Latest / The STA Clinician Podcast / Ep.269 'Neurodivergence in Healthcare - Part 2 of 4: Hypermobility'
Transcript
- 0:00You're listening to the STA Clinician Podcast, connecting clinicians across healthcare.
- 0:17We're live. Hey people, how are you doing? Welcome to the newly named STA Clinician
- 0:22Podcast, formerly known for the last five years as the Sports Therapy Association
- 0:26Podcast. For every week for the last five years we've been broadcasting.
- 0:29My name is Matt Phillips, creative onchecklive.com. And as always,
- 0:33this episode is billed live on the Sports Therapy Association YouTube channel
- 0:37and Facebook page on a Tuesday night at eight o'clock.
- 0:41So you join us in part two of our Neurodivergence in Healthcare series,
- 0:47January 2026, with the goal of providing valuable information to help soft tissue
- 0:52therapists work closer and more effectively with neurodivergent patients or clients,
- 0:57and also provide suggestions for neurodivergent therapists on how to monitor
- 1:01and care for your own good selves.
- 1:04Last week in part one, on the screen now if you've joined us on YouTube or Facebook,
- 1:09the focus was on communication.
- 1:11And I was joined by special guests, Rosie Sexton of Alton Health and Performance,
- 1:15Cassandra Clemens, founder of Hear Your Confidence, and Benjamin Mace Crossley
- 1:18of Repose Injury Rehab, who together gave us a fantastic insight into the vital
- 1:23role communication can play when working with a neurodivergent patient or client,
- 1:27including descriptions of pain and symptoms that may not fit into the narrative
- 1:30that clinicians expect,
- 1:32or indeed were even taught to expect.
- 1:35So together, the panel discussed how others can lead to diagnostic overshadowing
- 1:38in which proper assessment and diagnosis is missed because the clinician has
- 1:42not read the situation correctly and has made erroneous assumptions that can
- 1:46all too often result in the non-identification of serious injury and disease.
- 1:50A fantastic part one, a real eye-opener.
- 1:53Available, as always, on all popular podcast platforms and on YouTube,
- 1:57that's episode 268 of the STA Clinician Podcast.
- 2:02Tonight, in part two, the focus is going to be on the link between neurodivergence
- 2:07and hypermobility, with modern research suggesting that individuals with neurodevelopmental
- 2:13conditions such as autism, ADHD,
- 2:15and Tourette's have a significantly higher prevalence of joint hypermobility
- 2:20compared to the general population.
- 2:22Flipping the coin over as it were, studies also show that individuals with Ehlers-Danlos
- 2:26Syndrome, EDS, had up to a seven-fold higher risk of autism.
- 2:31So to discuss this very shortly, I'm given by special guest Bonnie Southgate,
- 2:35founder of Movement Anatomy Essentials.co.uk and MSK advisor at SEDS Connective.
- 2:41Also Jessica Yannerman, advanced clinical massage therapist at Ease Therapies,
- 2:45and Rosie Sexton, Osteopath at Alton Health and Performance returns from part one.
- 2:50As always if you are joining us for the live recording do please feel free to
- 2:54ask questions and show experiences in the comments.
- 2:57Do bear in mind as I said last week that these episodes are recorded and then
- 3:00they're made available on the public domain so if you are sharing something
- 3:04sensitive maybe think twice before you post it because it will go into YouTube
- 3:08and Facebook and all popular podcast platforms with currently about 2,000 downloads a month.
- 3:13If you do want to send an anonymous question and we'll mention later on that
- 3:16there is a QR code you might have seen, which we will highlight later on,
- 3:20which you can use to go through to Slido and ask an anonymous question if that's
- 3:23going to be better for you.
- 3:25Right. Just a hi to people who have joined us live. If you do join us live and
- 3:30you share a comment, then I can bring that up on the screen.
- 3:33I'll give you a little demo now if you're joining us live and you.
- 3:36I don't have to check any of these. These are all very highly reputable people in here.
- 3:40Nikki Mansfield. Hey, Nikki, how you doing? As says, evening,
- 3:42Bendy Spice Girls and Matt, my peeps. Thanks for that inclusivity there.
- 3:46Thank you. Thanks to everybody who joined us live. I love doing it live.
- 3:48I love the people who download it as well. It's really cool.
- 3:50But live is really why I do it. I love the spontaneity.
- 3:54Let's bring up three spontaneity people as we delve into part two of our focus
- 3:59on neurodivergence in healthcare, hypermobility. Let's bring them up now.
- 4:09Adjective for Spontaneity. Spontaneous people, how are you? Welcome to you all.
- 4:13So that listeners can, again, identify your voices a bit like last week,
- 4:17let's get straight into it.
- 4:18Let's go around the circle and if you can, a brief summary of who you are,
- 4:22maybe where you are in the country and what you do. Should we start with Bonnie? Bonnie Southgate?
- 4:27Sure. Hi, I'm Bonnie. I live in Dorset, so down south.
- 4:31And I basically was a ballerina, a very hypermobile one, which is why I have such an interest.
- 4:40I then was a bodies teacher, sports therapist, trained with Mike Grice,
- 4:45which everybody knows and loves so well.
- 4:47And then I did an MSC, which I finished a couple of years ago,
- 4:51a year and a half ago, in dance science, looking at hypermobility, strangely.
- 4:58But I'm also, most importantly for tonight, I am the MSK advisor,
- 5:02one of them, for SEDS Connective, which is really the only Neurodivergent Hypermobility
- 5:07Cherry, that charity that I know of.
- 5:10And it's a really great resource for people watching this tonight.
- 5:14Fantastic. Thanks, Bonnie. And yes, a big shout out to CES Connective and thanks
- 5:17for sharing our posts. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Bonnie.
