prehab

26/05/2025

When pain continues past the usually expected recovery time, around three months, we classify this pain as 'chronic'.

Pain is the way our brain communicates with us. Unfortunately, our brain cannot tap us on the shoulder and tell us there is something wrong. Pain can be the way our brain is getting our attention.

Every time we react to a symptom - be it pain, fatigue, anxiety/depression or insomnia, the brain is testing our reaction. The way we respond will often determine how the symptoms will continue to turn up in the future.

One of the biggest drivers of continuing chronic pain is fear.
When we fear the pain, the more fuel the brain has to continue the pain or symptoms.

Pain is a danger signal. Sometimes this is very necessary, but other times the continued pain is a mistake. Sometimes injuries and tissue damage have healed, and the brain is stuck in sending this danger signal.

These are some of the ways fear may show up for you:
- Fear of the sensation;
- Fear the sensation will continue;
- Fear of how the sensation will impact you in the future.

To recover from chronic pain, we need to remove the fear of the symptoms.
One of the fastest way to learn to remove the fear is a deep understanding of the process of the brain creating pain.

There is hope.

07/05/2025

The perfect gift for your Mum - a Prehab voucher.
The gift that will keep on giving, wellness.

Variety of options available.

05/05/2025

04/04/2025

It is very hard to give your brain messages of safety, if your body doesn't actually feel safe.

Living in a body that you actually don't like is something that not many of us would admit to, but is often so true.
You don't like how you look.
You would prefer to be thinner.
Better hair.
More tan.
How many of us can honestly say that we can look at ourselves in the mirror without hating the reflection, or wishing it was different?

For some of us, it has been taught to us. As a dancer, the message was always that my body wasn't 'right'.
I was too inflexible.
My arms were too short and fat.
I didn't have enough turnout.
I certainly wasn't 'bony' enough.
You end up feeling not enough.
For anything.

Eventually, this narrative becomes what you believe. I'm 42 years old and still too scared to wear a sleeveless top, all because I was told a bunch of rubbish as a teenager.

This morning, I caught my reflection in the mirror at the gym. Immediately, I diverted my eyes because I didn't like what I saw.
Then I realised. This is it.
How can you recover from chronic pain and give your body messages of safety, if you actually hate your body?

My body has been through years of trauma. Ten years of chronic pain. Medication after medication.
I've had two babies.
Seven surgeries.
I've lived through earthquakes, a terrorist attack, a worldwide pandemic.

Today, I looked myself in the eye and watched myself lift weights in the mirror.
With a thankful heart. Gratitude.
Acceptance.
And I smiled.

31/03/2025

If I had to choose only one thing only that has helped me recover from chronic pain, it would be giving my brain messages of safety.

Those messages of safety can be things to do with our external environment. But many times, we need to address our own internal safety.
How safe do you feel in your own body?
Are you critical of your looks?
Your feelings?
Your mistakes?
Your past?
Would you talk to your child the way you talk to yourself?

You can simply not feel safe in your body if your internal dialogue is one of criticism.

Try these ways of giving yourself some compassion, and see how it feels.

12/03/2025

I think this quote from the amazing Bessel van der Kolk sums up the reaction of the body to past trauma perfectly.

Donald Hebb famously said, "Neurons that fire together, wire together."

When we experience trauma, the thoughts, feelings, sounds, smells, and feelings we experienced with that trauma are intrinsically linked. You might get a sinking feeling in your tummy, a fast heart rate, a headache, or feel anxious. Something that triggers that trauma or stored memory can take you right back to the place in time that it happened. And with it, the feelings.

I'm triggered by many things to do with dance. Although I experienced many wonderful moments in my dance career, many moments are remembered by my brain as traumatic. It doesn't take much for my body to go right back there. Challenging, when you have two daughters involved in the dance world.

What has been very interesting to me as I started this MindBody approach is how much these stored and remembered traumas affect pain. More on this next time.

It's a work in progress.
There is hope.

05/03/2025

The brain is powerful.
Protective.
And sometimes overprotective.

Imagine a fire alarm in your kitchen. You are cooking, and you burn something. It's important for your fire alarm to go off. It lets you know there is a problem.

But if you light a candle in your bedroom and your fire alarm goes off in your kitchen, you know you might have an overly sensitive fire alarm.

Your brain is like that.
It's trying to help you. Get your attention. Maybe distract you from what is going on in your life. Your emotions. Past traumas.

Calm the fear, and we can calm the danger alarm.

There is hope.

01/03/2025

Chronic pain is a completely different presentation of pain and often requires a highly individualised approach.

Chronic pain is defined by pain that has continued past the expected time frame of an acute injury or illness healing. This is usually set at three months.
However, chronic pain can start in the absence of any physical injury or injury.

Anything that the brain determines as a danger signal can set off chronic pain or symptoms in the body.
- Stress
- Emotions
- Trauma

Chronic pain can react to innocuous stimulus such as:
- Weather (heat, cold, wind)
- Light touch such as clothing
- Smells
- Noisy situations such as a shopping mall
- Bright lights

If you or a loved one are living with chronic pain, reach out to see how Prehab can help.

There is hope.

01/03/2025

Acute pain vs Chronic pain:

How do you know the difference?
Today, I am covering what acute pain looks like, ways it can present in the body, and what the healing timeline should look like.

12/02/2025

What is Prehab? Chronic pain coachingPrehab is someone who understands that all pain is real. Your pain is ‘not in your head’.It is a deep understanding of chronic pain and how it affects every facet of your life.It is learning to trust. Trust your body, trust the process, trust your brain. Move...

09/02/2025

Belief in a mind-body solution to chronic pain is not an easy place to get to. For some, the concept that our brain creates all of our pain is something that is easy to understand. Others, not so much.
If you, or someone you love, are living with chronic pain and would like to find out more about this mind-body approach to pain, please reach out.