I be with this emotion it doesn't have to consume me um I think that was really huge so
[00:20:55] just kind of looking at what emotions would be coming up for me and what ways can I kind of
[00:21:02] support myself through them but even with migraines a big shift for me I often used to think
[00:21:10] same thing with migraines I would not be healed it would not be successful they will be gone
[00:21:15] they need to be gone and I had to do a really big shift around that too acknowledging that I
[00:21:21] still will experience some flare-ups here and there it's just my relationship to it has changed
[00:21:29] a lot and I've found ways to kind of make that feel more comfortable for myself as well
[00:21:35] and doing this work now if I wake up with a migraine it's not instant dread it's not me
[00:21:41] like oh gosh I have to cancel everything because I'm not going to show up perfectly
[00:21:45] I kind of do this like silly thing where I tell myself it's like bring your kid to school
[00:21:49] day or like bring your kid to work I'm just gonna I'm gonna bring the migraine to work it's gonna
[00:21:54] it's gonna sit in my chair I'm gonna check in on it it's just it's gonna be there it's a part of
[00:21:59] my experience and it doesn't have to completely derail my day and honestly it only lasts now a
[00:22:06] day if even the migraines go away very very quickly when I don't fight them and I just say
[00:22:11] okay well then you're gonna come with me for the day and we'll hang out together um it
[00:22:17] doesn't have to completely spiral me into fear or anxiety that was a huge shift for me too
[00:22:25] yeah going from four days to one day three or four days in one day that's huge
[00:22:29] and then also I remember too there's one time you shit up and you're like
[00:22:33] haven't had a migraine I can't remember the exact time frame but I think you said like I
[00:22:36] haven't had one like a month mm-hmm that was huge too is that still happening it's still
[00:22:41] happening yeah I will now probably I'll have a migraine maybe once once a month and it's only a day
[00:22:49] only a day and that's been like life changing that's it's been amazing and also I used to
[00:22:55] anticipate migraines either before or right after my menstrual cycle and for the longest time I was
[00:23:01] like yeah that's just gonna be a part of my cycle always and it's not anymore I'm not having them
[00:23:07] and I'm also not having huge mood swings um or irritability or intense cravings um so now I really
[00:23:15] have to trap when is it coming because those warning signs are no longer there either which is I'm
[00:23:21] still kind of um it's mind boggling for sure yeah I want to back up to what you said about emotions
[00:23:28] because I know on one hand that's big for everyone but I remember that point for you where you were
[00:23:34] like I'm really recognizing I didn't fully know how to be with my emotions and maybe I was avoiding
[00:23:40] some of the anger that I've noticed right and we know that anger fear and grief are like the three
[00:23:46] top three big emotions that we never really were learned to be with or understood and also very much
[00:23:52] so contribute to symptoms especially migraines we know anger has a lot to do underlying a
[00:23:58] lot of migraines so um when I've said this probably on this podcast that as a therapist I
[00:24:05] thought I knew a lot about how to work with emotions but I was humbled when I came to this work
[00:24:10] realizing oh I didn't fully understand how to be with it's not about regulating out or
[00:24:18] lessening or decreasing right it's not fighting it or being afraid of that so can you speak a
[00:24:24] little bit to how you understood that for yourself with anger like how did you work with it differently
[00:24:31] yeah um with anger I think I again had to take away and acknowledge the presence of
[00:24:38] of shame fear no towards being angry or having anger I also think it's more acceptable for
[00:24:47] women to be sad than they are to be angry um so I think I witnessed that a lot to just
[00:24:54] through growing up and a lot of fear around anger because it seems like this dominating
[00:25:01] emotion that it's it's only valid if it's huge and big and we're stopping our feet and um
[00:25:09] I've I've learned through this work that I can experiment with different ways of being with
[00:25:13] my anger and some days it's I kind of imagine silly like thought bubbles popping up over my head
[00:25:20] and I'm just like there's no judgment what would I want to say like and just getting it all out a
[00:25:26] little bit of that journal speak but kind of in the moment of like okay that angry part would
[00:25:32] really want to say XYZ um or noticing where it shows up in my body um and just and letting
[00:25:39] myself know it's like it's okay to be angry and I will say that is still something I am working on
