Supported ME/CFS Recovery

Supported CFS and
Long Covid Recovery

These chronic exhaustive conditions, although a debilitating fact of life today, do not need to be a life sentence. Their symptoms, from brain fog, IBS to fatigue and so on, can be healed.

Message of Hope

Understanding CFS and Long Covid Symptoms

In my experience, these chronic exhaustive conditions are a complete body/mind breakdown. While we may feel as though we have been struck down overnight – the truth is these conditions do not develop overnight. Our body/mind system had already been strained to maximum capacity, like a cargo ship being loaded to tipping point, when the latest big stressor – a big loss, a severe viral infection, a major medical procedure, etc. – came along and we had nothing left to withstand it. Our system could not struggle on and went into a kind of preservative shutdown.

Marion’s physical and emotional overload:

‘I experienced a multitude of early life trauma which had been unresolved. I had always been highly sensitive – something that could not be honoured. The unresolved trauma, unacknowledged high sensitivity and pressures from society to be and perform a certain way led me to adopt many coping strategies that ultimately sapped my life energy and became detrimental to my health. I had created a life that was never sustainable nor enabled any thriving. Along came a few major life challenges, plus a couple of serious viral infections and I crashed, no longer able to push on.’

Recovery from CFS and Long Covid Symptoms

The answer to how to heal and recover lies in supporting our system – physically and psychologically – to come into a healing state where it can begin to do its repair work.

Everybody’s journey back to health is unique; yet there are commonalities.

An important part of healing from these conditions is

honouring our authentic self
embracing our high sensitivity
healing hurts from the past
resetting the nervous system
resting and getting back into balance
bringing back joy and ease

It is often like a jigsaw puzzle.

It is a discovery of what had prevented us from thriving before the last stressor came along and pushed us into a chronic exhaustive condition.

These are some of the changes that others had to embrace:

Addressing nutritional deficiencies through diet and/or supplementation
Creating a nurturing home and/or work environment
Adopting a health promoting lifestyle and pace
Identifying and healing hurts from the past
Healing or letting go of unhealthy relationships
Developing a healthy balanced relationship to movement and exercise
Finding a meaningful purpose in life

What to expect from working through recovery with me:

As Recovery Coach, I bring all I have discovered and learnt about these conditions and how to heal from them. This knowledge and experience is grounded in my personal healing journey and in-depth training in ME/CFS recovery with The Chrysalis Effect.

I currently work alongside the Reset to Thrive Programme – a guide to recovery that is accompanied by Jan Rothney’s book ‘Breaking Free’, that takes the guesswork out of recovery and that works.

Additional one-to-one support in conjunction with recovery programmes such as the Reset to Thrive or The Chrysalis Effect Recovery Programme is an additional money investment; yet it often makes the healing journey more effective, enjoyable and shortens it.

As we navigate recovering from CFS and Long Covid, it can be a challenge to get the right support. I am the recovery coach for you if you are struggling to apply the learnt brain retraining and nervous system regulating tools and techniques. I can help you make the Reset to Thrive programme work for you. You might particularly benefit from my somatic coaching approach, if you had a childhood that was NOT nourishing, left you feeling unsafe and meant you had a dysregulated nervous system long before the onset of your current health challenges.

You are welcome to join me for a FREE 30 minute, no-obligation chat. To ask questions and explore where you are on your recovery path and what needs to be addressed first and discover whether working with me is right for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Chrysalis Effect Recovery Programme?

The Chrysalis Effect offers an established step-by-step online programme guiding people with ME/CFS, Long Covid and Fibromyalgia on their journey to a life full of vibrant health.
This self-directed educational coaching programme comes with community support and 24/7 availability and runs over a period of 9 months.

40 Recovery coaching sessions and touch-base videos are delivered weekly to your email inbox.

Along the way you can draw on the support of a positively inspiring and mutually supportive Facebook group, monthly virtual coffee mornings and a library of webinars teaching every aspect of recovery.

What makes The Chrysalis Effect Programme unique as a pathway to recovery?

