Thrive Wellness and Rehabilitation

Thrive Wellness and Rehabilitation You understand your patterns. So why does your body still react like something is wrong?

Mobile physiotherapy and nervous system-informed coaching for pain, stress, and persistent symptoms.

06/16/2026

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about this work is how quickly things can change.

Today I was working with a client who had been carrying a lot of fear, terror, and helplessness related to a car accident.

At the beginning of our session, she rated those feelings as a 10/10.

She was nervous about doing the work, which is completely understandable. Most people don't wake up excited to revisit the most difficult experiences of their lives.

But by the end of the session, when I asked her where she was at, she paused and said: "I don't feel anything."

0/10.

What struck me most wasn't the number.

It was the look of relief on her face.

And the excitement she had about sharing her experience with her daughter.

Moments like this remind me that trauma isn't a life sentence.

It's an injury.

And injuries can heal.

That's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about helping people understand their nervous systems. When we know what's happening and have the right tools, change is often much more possible than we think 🤍




06/15/2026

Today I had one of those moments where I walked away from a conversation and immediately thought:

"...oops, did I just womansplain that?" 😅

A client was telling me about his fitness tracker, his food tracking app, and how things were going at the gym.

Which was all fine until I started talking about hormones.

I've been reading Roar by Stacy Sims (purchased two years ago and recently picked up again 🫣) and it has completely blown my mind how differently women can respond to training, nutrition, and recovery throughout the month.

So there I was enthusiastically explaining how lucky he was that he doesn't have to account for fluctuating hormones when planning his workouts.

Meanwhile, he was probably just trying to tell me about his watch and his deadlifts 😂

Thankfully he's a good sport.

But now I'm curious...

Has a book ever sent you so far down a rabbit hole that you started talking about it to everyone?



06/14/2026

Project Below the Neck (aka slightly out of my mind!) – Day 70 - Le Fin/The End.

Well, I've been doing this project for a while and wasn't sure when to finish but I think this might be it...

And if that's true, it feels fitting to wrap up with a "below the neck" question.

When you're stressed, which response do you tend to fall into?

Is it...

🤬 Fight: getting angry, defensive, or saying things you later wish you'd phrased differently.

🐦 Flight: avoiding the conversation, the decision, or the situation altogether.

❄️ Freeze: feeling stuck, checked out, or unable to access what you know you want to say or do.

🦌 Or Fawn: my personal favourite 🙃

The one where we smooth things over, make nice, say what we think other people want to hear, and override our own thoughts, feelings, or needs to avoid discomfort.

What fascinates me about fawn is that it can look so socially acceptable from the outside.

But underneath, it often comes at the expense of self-trust.

Because every time we ignore what we really think or feel, we're teaching ourselves that our experience matters a little less.

Anyway, after 70 days of talking about nervous systems, boundaries, self-trust, pain, people-pleasing, surfing, cats, road trips, and whatever else wandered into this project...

I'm curious: Which stress response is the trickiest for you?

Fight?
Flight?
Freeze?
Fawn?

Let me know and thank you for following along! ❤️



06/13/2026

Project Below the Neck (aka slightly out of my mind!) – Day 69

We were in Tofino and heard a PSA warning people that the water level can rise and cover exposed rocks in "20, 30, or even 40 minutes."

And for some reason, it reminded me of stress 😅

Because most of the time, stress doesn't arrive all at once.

It builds gradually.

Just a little less sleep.
A little more responsibility.
A *few* extra commitments.
A bit less time for yourself.

Until one day you're wondering why you feel overwhelmed, irritable, exhausted, or disconnected.

Kind of like the frog in the boiling water analogy.

The challenge is that by the time things feel "bad enough," we've often been ignoring the signs for a while.

Which is why awareness matters.

Not so you can panic about every stressor.

But so you can notice when the water is rising and make adjustments before you're struggling to keep your head above it.

Anyway, that's today's life lesson courtesy of the Pacific Ocean 🌊😅





06/12/2026

Project Below the Neck (aka slightly out of my mind!) – Day 68

Lately I've been feeling a little crispy around the edges.

Not full-blown burnout.

Just that feeling of being "on" for a little too long.

Thinking. Planning. Creating. Problem-solving. Doing.

And today, after an oil change, some (fun!) groceries, and a final few errands... We're ditching this popsicle stand.

I'm hopeful that this weekend will be the rest I've been looking for.

Not because anything is wrong.

But because sometimes your nervous system doesn't need another strategy.

It needs fresh air. The ocean. A slower pace. A reminder that life is bigger than the next thing on the to-do list.

So if you've been pushing hard lately, maybe this could be your reminder too 💕




06/11/2026

Project Below the Neck (aka slightly out of my mind!) – Day 67

We had a little mastermind session yesterday, and one of the women reflected something back to me that I thought was both funny and surprisingly insightful.

She said I'm kind of like a kindergarten teacher 😅
Not because I hand out crayons (although honestly, that would be kinda fun)

But because I spend a lot of time helping people learn skills that maybe all of us should have been taught when we were younger.

Things like: understanding emotions, regulating stress, navigating difficult conversations, changing beliefs that aren't serving us, and trusting ourselves..

And while I don't know that "kindergarten teacher" is quite the title I'm going to put on my website 😂, I do think she was onto something.

So now I'm curious:
If we've worked together or if you've been following along for a while, what do you think I do?

Not my official title.
Not "physiotherapist" or "coach."

What do you think the work actually is?

Thank you in advance!! I'm genuinely curious what you've picked up from these videos ❤️



06/10/2026

Project Below the Neck (aka slightly out of my mind!) – Day 66

One of my favourite things happened yesterday.
I was working with a new client and talking about pain, the nervous system, and how our brains can become really good at protecting us... sometimes a little too good.

As we talked, I could see things starting to click.

And then she told me she'd spoken to her brother, who's a physiotherapist in his late 70s, and said she believed what I was saying more than the exercise-based approach he was recommending 😅

(Her words, not mine. She informed me he was "old school.")

What made me happiest wasn't that she agreed with me.
It was seeing how motivated she was to learn, experiment, and take an active role in her recovery.
Because when people realize they aren't broken, and that there are things they can do to influence how they feel, something shifts.

They stop waiting to get better and start participating in getting better.

And honestly, being invited into that process is one of the greatest privileges of my job 🤍





06/09/2026

Project Below the Neck (aka slightly out of my mind!) – Day 65

Our CrossFit question of the day was:

"Are you superstitious or just a little stitious?" 😅

One person said black cats.
Another said black cats and ladders (🐈‍⬛ don't worry, I defended Nico!).

Meanwhile, I was thinking about something completely different...

Yesterday was the first session of The Exhale, and before it started, a few people told me it was going to be great.

And even though I wanted to believe them, part of me was like:

"Shhhh. Don't jinx it."

Which got me wondering: does anyone else do this?

Not your classic superstition like black cats or ladders.

But with good things.

Like not wanting to get your hopes up.
Not wanting to assume something will go well.
Not wanting to be disappointed.

Because life is uncertain.

And I think part of being human is wanting certainty in a world that can't really provide it.

Anyway, for the record, the session was wonderful. One woman described it as excellent and said she's excited for next week, which was lovely to hear 🤍

But now I'm curious: are you superstitious?

Or do you have your own version of "don't jinx it"? 😅



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Nanaimo, BC

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