I am a qualified physiotherapist who has developed a special interest in chronic pain through my career. I have completed many courses related to pain, including pain neuroscience education, using lifestyle modifications to address chronic pain, mindfulness, behaviour change, and human systems approaches to treating chronic pain, as well as coaching courses to help patients address change.
In 2019 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis - a lifechanging moment for me. I was forced to stop rushing and to reassess what I valued most in my life. I realised that I had been running on empty for many years - busy with my family, my career and my many interests. I had thought it normal to be constantly exhausted and in pain. At one point, I felt so unwell that I could barely drag myself off the couch to fetch my children from school, never mind work at a very physically and emotionally demanding job.
I was fortunate to be referred not only to an excellent rheumatologist, but to a phenomenal integrative medicine GP who convinced me that there was an alternative approach to autoimmune disease other than just medication.
I needed to address all the factors in my life that had built up over the years : stress, unhealthy eating habits, irregular sleep patterns, uncontrolled anxiety, putting everyone else's needs before my own, to name but a few. It wasn't easy, but it is hard to describe how different I started to feel. The most marked change initially was the lifting of a brain fog that I hadn't even realised was there - suddenly my memory was back! It had been a fog of inflammation blurring every thought process.
I regained almost all joint range and slowly strength, flexibility and endurance returned and my pain levels decreased.
I am a work-in-progress. I have to continue to monitor my lifestyle issues in order to feel and function at my best, but it is so much easier than it was.
As I noticed such a change in myself, I started advocating for more lifestyle change as part of pain management with my chronic pain patients. As a physiotherapist, I had more time with my patients than other health care professionals they were seeing, so we could address many factors, and incorporate explaining pain neuroscience, mindfulness, dietary changes and stress management in their overall treatment. The results were undeniable.
During lockdown 2020, I stopped working hands-on at the practice, and spent my extra time completing many more courses related to chronic pain management and coaching. There is undoubtedly a lack of support structures for people with chronic pain diagnoses.
I see virtual coaching as an exciting opportunity to reach and support people in chronic pain who may have nowhere else to turn for help.