The reality is that traditional medical models don’t work for most people dealing with ME/CFS, Long Covid and Fibromyalgia, which means we must look elsewhere for solutions. These illnesses don’t have single pathogens; they are more a gradual, developed “burn-out state”. Some people can identify a significant trigger, like a virus – but even then, we are looking at the ‘final straw that breaks the camel’s back’. There has almost always been a lot of background prior to that tipping point.

As many different, predisposing factors – physical, mental and emotional – usually play a role in this disease state, we need to uncover and address those in order to recover. At the Chrysalis Effect, our work is all about recovery. We have done the ‘detective’ work and bring all one needs to know through these 40 Coaching sessions and webinars.

The Programme is delivered in a way that gives consistency and is easily workable for someone with this array of ME/CFS symptoms. It takes the search and guess work – and in turn the fear – out of it, as it offers real understanding, empathy, and a clear pathway to recovery.

Even though it is not an altogether easy path nor quick fix, it is worth the commitment. On the Chrysalis Effect website there are many beautiful testimonials of people who have chosen to make this small time and money investment and been rewarded with regaining their health.

How does following the programme on your own differ from working 1:1 with a specialist practitioner alongside the programme?

The online programme gives you all you need to know and supports you step-by-step to create your own individual roadmap to recovery.

Some people, however, appreciate the opportunity to work one-to-one with a specialist practitioner alongside the online programme. This adds the benefit of the programme being tailored to their individual needs and sharing the journey with someone who really gets it.
It is an additional money investment; yet it often makes the journey easier, more enjoyable and shortens it.

Chrysalis Effect Practitioners take a team approach. When recovery is overseen by a CE Practitioner, if cross-referrals are appropriate this will be suggested at the appropriate phase of recovery. This streamlines recovery support, removing the confusion of which therapy would help the most at any given time, be it seeing a Nutritionist, Reflexologist, Massage Therapist, Trauma Release Expert etc.

It generally saves people a lot of trial and error and ultimately money, from trying all the different things on their own.

How does The Chrysalis Effect differ from other approaches to recovery?

There are a number of different treatment approaches which have attempted to help people with these conditions – with mostly limited amounts of success in some cases.

The main traditional treatment used is CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). It is useful for understanding the role of the mind in behaviour and works to retrain conscious thinking patterns. However, it often does not make any real difference in people with these conditions as a lot of what is happening is unconscious behaviour.

Graded exercise and Pacing are often offered alongside CBT. Pacing can be helpful for people, who tend to race ahead and completely ignore themselves and their body. For others, it can become a problem. If someone, who is already stressed and anxious (core issues of these conditions), is put on a strict pacing regime, it often becomes a source of further distress. Graded exercise therapy (GET) is often counterproductive, especially if introduced at an early stage in recovery, when the body is still burnt out and significantly in a stress state. At this stage exercise just adds another ‘load’.

Yoga and Meditation are often key practices in support of recovery. They help us to be in touch with the body and get into a healing state. In general, people need more than these practices to heal fully, as they don’t deal with the underlying issues.

Lightning Process and Gupta Programme are two approaches, that intercept the FEAR (fight/flight/freeze) response. The multitude of symptoms, limitations and uncertainty can engender such fear that this takes over. If that is the primary issue, these approaches work brilliantly. The problem arises if people have anything else happening – physical imbalances or emotional issues – that need to be addressed. These approaches tend to encourage those people to push through all of this and often make them worse or relapse later.

Reverse Therapy (RT) and Mickel Therapy are both working on the principle that the symptoms are the body’s way of showing us what needs to be resolved. This learning to listen to the body is useful, but like so many approaches, it often is not the whole solution as they ignore the other factors at play.

Dr Sarah Myhill’s approach primarily focusses on the physical side of recovery with an emphasis on mitochondria, adrenal and thyroid function.

The Optimum Health Clinic (Alex Howard) is a health clinic that has researched and tested all available approaches and integrates them together in the most effective way.

The problem is that many of these approaches have a part of the picture, yet they are claiming it to be the whole picture. Each is only supporting a small sub-group of people to recover.

