Learning to Live in Your Body Again
A 4-week online community experience for young adults living with chronic illness and pain who are ready to move beyond survival and build a more trusting, compassionate relationship with their body.
You don't need another person telling you how to fix yourself.
You need a place where you can finally exhale.
Learning to Live in Your Body Again combines nervous system education, embodied practices, and compassionate community to help you understand your body's protective responses, reconnect with yourself, and remember that you are still allowed to have a beautiful life, even when you're living with pain or illness.
This isn't about becoming symptom-free.
It's about learning how to live well in the body you have.
Pilot cohort begins September 27th • Limited to 10 participants
You’re tired of feeling like you’re failing at healing
Maybe you've spent years trying to figure out what's wrong with you.
You've seen the doctors. Tried the treatments. Researched your symptoms at 2 a.m. You've changed your diet, pushed yourself to exercise, rested when you were supposed to rest, and somehow, you still don't feel like yourself.
And somewhere along the way, being sick became about more than your symptoms.
Maybe you...
Feel disconnected from the person you were before you got sick.
Blame yourself when your body can't do what you want it to.
Feel like you're constantly fighting your body instead of living in it.
Have lost confidence in your ability to understand what you need.
Feel ashamed when you need rest, support, or accommodations.
Find yourself pushing through long after your body has said enough.
Feel isolated because the people around you don't fully understand.
Grieve the life you thought you'd have.
Feel like you're always trying to get back to who you used to be.
Want to feel more connected to yourself but don't know where to start.
If any of this sounds familiar, you're not broken.
Your responses make sense.
And you don't have to figure this out alone.
You've been living with chronic illness or chronic pain and feel like it has changed your relationship with yourself.
You're looking for people who truly understand what you're carrying.
You want practical tools, not toxic positivity.
You're ready to move beyond simply surviving.
What if you stopped treating yourself like the problem?
Living with chronic illness and pain can change the way you relate to your body, your identity, and your life.
Learning to Live in Your Body Again is designed to help you begin changing that relationship.
Over four weeks, we'll move through four foundational shifts:
From self-blame → self-trust
Instead of constantly asking, “What's wrong with me?” you'll begin understanding why your responses make sense—and relating to yourself with more compassion instead of shame.
From losing yourself → reconnecting with yourself
You'll make space for the grief of what illness has changed while remembering that your illness isn't the entirety of who you are.
From fighting yourself → partnering with yourself
You'll learn to recognize survival responses like fight, flight, freeze, and fawn through the lens of chronic illness—and begin meeting those patterns with curiosity rather than judgment.
From isolation → connection
You'll experience what it can feel like to be witnessed by people who don't need you to explain or justify what it's like to live in an unpredictable body.
The goal isn't to fix you.
It's to help you understand yourself.
To build a little more trust with your body.
To make room for grief and pleasure.
To feel less alone.
And to begin discovering that there is still a life here worth living.
You don't have to wait until you're healthy to start living again.
The Four Week Journey
-
Understanding the emotional weight of chronic illness and beginning to let go of the belief that you're doing something wrong.
We'll explore:
Why chronic illness affects so much more than the physical body
The emotional weight of living with illness and pain
Why our culture can make us feel like we're failing when our bodies don't cooperate
The difference between healing and fixing
Self-compassion, dignity, and a different way of relating to yourself
The shift:
From: “I keep thinking there's something wrong with me.”
To: “My responses make sense, and I can begin relating to myself with more compassion instead of shame.”
In our Hootenanny: We'll explore what resonated, the expectations you've been carrying, and what might change if you stopped seeing yourself as the problem.
-
Making space for grief, identity, and the parts of yourself that may have changed.
Chronic illness & pain can change the way you see yourself. Sometimes it can feel like you've lost pieces of who you were or like you're constantly trying to get back to the person you used to be.
We'll explore:
Identity loss and self-doubt
Internalized ableism
The grief that comes with a changing body and changing life
Why grieving isn't the same thing as giving up
Reconnecting with the parts of yourself that are still here
The shift:
From: “I don't even know who I am anymore.”
To: “I can grieve what illness & pain has changed without believing I've lost myself forever.”
In our Hootenanny: We'll make space for what illness & pain have taken, what has remained, what you're grieving, and what has surprised you along the way.
-
Learning to recognize the patterns your nervous system developed to protect you.
