Lived Health Conversations

Lived Health Conversations

by Emma Toms & Jen Wilson

Self-Improvement Alternative Health

Season 1

Hanna Somatics: Why You Can't Change What You Can't Feel, with Bronwyn Armstrong

In this episode, hosts Emma Toms and Jen Wilson talk to Bronwyn, a Hanna Somatics practitioner based in the Scottish Borders, about years of chronic pain that no structural diagnosis could fully explain, and what changed when she stopped focusing on structure and started paying attention to function. Bronwyn was told she had a functional leg length discrepancy and mild scoliosis, and was advised to give up running. Physio, Pilates and stretching all helped a little, but the pain kept coming back, until she found somatics. We get into Hanna Somatics properly: sensory motor amnesia, the three subconscious reflexes we all carry, and pandiculation, the slow, deliberate process that helps you reconnect with muscles you've lost conscious control of. In this episode: Why structural diagnoses don't always explain chronic pain What sensory motor amnesia is and why it matters The three subconscious stress reflexes: red light, green light and trauma What pandiculation is and how it resets muscle tone Why strength training on already tight muscles can make things worse How posture and tight clothing are affecting breathing in children and teenagers Find Bronwyn's studio, classes and online sessions in the show notes. Bronwyn Armstrong Kelso, Scotland, UK +44 07792676779 https://www.bronwynsclinicalsomatics.com Got a story of your own to share? Drop us an email at livedhealthconversations@gmail.com Join us on Substack to continue these conversations: https://substack.com/@livedhealthconversations Follow Jen www.iamjenwilson.com www.instagram.com/iam.jenwilson Follow Emma www.emmatoms.com www.instagram.com/emmatoms_wellnesscoach Emma Toms Integrated Wellness Coach | IEMT Practitioner | Reiki Master Teacher | Certified SSP Provider After illness hit in her late teens, Emma began a lifelong exploration of healing that took her from NHS clinical work to integrative wellness coaching. She supports people to build balance, resilience and reconnection with their true nature. "My belief is we all have the capacity to become well and return to balance, but we get stuck in cycles of stress and disconnection. Guiding my clients to access their strength and resilience is my passion and my purpose." Jen Wilson Founder of The Healing Rebel | Health & Exercise Scientist | Reiki Master | Author & Podcast Host Jen has supported women with chronic illness to reclaim their wellness since 2009. Blending evidence-based practice with holistic healing, she helps people reconnect to the body's innate intelligence. Living with eczema, Crohn's disease and endometriosis has deepened her understanding of what true rest and recovery mean. "Learning to listen to my body and respond to its needs has been my greatest challenge, and my greatest teacher."

Working at the Roots, Not the Branches: Hollyanna on Nervous System Dysregulation

Hollyanna on nervous system dysregulation, severe fibromyalgia, PTSD, and leaving a toxic environment behind. Episode Description In this episode, hosts Emma Toms and Jen Wilson talk to Hollyanna, a nervous system practitioner who works with clients living with chronic pain, complex illness and cancer. Hollyanna describes most symptoms as branches on a tree, all growing from the same roots. She works at the level of nervous system dysregulation, which she believes sits underneath a huge range of chronic conditions. She shares her own story of severe fibromyalgia and PTSD, growing up in a cult, and a difficult marriage that followed. Leaving that environment made more difference to her recovery than any single intervention. We talk about resource management, pacing, radical responsibility, and why her advice by the end of the conversation is refreshingly simple: eat food, hydrate, rest, move. In this episode: Why Hollyanna works at the roots instead of the branches of chronic illness Her own recovery from severe fibromyalgia and PTSD Leaving a toxic environment, and why it mattered more than any individual tool How resource management explains why doing more can make things worse Pacing and stabilising, and why it beats taking on everything at once Radical responsibility, resilience, and where safety culture can go wrong Find Hollyanna and her work www.hollyannavellichor.com Got a story of your own to share? Drop us an email at livedhealthconversations@gmail.com Join us on Substack to continue these conversations: https://substack.com/@livedhealthconversations Follow Jen www.iamjenwilson.com www.instagram.com/iam.jenwilson Follow Emma www.emmatoms.com www.instagram.com/emmatoms_wellnesscoach Emma Toms Integrated Wellness Coach | IEMT Practitioner | Reiki Master Teacher | Certified SSP Provider After illness hit in her late teens, Emma began a lifelong exploration of healing that took her from NHS clinical work to integrative wellness coaching. She supports people to build balance, resilience and reconnection with their true nature. "My belief is we all have the capacity to become well and return to balance, but we get stuck in cycles of stress and disconnection. Guiding my clients to access their strength and resilience is my passion and my purpose." Jen Wilson Founder of The Healing Rebel | Health & Exercise Scientist | Reiki Master | Author & Podcast Host Jen has supported women with chronic illness to reclaim their wellness since 2009. Blending evidence-based practice with holistic healing, she helps people reconnect to the body's innate intelligence. Living with eczema, Crohn's disease and endometriosis has deepened her understanding of what true rest and recovery mean. "Learning to listen to my body and respond to its needs has been my greatest challenge, and my greatest teacher."