The reality, however, is that for most people it is a discovery of their individual roadmap back to health and requires several different interventions.

The Chrysalis Effect – like the Optimum Health Clinic – is unique in using an integrative approach that draws on many different approaches and helps clients to short cut their recovery path. It takes the ‘trial and error’ out of it, supports them to pinpoint where they are on their path and what next steps need to be taken.

The key is to understand the stage of illness and the different factors at play, and then from there to be able to judge what it is needed to heal at that point. Different things are needed at different stages of the illness.

How long does it take to get better, when following the Chrysalis Effect approach?

It is totally understandable that you want to know; especially if you have been ill for a while and/or your participation in life is gravely compromised.

However, there is no way to predict or anticipate how long your journey back to health will take. Healing happens at a different pace than our ‘crazy’ modern life out there. It happens best when we can step back a little and give it the time and space to happen in its own way and time. That is not the same than resigning to ill-health forever. Our job is to trust the recovery process and do what we can to create the conditions where recovery really becomes possible. That’s what we do at the Chrysalis Effect.

So please don’t put a deadline on your recovery. It usually creates more pressure and stress, the opposite of what is needed to heal.

At the Chrysalis Effect, we know from personal and collective experience, that your journey back to health can be hugely accelerated with our comprehensive, supported approach. We invite people to complete a Symptom Impact Questionnaire (SIQ) at the beginning and then again at the 3/ 6/ 9 months point which has shown us that most people significantly improve as they work through the programme. Besides this quantitative evidence, we witness repeatedly how people’s lives are improving and how they finally return to health.

Some people recover over the 9 months of the programme, others need a little longer and some may need to go over the programme content once more to find pieces to their recovery that have still been missing.

The journey time depends on many different variables:

length of illness
how engrained the illness has become
state of depletion and deficiencies of the physical body
severity of toxicity in body and mind
susceptibility to stress
belief systems
life experiences
unresolved, past traumas
unprocessed grief
and more …

As an A-type you are probably in a rush to get on with it and get through it as quickly as possible but giving yourself the time and space to develop and adapt to healthier ways makes recovery more sustainable.

How do I choose a recovery practitioner?

As we navigate our recovery it can be a considerable challenge getting the right targeted support. With a multi-faceted illness there is no one size fits all. There are hundreds of different therapies and hundreds of thousands of therapists performing them. Some therapies can be counterproductive at specific phases of recovery.

So how can we decide where to start and who to trust to support our recovery appropriately?

Here are a few points to ask a practitioner before we make our decision:

Do you have an accreditation or qualification specifically in M.E, CFS and Fibromyalgia recovery?
Do you undertake CPD (Continuing Professional Development and Supervision in ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia)
Can you explain exactly what is causing so many symptoms in my body?
Do you have a clear map of where I am in the recovery process?
Do you treat all symptoms yourself or work within a specialist team and cross refer?
Do you have a step-by-step system or recovery plan that can be tailored to my needs?
Do you offer between appointment support?
Would I have access to other people who are recovering too?
Can you put me in contact with those who have completely recovered?
Can I access support 24/7?
Do you know which therapies might make me feel worse?
Do you have tools to assess and review progress?
Do you have a clear up-front pricing structure for my recovery plan?
Do you offer the opportunity to spread costs of on-going support?

Costing
There is no quick fix for these conditions. Ensure that your practitioner can give you clear costing for sessions, referrals, testing and on-going support. It will enable you to plan and budget for longer term cohesive support during recovery rather than a few treatments here and there.

How does 1:1 recovery support work?

To ensure that I am the right person to support you I recommend the following three steps:

1. Arrange a FREE, no-obligation 30 minute ‘Explorative Call and Health Assessment’

2. If you’d like to begin your supported recovery journey with me arrange a ‘Initial Consultation’

3. If you have a sense that I am right for you, and you’d like my support moving forward, please book your ‘Support Package’

Initial Contact
As a starting point, I invite you to complete a Health Assessment Form. It is confidential and completion it voluntary, but the more detail you give, the more it helps begin to show a fuller picture and make connections between life events and current issues.

