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Topic: Chronic Pain & Symptoms

What I’d Focus On If I Were Starting Over Healing Chronic Pain & Illness

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If you have been at this for months. Or years. Doctor after doctor. Protocol after protocol. Nothing fully landing. This is the episode I needed when I was you.

In Ep 127, I am taking you back to the early stages of my own healing. The crying in waiting rooms. The maxed-out credit cards. The functional practitioner who handed me a brain rewiring pamphlet that I dismissed because I was not ready.

There are six things I would do completely differently if I were starting over. These are not protocols. These are the patterns underneath all the protocols. Education first. Stop frantically searching. Build tolerance for discomfort. Chase trust instead of relief. Repair your relationship with your body before it feels better. Stop looking for the perfect approach.

Each of these took me years to learn. Some of them took specific clients of mine in the Mind Body Healing Method to teach me. If I can save you even a fraction of that time, this episode did its job.

If you find yourself constantly switching practitioners every 5 sessions, panic-searching at 2am, or treating your body like the enemy until it "earns" your love -> pin this one. Come back to it the next time you are about to swap programs.

Your body is not broken. You are not broken. You are missing the patterns under the protocols.

How to work with Grace:

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How To Heal Chronic Symptoms: 5 Phases That Actually Work

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If you've been told you need to "regulate your nervous system" and you're still wondering what that actually means, this episode is the one. Today we're walking through how to heal chronic symptoms from the inside out -> the five phases I take every single client through inside the Mind Body Healing Method.

Most of us start this work doing one thing. Maybe a lot of somatic exercises. Maybe a ton of brain training. Maybe just reading book after book about the nervous system. And then we wonder why our symptoms aren't shifting. Here's what I've learned. It's not that any of those tools are wrong. It's that they were never meant to work on their own. Your body can't soften when your brain is still sounding the alarm. And your brain can't update if your body never gets to feel safe. They go together.

I'm walking you through Recognize. Rewire. Regulate. Integrate. Reclaim. Each phase is doing something specific -> changing your relationship to the signal, retraining the thinking brain, expanding what your body can hold, releasing what's been stuck for years, and then building a life you actually want to be in. We talk about why somatic work alone wasn't enough for me, why I waited to add body-based work until after brain training in my program, and why the integration phase is the part most people skip -> the one I think is the secret sauce.

If you've been in this work for a while and you're still stuck, this is the episode that will help you see where the gap actually is.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

– Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) 

– Liana, in-program therapist + coach 

How to work with Grace:

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7 Signs of a Dysregulated Nervous System Most People Miss

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If you have been chasing test after test and the doctors keep telling you everything looks fine -> this is the episode where you find out why. Today Grace walks you through the 7 signs of a dysregulated nervous system that almost nobody connects back to chronic symptoms.

You are not making it up. Your pain is real. Your bloating is real. Your fatigue, your dizziness, your reactions to food and smells and weather -> all real. They are also exactly what nervous system dysregulation symptoms look like when your brain has been stuck in danger mode for a long time.

In this episode Grace breaks down what neuroplastic symptoms actually are, why "normal labs" are usually a green light not a dead end, and the checklist she walks every new client through in their first few weeks of working together. She also talks about why the labels you have been carrying around (IBS, MCAS, chronic fatigue, hypermobility flares, IC, OAB, migraines, fibro) are not life sentences, and what shifts when you stop identifying with the diagnosis and start training your brain.

If you have been doing the supplements and the elimination diets and the protocols and the PT and you still feel stuck -> the missing piece is your brain and your nervous system. Real talk: not everything is neuroplastic. But if even a few of these 7 signs land hard, you are in the right place. And there is a path forward.

Grace is hosting a FREE live masterclass on May 13th to take this one step further. 

SIGN UP HERE

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How Your Personality Traits Keep Your Nervous System Stuck

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If you've ever caught yourself thinking "that's just me -> I'm an anxious person," or "I've always been a perfectionist, it's just how I am" -> this one's for you.

In this episode, I'm walking you through the 6 personality traits that show up over and over again in people with chronic symptoms. Anxiousness. Pressure. Perfectionism. People pleasing. Catastrophizing. Black and white thinking. These aren't who you are. They're learned patterns. Which means they can be unlearned.

I'm digging into how each one keeps your nervous system stuck in threat mode, where it actually came from (hint -> it's almost never random), and the small shifts that start to loosen the grip. I'm also sharing the moment my therapist called me out on my own perfectionism in grad school -> and the light bulb that finally went off for me.

If you've been doing the work, listening to podcasts, reading the books, and you still feel like something keeps pulling you back into the loop -> it's probably one of these. Maybe more than one. The good news is, naming it is half the work. Once you can see the pattern, you can step outside of it.

You don't have to fix your personality. You just have to give your nervous system a different message than the one it's been getting for years.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sign up for my FREE Live Masterclass happening May 15th :
How to know if your symptoms are nervous system driven and what to do next

Pain Reprocessing Therapy 

How to work with Grace:

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The Thing That Was Missing From My Own Healing (And Probably Yours Too)

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In this solo episode, Grace Secker opens up about the one thing she was missing during her own healing journey — and why it kept her stuck in flare cycles for years, even after she understood the work. It wasn't more information, more books, or more podcasts. It was consistent support, accountability, and community.