Told He'd Be in a Wheelchair by 2012: Chris Freer on Rewriting His MS Prognosis

Chris Freer on MS, a mental health crisis, and rebuilding movement he was told wouldn't return. Episode Description In this episode, hosts Emma Toms and Jen Wilson talk to Chris Freer, a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002 and told by his neurologist in 2008 that he'd likely be in a wheelchair by 2012. Chris talks honestly about the years that followed, including the breakdown of his first marriage and a serious mental health crisis in 2007. This episode includes an honest discussion of suicide and mental health crisis. If you need support, Samaritans are free to call anytime on 116 123. From there, Chris rebuilt his life around mindset work, diet change, and daily meditation and visualisation, and started to regain movement he'd been told wouldn't come back. In this episode: Being diagnosed with MS and later told he'd likely need a wheelchair within four years The mental health crisis that followed, and the moment that changed everything Using meditation, visualisation and diet change to rebuild movement he'd been told wouldn't return Reframing the belief that doctors always know best Why stress and unresolved trauma play such a large part in chronic illness Find Chris at www.chrisfreer.co.uk, https://www.instagram.com/chrisfreercoach?igsh=M3d5bDBscGpiM2dn https://www.linkedin.com/in/freerthinking?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android or search #BVOMT. Got a story of your own to share? Drop us an email at livedhealthconversations@gmail.com Join us on Substack to continue these conversations: https://substack.com/@livedhealthconversations Follow Jen www.iamjenwilson.com www.instagram.com/iam.jenwilson Follow Emma www.emmatoms.com www.instagram.com/emmatoms_wellnesscoach Emma Toms Integrated Wellness Coach | IEMT Practitioner | Reiki Master Teacher | Certified SSP Provider After illness hit in her late teens, Emma began a lifelong exploration of healing that took her from NHS clinical work to integrative wellness coaching. She supports people to build balance, resilience and reconnection with their true nature. "My belief is we all have the capacity to become well and return to balance, but we get stuck in cycles of stress and disconnection. Guiding my clients to access their strength and resilience is my passion and my purpose." Jen Wilson Founder of The Healing Rebel | Health & Exercise Scientist | Reiki Master | Author & Podcast Host Jen has supported women with chronic illness to reclaim their wellness since 2009. Blending evidence-based practice with holistic healing, she helps people reconnect to the body's innate intelligence. Living with eczema, Crohn's disease and endometriosis has deepened her understanding of what true rest and recovery mean. "Learning to listen to my body and respond to its needs has been my greatest challenge, and my greatest teacher."

Our Story: Why We're Starting Lived Health Conversations

In this first conversation, hosts Emma Toms and Jen Wilson share how they met through the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine's Voices of Lived Experience group and why they decided to start a podcast built on lived experience and lifestyle medicine. They talk about radical responsibility after a diagnosis, why hope changes outcomes, and a story about presenting lived experience to a room full of clinicians at an NHS conference. They also share what listeners and future guests can expect from Lived Health Conversations, including how to get involved if you have a story to share. New episodes coming soon

Accept the Diagnosis, Not the Prognosis: Our Chronic Illness Stories

Emma and Jen share their own chronic illness stories in full for the first time. In this first full episode, hosts Emma Toms and Jen Wilson share their own chronic illness stories in full: the diagnoses, the years of getting it wrong before getting it right, and what actually helped them heal. Between them they've navigated autoimmune eye disease, Graves' disease, Crohn's disease, endometriosis, disordered eating and addiction, and years of not feeling at home in their own bodies. This episode is the origin story behind Lived Health Conversations: radical responsibility, nervous system regulation, and the belief that a diagnosis is the start of your story, not the end of it. Inspired by David Hamilton's idea to accept the diagnosis, not the prognosis, Emma and Jen talk honestly about perfectionism, control, addiction, grief, and the slow work of learning to trust your own body again. In this episode: What it's really like to get a chronic autoimmune diagnosis young Why so many people are shown the worst case scenario and never shown a way through How disordered eating and over-exercising can quietly become coping strategies What radical responsibility actually means Why nervous system regulation is often the missing piece How to tell if the people around you are helping or hindering your healing Got a story of your own to share? Drop us an email at livedhealthconversations@gmail.com Join us on Substack to continue these conversations: https://substack.com/@livedhealthconversations Follow Jen www.iamjenwilson.com www.instagram.com/iam.jenwilson Follow Emma www.emmatoms.com www.instagram.com/emmatoms_wellnesscoach Emma Toms Integrated Wellness Coach | IEMT Practitioner | Reiki Master Teacher | Certified SSP Provider After illness hit in her late teens, Emma began a lifelong exploration of healing that took her from NHS clinical work to integrative wellness coaching. She supports people to build balance, resilience and reconnection with their true nature. "My belief is we all have the capacity to become well and return to balance, but we get stuck in cycles of stress and disconnection. Guiding my clients to access their strength and resilience is my passion and my purpose." Jen Wilson Founder of The Healing Rebel | Health & Exercise Scientist | Reiki Master | Author & Podcast Host Jen has supported women with chronic illness to reclaim their wellness since 2009. Blending evidence-based practice with holistic healing, she helps people reconnect to the body's innate intelligence. Living with eczema, Crohn's disease and endometriosis has deepened her understanding of what true rest and recovery mean. "Learning to listen to my body and respond to its needs has been my greatest challenge, and my greatest teacher."