Rachael Brown BSc (Hons) MSc Dip Clin Hyp NLP Coach
Southsea, Portsmouth, UK
Supporting You
I currently work with clients in 1-1 sessions where I support them to move towards the changes they desire in their lives. Sessions are totally tailored to my clients’ specific needs.
My practice is underpinned by the principles of nervous system healing and I combine NLP, hypnosis, somatics and life coaching to guide you through change.
How am I qualified to support you?
Mostly importantly, I am an expert by my own experience - of living with nervous system dysregulation then learning to regulate my nervous system. I’ve worked in health & teaching for the last 16 years, making me very experienced and well practiced in mentoring & coaching-style conversations. If you’re interested to read more about my professional background, you can check out my LinkedIn page.
A bigger splash in supporting you
Over the next couple of years I plan to deepen my knowledge and skills through committing to and completing a number of training courses. These will be in somatic attachment, trauma, NLP (neurolinguistic programming), inner child therapy, polyvagal practices and maybe others too. My first course has already begun, and I’ll have a certification in Somatic Attachment (The Embody Lab) by June 2023!
These course are an investment in my development and in how I can support others. A lot of my income from supporting you with Heal & Sea is currently going towards funding these courses. If you would like to and are financially able to help fund my upcoming courses, I welcome donations.
FAQs
Why ‘Heal and Sea’?
After a few years of really suffering with chronic fatigue and having to make significant changes to my life as a result, I found it hard at times to articulate to my friends and family what it was really like for me. I decided that having a dedicated space where I shared my experience of living with CFS, as well as the various things I was testing out to try and improve my situation, would be a way to help others understand more about it all - so I set up an instagram page. The instagram page was originally called ‘The Sea and M.e.’ and it’s purpose was a blog of sorts with bite size chunks of information. ‘And M.e.’ was a play on words really because I wanted to combine talking about ‘me’, as in my life & my experiences, as well as my seaside lifestyle and how the sea really helped my M.E. (Myalgic encephalomyelitis aka CFS:chronic fatigue syndrome). What began in September 2021 as a space for me to raise awareness, come January 2022 shifted to me sharing my nervous system healing journey - specifically through the CFS School programme. By August 2022 the inclusion of ‘M.E.’ in the name just didn’t apply anymore as chronic fatigue was way behind me by then - so I shifted direction with a rename of ‘Heal and Sea’ - my message being to heal the nervous system and sea how well you can be and what your life can become! Then this brand new venture of mine began.
How long were you unwell for? What was chronic fatigue like for you on the worst days?
There isn’t a short answer to this question! I first had ‘post-viral fatigue’ when I was 12 years old, which dragged out for over 6 months, at which point a paediatrician told me it was then classified as ‘childhood M.E.’. There was no treatment plan, no specific guidance - I was told to just rest and that it should improve in time. After ~2 years I was in a better place, though that was really the beginning of almost 2 decades of being stuck in ‘boom & bust’ cycles. I had 2 particularly significant ‘crash’ / ‘bust’ episodes, which also meant two long-term periods of sickness from work. The first happened in the summer of 2019, which I refer to as my breakdown. I buckled physically and emotionally while away on holiday with my partner after pushing in every way for a number of months. At that time, the depression was a bit more present than the fatigue. The second was in November 2021 after I was infected with Covid. On my worst days of living with CFS looked something like waking around 9am after extremely unrefreshing sleep. I’d continue rolling over trying to sleep more and eventually get up around 11am. When I lived alone I could make myself a smoothie and then migrate to the sofa for most of the rest of the day. Any small trip out to an appointment 5 minutes walk away or composing an email to the occupational health team at work was a major task, then leaving me completely wiped out. Most of the day I would doze sleepily on & off. Once or twice a week I managed some extremely gentle mobility exercises. Evening meals were batches made by my boyfriend or my folks who took it in turns to come round & batch cook for me. That was a low place and a dark time for me. Basic daily living was hard, really hard. On the slightly better days and periods I was just about able to work part-time, go for short walks (with all of that careful pacing stuff before I discovered nervous system healing), attend social events (which again had to be carefully managed for me to ‘get through’). This was with crashes throughout the day/week of varying degrees. My nervous system was highly dysregulated!
What diagnoses and chronic ‘things’ did you have?