- 5:20Round the circle in no particular order to Jessica Yannerman with a Yerp but
- 5:24spelt with a jerk. Exactly.
- 5:27I'm Jess. I live in Birmingham where I work as a massage therapist,
- 5:33I originally trained as an actor and then had a swerve into massage therapy,
- 5:39which kind of coincided with various health problems for my daughter primarily, and then myself.
- 5:47And these things led to a diagnosis of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- 5:51And then consequently, I suppose, that's the way that my work has taken me.
- 5:57And so really on the whole, I treat hypermobile individuals,
- 6:01whether they know it or not, and from a kind of neurodiverse,
- 6:08divergent perspective, family full of it, of all types.
- 6:14OCD, dyslexia, ADHD, autism, some diagnosed, some not.
- 6:21Even my daughter has quite recently had an ADHD diagnosis and I think actually
- 6:24the combination of her receiving that diagnosis,
- 6:28and being asked to come on the podcast has really made me think about my practice
- 6:32and the people that I treat and really how I respond to them as individuals
- 6:39and how perhaps I need to change some things.
- 6:43That's great, really cool and I remember now, now you mentioned it,
- 6:46you were on the podcast before and I think even you were taken aback by kind
- 6:49of some of the responses you got,
- 6:52the people who are getting in touch with you and thanking you for sharing your stories,
- 6:55it was quite emotional wasn't it it was it
- 6:58was I was really surprised and still now
- 7:01actually people get in touch I had a couple of people at the
- 7:03therapy expo come up to me and I
- 7:06just think it started a conversation you know Bonnie started the conversation
- 7:10my episode reflected on that and it's got people thinking and moreover it's
- 7:17hopefully and hopefully tonight we'll do the same thing we'll make people realize
- 7:21they have a really important role to play,
- 7:25That's great. Fantastic. Thank you so much for being here. We'll delve more into that later on.
- 7:30Someone else who's full of it, Rosie Sexton. You've come back from part one.
- 7:33I love the way you said full of it. I think that's a t-shirt wait to be made there.
- 7:36But yeah, Rosie Sexton, thanks for coming back. How are you?
- 7:40Hey, so yeah, it's good to be invited back. I didn't get kicked off after last
- 7:44week. That must be a good thing.
- 7:47So I am, I'm Rosie Sexton. I'm an osteopath.
- 7:51I'm just down the road from Jessica. I'm in Solihull and I, autistic ADHD,
- 7:57fairly recently diagnosed within the last few years, although obviously it's always been there.
- 8:03I am mostly not like mobile, although my hands are a little bit.
- 8:11But I do treat, a lot of the time when you get a diagnosis, you tend to realize that actually,
- 8:20I seem to have been attracting a lot of neurodivergent people without really
- 8:25thinking about it or trying to, you tend to just find yourself hanging out with people.
- 8:30And that's been something that I've really noticed in my practice is that I
- 8:33seem to just attract neurodivergent people.
- 8:35I don't know why they seem to find me one way or another.
- 8:38And as such obviously
- 8:41a lot of those people do have some form
- 8:44of hypermobility so that is something i do
- 8:47see relatively frequently something that
- 8:51i find that's interesting maybe we can get into this in in the podcast because
- 8:55i'd love to get bonnie and jessica's thoughts about this as well is that i see
- 9:01quite a few people who may not meet criteria for hypermobility but definitely
- 9:06have some features of it, at least in some parts of their body.
- 9:10And again, you know, they might not have a particularly high baton score or
- 9:13as we're looking at, but when you look at their tissues or where you feel their
- 9:18tissues, there's definitely something there.
- 9:21And that's something that's worth bearing in mind, whether or not they have
- 9:25a diagnosis or even whether or not they would get a diagnosis.
- 9:29And I think in a way that sort of parallels my thoughts on neurodivergence as
- 9:33well, which is that we like to draw cut lines between either you have it or you don't.
- 9:38Whereas actually, I think reality is messy and you end up with lots of people
- 9:41who are somewhere on the borderline there.
- 9:44And actually maybe learning more about working with hypermobile people actually
- 9:50helps you with a whole range of people who may or may not.
- 9:53Be fully hyper-popped. Anyway, I'm rambling.
- 9:57I'm going to stop. Not at all. You've just either consciously or subconsciously
- 10:00once again done a great segue.
- 10:02You did last week with a, maybe we'll touch on this later on.
- 10:05I think we should go there straight away.
- 10:06I think first of all, maybe one of the best things to do, and Bonnie's nodding
- 10:09away, as you can read my mind, is let's define hyper-mobility because putting
- 10:13the newer divergence to one side at the moment,
- 10:16hyper-mobility is used in all sorts of contexts, sometimes erroneously and sometimes
- 10:20a lot of misinformation.
- 10:22So Bonnie, would you like to start with what are we talking about when we say hypermobility?
- 10:26Yes, I will. And I will directly answer Rosie as well on why she might be finding things difficult.
- 10:31So I think there is misconceptions a little bit about hypermobility and people
- 10:36think only joints and they think flexibility, which is not necessarily the same thing.
- 10:43And I think when we're talking about our neurodivergence and the link to that,
- 10:48we're talking about symptomatic hypermobility and we're thinking connective tissue.
- 10:52There is, in 2016, they did a criteria for HEDS, which is what you will have
- 11:00been looking at for your criteria, the Baten criteria, and the assessments for that.
- 11:05But they also at the same time created the HSD diagnosis, which is the hypermobility
- 11:11spectrum disorder, because they did realize that there was an enormous group
- 11:15of people that didn't fit into the EDS criteria,
- 11:19but who were also really debilitated and had as many problems.
- 11:23And they categorize it, and it can be sort of like peripheral joint hypermobility,
- 11:29historical, you can just have it in one or two joints.
- 11:32So when you're seeing your.
