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."

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."

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