Vive Pain & Fatigue

03/08/2025

First hand proof that pacing is sometimes much easier understood/said than done… in case it isn’t clear, this is a great example of what NOT to do if you’re trying to pace and stay within your energy budget. Oops.

How good was the first 6 days of the week though!

26/07/2025

Spreading the word about POTS 🔈

In Episode 4 - Jennifer Smallridge from Invisibly Brilliant & Connection Medicine Co. shares so many gems for the clinician and patient living with, and helping those with chronic invisible illness.

🎙️Check out the "Beyond Pain and Fatigue" podcast - now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube: https://zencastr.com/Beyond-Pain-and-Fatigue or link in bio. Subscribe now to receive updates for new episodes, or check out our webpage for written episode summaries and further resources.

🌿Follow for more on persisting pain, chronic fatigue, and invisible illnesses (including ME/CFS, POTS, Long COVID, hypermobility/EDS). Need support? Access online integrative physiotherapy, Australia-wide (link in bio).

⭐If you liked this post, please share/tag a friend!
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25/07/2025

Using AI to be more mindful and centred in the clinic room 🤖

We were so lucky to have Jennifer Smallridge of Invisibly Brilliant , one of the co-founders of Connection Medicine Co. . join us on the podcast for episode 4. Listen in for her story of starting out in the invisible illness clinical space, and how she came to teach other clinicians how to better care for those with invisible illness and in the process, look after themselves better too.

🎙️Check out the "Beyond Pain and Fatigue" podcast - now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube: https://zencastr.com/Beyond-Pain-and-Fatigue or link in bio. Subscribe now to receive updates for new episodes, or check out our webpage for written episode summaries and further resources.

🌿Follow for more on persisting pain, chronic fatigue, and invisible illnesses (including ME/CFS, POTS, Long COVID, hypermobility/EDS). Need support? Access online integrative physiotherapy, Australia-wide (link in bio).

⭐If you liked this post, please share/tag a friend!
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23/07/2025

We were so lucky to have Jennifer Smallridge from Invisibly Brilliant , and one of the co-founders of Connection Medicine Co., join us on the podcast for episode 4. She chats to us about the origins of her working with Florence Kelly and how she came to find her clinical specialty in chronic invisible illness.

🎙️Check out the "Beyond Pain and Fatigue" podcast - now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube: https://zencastr.com/Beyond-Pain-and-Fatigue or link in bio. Subscribe now to receive updates for new episodes, or check out our webpage for written episode summaries and further resources.

🌿Follow for more on persisting pain, chronic fatigue, and invisible illnesses (including ME/CFS, POTS, Long COVID, hypermobility/EDS). Need support? Access online integrative physiotherapy, Australia-wide (link in bio).

⭐If you liked this post, please share/tag a friend!
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23/07/2025

This month’s edition of InMotion (the Australian Physiotherapy Association magazine) features an interview with our Clinical Director, Soph Shephard, about her recent presentation at the Australian Pain Society conference.

Soph’s PhD focuses on rural pain management, and in this piece she talks about the importance of taking a critical look at how power, privilege, and structural bias shape health care - especially when it comes to who is included (or excluded) from research, policy, and decision-making. At Vive, this kind of big-picture thinking underpins how we approach care. We believe that improving pain management means not just better clinical skills and tools, but also asking the hard questions about equity, access, and lived experience, especially for people in rural and remote communities.

You can read the full article here: https://australian.physio/inmotion/shifting-needle-pain-management

🌿Follow Vive Pain & Fatigue for more on persisting pain, chronic fatigue, and invisible illnesses (including ME/CFS, POTS, Long COVID, hypermobility/EDS). Need support? Access online integrative physiotherapy, Australia-wide (link in bio).

⭐If you liked this post, please share/tag a friend!

04/06/2025

Huge news here at Vive - congratulations to Ollie, who has been accepted into the Masters of Philosophy at the University of Queensland. We’re excited for him to be starting his journey as a researcher, and fear not - he’ll still be working in the clinic, and putting new knowledge and insights into practice.

Congrats Ollie! 🎉

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Keen to work with Ollie? He currently has capacity for new patient assessments at Vive. Check out our website (link in bio) to get started.

07/05/2025

Ehlers Danlos Awareness Month

Flexible.

Let’s talk about flexibility.

Because if EDS has taught me anything — it’s that word.

Physically? I’m FAR too flexible.
And that’s at the heart of some of my biggest challenges. Most of it can’t be seen unless I show you. You don’t see how loose my joints are. How they don’t stay in place. How I don’t feel the stretch in my muscles like most people do.

