Thank you for joining me today to listen to this episode of From Chronic Pain to Passion. It’s hard to believe it’s already been 4 months since I first launched the podcast. And I wanna ask if you’d be up for helping me spread the word so that more listeners can find the podcast. So, I thought I would do a little fun giveaway. Last month I held a workshop called Soothe Your Symptoms and Unlock Your Creativity. If you would like a free recording of that workshop, I invite you to do any one of these three things:

My email is [email protected]

And in return, I will send you a recording of the Soothe Your Symptoms, Unlock Your Creativity workshop — and I’ll write you a little note of appreciation. So thank you in advance!

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And now for today’s episode! I so enjoyed this conversation with Renee Snijder. Renee is a certified ADHD coach who works from the perspective that nobody is broken; that ADHD is a set of symptoms, not a disorder; and that by working on nervous system regulation and self-compassion through a mind-body approach, it is possible to reduce the intensity of these symptoms while connecting with your authentic self.

You might wonder why we’re talking about ADHD on a podcast that’s called from Chronic Pain to Passion. And the reason I reached out to Renee is that I saw her talking about her approach on Instagram, and I thought, wow, we are talking about many of the same things. We’re talking about the effects of stress on the nervous system. We’re using our own lived experience to inform the way we support our clients. And I just love the clear and compassionate way Renee talks about her work! On top of all that, I find that a lot of the folks who come to work with me on chronic pain recovery also report that they experience ADHD symptoms. So, I’m really glad that I get to share our conversation with you.

You can find Renne at:

IG (in English): ⁠@rebirth_adhd⁠

website (in Dutch): www.stormvogelcoaching.nl

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠@anna_holtzman⁠

Website: ⁠www.annaholtzman.com

Before we get into the episode, I wanted to let you know about an interview I did on the Optimize Yourself podcast, hosted by my friend Zack Arnold.  He’s actually doing a three part series on chronic pain specifically related to how it affects creative professionals — so I highly recommend that you check it out!  

The series will consist of three experts talking about chronic pain from different perspectives. Zack interviewed a bodyworker and Somatic Movement Instructor (Julie Fahrbach) who explains how to release emotions from the body and get your system out of fight or flight. He also spoke with a medical doctor and mindfulness meditation teacher (Christiane Wolf) who uses mindfulness-based practices to change our relationship to pain.

And in my interview with Zack, you’ll hear an extended conversation about my personal journey with chronic pain from my days as a reality tv editor to how I ended up where I am today as a chronic pain therapist.  You’ll hear parts of my story that you probably haven’t heard before and you’ll hear me coach Zack through some of his own pain story while also learning some of the tools and techniques that I use to unwind tension in stress from my body.

My episode of the Optimize Yourself podcast aired on Tuesday July 11 and you can find it by going to optimizeyourself.me/podcast or searching Optimize Yourself on your podcast app of choice!

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And now for today’s episode! A short while back, I received a message from someone whose work I was familiar with, but we’d never spoken before. And she shared a story with me that I thought was just perfect for this podcast. It’s a story about her journey from chronic pain to passion. And that person is Fleur Chambers.

Fleur is a multi-award-winning meditation teacher, Creator of The Happy Habit app, author of the book Ten Pathways and her second book Wholehearted Confidence and she’s also a philanthropist.  Using her experience of living with chronic pain, Fleur is helping others to see that happiness isn’t an imaginary place free of disappointment, regret, insecurity or any other uncomfortable emotion. In contrast, real happiness is the ability to live wholeheartedly alongside our challenges and to learn from them.

With proceeds from The Happy Habit funding charitable grassroots projects around the world, Fleur is using meditation as a tool for social change. She believes that we meditate not only to alleviate our own suffering, but also to improve the lives of others.

The personal story that Fleur shared with me is all about the fears that come up and create symptoms just as we’re about to share our creative gifts with the world. And I hope that hearing her talk about how she navigates those experiences will inspire you with the courage to share your creative gifts as well.

You can find Fleur at:

website: www.thehappyhabit.com.au

IG: @thehappyhabitwithfleurchambers

Book: The Ten Pathways

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠@anna_holtzman⁠

Website: ⁠www.annaholtzman.com

Before we start today’s episode, I wanna ask a quick favor! If you’ve been listening to the podcast and finding it helpful, would you be willing to hit pause for a moment and give the podcast a quick rating and review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening on? It would mean so much to me, because your ratings and reviews help other people who are struggling with chronic symptoms to find the podcast. So, thank you in advance for the rating and review!

And now for today’s episode! I was delighted to have a chat with Gauri Yardi, someone I’ve been following through social media for a while now.

Gauri is a writer and multi-passionate creative, a naturopath and a creative wellbeing coach. Her mission is to help tired and burned out creatives regain the energy they need for their creative dreams using holistic nervous system care.⁠

⁠

Gauri's approach to burnout involves a model she calls "the four pillars of nervous system care" and it's a beautiful complement to the kinds of tools that I teach for chronic pain recovery — after all, as Gauri and I discussed during the interview, chronic pain and creative burnout are both symptoms of nervous system stress!⁠

Gauri's way of describing her work is so clear, simple and grounding that you might just consider listening to this interview as a part of your nervous system care.