Your reactions aren't character flaws. They're often adaptations.
We'll look at common survival responses (fight, flight, freeze, and fawn) through the specific lens of chronic illness and pain.
We'll explore what these can look like in real life:
Fight: over-researching, perfectionism, pushing through
Flight: staying busy, avoiding difficult emotions, numbing
Freeze: hopelessness, shutdown, feeling unable to act
Fawn: people-pleasing, over-explaining symptoms, prioritizing others' comfort
The shift:
From: “I'm so frustrated with myself for reacting this way.”
To: “I understand that these patterns helped me survive, and I can begin responding to them with curiosity instead of judgment.”
In our Hootenanny: We'll identify the patterns you recognize in yourself and explore what it might look like to partner with your body instead of fighting against it.
-
Exploring the role of connection, belonging, and being supported in your healing.
We've been taught that strength means being independent, self-sufficient, and able to handle everything ourselves.
But healing doesn't have to happen in isolation.
We'll explore:
Why connection matters to the nervous system
Co-regulation and being witnessed
The vulnerability of asking for and receiving support
Why being understood can change the way we experience illness
How to build more supportive relationships and community
The shift:
From: “I have to figure all of this out by myself.”
To: “Healing doesn't have to happen in isolation. I can be connected to myself and supported by others.”
In our Hootenanny: We'll reflect on what has shifted over the four weeks, what support you need going forward, and what you want to carry with you into the next chapter.
-
Because this isn't a program about learning how to survive better.
It's about learning to live.
The four-week journey ends with a Hootenanny celebration, a chance to step out of our heads, put the lessons into practice, and simply enjoy being together.
Because you deserve to experience your life, too.
More than a program. A place to practice living.
Learning to Live in Your Body Again combines education, practice, and community so you aren't left to figure out what to do with what you're learning.
Each week, you'll receive:
A short prerecorded lesson
20–30 minutes of nervous system education and practical frameworks you can return to throughout the program.
A weekly live online Hootenanny
A facilitated online community gathering where we'll discuss the week's theme, practice together, ask questions, share experiences, and connect.
Practical embodied practices
Simple tools and experiments you can bring into your everyday life, not another list of things you're supposed to do perfectly.
A space to be witnessed
You won't have to convince anyone that your experience is real. This is a space for people who understand the complicated reality of living in an unpredictable body.
Ongoing community access
The relationships you build don't have to disappear when the four weeks are over. You'll retain access to the community as we continue building this together.
You don't need another person telling you how to fix your body.
You've probably already spent a lot of time trying to do that.
This program isn't here to replace your doctors, therapists, medications, treatments, or other healthcare providers. Those things matter.
I'm also not here to promise that nervous system work will cure your illness or eliminate your pain.
Instead, we're looking at a piece of the chronic illness experience that often doesn't get enough attention:
What happens to your relationship with yourself when your body becomes unpredictable?
What happens when you don't trust your body anymore?
When you're constantly monitoring symptoms?
When resting feels like failure?
When you have to advocate for yourself over and over?
When you feel like nobody understands?
When you're doing everything you're "supposed" to do and you're still sick?
That's where this program lives.
We aren't trying to force your body into becoming something it's not.
We're learning to listen to it differently.
Through nervous system education, embodied practices, and community, you'll have the opportunity to develop a more compassionate understanding of your responses and begin building a relationship with your body based on curiosity, trust, and collaboration rather than fear and self-blame.
And perhaps most importantly: You won't be doing it alone.
This is a place to learn alongside people who understand the particular loneliness of being a young adult with chronic illness and pain. A place where you can show up exactly as you are.
You don't have to be less sick to belong here.
This is for you if…
You're a young adult living with chronic illness, chronic pain, or a body that feels unpredictable.
You've started to feel disconnected from your body or unsure how to trust it.
You often feel like you're failing at healing because you're doing everything you can and you're still struggling.
You carry shame around needing rest, asking for help, or having needs that change from day to day.
You've experienced grief around the life, identity, relationships, or future you imagined for yourself.
You want to better understand your nervous system and the ways it may be responding to chronic stress, illness, and pain.
You want practical ways to relate to your body with more curiosity and compassion.
You're craving connection with people who actually understand what it's like to live this way.
You're ready to explore a different relationship with your body—one built around self-trust rather than constantly trying to fix yourself.