- 11:36Clients or patients, you still need to take them seriously if they're struggling
- 11:41with the kind of the holistic picture of maybe more of a connective tissue.
- 11:47Maybe the skin feels different. Maybe they've got some of the other symptoms.
- 11:51And I think this does combine with the neurodegenerative and again,
- 11:57they've made it a spectrum, but I think they're trying to get away from that
- 12:00in a way because I think it's a really like big mixed bag.
- 12:04And I am just going to give the one statistic out that Jessica Eccles did a
- 12:09bit of research and she was the only one who combined ADHD and autism and Tourette's,
- 12:15which is what she diagnoses.
- 12:17And it was 51% of neurodivergent adults were seen to have hypermobility,
- 12:23where in the general population it's 20%, which is still a quite high,
- 12:29number. I know that they're going to come out with a new criteria in 2026,
- 12:34a consortium for ibermobility, and it's going to blow everything out the water that's there now.
- 12:41It's going to change everything because there's been tons of work done.
- 12:45So I think they will, from what I've heard, and I could be wrong because I'm
- 12:49not on any boards or anything like that, but through the grapevine,
- 12:53I hear that they will maybe be combining all of it because they realize actually that that original,
- 12:59that 2016 criteria for heads was more for them to do research to try and find a genetic cause.
- 13:06So they narrowed it down. But when they did that, they left a lot of people
- 13:11out and a lot of people who didn't get the right kind of care.
- 13:14And I think that with the neurodivergence, they do take HSD into account.
- 13:19So it's not just the main criteria.
- 13:23You have to fit that generalized joint hypermobility So I hope that answers your question, Rosie.
- 13:31Yeah, thanks. That's really helpful. And again, that very much fits with my experience.
- 13:37As I say, I'm aware that obviously the criteria for these things change all the time.
- 13:42And that's something that I'm maybe less familiar with the cutting edge research
- 13:48and what's going on at the moment.
- 13:51But yeah, no, that sounds like things are definitely moving in a helpful direction.
- 13:57Jessica when we were talking about a little bit of about this off air you've
- 14:00you've and you kind of alluded to in your introduction you've been through
- 14:02the mill for yourself and your daughter and and you're not a massive fan of
- 14:06these classifications either because they kind of keep changing the goalposts
- 14:09and it's like as well as not being very helpful it can be quite traumatic can't
- 14:13you when you're labeled this and then suddenly it's not that it really doesn't
- 14:15give you much confidence does it no and it's and it's confusing it's massively
- 14:20confusing and i think you You know,
- 14:22the fact that these sympathetic hypermobility conditions are multisystemic.
- 14:30Mean that that coupled with this thing about neurodivergence gets completely confused.
- 14:39So I was saying earlier that my daughter really initially when she was about
- 14:43six, they were thinking about dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia.
- 14:48And that kind of went by the wayside because she had a series of accidents,
- 14:53which really on reflection were proprioceptive things,
- 14:57falling over things crashing into things but then
- 15:00bounced her in and out of hospital then it
- 15:03looked like a bone disease then it became a kind of anxiety picture was she
- 15:08manifesting this then that kind of segued into maybe adhd might be tourette's
- 15:13then it went into hypermobile spectrum disorder and eventually we arrived at
- 15:19hypermobile ayla's danloss and then now we're back around at adhd so So,
- 15:23you know, I was talking to her before the podcast actually about how important
- 15:27the diagnoses are to her and to her personally, they are really important.
- 15:32And to me as a parent, I am more concerned with how she lives a life and how she manages herself.
- 15:39And, you know, it's, of course, it's an entirely personal thing,
- 15:44the thing about diagnoses.
- 15:46But we, you know, we are aware that the criteria are about to change for hypermobile people.
- 15:53And that will cause all manner of different upset, confusion.
- 15:57And you're right back at those feelings of not being believed.
- 16:02The gaslighting, the, you know, because the reality is that even with these
- 16:08diagnoses, you don't necessarily receive the care that you think you're going to receive.
- 16:13So, you know, the shifting is important. Of course, it's important that we're always moving forward.
- 16:21But as a clinician, it then becomes about being creative and working with the
- 16:28person in front of you and listening to them as an individual and their individual
- 16:32needs than a kind of textbook,
- 16:36well, this is this condition, this is how we treat it.
- 16:39I mean, nobody's like that, obviously, but particularly this community needs
- 16:45that individualised care.
- 16:48That's good to hear i think we touched on this last week but
- 16:52absolutely everything we're doing here is it's
- 16:56just giving more and more reason to be individual all
- 17:00we're saying is don't judge a boot by its cover and hey guess
- 17:03what that's going to be better for the person in front of you so whether
- 17:05we're focusing on neurodivergence or we're focusing on hypermobility or
- 17:09even just an ankle sprain or anything it is whatever it
- 17:12is or bad back it's just don't go to the textbook and
- 17:15label them with something it's talked to them and listened to them and walk with them
- 17:18all these sort of things so yeah like we said last week by by
- 17:21informing yourself about what we're talking about tonight you'll become a better
- 17:23clinician with everybody you know um probably i
- 17:27think that point about being believed is such an important thing
- 17:30because as and this is especially true
- 17:33when we talk about that cohort of people who have some
- 17:37underlying high mobility they might have some chronic pain and
- 17:41they may have a whole range of others that
- 17:45go alongside it and i think that group of people um historically they very often
- 17:50get labeled as you know being a bit anxious a bit and it's that whole response
- 17:58that people tend to get you know whether it's said out loud or not that sense
- 18:02of this is all in your head.
- 18:04And I hate that. I mean, what I always say to people about pain is,
- 18:08well, yes, pain is all in your head because that's where pain lives.
- 18:11In a sense, that's true. But if you stick your hand in a pan of boiling water,
- 18:15that pain is all in your head as well.
