On the shared neuroplastic mechanism of reinvention and recovery

I found out a while back that a presentation I’d offered to give at the Postpartum Support International Conference, discussing neuroplastic symptoms in pregnancy and postpartum, was rejected. I was more than disappointed. I felt a bit lost for a couple of weeks. It made clear to me, in a very concrete way, that I am in an awkward professional transition.

There’s something truly disconcerting about being in the middle of a big change. It’s the messy, unmoored feeling of being in-between. You’ve let go of what was familiar, and you haven’t yet arrived at a new place that feels grounded.

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On what research and lived experience taught me about love, security, and chronic pain

A colleague of mine has fibromyalgia. About eight years ago, I suggested that she check out the Curable App. I gave her a little bit of information about my own journey with chronic pain, but I didn’t push it too hard. I’ve learned over the years that not everyone wants to hear about my miraculous recovery or how mind-body healing is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

A few years ago, she told me that she finally subscribed to Curable, and that she was experiencing a lot less pain, and wanted to thank me. It’s been nice to have a local colleague who’s also fascinated by how the mind and body work together to create and to heal pain.

Recently, she shared something she’d discovered worked really well when she was in a pain flare: if she lay her head in her husband’s lap and allowed him to stroke her hair and lay her dog across her feet, she felt that the love being received on both ends of her body had the power to melt her pain away.

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The Role of Self-Compassion in Chronic Pain Recovery

As I’m writing this, I’m on vacation in the Dominican Republic with my wonderful husband. It is a hot, hazy, humid day in this tropical paradise, and I’m riddled with terribly itchy sand fly bites from our first night here, and my tummy is also a bit off. Not food poisoning, but tricky enough for me to feel like I don’t want to be too far from a bathroom.

If you’ve never been bitten by sand flies, I have to tell you it’s pretty miserable. On me, they turn into enormous swollen welts that itch worse than any mosquito bite. I’ve been trying to manage how I attend to the sensations, since the bites themselves aren’t dangerous, but I’m having such an intense allergic reaction that it’s set off my asthma, which makes it a lot harder to stay relaxed and curious.

I’ve been struggling this week with taking care of my body’s needs, and feeling some shame about being a stick-in-the-mud. But as I listen to that shame, I noticed something: the voice telling me I should push through and go to the beach anyway didn’t even feel like my inner voice. It felt like an old, inherited one.

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How to Unwire Fear and Pain, For Ourselves and Our Children

There is a year in my life that I reflect on when I consider the many reasons chronic pain can begin. It’s the year I turned 59, two and a half years ago.

My mother died at 59. Suddenly, out of the blue, with no known health issues, she died of her first heart attack. It was awful, grieving the loss of my mother and coming to terms with how unexpectedly I could lose someone who was such a huge part of my life, and who I loved so much. It still hurts my heart to think about her dying alone.

I wasn’t consciously aware that I was afraid of being 59 when I hit that birthday. But clearly, something in my body was keeping track.

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A skin condition, a sister, and forty five years of not connecting the dots

For those of you who have been reading this Substack since the beginning (23 weeks ago!), you know that I come to mind-body work through my own chronic pain and symptoms. I’ve discussed my history of IBS, TMJ pain, chronic wrist tendinitis, interstitial cystitis, chronic dizziness and nausea, plus some anxiety and depression sprinkled in there.

One would think that at this point, having recovered from so many chronic symptoms and now being a therapist who treats them, I’d be aware of all the neuroplastic symptoms that I’ve experienced, but you’d be wrong.

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On titrating political news exposure and the radical act of self-compassion

I have a few clients whose mental health has taken a huge hit since January of 2025. And given what has unfolded since then, that doesn’t surprise me.

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from trying to stay informed, stay engaged, stay functional, and stay human during challenging times. And if you’re someone who lives with chronic pain or persistent symptoms, especially if you’re also parenting, you are spending your limited energy reserves on something enormous before touching on what’s happening in the world.

I want to talk about that.

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