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Topic: Guest Conversations

Healing Digestive Issues & Brain Fog with Alex Eckford

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If you're dealing with digestive issues—whether it's IBS, chronic gut problems, or discomfort that's followed you since childhood—or if brain fog has been stealing your clarity and focus, this episode is one you don't want to miss.

Alex Eckford can't remember a time when her body felt "normal." From elementary school stomach aches to debilitating brain fog as an adult, she spent years chasing diagnosis after diagnosis—mold, parasites, histamine intolerance—and watched her list of "safe" foods shrink until eating became its own source of anxiety. Nothing brought lasting relief.

Then she found mind-body work, and everything shifted. Through the Mind-Body Healing Method and private sessions, Alex experienced a true transformation—not just managing her symptoms, but actually healing them.

In this episode, Alex shares her journey from constant symptom-scanning to food freedom, and how understanding her nervous system helped her brain fog finally lift.

✨ Why years of protocols and food elimination didn't bring lasting healing
✨ The moment she realized her symptoms were tied to her nervous system, not infections or toxins
✨ How understanding the "red, yellow, green" zones helped her brain fog disappear
✨ The shift from "what's wrong with me?" to "how can I support my body?"
✨ What true food freedom looks like after years of restriction
✨ Why healing doesn't have to be hard—and how simple, consistent practices created the biggest changes

If you've been wondering whether your symptoms could be neuroplastic, or if this work might be right for you, Alex's words at the end might just be the nudge you need: "If you're wondering if it's for you, it probably is."

🌿 Ready to start your healing journey?

The Mind-Body Healing Method now has NEW updates with more individual support to help you truly heal—not just manage—your symptoms.

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BEST OF 2025: Episode 84. Navigating a Higher Needs Nervous System with Christie Uipi

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It's no surprise this is the most played and most downloaded episode of 2025. In this Best of 2025 replay, Grace sits down with Christie Uipi, LCSW—psychotherapist and co-creator of Pain Reprocessing Therapy—to explore what it really means to have a sensitive or "higher needs" nervous system.

Both Grace and Christie share personal and professional experiences navigating this terrain: the dozens of symptoms, the endless specialists, and the eventual relief of realizing it all stems from one place. They dig into the nuance of what to embrace about your sensitivity versus what might be worth gently challenging—and how to tell the difference between honoring a boundary and letting fear run the show.

This conversation covers the snowball effect of avoidance, why comparing yourself to people who "just hop out of bed" isn't helpful, and why the goal isn't to eliminate sensitivity—it's to access more joy. If you've ever felt like your nervous system asks for more than everyone else's, this one's for you.

In this episode:

  • What it means to have a higher needs nervous system
  • Container vs. limitation: knowing what to accept and what to challenge
  • How avoidance becomes contagious—and how to interrupt it
  • Letting go of exceptionalism and embracing balance
  • Why healing isn't about going back to who you were

Connect with Christie: Website: bettermindcenter.com Instagram: @better.with.christy

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Healing ME/CFS through Mind-Body Tools with Chris Sykes-Popham

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Chris Sykes-Popham went from Royal Marines commando and adventure seeker to completely housebound with ME/CFS. Within weeks of finding the mind-body approach, he saw significant improvement—and within months, he made a full recovery. Now he's the founder of the FreeMe app, designed specifically for people with ME/CFS and long COVID.

In this episode, Grace and Chris explore what actually moves the needle in ME/CFS recovery—including why high-achievers are especially prone to these conditions, how fear and catastrophizing keep symptoms stuck, the power of somatic tracking for fatigue, the difference between helpful and harmful pacing, how food associations can become their own trap, and why joy and meaningful activity are essential tools for nervous system healing.

Both Grace and Chris share their personal recovery journeys and the shifts that got them off the couch and back into life.

Connect with Chris through the Freeme Website
Download the FreeMe app here: 

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Healing the Gut through Mind-Body Work with Claire Bailey

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Grace sits down with somatic psychotherapist Claire Bailey to explore one of the most common—and least talked about—forms of neuroplastic symptoms: gut issues. 