[00:25:46] and you'll always be working on of how how can I be with anger because sometimes it is a little bit
[00:25:53] more after the fact it's more of a reflective emotion that comes up for me of whoa I didn't
[00:25:59] realize that I felt angry about that thing and I'm noticing that it's a part of my experience
[00:26:06] as I reflect on it too that's also a huge part of this so much of us don't even
[00:26:13] recognize that we have anger to deal with or work with I don't like that I said deal with but to be
[00:26:18] with right um yeah because it is way more acceptable to be sad or we say frustrated which is a part
[00:26:27] of anger right it's that layer it's something that we say and it is true um but I like that
[00:26:33] you acknowledge that I'm still learning that I even have that anger right and understanding what
[00:26:38] that feels like or how that comes up to actually reorganize in our minds and your nervous system
[00:26:44] that anger is okay so that you can actually even feel it know that it's there so much of the
[00:26:48] time we push it away and we're like we're not angry I mean I said that for the longest time I'm
[00:26:52] not an angry person I don't really have anger but that's not true we all do we're human yeah
[00:26:59] yeah absolutely so yeah and I guess that's where somatic work and I know right now there's lots of
[00:27:06] trends on social media of this anger exercise and do this and and you'll you'll get rid of the anger
[00:27:12] or and I have found that yeah being in my body moving my body has been important for me to move
[00:27:20] through anger but it was also that relationship and how I was relating to it that I think was
[00:27:26] the icing on the cake for me that really helps me better understand um whoa yeah I've been avoiding
[00:27:32] this for a really long time it's been scary to to be with anger um because I also think
[00:27:40] with anger or any strong emotion a big fear is I'm going to act on it if I validate this or I
[00:27:47] know this to be true um this could have to act on it or do something about it and so taking
[00:27:55] off some of that pressure has been helpful just being curious about it where it comes from yeah
[00:28:02] yeah definitely is there anything else around your process um doing this work and being in
[00:28:08] my body healing method that you think is important to know that we haven't
[00:28:17] I I think overall something that often as therapists at least I was taught initially
[00:28:24] and I think I've heard it from a lot of some of my colleagues too and I see it in some of
[00:28:29] the clients I work with is we teach how to kind of distract when it comes to
[00:28:35] emotions and I think that would be the biggest thing is that's really helped me a lot in my
[00:28:40] own work is maybe on a level of nine or ten we we use distraction to just help support
[00:28:47] and break that fear cycle and anxiety cycle but then kind of finding other ways to be
[00:28:52] with the emotion like putting on floaties as you navigate the rough terrain um of sometimes
[00:29:00] our our big emotions too before we completely lean into distraction yeah yeah that actually came
[00:29:06] up recently with someone where they were like well I thought avoidance was wrong so distraction is
[00:29:11] wrong right and I'm like okay so avoidance yes we don't want to avoid all the time because
[00:29:17] then we're just stuffing things down and that's what then builds up to create symptoms
[00:29:21] as you just mentioned sometimes distraction if your emotional state or your pain or your symptom is
[00:29:28] you know above a seven or eight on a scale of one to ten like it's really intense yeah sure distract
[00:29:34] yourself for a little bit help it come down but then we do have to be with the emotion the
[00:29:39] state the symptom that's there and that's I think a really big shift too in understanding
[00:29:46] that we haven't always understood um yeah yeah okay so what about around bringing this work into
[00:29:55] your professional work as a therapist like what has helped what's shifted speak a little bit more
[00:29:59] to that yeah I think even just bringing in permission for chronic conditions pain um like
[00:30:11] I think sometimes people go into the therapy space and they don't think they can talk about
[00:30:19] I don't like IBS or other chronic pain they don't they also are on a journey where they perhaps
[00:30:25] haven't noticed if there's that connection from the physical health to the mental health and
[00:30:30] I think as therapists that's actually a really cool opportunity to invite more of that language
[00:30:35] in two sessions especially when I work with people who initially come in with really identifying
[00:30:41] as highly sensitive they're also highly vigilant of what's going on in their bodies or have perhaps
[00:30:47] learned to avoid high vigilance in their body or a lot of fear and anxiety cycles that happen
[00:30:53] from sensations pain and so I found that this it shows up a lot more than I think
