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.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

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.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

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

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

Welcome to our end-of-year tradition! This week, we're re-airing one of the top two episodes of 2025—and it's no surprise this one resonated so deeply.

Catastrophizing is one of the most common mental habits keeping people stuck in chronic symptoms, fear, and anxiety. It's that moment when your brain jumps straight to the worst-case scenario: "I'm never going to heal." "This always happens." "What if it never goes away?"

In this solo episode, Grace walks through exactly what's happening when you spiral, why your nervous system hits the panic button, and how to catch yourself in real time. She shares from her own journey with fatigue and chronic symptoms, and offers practical tools to help you turn toward yourself with presence and compassion instead of fear.

Grace covers what catastrophizing actually is and why your brain does it, the 90-second rule for emotions, how to name it and ride the wave, calming reframes to use during a flare, and why even a one-second pause is powerful.

Save this one and come back to it—it's an all-time favorite for a reason.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

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: https://freemehealth.com/getapp?source=hwg

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

The holidays can feel like the Olympics for your nervous system—and if your symptoms tend to spike around family, you're not alone.

In this episode, Grace explores why your body might still brace for impact around family, even if you've done years of healing work and your relationships aren't "that bad." She explains how your nervous system reacts to old emotional patterns rather than your current reality, and why roles like the peacekeeper, the easy one, or the one who's "too sensitive" can get reactivated during this time.

Grace breaks down the seven F's that fuel symptom flares—Fight, Frustration, Fear, Focus, Fix, Figure it out, and Forlorn—and shares two grounding questions to ask yourself when you're in a high-pain moment. She also offers a reminder: your symptoms aren't a sign you've gone backward. They're just an outdated security system that can be updated.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

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: [email protected]

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

Grace celebrates 100 episodes by revisiting the most powerful healing lessons from the past two years—the ones listeners say changed everything. She unpacks why healing is never linear (and why your brain needs to hear that on repeat), how recovery stories actually rewire your nervous system toward safety, why food fear keeps symptoms stuck, and how to retrain your brain around eating, and what listener messages reveal about migraine relief, being able to eat again, and preventing caregiver burnout. 

Grace also shares her own journey with the podcast—the mumbling, the doubts, and why repetition is the key to building new neural pathways. You'll leave with a clearer understanding of what this work is really about: reminding your body it's not broken, it's not failing, and that healing is absolutely possible when you have the right tools and support.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

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.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

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/

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website