- 18:17But it doesn't mean that you can make it go away by thinking more positively
- 18:20about it. And nor should you.
- 18:24Because that pain is there for a reason. It's there to communicate something.
- 18:27And i think for a lot of these people
- 18:30if they've spent so much of their life being
- 18:33told that that pain is in their head it has
- 18:37a real effect on on you know i've had patients
- 18:40who come in and they're forever apologizing because
- 18:43they feel like they're being awkward or they're being
- 18:46difficult or they're and it's like you don't
- 18:49have to apologize for for listening to your body you don't have to apologize
- 18:52for whatever's going on this is but i think sometimes being given that validation
- 18:57of having a diagnosis and saying actually there is something here you're not
- 19:01making this up and i mean obviously again from my point of view that should
- 19:05go without saying because.
- 19:07It's you know it's almost unheard of in my experience for people to to actually
- 19:13make things up i think that's that's a misconception it doesn't happen nearly
- 19:18as often as some clinicians think it does i think there's almost always something
- 19:22there and it's about whether we've understood that or not.
- 19:26I think that's, yeah, key. I think the diagnosis is key.
- 19:31And unfortunately, I mean, Jessica, I feel your pain when things are changing.
- 19:37And I think hypermobility in general, particularly what's now known as hypermobile
- 19:43Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, has gone historically through so many different names.
- 19:47And if you start looking at literature, it becomes horrifically confusing as
- 19:51well to like piece it together.
- 19:54I think the reason they're trying to change it is for the reason that people
- 19:59don't get diagnosed and they're being lost and not getting the care that they need.
- 20:05I think that, as well, the linking now between the hypermobility of the physical
- 20:11and the brain is so key because I think they've siloed the two separately.
- 20:16And actually when you look at the two conditions and
- 20:19you look at like the overlaps and the things that
- 20:22they share they have the dysautonomia the
- 20:25perceptive issues the sensory issues the
- 20:29the sort of tons of
- 20:32different like things that link them together they
- 20:35both i know studies looked at brain scanning jessica
- 20:38eccles and they showed changes in the amygdala
- 20:42and changes in the insula in both
- 20:45and they did show also that the amount
- 20:48of hypermobility linked to the changes
- 20:52so the greater the hypermobility was the greater the brain
- 20:55changes were but these were the same things that are showing up in
- 20:58your neurodivergent like scans of brain so we know that there's some biological
- 21:04link we don't think one causes the other but that it might be in like development
- 21:09meant in utero or something because it's the extracellular matrix and the connective tissue.
- 21:16And it's kind of like someone, and I don't know who it is, but there was someone
- 21:20looking at all the sort of different genes and all these different things that could be expressed.
- 21:24And I think you get this like big, huge mixed bag.
- 21:28I think that getting one diagnosis, kind of like you said, Jessica and I have
- 21:35so many clients that maybe get the autism diagnosis and then they might get like.
- 21:41You know, some other diagnosis, psychiatric diagnosis with it.
- 21:45And then they go in with all kinds of physical issues, pain,
- 21:49and they are, it's all deemed anxiety or it's all deemed because they're divergent,
- 21:54but like the dysautonomia, the parts,
- 21:57the racy heart, this is physical problems that will cause you anxiety.
- 22:02It will put your brain into fight or flight.
- 22:04So they get completely gaslit again and sent away without the care they need.
- 22:11I've had people come back and they have major dislocations that have been missed
- 22:16because they don't look at their bodies.
- 22:17And we talked about the difficulties in communication and they don't get listened to either.
- 22:25They're trying to communicate, but actually the listening skills,
- 22:28when you're not thinking hypermobility and you're only thinking brain, you miss a whole lot.
- 22:35And the same goes for the hypermobiles who then go in and may be really struggling
- 22:39because they do have other difficulties.
- 22:42Everything is about the hypermobility and then they don't get the other diagnosis.
- 22:46So I do think it's really important. I think it's really, I think it's a great,
- 22:51Matt, that you put this together, this whole series, because I think when we
- 22:55look now at hypermobility, we have to look at neurodivergence.
- 22:59When we look at neurodivergence, we have to look at hypermobility.
- 23:03The research now is so definitively correlated and so much higher than in the
- 23:09general population, it can't really be ignored.
- 23:13So, yeah, I think it's really important. I think that's a really important point.
- 23:18Sorry, just to, just to the case, because I know if listeners are like me and
- 23:20you start Googling things, then, and especially now with kind of ChatGPT and
- 23:25Co-Pilot, it does highlight in black caveats, you know, correlation rather than causation.
- 23:31And this hasn't been found in this population and blah, blah,
- 23:33this and in clinical practice.
- 23:34But just because it's so little of what we do is actually 100%,
- 23:39you know, blessed by evidence and empirical research and everything.
- 23:42But it doesn't mean we don't alter our clinical practice, is it?
- 23:46When the scales start tipping past a certain way, fine, we just start doing
- 23:50things differently in clinic.
- 23:51So yeah, if you are looking this up, you will see caveats and you will see,
- 23:55depending on who you're reading, kind of doubts put into your mind. Yeah.
- 24:00It is enough for us to be definitely acting differently and clear.
- 24:04That's the take home I want you guys to get from this. Sorry,
- 24:06Rosie, I interrupted you.
- 24:07I was just going to pick up on something that Bonnie said, actually.
- 24:12I think you mentioned people are getting all these dislocations who are not
- 24:18necessarily being taken seriously.