In this photo, I had no idea what I was doing wasn’t normal. I was just trying to get relief from the discomfort deep in my joints. It wasn’t until Mum stopped me and took this photo that I really saw it — what it looked like to others, and what I was doing to my body.

Now? I don’t knowingly allow myself to stretch to end ranges anymore. Even when my body is screaming for relief, I try to resist. Because I know what’s at stake. Protecting my joints matters.

But here’s the thing:
EDS didn’t just make me physically flexible.
It’s taught me flexibility in every other way, too.

It’s taught me how to:

➡️ Adapt quickly and pivot when life changes
➡️ Go with the flow and adjust my sails
➡️ Compartmentalise to cope when there’s too much at once
➡️ Change plans on the fly — constantly
➡️ Navigate relentless pain while carrying on
➡️ Be my own nurse, first aid team, and advocate
➡️ Let go of what I can’t control
➡️ Hold tight to what (and who) matters most
➡️ Treasure what I have now, not knowing how long I’ll have it
➡️ Honour what I can do today — even if I can’t tomorrow
➡️ Celebrate the smallest wins
➡️ Dig deep, stay soft, and keep showing up - especially on the hard days

Living with EDS isn’t easy. Every day, there’s a list of things I have to do just to live.

But it’s also given me resilience, depth, grit, perseverance, perspective—and a reason to celebrate the little things.

And I’m proud of that.

So yes — flexibility can be dangerous in the wrong context. But in the right ones? It’s one of the greatest strengths I’ve learned.

25/04/2025

Honoring the bravery and sacrifice of our ANZACs today. Lest we forget. 🌺

22/04/2025

It’s been a busy few weeks, with Soph and Ollie attending the Australian Pain Society National Scientific Conference last week. An absolutely jam packed few days on the most current research on pain, and great chance to reconnect with colleagues and make new connections! Soph had the privilege of presenting as an invited speaker for a pre conference workshop on Sunday focused on pain in ADHD and Autism (alongside the fabulous .mitchelson.nd.psych and Dr Cate Sinclair), and chairing/presenting some of her PhD related work in an additional topical session on Monday, taking a critical look at rural equity in pain management.

Can’t wait for APS2026 in Adelaide!

20/04/2025

Wishing everyone a joyful and peaceful Easter! Love, the Vive team 🐣🌷✨

20/03/2025

Calling Our Community: We’re creating a new peer led resource and we want to centre your lived experiences. So many of us have faced medical gaslighting—being told our symptoms are “just stress,” “all in our heads,” or “not that bad.” We know the toll it takes when doctors dismiss real conditions, and we want to break that cycle by sharing our collective knowledge.

If you are an autistic woman, an AFAB autistic person, or an autistic gender-diverse person, we’d love for you to share your personal insights, quotes, or affirming resources on any of the following topics:
• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) & Hypermobility
• Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
• Menopause & other age related health issues
• Medical Gaslighting & Advocacy Strategies

We’ve heard that sensory sensitivities can make symptoms like pain, dizziness, and hormonal shifts more intense—or harder to recognise due to differences in interoception. We’ve also heard how executive functioning differences can add extra challenges when managing appointments, and how fawning and masking can make self-advocacy even more difficult.

💛 So… what do you wish you had known sooner about these conditions? What advice would you give to others navigating similar experiences?

💛 How to contribute:
• Comment below with your lived experience.
• Send us an email to info@yellowladybugs.com.au if you’d prefer to share privately.
• Share links to affirming resources you’ve found helpful.

We really want to make this a powerful, community-driven resource that validates our experiences through our ladybug lens.

* If you share your quote below, we may include it in our free and affirming resource. We will reference it with your first name or initials. Resource funded by the Peer Support and Capability Building Grant, Australian Government.

25/02/2025

We've been loving hearing the positive feedback about our new podcast, big thank you to Not Just Bendy for the share! Keep eyes peeled for our upcoming EDS Conference highlights episode :)

There was so much great information at the EDS Global Learning Conference 2025, and yet, there wasn’t enough information on pain. Don’t miss your chance to hear more — Check out Vive Pain & Fatigue's great new Podcast “Beyond Pain & Fatigue” Hosted by Sophie Shepard and Oliver Crossley, get ready for an in-depth exploration of pain neuroscience education.

Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-2-unpacking-pain-neuroscience-education-pne/id1782855036?i=1000680553286