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."