- 24:19And I think I've spoken to a couple of people recently
- 24:22in Hypermobile and they've
- 24:25had the experience of because when they
- 24:29go to to A&E with a
- 24:32hypermobile dislocation they're so used
- 24:35to men it's not really understanding what's going on or dismissing
- 24:38what they've said and going oh no that couldn't happen and they
- 24:42found it or they end up being given advice that it
- 24:46doesn't really work for them because it doesn't take into
- 24:49account their hypermobility and then if
- 24:51you add on top of that the difficulty they might have with the
- 24:54environment because of their neurodivergence or something like
- 24:57that it mal-experienced so traumatic and
- 25:00i i use that word in this absolute literal sense
- 25:03that very often
- 25:07some of these people the person
- 25:10asked yeah i just i know i should go to i and
- 25:12e but i don't because i can't face it so these
- 25:16people are left without really any proper medical
- 25:20care for somebody's condition because as I
- 25:23said the only option that's open to them really is something
- 25:26that they find incredibly traumatic and I think it's such a problematic situation
- 25:33yeah it is and like you say the anxiety that gets blamed all the time and it
- 25:41is like being in the boiling water and they're missing it they're not taking
- 25:44their heads out of the boiling water.
- 25:46They're just, you know, I had one client and he was given all sorts of things
- 25:50to listen to at night and breathing exercises, but he was physically,
- 25:55you know, in a bad ass and they completely missed it.
- 26:01Yeah, I mean, I can tell you countless stories of my daughter's thumbs dissipate a lot.
- 26:10And, you know, them being reduced, put in a cast, Evie will say, well, it's not in joint.
- 26:17It's not in joint. No, it must be in joint. No, it's not in joint.
- 26:20Well, we've cast it. It's in joint. No, it's not in joint.
- 26:22Then eventually we go to X-Ray. Of course it's not in joint because it's spasmed
- 26:26and come out while they were casting it.
- 26:29But they don't believe her because why would she know her body?
- 26:33You know, and it's, I could go on and on and on and on. And there are wonderful,
- 26:38wonderful people out there.
- 26:39But in fact, last week we were in hospital. We weren't in A&E.
- 26:44We were in hospital for a planned appointment.
- 26:46But they, and it's really made me start to think about my practice actually,
- 26:50because they asked her for a history.
- 26:52And then there's a throwaway question that
- 26:57was about neurodivergence or mental health
- 27:00something and Evie said because her diagnosis is new quite
- 27:04happily I've got an ADHD diagnosis and they wrote it down and carried on and
- 27:08that was just part of their intake and I thought you know if you'd have asked
- 27:12that at the beginning of this whole process maybe the communication might have
- 27:18been different And so then it started to make me think about my practice.
- 27:24And we were talking before we came on air about our intake forms and all our tick boxes.
- 27:28And particularly in things that are systemic, like hypermobility.
- 27:33And, you know, you're trying desperately to cover all the systems of the body.
- 27:37Because on the whole, people forget to tell you things, right?
- 27:40Because it's just them and their lives.
- 27:42And my question about neurodivergence is always at the bottom.
- 27:46And I thought, no, just need to flip that to the top.
- 27:50Because actually, the end of a sudden, and it might, you know,
- 27:54it might not change anything.
- 27:56But my hope is that it shows that I'm thinking about how we communicate,
- 28:03what might be important in the environment.
- 28:06And actually then asking not just about ADHD or autism, but is there a dyslexia,
- 28:15dyscalculia, an OCD, you know, something. Yeah.
- 28:18And I did it. I'm telling you this because I'm pleased because I think it might be helpful.
- 28:23I did it last week and a woman who was a new EDS client with multiple neurodivergent
- 28:29diagnoses said, the thing I need you to do, and this would never occur to me.
- 28:35The thing I need you to do is when I get changed, stay in the room because it
- 28:40really panics me if somebody leaves the room and I don't know when they're coming back.
- 28:44So if you could turn around and stay in the room and I said well that's absolutely fine.
- 28:49Never ever occurred no I've always well there's things we can do about lights sounds bedding,
- 28:55never would have occurred to me but it was really because of that hospital environment
- 28:59that I started to think hang on a minute where does this question come and why
- 29:04are we asking what is the point in asking the question if you just write it
- 29:07down and carry on very powerful yeah yeah sure it's going to hit out with a lot of listeners yeah.
- 29:15I brought it hard past. I'm going to read out a few of the comments.
- 29:18Thanks, people are leaving comments.
- 29:19And then I want to kind of try and devote the next half to what we do with this,
- 29:25particularly soft tissue therapists, because, you know, we've got a lot of power,
- 29:29how we can run our clinics and like you say, the questions we can ask and stuff.
- 29:32So I want to kind of dip into that, but also how we can be more useful in terms
- 29:36of noticing red flags and referring on.
- 29:39I think that's a really important part we play, especially if we're in the private business.
- 29:42We get a lovely hour with these people. They trust us. the communication can
- 29:46be fantastic with the empathy most of us have actually got because we're doing
- 29:49this for a job so i want to i'm going to leave you with that to have a little
- 29:52think about while i read out some of the comments but yeah practical tips on
- 29:55like you've just said jess of putting that can i say jess i don't know why i
- 29:59call you jess then people call you jess yeah.
- 30:01Nobody calls me jessica really would be
- 30:04on the show for half an hour i'll call you jess then it'll be jay but yeah
- 30:07but um but yeah i think that's just a great example of
- 30:10just a clinical called gold where put that question at the top because you
- 30:13know what for the first few consultations it's not for the client it's for you just
- 30:16to remember you know when you're looking down the sheet oh yeah let's
- 30:19establish how they like to communicate first before i do all these questions
- 30:22and then realize they've just been watching my mouth move as sarah jones kind
- 30:26of said the other day you know that's all they're doing for half an hour while
- 30:28you're talking to them so yeah so have a love think of things we can do in clinic
- 30:31to help now we know there's this link things we should be doing in the meantime
- 30:36whilst you are thinking of that brain boxes i'm just going to read out a few comments here.
- 30:40There's a lovely, some sharing here from Nicky Mansfield.