Interestingly (maybe, maybe not), my Doctor never said the words to me “I am diagnosing you with…”. Here’s what was listed on my sick note for my employer: chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, anxiety, chronic daily headaches. Also in my list of dis-ease: occasional panic attacks, dizziness, POTS-like symptoms (though not diagnosed formally), chronic pain, binge eating ‘disorder’. There was also the inflammation ‘stuff’, which I later learnt was also rooted in my nervous system dysregulation: perennial rhinitis/hayfever, acne, asthma, IBS. I rarely have issues with these now. There may have been a couple of others in the mix over the years, but that’s plenty to paint the picture for you!
What treatments did you try for your chronic conditions?
Until I discovered nervous system healing, my main focus as advised by the NHS was to rest and follow the pacing guidelines that had been set out to me. I had also followed a ‘graded exercise therapy’ protocol for a few months. The main thing I will share from my experience of this approach was that it helped me manage the symptoms, not address the root cause. Some other treatments & methods I dabbled and tried included (not an exhaustive list here!): acupuncture, lymphatic drainage, The Perrin technique, low FODMAP diet, various supplements, massage, reflexology, meditation, restorative yoga, cognitive behaviour therapy, osteopathy cranial treatments, pain medication, anxiety medication… and probably a few more. I want to highlight that some of these really did help, at the time, and a few taught my body how to feel safe in a place of rest - none were a solution for rewiring my nervous system though. A few of these I still use and do occasional, to support my overall health and wellness - I’m not listing these here to say they are no good. Restorative yoga, meditation, massage, reflexology in particular - these I very much advocate for as supplementary to my health.
Are you fully recovered/healed? Or do you manage and cope with symptoms?
I no longer have, or live with, chronic fatigue syndrome. Nor do I ‘manage’ the symptoms. Why? Because I have healed it! I did the Mindbody work, with diligent commitment, to shift my nervous system out of the fatigue (a freeze response). Occasionally old neurology bubbles up (maybe a couple of times a month for passing moments, or if I have a cold or something) and I may experience an echo or doing heaviness - then with a tool it quickly shifts back to my new neurology! The concept and question of ‘Are we ever really done with our (self-)healing work?’ is an interesting one. I really believe that my Mindbody will never go back to chronic fatigue now. I do experience bits of dis-ease from old patterns occasionally, such as a bit of neck tension and chest flutters. The difference now is that I have the agency to CHOOSE how I respond. In my own healing journey I’m doing some work on the deeper ‘shadows’ of mine a bit at a time. My protective parts like to remind me that they’re there, should they be needed. Conversations with my inner child here and there certainly help me as an ongoing practice. I know I am well practised and skilled in using the tools in my toolbag to regulate my nervous system, helping me exist largely in a flow state, dancing playfully with the rhythm of my life.
Why did you choose CFS School as a healing / recovery programme?
I’d tried a lot of things already to help with the chronic fatigue, but to be honest most of them fell into the category of ‘symptom management’ rather than healing. For a couple of years I diligently followed the principles of resting-pacing, recommended by my local NHS service here in the UK. That got me to a place where I could do basic life things again like work (part-time), things around the house, generally take care of myself - but there was no energy left for what I felt was actually LIVING! The really LIVING part of my life with physical activity and fun with friends/family wasn’t do-able (I was managing a functional freeze state after all). So I began to look for other options and answers - I refused to believe that was ‘my lot’. After typing various things into Google I came across Raelan & her Inspirational Stories Facebook group. I dipped in and out of that forum space over a few months. Something about ‘brain retraining’ kept being mentioned. After initially dismissing the idea, I did a little more digging into it and before long I had gathered a list of ~10 different CFS recovery programmes. One day on my Instagram Jennifer Mann popped up and I was curious about her story, her message and a new course she was offering. Of course I booked myself in for a free Discovery Call, which was in November 2021. I resonated so much with Jennifer’s story and experiences. I felt so heard and understood by her in our conversation on Zoom. It was the first time that I’d really truly believed that a life without living with CFS was POSSIBLE! (What an honour it has been to since give such a feeling to others now in my role as a Self-Healer Assistant for the programme). In the weeks that followed my chat with Jennifer I spent a lot of my resource stuck in a game of mental tennis, pretty fixated (what I’d later learn to know as doing overthinking & doing perfectionism) on picking the ‘right’ course. I even constructed this spreadsheet with many rows and columns to draw comparisons etc. I kept thinking about the CFS School Programme - I went with it because it was what FELT right for me, in my body.
How did CFS School help you?
