Recovery coaching
Coaching for ME/CFS, Long Covid, or Post Viral Fatigue
For many of us with ME/CFS or Long Covid, our nervous system has got stuck in fight or flight.
Our body is interpreting many normal activities as dangerous, and throwing out symptoms in a misguided attempt to keep us at home and safe.
Chronic Fatigue symptoms (or Long Covid symptoms!) could include brain fog and memory problems, aches and pains, heart palpitations, flu-like symptoms, exhaustion and fatigue, post exertional malaise (PEM), histamine reactions, food intolerances and allergies, sensitivities to light and sound, sleep problems, digestive challenges or IBS, and more.
To give ourselves the best chance of recovery from Chronic Fatigue, we need to:
Recuperate
our energy and nutrient reserves
our nervous system for safety
Rewire
systemic inflammation, poor gut health, and triggers for fight or flight
Reduce
movement and proper functioning in body systems that might have struggled, including immune, restorative sleep, energy production, and healing
Restore
strength and stamina. Muscles decondition when they’re not being used. Imagine you broke your leg - you wouldn’t try to run on it the moment it was healed.
Rebuild
back into life.
Rehabilitate
What does Recovery Coaching for CFS include?
Personalised nutritional recommendations
Nutritional recommendations tailored to you. Macronutrient balancing for hormonal balance, maximising micronutrients (vitamin and mineral intake) to support the immune system, repair and healing, avoiding food intolerances that contribute to stress and nervous system dysregulation, nutrient dense food strategies that minimise the toxic load on our bodies, reduce inflammation, and support our body’s natural ability to heal.
We’ll use coaching to integrate changes into your life in a way that feels easy and sustainable.
Nervous system regulation and safety signalling
Fatigue conditions including Chronic Fatigue and Long Covid often indicate a dysregulated nervous system that has got stuck in fight and flight, effectively turning off some of our body’s most important systems including restorative sleep, healing, and digestion. The result? A body stuck on high alert, using paralysing symptoms in a misguided attempt to keep us safely away from the world.
We will work on safety signalling and nervous system healing techniques that support your vagus nerve, strengthening your body’s ability to switch into the parasympathetic side of your autonomic nervous system.
Sleep hygiene, restoring the circadian rhythm
For most people with Chronic Fatigue or Long Covid, restorative sleep is nearly impossible. We sleep lightly and restlessly, waking feeling groggy and exhausted. Reinstating our ability to sleep restoratively allows our body to detox, supporting our liver and toxin removal systems at their most active times of the day, restoring our natural circadian rhythm and cortisol balance. We’ll work on good sleep hygiene techniques to improve this.
Breaking free from the push-and-crash cycle
Using emotional coaching techniques to remove obstacles and maximise opportunities, we’ll identify a comfortable baseline of activity for you that allows you to consistently plan ahead, trust your body, and gradually increase in capacity as you recuperate. Avoiding CFS crashes and minimising post exertional fatigue (PEM) is a key step in stabilising.
We’ll use baseline frameworks to gradually rebuild your capacity and stamina. As you move closer to wellness, energy will start to return. Do you remember what it feels like to wake up ready to spring out of bed and get on with the day?
Building capacity and energy
We’ll use emotional coaching techniques including self-parenting to help you feel comfortable establishing healthy boundaries which allow you to feel well whilst simultaneously living up to your own core values. We’ll start you on the journey of processing those emotions that have been affecting your health and nervous system, and we’ll discover the importance of building around you a community that energises rather than drains you.
Self-parenting and boundaries
Unravelling the causes of your Chronic Fatigue or Long Covid
We’ll do some detective work to unravel the sometimes surprising causes of your fatigue condition, so that you can build yourself a future blossoming with health, energy and opportunity.
Many people think they know when their fatigue began, but often this is just the trigger event, with years of stress building inside you until your body decides to take no more. Identifying this will help you to avoid any future relapses, or recover faster.
Accountability and empowerment
Regular coaching empowers you to take charge of your own recovery. It keeps you accountable to your goals, helping you to see scenarios from all angles, solve for potential obstacles, and identify opportunities that will help you move forward. It empowers you to achieve your full potential, helps identify resources and reflect back patterns of thinking that might be keeping you stuck (we all have them!). It shines a light on your strengths and capabilities and keeps your vision of the future front of mind.
We can’t wait until we feel better to start getting better.
FAQs
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Recovery is a very individual process and is impossible to predict. My own recovery took me nearly 2 years, but I did not have coaching and was working by trial and error. With the right support and information at the right time for you, it can be greatly accelerated. It can also depend on how long you’ve been ill - a longer period can mean we have a little more work to do to get the body out of the patterns it’s fallen into, and to support any body systems that have been affected.