- 30:43I'll read and listen to the podcast and it's up on the screen for YouTubers. It's welcome.
- 30:48I'll put it large in my eyes. It's welcome and not unexpected.
- 30:51News reclassifying heads and HSD is the same.
- 30:54I know I have HEDS, but it was dismissed as just HSD, even though my cardiac,
- 30:59neuroendocrinic symptoms are now rendering me disabled.
- 31:03And then Nikki continues, regarding ASD, the current issue of New Scientist
- 31:08introduces four types of autism, moving away from the spectrum thinking.
- 31:13Brilliant read. Go buy it before this week's issue replaces it on the shelves.
- 31:17I don't think there's any kind of affiliation there from Nicky and New Scientist.
- 31:20So that's a great recommendation. Thanks, Nicky. That would be interesting to have a read of.
- 31:24Yeah, moving away from spectrum is something that we were talking about,
- 31:26and it can only be healthy.
- 31:28I also just wanted to say hi as well to, who is it?
- 31:32Oh, new to the podcast. Faye Louise. Thank you so much for joining us.
- 31:34Lovely to see new people joining us live. Really appreciate it.
- 31:37And that's Faye Louise, says new to the podcast. Hi. Thank you for joining us.
- 31:42And then we have a ND specialist here, neurodivergent specialist.
- 31:46Catherine Parfit says as a ND specialist
- 31:49I completely agree that you can't explore ND without considering physical
- 31:53indicators and hypermobility and vice versa Sarah
- 31:57Clark goes on to say so many people me included avoid vital health care due
- 32:03to past invalidation and then the last one I'll bring up here I love these comments
- 32:07people it's so useful I get so much feedback from listeners saying it's the
- 32:10people leaving their comments which empowers me or helps educate me so.
- 32:15Sarah Jones says, I'm convinced my youngest has heads, but she's been dismissed
- 32:20so many times, I don't really know where to go now. My eldest is likely to.
- 32:24No concerns about her subluxing sternoclavicular joint.
- 32:28We've got one more here, which has been in here. We might have some replies
- 32:31to these comments, guys, if
- 32:32you want to reply to these rather than just ignoring them and moving on.
- 32:36Louise Andrews says, I recently had 13 hours in
- 32:39A&E having to explain that I have HSD to multiple people and
- 32:42strain on me on my pain and also mental health
- 32:45okay so a few this very disappointing
- 32:48thanks for sharing people who have done that but reflections panel
- 32:53on any of those yeah i mean the difficulty in getting a diagnosis right now
- 32:59is horrific it was always bad for hypermobility but it used to be rheumatology
- 33:05that you were meant to be referred to but rheumatology have not thrown it out.
- 33:09They will not diagnose it.
- 33:11And so I go to my GP and I said, well, who's diagnosing it? And I'm, we don't know.
- 33:17So theoretically, your GP could,
- 33:21but there is nobody out there who specifically is meant to take on EDS.
- 33:28Like HEDS diagnosis. And then you've got all of the neurodivergent waiting lists
- 33:33that are like years along.
- 33:34So really in terms of practitioners, we
- 33:39need to be thinking anybody who comes into our clinics
- 33:42could potentially have either or
- 33:45both a combination of all kinds of things and have no diagnosis and actually
- 33:50we do become their savior saving grace because we're the people who sit in this
- 33:54and believe them and actually work with them you've got the time to go i believe
- 34:00one thing i say to all my clients top tip everything you say to me is it's correct,
- 34:06Because they have been told time and time again that it's in their head,
- 34:10that what they're saying is crazy.
- 34:11And I said, I have yet to find a client who's not been right about their own sort of issues.
- 34:17They all do. So, yeah, I mean, it's not great at the moment.
- 34:22The support groups are probably your best place where they can help advocate for you.
- 34:28So the EDS Society and Sense Connective, again, there's toolkits that can be
- 34:33used, available, and there's forms that you can take to doctors.
- 34:38So you might have to go to several different GPs or different places to get that diagnosis.
- 34:45But it's a bit of a fight right now. Yeah.
- 34:50One of the things that is maybe not particularly helpful is this perception
- 34:55that, I mean, when I've sent people to their GPs in the past,
- 34:59the response they've got is, well, there's no treatment for it,
- 35:02so why do you need a diagnosis?
- 35:03And I think that unfortunately is not as uncommon as it should be.
- 35:11We've talked about what the value of a diagnosis is and what that understanding can give somebody.
- 35:19I think it's disappointing, I think, that it isn't dedicated to someone.
- 35:27I mean, what I will say to people nowadays is that actually we may not be able
- 35:31to get you a formal diagnosis.
- 35:33But what we can do is by understanding that these are some of the challenges
- 35:38that you might face, we can start to unpick some of that and start to look at
- 35:41some of the modifications that might be helpful for you.
- 35:45And look at, you know, how are we going to work with this?
- 35:49And I found that there are things which do or can be helpful for a lot of people.
- 35:57It is very individualized.
- 35:59And I find that quite a few of my hypermobile patients do benefit a lot from exercise,
- 36:06but the kind of exercise and specifically the level and where to start and how
- 36:12we approach that has to be very, very individualized and tailored to that person.
- 36:17Um i tend to find that hypermobiles do not get
- 36:20on at all well with cookie cutter rehab plans for
- 36:23example i've had lots of people complain to me about oh you
- 36:26know my physio just keeps telling me to do squats and i've tried to tell him
- 36:28i can't do that because my knees don't love them but he keeps saying i just
- 36:33need to get stronger things like that i think again it's that sort of dismissal
- 36:38of that individual's lived experience and even if the only thing you take way
- 36:43is just always believe people.
- 36:45Somebody tells you that this is their experience having lived with it,
- 36:48having what they found from having tried these things in the past. If you take that.