[00:31:00] therapists may realize as well and like just learning how to ask better questions and
[00:31:07] also not avoid it myself as a therapist I um I want to learn more about it I know insurance
[00:31:13] companies don't necessarily care about us tracking physical symptoms but I still think there are
[00:31:19] a huge part of the work that we can do too so even just the education better understanding
[00:31:27] and then in sessions incorporating more experiential practices has been really huge and a game changer
[00:31:33] for the work that I'm doing as well. Yay preach it right like yes we need to combine
[00:31:41] meaning like we need to know that our clients are experiencing it before this I
[00:31:45] why never asked a client if they had any health issues like physical health issues maybe they'd
[00:31:51] mention it in passing every once in a while but no because we think it's separate
[00:31:57] it's not y'all it's definitely not it is not yeah not something just to check off the box um right
[00:32:06] yeah exactly and for reference stay tuned because I'm now bringing out a training for therapists
[00:32:12] yay so we can bring it all together and like just help our clients more help ourselves more
[00:32:18] right I mean so much of this the reason why people get into this line of work
[00:32:22] therapists do is because they have their own stuff that they've worked on just like you
[00:32:25] right just like me but hoping that we can bring it out to more people that it'll
[00:32:29] probably help them even if they don't realize it but also to therapists that may not identify
[00:32:33] with something like that yeah um okay last question for someone who's like in the thick
[00:32:41] of chronic migraines or GI stuff both all the above what would you tell them like what would
[00:32:47] you say what would you wish someone had told you I would say it's common to wait for
[00:32:57] the perfect moment or I'll just let me understand a little bit more or if only I could
[00:33:07] have enough energy to do it um think start now and also I think when I initially started doing
[00:33:16] this work or I was about to do it I had a lot of preconceived ideas of what it was going to
[00:33:22] look like and I thought I spend so much of my day managing my migraines I can only imagine
[00:33:30] it's going to be 75% of my day to fix it and to do nervous system work and that really wasn't the
[00:33:36] case the biggest thing was learning how to do less and that was really huge for me personally
[00:33:44] it's exploring how to do less shifting my relationship to my symptoms emotions beliefs
[00:33:51] that at times were keeping me really stuck as well um and just and doing the experience
[00:33:58] gently and the being a part of a community was really really helpful for me personally
[00:34:05] someone who tends to internalize a lot it was really helpful to have space for people to
[00:34:11] to check in with and not feel so alone either yeah awesome thank you for saying that yeah
[00:34:20] yeah okay thank you so much for coming in and sharing your story I know a little really really
[00:34:26] help people people need to hear that they other people are just like them right or like they
[00:34:32] have similar symptoms and they've worked with it and they've healed and actually what I just
[00:34:36] learned recently was that from someone I talked to she was on the podcast too and she did
[00:34:40] our dissertation on recovery stories and how that actually the more people hear recovery
[00:34:46] stories the more it can change your brain give you that hope they can then help you
[00:34:50] recover too so thank you for sharing yes that was a huge part of what helped me get into this work
[00:34:57] I first listened to your podcast and I would just hear other people doing it and it was
[00:35:03] working for them and that was that was huge and that that is a lot of the brain retraining work so
[00:35:11] thank you for creating the space cool well I appreciate it oh we will link below
[00:35:18] website where people can find you if you are in the area and you need a therapist highly recommend
[00:35:24] Kayla especially if you're doing some of this work or any work to be honest but yeah I can only imagine
[00:35:28] how much you're helping your clients now thank you I appreciate that for sure and I will talk to
[00:35:33] you all next week if this podcast means something to you it would mean so much to me if you
[00:35:38] could do these couple things one go to the heal with grace show page wherever you listen and tap
[00:35:43] the plus sign or click on the follow button so you don't miss an episode it helps both of us out
[00:35:49] while you're there if you could give a five star review so that this podcast can reach more people
[00:35:54] it would mean so much to me so I can continue sharing episodes that help you as well as others
[00:36:00] thanks for listening and I hope this brings you hope on your journey