Welcome back, dear listener. In today’s episode, I got to chat with a dear friend and colleague, Phil de la Haye.

Phil is an Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner and mind-body coach based near Bristol in the UK. He has his own history of chronic pain, so he has a personal interest in this work and a great passion for supporting other people who are in recovery from chronic symptoms. 

I personally find the IFS framework to be incredibly helpful with chronic symptom recovery and Phil did an amazing job of explaining that framework in our conversation, so I know you’ll get a lot out of this episode.

Phil and I met about three years ago through some Facebook group I think — probably a group for mind-body practitioners, but I was already familiar with Phil’s story after hearing him interviewed on a podcast called The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs. Anyway, somehow, we connected, and we’ve been meeting on Zoom together about once a month off and on.

In theory we meet to talk about client work and offer each other support with that. But quite often we wind up sharing our own personal experiences, how stress shows up in our bodies as we continue to be human beings, and just to generally connect. And I’m sharing this because developing friendships and connections with other people who “get it” has been such an important and enjoyable part of my own recovery from chronic pain — and my development as a person.

It's a big part of the reason that I created my monthly membership group, the Mind-Body Support Circle. We meet up twice a month on Zoom to talk about chronic symptom recovery, to journal together, and most importantly to share honestly and vulnerably with each other and give and receive support! It’s such a simple, beautiful thing. I remember one group member recently saying, “we are changing the world by doing this together.” And I totally agree with that.

If you would like to join us, you can do so by signing up for my signature journaling course, Writing to Release Chronic Pain. When you sign up, you’ll be invited to two months of complementary membership in the Support Circle so that you can experience it and see if it’s for you. I’d love to get to know you there. To learn more, visit my website, annaholtzman.com/writingtorelease

And now, without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Phil de la Haye.

You can find Phil at:

Website: www.phildelahaye.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/phildelahayeifs/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/phildelahayeifs

FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/901827657282916

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