- 36:55On board and you work with it and then you try and find it okay well if we can't
- 36:59do that what else could we do you know what we do instead that or what might
- 37:04be another approach that,
- 37:05could work here I think that will immediately
- 37:09make you better than a lot of people out there
- 37:11at the moment I think you know I think
- 37:14obviously completely agree and I think
- 37:17there is real power and I think it's
- 37:20okay in saying I don't know you know
- 37:23I believe you I believe what you're saying I know
- 37:26I know some of this stuff I've seen it before in my clinic I
- 37:29don't know specifically about this but I know absolutely where
- 37:33I can go to find out for you because I think there is so much noise and it is
- 37:38so difficult particularly if you know you you know you've got something you
- 37:42can't get a diagnosis can you really you know it's hard to know whether you
- 37:46can ask for that support can I sit in those forums which of course you can do
- 37:50but what you know you cast around don't you?
- 37:53Because you're desperately trying to find a solution to something.
- 37:57Is so multi-systemic, multi-everything, that actually if you can find somebody
- 38:05who will filter some of that out for you, that is huge, I think.
- 38:12And so I think as clinicians, it's important that we feel we can go,
- 38:16I don't know exactly, but I absolutely will go and find out for you. I will try.
- 38:20I might get it wrong, but I will try. I will walk alongside you with this and
- 38:24we'll do this together there's a lot of power in that I think that's absolutely right I think,
- 38:31Rosie what you said about the exercise and thing is incredibly
- 38:35true and I think it is that individualized approach because I
- 38:38think with both conditions and like the co-occurrence between the two you do
- 38:43get this really like huge different symptoms from person to person where you
- 38:50get one you might have ME-CFS diagnosis with dysautonomia, POTS.
- 38:57There's new research, 2025, on production of ATP and differences in mitochondrial function.
- 39:05If anybody who understands what I'm saying, they might be more prone to dumping
- 39:10into the glycolytic system so that they end up with a lot of waste products
- 39:18they can't get rid of because they don't have the right...
- 39:22All kinds of stuff coming out now so like
- 39:25you'll get a lot just that i'm just speaking for
- 39:28the listener now so is that linked basically with fatiguing before
- 39:31you'd expect and yeah which is a big cancer just to
- 39:33look out for isn't it like and it's really interesting because
- 39:36even though i was an athlete or a dancer i always remember thinking like i always
- 39:42got muscle burn before i could feel like i got tired if that made sense i got
- 39:47the heavy muscles and all of that and that would make much more sense if I was
- 39:51going into that system much quicker than I was a normal person would.
- 39:56So you'll get people, they can't do the heavy stuff that people are asking.
- 40:02And the problem is, is you fatigue them and then they dislocate or they get
- 40:06inflammation as a result of it.
- 40:10And then you also have to think about the dysautonomia and the nervous system,
- 40:14which is in fight or flight so there's it's really
- 40:18is you have to look at every individual
- 40:21and you just listen to them it's a case of every
- 40:24week what were you like last week what we did listening to them being really
- 40:28specific I'm so detailed I found so many things that that are useful for them
- 40:36in terms of exercise but you you just it is all about the listening skills I think.
- 40:43Absolutely. And I mean, one of the things, and actually I do this with all of
- 40:48my patients, not just neurodivergent or hypermobile patients,
- 40:52but I find it particularly useful in those cases because of the wide differences.
- 40:58But one thing I will spend a lot of time talking to you about is developing
- 41:01our sort of shared understanding of what we mean by certain things or what that
- 41:06person means when they say pain or when they talk about fatigue or when they
- 41:10talk about, you know, post-exercise soreness.
- 41:12It's me trying to build up a real picture of what does that person mean by it because actually,
- 41:19two different people can use the same language and mean
- 41:22very different things and until we've sort of really done a deep dive on that
- 41:27i don't know what that particular individual is talking about when when when
- 41:31they talk about you know they say oh i i get tired when i get to you know when
- 41:36i've done this many repetitions or something and again for me to understand
- 41:40well does that mean that.
- 41:43Oh, it's just a little bit of fatigue, but you could probably carry on?
- 41:45Or does it mean, no, you're going to go away and collapse in a corner?
- 41:49What kind of tide are we talking here?
- 41:52All of those details are so important to understand when you're working with
- 41:57somebody, especially when,
- 41:59When it's somebody who is quite sensitive to those small changes and who you
- 42:03can very easily flare up if you overdo things, spending the time to do that.
- 42:09And also so that they can start to understand what you mean as well.
- 42:16So when I say to people, if I give you an exercise or something,
- 42:21if anything doesn't feel right at any point or this doesn't feel good to you,
- 42:27I'd always rather you stop doing it. And then we can talk about it.
- 42:31Don't just push through. I don't want you to do that.
- 42:34And again, it's sort of understanding that this is our sort of,
- 42:37these are our ground rules.
- 42:38And that's really important, again, because, again, you know,
- 42:44so many of these people have had bad experiences with exercise, with rehab.
- 42:49I mean, even going back to PE at school, you know, I think there are often layers
- 42:54of trauma to unpack there, as well as actually just dealing with the physical condition.
- 42:59So I'm just going to dump in there really quickly. So specific to the neurodivergence,
- 43:05particularly the autistic clients who are mobile.
- 43:09If you give them an exercise, I tend to give them a really small number of reps
- 43:15to begin with, and then they'll come back the next week and they'll go...
- 43:19Oh, you know, I have sore hands or whatever. I'm like, what did you do?
- 43:22Oh, I decided, oh, I did 30 minutes or 45 minutes of it because I really loved it.
- 43:27And actually, they have no concept of when their bodies are done.
- 43:32They have no feedback in the system whatsoever.
- 43:35And I'm like, how many did I ask you to do? Oh, three.