Claire shares her own decade-long journey with debilitating digestive pain, IBS, and chronic abdominal symptoms, and the countless approaches she tried before discovering what was actually missing. 

They discuss why gut symptoms respond so strongly to stress, the difference between being told to "manage your stress" and truly understanding the brain-body connection, and how a single conversation with a physician who validated Claire's intuition became the turning point in her recovery. 

Grace and Claire also unpack why restrictive diets and food fear often reinforce symptoms rather than resolve them, the role medication can play as a support (not a solution) in healing, and what Claire's master's research revealed about the critical importance of neuroplastic education in recovery. 

You'll leave with a deeper understanding of why your gut isn't broken—it's responding to signals from a nervous system that can absolutely be retrained.

Connect with Claire:
Instagram: @bodyfulcounseling
Website: bodyfulcounseling.com 
Email: claire@bodyfulcounseling.com

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Healing Lyme, EOE, and Back Pain through the Mind-Body Healing Method with Kelly Goode

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Grace is joined by Kelly Goode, who shares her journey from barely being able to walk up stairs and living with 30+ food sensitivities to reclaiming her life in just three months through nervous system work.

Kelly opens up about spending tens of thousands on treatments—from specialty clinics to IV therapy to 20 different supplement bottles—yet still declining to the point where she was Googling her life expectancy. What shifted everything wasn't another protocol, but realizing her nervous system dysregulation was driving her immune system failure, chronic fatigue, EOE, and Lyme disease symptoms.

Together they explore how Kelly went from 30 food allergies to just 3, stopped acid burning in her throat with guided meditations, and cleared her brain fog within the first month. Kelly also shares what it meant to finally stop pushing through pain, reclaim her power from practitioners, and learn that "talking nice to yourself" is actually survival medicine.

This episode is a hopeful reminder that when you address the brain and nervous system—not just the body—healing can happen faster than you think. Even when you've been told your condition is chronic or incurable.

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Healing IBS & Hip Pain with Mind-body Work

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If you've tried everything for your chronic symptoms and nothing has worked—physical therapy, doctors, diets, supplements—this conversation might be exactly what you need to hear.

Sean Hershey is a licensed psychotherapist who completely healed his severe, debilitating IBS through mind-body work. In this episode, he shares his journey from chronic suffering to symptom-free living, and gets honest about the ongoing work with his hip pain—including the doubt spirals that still show up even after major healing.

You'll learn:

✨ How Sean went from severe chronic IBS to fully healed

✨ The moment the paradigm shift clicked for him (and why it took hearing it multiple ways)

✨ Why his hip pain became a "symptom imperative" and what that really means

✨ How to work through doubt—even when you've seen this work succeed

✨ Why emotional processing (not just awareness) is key to lasting relief

✨ What it looks like when healing isn't linear—and why that's completely normal

Sean's story is proof that this work works. His IBS is gone. His life is transformed. And he's real about the fact that healing continues, even after breakthrough moments.

Connect with Sean: 🎙️ Podcast: https://mind-body-medicine.captivate.fm/
🌐 Website: https://www.mindbodymedicineforchronicpain.com/
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my_gay_therapist/

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Do We Predict Our Symptoms with Dr. Michael Dow

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Grace is joined by Dr. Michael Dow, a clinical psychologist and lead therapist for Pain Reprocessing Therapy, to explore how our brains can learn to predict symptoms—and why that's actually good news for healing. Michael shares his personal journey from chronic weekly headaches to full recovery, what he learned from running a pain management program where nobody got out of pain, and how everything shifted when he discovered pain reprocessing therapy through the Boulder Back Pain Study. They discuss why symptoms show up at the same time every day, what recovery really looks like, why that last 5-20% of healing feels hardest, and how to address the emotions and life patterns keeping symptoms stuck with fierce compassion.