You can find Gauri at:

Website: ⁠www.gauriyardi.com

Instagram: @gauri.yardi

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠@anna_holtzman⁠

Website: ⁠www.annaholtzman.com

Before we start today’s episode, I wanna ask a quick favor! If you’ve been listening to the podcast and finding it helpful, would you be willing to hit

And now, I’m excited to share today’s episode with you! I sat down to have a chat with someone I admire very much, Dr. Alicia Batson.

Dr. Batson is a double-boarded physician with training in both internal medicine and psychiatry. She has worked in varied medical settings including adult

After her medical training, Dr. Batson suffered through 10 years of debilitating chronic pain with over 20 different symptoms including repetitive strain injury, jaw pain, hyperacusis, neck, back and knee pain, anxiety and panic attacks.

She was able to fully recover after receiving mind-body therapy which conceptualized her symptoms as being caused by internal emotional stress and chronic activation of fear-based neural circuits. Since recovering, she is now treating patients with chronic pain and other neural circuit conditions.

She is the Chief Psychiatry Officer and Co-founder of OvidDx, an app-based educational platform teaching health care providers how to diagnosis and treat these conditions and developing office and home-based tools to facilitate care delivery for this patient population.

Dr. Batson also serves on the scientific advisory team for Curable, which is an online program and app designed to help people with persistent pain reduce their symptoms and calm their nervous system. I am fortunate to serve as one of the facilitators for Curable Groups, which is their live online group program, and in that role, I get to hear Dr. Batson answer group members’ questions during a live Q + A physician session that’s part of the program. I learn something new every time and I so appreciate Dr. Batson’s openness about her own recovery story and her emphasis on self-compassion and standing up for ourselves. I was honored to interview her, and I’m thrilled to share our conversation with you!

You can find Dr. Alicia Batson at:

Website: ⁠https://aliciabatsonmd.com/

Talkiatry: www.talkiatry.com/team-members/alicia-batson-md

OvidDx: https://oviddx.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠@anna_holtzman⁠

Website: ⁠www.annaholtzman.com

If are someone who’s creative or passionate about your career, have you ever had an experience where, right as you were about to make a big career move or achieve some symbol of success, you were hit by a wave of symptoms like chronic pain or fatigue or burnout? If so, you’re not alone — and today we’re gonna explore why that is and how to navigate this with my guest Zack Arnold.

Zack is an award-winning Hollywood editor & producer whose credits include Cobra Kai, Empire, Burn Notice, and Glee.  He’s also a career coach, a two-time American Ninja Warrior, and the creator of the Optimize Yourself program & podcast.

Zack strongly believes that it’s possible for all creative professionals to love what they do for a living...but not at the expense of their health, their relationships, or

In a nutshell, Zack is Tim Ferriss meets Ted Lasso...minus the mustache.

Zack has spoken across the country at numerous events and conventions about optimizing creativity and work-life balance as well as the craft of editing. His work has been featured in publications such as National Public Radio, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Variety, The Telegraph, and I Will Teach You to Be Rich as well as numerous podcasts.

I became a fan of Zack’s way before I became a therapist, back when I was a video editor working in reality TV and a friend turned me onto his first podcast, Fitness in Post, which was about a topic that nobody else was really talking about then — a radical idea of maintaining your wellbeing while working in the brutal field of film and TV post-production.

I’m delighted to share our conversation about mind-body burnout and career rebirth.

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You can find Zack at:

website: https://optimizeyourself.me/

podcast: Optimize Yourself

Zack mentioned two of his blog posts in this episode:

7 Red Flags That You Might Be Burned Out (or You’re Headed

https://optimizeyourself.me/7-red-flags-that-you-might-be-burned-out/

So You’re Burned Out... Now What? [7 Ways to Climb Out of

https://optimizeyourself.me/burned-out-7-ways-to-climb-out/

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And you can find me at:

Instagram: @anna_holtzman

Website: www.annaholtzman.com

Before we start today’s episode, I'd like to tell you about the Chronic Pain to Passion Mentorship. This is a one-on-one coaching program where you’ll get my individualized support with chronic symptom recovery so that you can get back into your creative work or passion project. As someone who’s been through it myself, I have found that creative recovery and symptom recover actually go hand-in-hand. And I would love to support you with that.
To learn more, you can visit my website at www.annaholtzman.com/mentorship

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In today’s episode, I sat down to chat with Liliana Doyon. Liliana is a Mexican-American, trauma-informed couples therapist who is Certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy.  She also holds an executive position for the New York Center of Emotionally Focused Therapy. She has spent most of her life learning about relational dynamics and how humans work through and with emotion, and she says that understanding emotions such as anger is crucial in unpacking and healing intergenerational trauma and upholding boundaries. Liliana uses examples in her own life to help normalize human experiences and to empower others to do the same. 

