prehab

08/04/2026

I was privileged to be interviewed recently by Dr David Clarke, of the ATNS. I hope that by sharing my story, I might be able to help others.

🎙️ Thousands of milligrams of medication, nerve blocks, and surgery failed to help pain that Sarah eventually traced to always putting herself last. That realization started her recovery and today she feels well and coaches others.

🔗 Watch the episode of The Story Behind the Symptoms here: https://youtu.be/AG2FcxywoSE

24/03/2026

The question that changed how I understand chronic pain:

"Why does my pain get worse when I'm stressed or anxious about it?"

Here's what's actually happening:

Your brain is constantly monitoring for danger. Every time you feel pain, it's checking your reaction to decide: "Is this a real threat?"

When you panic, catastrophise, or hyper-focus on the pain, your brain interprets this as confirmation that you're in danger. So it amplifies the pain signal to "protect" you.

When you stay calm and reassure yourself you're safe, your brain learns there's no threat and can turn down the alarm.

Think of it like this:
When a child falls while learning to walk, they immediately look at their parent. If the parent gasps and rushes over in panic, the child cries. If the parent smiles and says "Wow! You're okay, keep going!", the child gets back up and keeps playing.

Your brain works the same way. It's looking to YOU for signals about whether the pain is dangerous.

The pain-fear cycle works like this:
→ Pain increases fear
→ Fear increases pain
→ Pain increases fear
→ And the cycle continues...

Here's the truth most people miss:

Fear, not tissue damage, is often the fuel that keeps chronic pain going.

100% of the time, regardless of the cause, pain is produced by the brain. When we understand this, we can start to interrupt the cycle.

Ready to break free from the pain-fear cycle?

I'm offering free 45-minute discovery calls to explore how you can start your recovery journey. Book yours here: https://bookings.gettimely.com/prehab/bb/book

11/03/2026

08/03/2026

I remember waking up during my recovery with intense pain and thinking: that's it. Another failure.

I had been making real progress. And overnight it felt like it had all gone.

But here is what I've learnt: a setback is not a sign the treatment has failed. It is often a sign it is working.

The nervous system resists change. Even good change. A new way of being, even a healthier one, can be sensed as dangerous by a nervous system that has spent years in protection mode.

It was pushing back. That is not failure. That is part of the process.

One more thing worth knowing: pain and symptoms that move around is good evidence of neuroplasticity. A nervous system that can shift its signals can learn something new.

Recovery is not a straight line. Sometimes going backwards is actually moving forward.

Stay with it.

05/03/2026

Ten years ago, I was lying on a treatment table wondering if chronic pain was going to be my life forever.
I had seen every specialist. Tried every treatment. Been given a diagnosis that led to surgery. And still the pain continued.

What changed everything wasn’t another treatment. It was understanding why my brain was producing pain in the first place. And learning it could stop.

Swipe through to read my story. If any of it sounds familiar, I want you to know that what you are experiencing is real, it is not your fault, and there is a way through it.

I now work with people living with chronic pain, long Covid, fibromyalgia, fatigue and a wide range of persistent symptoms. Helping patients understand and retrain the nervous system patterns that are driving their experience.

If this resonates with you, got to www.prehab.nz to book a free 45 minute discovery call.

No obligation. No hard sell. Just an honest conversation about whether this could work for you.

03/03/2026

This message from my patient reminds me why I do this work. The ripples of fear-based messaging reach further than most people realise. Being told your body is damaged, that surgery may be your only option, that you should be afraid to move. These words don’t just affect your mind. They live in the body and the nervous system.

When this patient came to me, she had been told to fear her body. She left every previous healthcare appointment in tears, convinced she was permanently broken.

She wasn’t. She healed. From chronic pain and skin conditions that hadn’t been connected to her nervous system.

But here’s what I want you to know: she did this herself. I didn’t heal her. The capacity to heal was always there. The ability to heal is in all of us.

I was just the guide.
Swipe through to read her story.

25/02/2026

When I was at my worst, no one ever asked me what was going on in my life.

No one asked about my stress levels. My past. My relationships. The weight I was carrying on my shoulders. The experiences I hadn’t processed.

The way my nervous system had been running on high alert for years.

Just more tests. More referrals. More focus on the what, never the who.

And I think that’s one of the most important things missing from how we treat chronic pain and persistent symptoms. Because the body doesn’t exist separately from our experiences, our stress, our emotions. And our history.

This is for anyone who has ever felt unseen in their pain. Your story matters.

Swipe through to see how Hippocrates had it right all along.

22/02/2026

Bloating after a stressful meal isn’t a coincidence.

Your subconscious brain doesn’t know the difference between danger and dinner.

Swipe to see why.

21/02/2026

When I came across a mind-body approach to healing pelvic pain, I never expected to also recover from Irritable Bowel Syndrome and food sensitivities.

For years, my gut symptoms had worsened - to the point where I was excluding more and more food groups. And the more I excluded, the worse I seemed to get.

About six months into my journey of pain recovery, I realised something had shifted. My gut symptoms were disappearing.

IBS isn’t just a gut problem. It’s a brain-body problem. Which also means, it can have a brain-body solution.

If your gut symptoms have you frustrated and confused, put a comment below or reach out via message.

Modern neuroscience has a lot to offer.

18/02/2026

17/02/2026

Fear and pain aren’t the enemy - they’re messengers.

Not that they seem like that at all!

When we treat them as signals to open our eyes wider, we begin to understand the full conversation happening within us.

Our thoughts are speaking the language of the mind.
Our emotions are speaking the language of the body.

True healing happens when we don’t need to run from discomfort and start listening to what it is trying to teach us. Not with judgement, but with curiosity.

What if these signals were something you didn’t fear? But something that has a lesson. The sub-conscious speaking to you, helping you, protecting you. Loving you.

What would change if you listened to your fear and pain with curiosity instead of resistance?