CFS School is THE reason that I am no longer living with chronic fatigue! In short, the programme helped me understand why my body was stuck doing various symptoms - it was down to the patterns of my nervous system, rooted in my earlier life experiences. I came to learn that it wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t an ‘illness’ and I could absolutely change these patterns (thanks to neuroplasticity!). In an easy-to-access format, I was shown the Mindbody tools and supported with their application in a safe and loving group coaching environment. Beyond the chronic fatigue the tools I learnt and practised have been instrumental in me moving through my layers on dis-ease. Check out my Vlog for my journey with CFS School COMING SOON!
What support do you offer to help others?
Please visit the section above of my website for an answer to this.
Can I work with you if I’m not a CFS School student?
For the time-being the self-healing support and guidance I offer is specifically for applying the Mindbody tools taught as part of the CFS School Programme. If you are unsure about the next step for you in your healing/recovery journey, please get in touch as I offer exploratory conversation consultations. This is an opportunity to talk in detail and pick my brains about my own healing & recovery experience, to help inform your choices in your own journey. I anticipate that later in 2023 after completing some training courses, I may open my offerings to self-healers who aren’t necessarily students of CFS School - watch this space!
How long were you unwell for? What was chronic fatigue like for you on the worst days?
There isn’t a short answer to this question! I first had ‘post-viral fatigue’ when I was 12 years old, which dragged out for over 6 months, at which point a paediatrician told me it was then classified as ‘childhood M.E.’. There was no treatment plan, no specific guidance - I was told to just rest and that it should improve in time. After ~2 years I was in a better place, though that was really the beginning of almost 2 decades of being stuck in ‘boom & bust’ cycles. I had 2 particularly significant ‘crash’ / ‘bust’ episodes, which also meant two long-term periods of sickness from work. The first happened in the summer of 2019, which I refer to as my breakdown. I buckled physically and emotionally while away on holiday with my partner after pushing in every way for a number of months. At that time, the depression was a bit more present than the fatigue. The second was in November 2021 after I was infected with Covid. On my worst days of living with CFS looked something like waking around 9am after extremely unrefreshing sleep. I’d continue rolling over trying to sleep more and eventually get up around 11am. When I lived alone I could make myself a smoothie and then migrate to the sofa for most of the rest of the day. Any small trip out to an appointment 5 minutes walk away or composing an email to the occupational health team at work was a major task, then leaving me completely wiped out. Most of the day I would doze sleepily on & off. Once or twice a week I managed some extremely gentle mobility exercises. Evening meals were batches made by my boyfriend or my folks who took it in turns to come round & batch cook for me. That was a low place and a dark time for me. Basic daily living was hard, really hard. On the slightly better days and periods I was just about able to work part-time, go for short walks (with all of that careful pacing stuff before I discovered nervous system healing), attend social events (which again had to be carefully managed for me to ‘get through’). This was with crashes throughout the day/week of varying degrees. My nervous system was highly dysregulated!
What diagnoses and chronic ‘things’ did you have?
Interestingly (maybe, maybe not), my Doctor never said the words to me “I am diagnosing you with…”. Here’s what was listed on my sick note for my employer: chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, anxiety, chronic daily headaches. Also in my list of dis-ease: occasional panic attacks, dizziness, POTS-like symptoms (though not diagnosed formally), chronic pain, binge eating ‘disorder’. There was also the inflammation ‘stuff’, which I later learnt was also rooted in my nervous system dysregulation: perennial rhinitis/hayfever, acne, asthma, IBS. I rarely have issues with these now. There may have been a couple of others in the mix over the years, but that’s plenty to paint the picture for you!
What treatments did you try for your chronic conditions?
Until I discovered nervous system healing, my main focus as advised by the NHS was to rest and follow the pacing guidelines that had been set out to me. I had also followed a ‘graded exercise therapy’ protocol for a few months. The main thing I will share from my experience of this approach was that it helped me manage the symptoms, not address the root cause. Some other treatments & methods I dabbled and tried included (not an exhaustive list here!): acupuncture, lymphatic drainage, The Perrin technique, low FODMAP diet, various supplements, massage, reflexology, meditation, restorative yoga, cognitive behaviour therapy, osteopathy cranial treatments, pain medication, anxiety medication… and probably a few more. I want to highlight that some of these really did help, at the time, and a few taught my body how to feel safe in a place of rest - none were a solution for rewiring my nervous system though. A few of these I still use and do occasional, to support my overall health and wellness - I’m not listing these here to say they are no good. Restorative yoga, meditation, massage, reflexology in particular - these I very much advocate for as supplementary to my health.