Explorative Conversation
Once I have had a look over your completed form, I invite you to join me for a FREE 30 minute, no-obligation chat. It gives you a chance to ask questions and explore together where you are on your recovery path and what needs to be addressed first. You can also get to know me a little and discover whether the online recovery programme and working with me is right for you.

Initial Full Consultation
If you think 1:1 support is right for you, you are welcome to book an initial consultation. It gives us an opportunity to have a much closer look at what has been driving your health challenges and begin to put together your unique ‘roadmap’ towards recovery.
There is no obligation to proceed beyond this point; but most people find it beneficial to work with me over a longer period. Regaining our health takes time and commitment and receiving support usually shortens our recovery journey. The length of ‘support package’ I recommend depends on where you are on your recovery.

Support Packages
During your initial consultation, you had a chance to hear about packages in support of your recovery journey. If such a commitment and investment in your recovery feels right, you are now free to book a package.

All packages are delivered in conjunction with the Chrysalis Effect Recovery Programme.

Comprehensive Support Package
This package is ideal if you are at the beginning of your recovery journey. It gives you sustained support from the onset and makes sure you have all the knowledge, tools and confidence required to heal these debilitating symptoms and return to health.

9 hours coaching support – can be taken as 1hr, ½hr or 15mins touch base sessions, depending on your individual needs.
Additional email support – available between in-person contact, so you never feel alone.
Ideally spread out over the 9 months period of the Recovery Programme.

Booster Support Package
This package is ideal if you have been on your recovery journey for a while, working through the Recovery Programme on your own and just need this extra 1:1 support to keep you inspired and get you all the way.

6 hours coaching support – can be taken as 1hr, ½hr or 15mins touch base sessions
Additional email support.

Thrive Support Package
This package is ideal if you have completed the Recovery Programme.

You have regained your health and resumed a full life, but just need a little extra 1:1 support to truly integrate and cement your newly found health and wellbeing into your being and life. Or you have reached the end of the programme, still have a little to go on your journey and want to continue drawing on the inspiration and encouragement provided by such 1:1 support.

3 hours coaching support – can be taken as ½ – 1 hr sessions over the following 6 months
Additional email support.

Will this programme work for me if I’ve been ill for a long time?

YES!

At the Chrysalis Effect, we have success with those who have been stuck in phase 3 of recovery for many, many years. The challenge is for very entrenched ill health, there can be a lot to undo. In many cases people have been encouraged to ‘accept’ or ‘manage’ the condition.

So, if that is the case, we would say as long as you believes in your heart recovery is possible then give it a try.

What are the costs of the Chrysalis Recovery Programme?

The programme has been made as affordable as possible so that even if people are on benefits, they should be able to afford it.

After an initial free 30-day trial, the investment for the programme is £27 per month. There are no contracts, and cancellation at any time is possible.

Once people have completed the programme (9 months), they can choose to stay subscribed and join the ‘Wellbeing Graduate Programme’. This subscription allows continued access to the support forum, recovery webinars and working with CE practitioners.

What are the costs of working 1:1 with a Specialist Practitioner alongside the recovery programme?

With these complex chronic exhaustive conditions, you often only get the desired results with a comprehensive approach and support packages with a specialist practitioner rather than ad-hoc appointments with many different therapists. I thus ask of a minimum commitment of 3 sessions to ensure consistent, focussed support.
You can choose from a range of packages depending what stage you are at and your needs:

1. Comprehensive Support Package (9 hours): £850
2. Booster Support Package (6 hours): £570
3. Thrive Support Package (3 hours): £280

The initial consultation is a stand-alone session (1 hour) at the cost of £95.

As your recovery specialist I lead a team of practitioners, specialising in nutritional support, emotional release, etc., which allows me to cross-refer so that you can access what you need, when you need it.

Please note any additional support with a member of my team, incl. nutritional assessments, supplements, is entirely your choice and will be charged separately.