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Our first session will include a full health history questionnaire and some detective work to understand where we’re starting. I recommend you then purchase sessions in groups of 5 (I have a cost-saving package available). At the end of each five, we can review our progress and make any changes needed. It’s impossible to tell how many sessions you’ll need as CFS can sometimes be quite complex to unravel. I also offer extra one-off sessions or micro-sessions (25 mins) that you can add on at any point to stay on track.
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This will depend on where you are on your chronic fatigue journey and how much focus you want to put into making changes between sessions. For those who are bedbound, I might recommend fortnightly sessions, whilst for those who are a little more active, I might recommend weekly sessions. At the end of the day, you’re in charge, and we’ll move your speed. Be aware that longer gaps between sessions can slow down progress.
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I work entirely online which allows me to see more clients and work with people anywhere in the world.
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Absolutely. Unravelling CFS or Long Covid requires detective work and problem solving, which is perfect for this programme. I also believed that recovery wasn’t possible for me - I had been ill for too long, my symptoms were too complicated, I’d tried everything and nothing had worked. A lot of the things I’d tried were good and might have contributed positively, but they weren’t necessarily at the right time and in the right order for my body to fully respond.
There will be changes you’ll need to make and a lot of unravelling to do, but I’m up for the challenge if you are!
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Anyone with a fatigue or nervous system related condition, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME, Fibromyalgia, Long Covid, Post Viral Fatigue, etc.
Whether you have had a diagnosis or not - if you think that you fit into this category, then you are welcome into coaching.
Please note that if you do not have a diagnosis, I will encourage you to seek one and support you through conversations that you need to have with your doctor. I will do this because it’s important that we rule out other causes of your symptoms that might need medical treatment.
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Yes. At the end of the day, coaching puts you in charge. I will make recommendations and coach you to achieve your goals and implement any changes that you want into your life. However, you are always more than welcome to discuss my recommendations with your doctor or specialist. I want to help you regain your wellness in whatever way works for you.
This programme is designed to be complementary.
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I am a qualified nutritional advisor and coach with the College of Functional Wellness and hold a level 3 FHT accredited anatomy & physiology qualification with ETS. I am insured by Balens and regulated by my governing body, the FHT (Federation of Holistic Therapists)
Before moving into health and wellness, I had a career as a global director of talent acquisition for scaling startup companies. I studied a BCs in Sociology and languages (including sociology of medicine).
I am currently finishing my diploma level 5 as a wellness practitioner and health coach with lab analysis training, and expect to qualify in the first half of 2026. This course with the College of Functional Wellness is internationally accredited by FHT, IITC, iTEC and VTCT.
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A professional organisation that sets standards, regulates practice, and supports its members to ensure ethical and competent services for the public. It provides a public register and enforces a code of conduct that its members must abide by. It also sets out the duty of care that I work by. A governing body requires continuous professional development from its members to ensure that their skills remain current with new developments in their field.
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Recovery is a complicated process that depends upon many factors. It involves some detective work to discover what is keeping you ill, and if we reach a point where our progress has slowed down, we’ll need to revisit the causes of your illness to discover what the obstacle is. If I think another professional would be better placed to help you, I will refer you on.
By mid 2026 I will also be able to offer lab testing, including Dutch tests, GI Maps, and DNA testing. This could be a good next step for someone who has spent time rebuilding solid foundations for health and has made some strong and lasting changes that give their body the best environment in which to begin its healing. By putting these foundations in place first, we both help clearly uncover other reasons for poor health, whilst also reducing the possibility of relapse after we address those reasons, since the environment in which they developed has been improved. Because of this, I will continue to recommend coaching before moving on to lab testing if needed, which can also be quite costly.
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I run a 24 hour cancellation policy. Cancellations in this period will be chargeable at the full rate.
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No, although I will always recommend that you get one where possible. Seeing your GP allows us to rule out any other diagnosis that could be causing your symptoms and might need medical attention. Having a diagnosis can also be useful if you intend to apply for financial support during your recovery. However, some people might not want a formal diagnosis and that’s absolutely fine. I will always refer you back to your GP if I see evidence of symptoms that should be checked out medically, but this does not prevent us from working together in the meantime.
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This programme is not intended to replace medical advice or attention. I recommend that you continue to work with your GP or specialist. I cannot make recommendations regarding medication or medical treatments and you should continue to consult your doctor in these areas. This programme is intended to be complementary.
If at any point during my programme you feel well enough to consider coming off any medications, you should consult your doctor and do so only under their direction and with their full supervision.
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Fatigue conditions are really complex. There are lots of different methods that different companies will use to guide your recovery. I am continuously researching new information on fatigue conditions and incorporating this into my approach. Everyone is different; some things that work amazingly well for others might not work for you, and that’s ok - we have regular sessions to review what’s working and change direction where needed. I don’t think anyone has all the answers yet, but there are lots of approaches out there that have worked for various people which we can try.
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I’m based in the south-west of the UK, but I work entirely online, so I can work with clients anywhere.
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Absolutely. I work entirely virtually using Zoom, so as long as you have an internet connection, that’s absolutely fine.