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 Program - start healing 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 Program - start healing 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 Program - start healing 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 Program - start healing 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 Program - start healing 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 Program - start healing 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 Program - start healing NOW
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

In this episode, Grace explores why conditions like long COVID, POTS, chronic fatigue, Lyme disease, and mold illness often persist—not because of the virus or toxin itself, but because the nervous system remains stuck in survival mode. She unpacks the science behind the body's threat response and how symptoms become learned patterns when the brain keeps predicting danger. Grace shares emerging research on POTS reprocessing therapy and the power of emotional coherence, offering a compassionate reframe: your body isn't broken, it's brilliant. This episode invites you to see healing as teaching your nervous system it's safe again.

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Program - start healing 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 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: [email protected]
Health coaching is available nationwide and internationally
Consultation groups for practitioners working with neuroplastic symptoms

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Program - start healing NOW
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website

 Ever wonder if you should rest when fatigue hits—or keep going? Grace tackles one of the most common (and confusing) questions in chronic fatigue recovery: how to know when your body needs rest versus when your nervous system just needs reassurance that you're safe.

What You'll Learn:

The Two Types of Fatigue

• Normal fatigue (proportionate to life stress, activity, or lack of sleep)
• Nervous system fatigue (disproportionate, often paired with brain fog, body aches, or other symptoms—and doesn't improve with more sleep)

Why "Pushing Through" Isn't the Answer

• The difference between bulldozing your symptoms and moving through them with compassion
• How judgment, fear, and self-criticism actually reinforce fatigue by signaling danger to your brain
• Why your approach matters more than whether you rest or move

The Key Question to Ask Yourself Before deciding to rest or continue with your day, pause and check in:

• Can I meet this symptom calmly, without fear or panic?
• Can I reassure myself that this is my nervous system, not something dangerous or broken?
• Am I responding with compassion—or criticism?

If the answer is yes, you can gently move forward. If the answer is no, it might be time to pause, regulate, and build safety first.

What True Rest Actually Looks Like Rest isn't helpful if you're spending it in shame, guilt, or panic. Grace shares how to rest with permission—fully, compassionately, and without the mental spiral.

Trial and Error Is Part of the Process It takes time to learn the difference between types of fatigue. Grace walks you through how to experiment kindly with yourself, adjust as you go, and notice what your body is actually telling you.

Your New Mantra: "Symptoms are evidence of my brain perceiving danger—not proof that I'm broken."

Find the links below to learn more or reach out with questions.

Resources Mentioned:

Why Journaling is Important and How to Use It

Resources from Grace:

• Mind-Body Healing Method Program - start healing NOW
• Work with me in therapy or coaching
• FREE Nervous System Tracking Workbook

Connect with Grace

• Connect on Instagram
• Check out my website