I first connected with Liliana through mutual therapy clients of ours, and as I began following the videos that she shares online, I was really struck by the way she talks about boundaries. Boundaries are a critical skill to develop as part of chronic symptom recovery, and we’ll get into why that is in this episode. What I didn’t

You can find Liliana at:

Website: ⁠https://www.lilianadoyon.com/⁠

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilianadoyon/

In this episode, Liliana references taking inspiration from work being done by BIPOC therapists for the BIPOC community. These include:

Natalie Y. Gutierrez, LMFT @nataliegutierrezImft

Dr. Jennifer Mullan

@decolonizingtherapy

Monica Gavilanes, LMSW @rootsandalchemy

•••

And you can find me at:

Instagram: @anna_holtzman

Website: www.annaholtzman.com

Before we start today’s episode, I'd like to tell you about the Chronic Pain to Passion Mentorship.

 •••

And now, I’m excited to share today’s episode with you! I sat down to have a chat with Dr. Avi Sanders. Avi is a licensed clinical psychologist based in NY and NJ but he also works virtually with clients all over the US. One of his specialties is helping clients who struggle with anxiety. His approach is eclectic as he tries to tailor a unique treatment to meet each client’s individual needs and preferences. I really appreciate Avi’s warmth and down-to-earth approach. And that he shares his own struggles with anxiety as a learning tool for clients. We’re all in this human experience together, after all. And as Avi says, if you’re alive, you’re gonna experience anxiety at some point. So, I think it’s safe to say that there’s something for everyone in this conversation.

You can find Avi at:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dr.avi.anxiety.recovery/

Website: https://dravisanders.com

And you can find me at:

Instagram: @anna_holtzman

Website: www.annaholtzman.com

Before we start today’s episode, I wanna tell you about a FREE workshop that I’m hosting on Wednesday June 7 at 1pm Eastern Time!

And now for today’s episode. I sat down to chat with Rachel Gofman, whom I’ve been fan-girling on Instagram for quite some time.

Rachel is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and a Certified Integrative Life Coach. Her mission is to help women liberate themselves from a life consumed by chronic pelvic pain, and to help them create lives of great purpose, connection, and intention, as they heal through a mind-body approach.

Rachel came into this work through her own journey of recovering from chronic pelvic pain, and one of the many reasons that I’m a fan of Rachel’s is that she is speaking openly, relatably and compassionately about a topic that most of us were raised to be silent about. I personally find Rachel’s perspective on mind-body healing to be so empowering, and I’m honored to be sharing our conversation here with you.

You can find Rachel at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepelvicpaincoach/

Website: https://www.thepelvicpaincoach.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: @anna_holtzman

Website: www.annaholtzman.com

Before we start today’s episode, I wanna tell you about a FREE workshop that

And you know what? before you listen to this episode, I invite you to hit pause, check out the workshop page and sign up! I would be so thrilled to see you there!

•••

In today’s episode, I sat down to chat with my friend and colleague Dr. Andrea Moore. Andrea is a mom, wife and recovering health perfectionist. Her career path has been based on trying to fix everything wrong with her: from chronic pain & post-concussive syndrome to anxiety & ADHD.

While she refused to accept this as her norm, trying to implement what she thought was necessary to alleviate her symptoms felt exhausting, restricting & impossible.

Along her 15+ year journey, she became a Doctor of Physical Therapy, an Orthopedic Certified Specialist, Functional Nutritional Therapist, Life Coach and patriarchy & perfectionism smasher!

Through years of education, self healing & working with 100s of people, she learned that it is always about coming back to yourself in order to live the life of your dreams. So, she now guides others who are suffering from chronic pain back to their bodies & living in a way that is aligned with the truest version of themselves.

You can find Andrea at:

Instagram: @drandreamoore

Website: www.drandreamoore.com

Podcast: Unweaving Chronic Pain

And you can find me at:

Instagram: @anna_holtzman

Website: www.annaholtzman.com

In this episode, I spoke with my dear friend and colleague Aoife. Aoife is a transformational health coach for highly sensitive women. She helps her clients recover from anxiety, depression, chronic pain and chronic illness. And it all started with her own recovery journey. Through mind-body education and techniques, Aoife recovered from a wide range of symptoms including IBS, fibromyalgia, food sensitivities, mood dis-regulation, bladder pain syndrome, skin conditions, re-occurring kidney and chest infections, fatigue, carpal tunnel syndrome, sleep issues and more... Today, she's thrilled that she can no longer remember all of the various symptoms she experienced, thanks to her recovery!

You can find Aoife at:

aoifemindbody.com

www.facebook.com/groups/getpainfreeforwomen

www.instagram.com/aoifemindbody

And you can find me at:

www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman

www.annaholtzman.com

And learn about working with me one-on-one at: www.annaholtzman.com/mentorship