Takeaways:
– If your brain learned to predict your symptoms, it can unlearn them
– Pain management vs. pain treatment: one keeps you comfortable, one gets you out of pain
– Recovery doesn't mean perfection—it means living without fear of your symptoms
– That last bit of healing often requires facing what you're most afraid of
– Patience and self-compassion aren't optional—they're essential
– If one approach doesn't work, keep trying; there's something that will click

ABOUT DR. MICHAEL DOW:
Dr. Michael Dow has been in practice in Boulder as a psychotherapist for over 20 years. After finishing his MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy at Naropa University, he worked in a variety of settings with different mental and physical health issues. He completed his doctorate in clinical psychology in 2009 at the University of the Rockies with a focus on the development of mindfulness-based psychotherapies. Most recently, he managed a large integrated medical clinic and served as lead therapist and trainer for Pain Reprocessing Therapy—an approach with excellent results for chronic low back pain in a recent randomized controlled trial (Ashar YK, Gordon A, Schubiner H, et al. JAMA Psychiatry). Dr. Dow specializes in mind-body issues, couples psychotherapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, with a focus on how close attention to body, mind, language, and connection leads to healing and aliveness.

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. 

CONNECT WITH DR. MICHAEL DOW:
Website: drmichaeldow.com
Email: michael@mdow.com
Health coaching is available nationwide and internationally
Consultation groups for practitioners working with neuroplastic symptoms

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The Healing Power of Heart Rate Variability with Jessica Corbin

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Ever feel like you're "doing all the right things" but still running on empty?

This conversation with Jessica Corbin lit me up. Jessica is a somatic educator and founder of SORCE, and she brings such a beautiful perspective on what it actually means to understand your energy—not just manage it, but renew it.

We dive deep into heart rate variability (HRV), but this isn't just a technical conversation. It's about reconnecting with your body's wisdom, understanding when you're extracting from yourself faster than you can repair, and learning the language your nervous system has been speaking all along.

If you've ever felt disconnected from yourself, if you've been told to "push through" when your body was asking you to slow down, or if you're curious about what energetic literacy really means—this episode is for you.

In this episode, you'll explore:
✨ What heart rate variability (HRV) actually measures and why it matters for your healing

✨ The five stages of energetic literacy: willingness, awareness, articulation, action, and reflection

✨ Why being disconnected from your body is a form of dysregulation (and how to reconnect)

✨ The four areas of separation creating the human energy crisis—and why reconnection is the solution

✨ How pain can be an intelligent guide rather than something to override

✨ Why left-brain-only living keeps you stuck in patterns of burnout

✨ What it means to build your life regeneratively instead of extracting from yourself

✨ The protective mechanism behind disconnection and how to gently invite your body back

Key Moments:

Jessica's Journey: From elite athlete who learned to "push through pain" to somatic educator helping others reconnect with their body's wisdom

Understanding HRV: It's not just about your heart—it's a window into your entire nervous system and your body's capacity to recover

The Gas Tank Metaphor: How checking in with your HRV is like looking at how much fuel you have before navigating your day

Five Stages of Energy Literacy: The practical framework for moving from disconnection to deep self-awareness

Separation = Dysregulation: How disconnection from self, nature, and our wholeness creates the conditions for burnout and chronic symptoms

Regeneration vs. Optimization: Why we need to shift from muscling through to creating conditions conducive to life

The Body as Intelligence: Your symptoms, sensations, and signals aren't the enemy—they're breadcrumbs leading you home

Resources Mentioned:

Jessica's seasonal cohort for growing your energetic literacy: www.sorce.io/practice

Connect with Jessica on IG

Connect with SORCE on IG

LinkedIn

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The Science Behind Emotions, Pain & the Nervous System with Mark Lumley, PhD

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Clinical psychologist and researcher Mark Lumley joins Grace to unpack why the brain—not just the body—is central to chronic pain. They dig into EAET (Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy), how “doing the uncomfortable thing” can unlock change, why blocked anger and unspoken needs keep symptoms looping, and where journaling and unsent letters actually help. Mark shares vivid stories (including blood-draw fainting and the fight/flight “hack”), how relationships trigger or soothe pain, and when Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a useful starting point. You’ll leave with practical ways to find your voice—privately and in real life—and a clearer map for moving from stuck to relief.

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