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

Nutrition for chronic fatigue and long covid

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.

Breaking free from the push-and-crash cycle in CFS

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

Nervous system regulation techniques and safety signalling for chronic fatigue recovery

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