Grace shares her personal story of recovering from chronic pain in her 20s through what is now called pain reprocessing therapy, only to develop a wave of new symptoms years later — chronic fatigue, gut issues, histamine reactions, migraines — and having to find her way back to mind-body work all over again, this time completely alone.

She explains why understanding alone doesn't change the nervous system — because knowledge lives in the prefrontal cortex while the patterns driving symptoms operate from much older, less rational parts of the brain. Real change comes from practice, repetition, and showing up consistently, especially on the hard days. Grace also explores the science of co-regulation — how our nervous systems are wired to calm and heal in relationship with other safe humans — and why so much healing content is consumed in isolation, which limits how far it can take you.

Grace introduces what she's been building behind the scenes: small, intimate group containers (six people max) designed for people already in the MindBody Healing Method course who want structure, accountability, and a community of people who truly get it. The first group launches in April.

How to work with Grace:

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How to Know If Your Symptoms Are Caused By Your Nervous System

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Are you "doing all the right things" — the medications, the supplements, the diets, the protocols — and still not getting better? What if your symptoms aren't caused by something structurally wrong in your body, but by a nervous system stuck in danger mode?

In this solo episode, Grace walks you through exactly what neuroplastic symptoms are, how they show up in real life, and shares an 8-point checklist so you can start to determine whether your symptoms might be nervous system–based. She covers conditions like chronic pain, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, POTS, IBS, long COVID, chronic dizziness, MCAS, and more — explaining why these very real symptoms can still be rooted in the brain and nervous system.

If your symptoms lack clear physical evidence, move around your body, haven't responded to conventional treatments, or you've got a history of being highly driven, perfectionistic, or hard on yourself — this episode is for you.

In this episode, you'll learn: 

‣ What the nervous system actually is and how it creates real physical symptoms 

‣ What makes neuroplastic symptoms different from structural problems 

‣ The 8-point checklist to determine if your symptoms might be nervous system–based 

‣ Why personality traits like perfectionism and people-pleasing are connected to chronic symptoms 

‣ Why this is actually good news — and what you can do about it

If your symptoms are neuroplastic, recovery is 100% possible. Grace has seen it in her own life and in the lives of countless clients. Your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do — it just needs the right tools to learn that it's safe again.

Resource mentioned:

Episode 40: "When they can't find anything wrong!" with Dr. David Clarke

How to work with Grace:

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When Your Symptoms are Still Running the Show

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You've been doing the work—learning about mind-body healing, practicing the tools, maybe even seeing progress. So why do your symptoms still feel like they're quietly calling the shots?

In this solo episode, Grace digs into one of the most common (and most frustrating) phases of healing: when symptoms linger in the background, still influencing your decisions, still getting checked on, still shaping your days—even when the fear isn't as loud as it used to be.

She explores why the nervous system holds onto symptoms long after you've started healing, how vigilance disguises itself as responsibility, and the role that identity and secondary gains play in keeping you stuck. Grace also shares from her own healing journey—including the moment a mentor called her out on a pattern she couldn't see herself—and walks through what it actually looks like to loosen your symptoms' grip without dismissing your experience.

In this episode, Grace covers:

✨ The different phases of the mind-body healing journey—and where you might be getting stuck
✨ How symptom monitoring quietly becomes a full-time job your nervous system won't quit
✨ Why your symptoms may have become part of your identity (and what to do about it)
✨ Secondary gains: what your symptoms might be doing <i>for</i> you on a subconscious level
✨ How to replace what symptoms provide—rest, permission, predictability—with something more authentic
✨ Practical ways to start loosening the pattern and orienting toward safety and connection

Whether you're in a flare, stuck in a cycle of subtle symptom-checking, or wondering why healing feels like it's stalled—this episode is one to save, revisit, and let sink in.

How to work with Grace:

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How I Quietly Dysregulated My Own Nervous System

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In this episode, Grace gets honest about something she's been quietly navigating—how being online as a business owner and content creator has kept her nervous system in subtle but constant activation. Not major symptoms, just a low hum of hypervigilance she couldn't ignore anymore.

She shares what she noticed in her own body, why the habit of reaching for your phone might be keeping your system from settling, and how to start pausing before the scroll. Grace also talks about the difference between consuming content and letting content consume you—and why she's started writing on Substack as a slower, deeper space for this work.

This isn't about demonizing social media. It's about getting curious about the ways our modern world keeps us in low-grade activation, and what we can do about it.

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Best Tools You Need To Heal in 2026

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What actually helped people heal in 2025—and how can you carry that momentum into the new year? 

In this episode, Grace reflects on the biggest shifts she's witnessed in her clients and community: from learning to see symptoms as messengers rather than enemies, to understanding what recovery really looks like (hint: it's not perfection).

Grace breaks down the three pillars that made the biggest difference—curiosity, safety, and releasing fear—and explores why self-compassion isn't optional if you want to heal. She also shares what 2026 can look like when you stop fixing your body and start listening to it.

In this episode:
✨ Why shifting symptoms are actually a hopeful sign
✨ What recovery really looks like (and why it's not about being symptom-free forever)
✨ The role of self-compassion, boundaries, and radical honesty in nervous system healing
✨ How to make 2026 the year your body finally feels like home

Grace also shares how you can go deeper with the Mind-Body Healing Method (self-paced) or one-to-one support.

How to work with Grace:

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