This probably isn't the right fit if…
You're looking for a program that will diagnose, treat, or cure a medical condition.
You're expecting nervous system or somatic practices to eliminate your symptoms or replace medical care.
You're currently looking for individualized medical advice or treatment recommendations.
You're looking for one-on-one therapy or mental health treatment.
You're in an acute mental health crisis or need a level of support beyond what a facilitated community program can safely provide.
You're looking for someone to tell you exactly what you should do to heal.
This program is meant to complement, not replace, your existing medical and mental healthcare.
If you're unsure whether this is the right fit for you, you're welcome to schedule a discovery call with me. We can talk through what you're looking for and whether this program can genuinely support you.
Hi, I’m Abby
I'm a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), Certified Manual Lymphatic Drainage Practitioner (CMLD), and somatic practitioner.
I've spent years working with people living with chronic pain, chronic illness, inflammation, and bodies that don't always behave predictably.
And I know this experience personally, too.
I've lived through my own complicated relationship with chronic illness, pain, fatigue, and a body I couldn't always understand or trust. I've experienced the frustration of doing everything I could to take care of myself while still struggling and the loneliness that can come with trying to navigate all of it.
My clinical work taught me a lot about the body.
My own experience taught me that the physical body is only one part of the story.
I became deeply interested in the nervous system, somatic practices, and the ways our experiences can shape how we relate to our bodies, ourselves, and the world around us.
Over time, I realized there was something missing from the way we talk about chronic illness.
We talk a lot about managing symptoms.
We don't talk nearly enough about what it does to be the person living with those symptoms.
The grief.
The fear.
The identity changes.
The self-doubt.
The isolation.
The constant uncertainty.
The feeling that you're somehow failing because you're still sick.
I created Learning to Live in Your Body Again because I wanted to create the kind of space I needed when I was struggling most.
Not a space that promises to fix you.
A space where you can understand yourself a little better, feel a little less alone, and begin building a relationship with your body that isn't rooted in fear or shame.
You don't have to become a different person to have a beautiful life.
You get to learn how to live in the body you have and you don't have to figure that out alone.
Program Details
Duration: 4 weeks
Format: Virtual, live + prerecorded
Group Size: Limited to 10 participants
Live Virtual Hootenanny Dates
All live virtual gatherings are 11:00 AM–12:30 PM MDT
Sunday, September 27
Sunday, October 4
Sunday, October 11
Sunday, October 18
In Person Hootenanny Celebration: Date TBD based on where participants are located. We'll choose a time that allows as many people as possible to join us.
An investment in yourself
Learning to Live in Your Body Again
4-week pilot cohort
Standard: $497
Community Rate: $350 (limited spots available)
Partial Scholarships Available
One payment. Full access to the four-week program, weekly Hootenannies, lessons, practices, and ongoing community access.
Not sure if it's right for you?
That's exactly what the Fit Call is for.
Let's talk before you decide.
If you're wondering whether this program is actually the right fit for what you're experiencing, you can schedule a free Hootenanny Fit Call with me.
We'll talk about what you're looking for, what you're struggling with, and whether I genuinely believe this program can support you.
No pressure to enroll.
Ready to take the next step?
You don't have to figure this out alone.
Learning to Live in Your Body Again is an invitation to spend four weeks understanding your body differently, practicing new ways of relating to yourself, and experiencing what it feels like to be supported by people who truly understand.
$497 — Pilot Cohort
If you already know this is for you:
Still wondering if it’s the right fit?
FAQ’s
-
No. This is a psychoeducational support group facilitated within my scope of practice as a Licensed Massage Therapist and Somatic Practitioner.
-
Yes, the educational lessons are prerecorded. Live support groups are not recorded to protect participant confidentiality.
-
No. You are always welcome to participate at your own pace.
-
Yes. Whether you're newly navigating chronic illness/pain or have been living with it for years, you're welcome here.
-
You'll continue to be invited to our free monthly Hootenannies, where we gather in person for gentle connection and fun in accessible outdoor spaces.
-
Although I cannot promise complete safety since other people are out of my control, I can promise to maintain boundaries & community agreements to help everyone feel respected, heard, and included. Everyone who joins the group must agree to the Community Participation Agreement document. I reserve the right to remove anyone from the group who is causing harm or making the space unsafe. Rules will be clearly outlined at the beginning of each live cohort.