- 43:39Three reps. You did 45 minutes because I loved it.
- 43:43So these are the things that you also have to take into account with
- 43:46your neurodivergent hypermobile clients is
- 43:50that right now write it
- 43:53down because they go
- 43:56away and they're like yes oh this is
- 43:59i can hear this this is really exciting and off they go and you're like no and
- 44:04you know i'm telling them off the whole time for all sorts of things and also
- 44:09other things they do Because cognitive energy equals an expenditure,
- 44:17you know, it all uses the same resources and they do fatigue more quickly because
- 44:21if they're maybe masking more
- 44:24or they're going to a party or they're going out that week to an event,
- 44:29then they don't need to do so many reps of whatever we're giving them because
- 44:33they are using up their energy resources.
- 44:35So you need to keep them are you
- 44:38it's about educating them as much and
- 44:42you learn with them but you also have to educate them that
- 44:44they have to to learn to manage themselves sometimes
- 44:48a bit better i'm not i was laughing there because that is very true of me that's
- 44:54i mean i would say that in my when i'm exercising the feedback my body's getting
- 44:59it kind of has to get in the same queue is everything else and at some point
- 45:02tomorrow I might realise that I overdid it but I'm absolutely not going to realise in the moment.
- 45:09But I think the flip side of that actually is that for a lot of us movement
- 45:13exercise it feels great because it's regulating and.
- 45:19A lot of the time, and this is something that I've found, is that I came to sport, to exercise.
- 45:26You know, I got into martial arts when I was a teenager and I immediately loved it.
- 45:31I didn't understand then why that was so important to me.
- 45:35But again, in hindsight, I think a lot of it is to do with that neurodivergence
- 45:39and it's because there is something sort of really grounding about that.
- 45:45And that's one of the reasons why I need that.
- 45:49And actually, if I've got a really stressful week and you take away my exercise,
- 45:53that is not going to make things better. That is going to make things worse.
- 45:56So there is a balance to get there.
- 45:58It's sort of how is that person's relationship with exercise,
- 46:02with fatigue and with all of those other things.
- 46:05And that's such an individual thing, again, that we've got to,
- 46:08you know, is this giving you energy? Is it taking away?
- 46:12How does that interact with the other things you've got to do?
- 46:14You know, different forms of exercise will have different effects.
- 46:18As i said there is there's so much there and it's
- 46:21about getting people to be aware of those things for themselves so they
- 46:24can make those adjustments i mean one of the things i
- 46:27always like to explain to people when we're talking about how much to do and
- 46:32like you you know i find i'll give somebody a small number of reps very often
- 46:36they'll go away and they will do you know 10 times as many because they think
- 46:40they want to get better faster and i'll explain to them i'll say look it's like
- 46:44if you take, if we give you a medicine,
- 46:46you know, if you take two paracetamol for a headache, you know, that, that might work.
- 46:50If you take 20 because you think it's going to make your headache better 10
- 46:54times faster, that's probably not going to be a good idea, right?
- 46:58And as soon as you say it like that, people go, oh yeah, that makes sense.
- 47:03And we kind of go, well, the thing with exercise is we've got to find the right dose.
- 47:07We've got to find the right dose for you, which isn't going to be the same as it is for anyone else.
- 47:12So what I want to do is I want to start my idea a little bit low,
- 47:15and then we're going to gradually build up, and we're going to try and find
- 47:19that sweet spot. So we're giving your body the right stimulus.
- 47:23You know, not too much so that we make sure, but not too little so that you don't get a response.
- 47:29And when you get people on board
- 47:30with that, they can do a lot of this calibration for themselves, I find.
- 47:35When you give them those guidelines and you get them to understand,
- 47:38well, what is it that your body's trying to tell you?
- 47:41And again, we'll talk about that some people find it easier to tune into those
- 47:45signals than others, and some people might need to make a special effort to do that.
- 47:51These are the sorts of things that I like to work with on people.
- 47:55So what they go away with is actually a toolkit rather than just a prescription.
- 48:02Very cool. So again, it boils down to checking for understanding,
- 48:06open-ended questions, not assuming, not giving the option to go, yeah, that's fine.
- 48:10You've really got to work on that communication, haven't you?
- 48:12What have you understood by this?
- 48:14What are you going to do when you go away? How do you think it's going to help with that sort of stuff?
- 48:18Great. No, really, really useful clinical examples of that from everybody.
- 48:22It's seven minutes to go. I want to see if we can drop a couple more pearls of wisdom.
- 48:27Like I'm really still thinking of putting the neurodivergence question at the
- 48:32top so you could modify your communication.
- 48:33I love the idea of the dosing. I love the analogy of the paracetamols.
- 48:36And there's a couple other there which are still in my mind.
- 48:39Is there any other ones we can give to not only how to treat the client in front
- 48:46of us, because it may well be out of our scope, but if we're in the beautiful position here,
- 48:49whenever particularly massage therapists are feeling burnt out and like I'm
- 48:53at the bottom of the ladder and everything,
- 48:55I really try and remind soft tissue therapists that you're not a,
- 48:58you're a hugely important part of the welfare of this person because they're
- 49:02going to come to you when they've got pain, particularly masquerading pain of some form.
- 49:05When you're going to have a relationship with them where you really can help
- 49:09with their behavior change and get them to make that call to go
- 49:11back to the GP to do something they were scared of doing because
- 49:14the card looked a bit kind of like what can
- 49:17we do as that kind
- 49:20of therapist to really help signpost what questions should
- 49:23we be doing if it's a case of a question or how should we change what maybe
- 49:28we've been taught to become better at being able to signpost these individuals
- 49:31whether it's both or one or the other neurodivergence or or hypermobility we'll
- 49:37go around the circle okay because i know what you guys are like we'll do kind of one each.
- 49:42Who wants to go first? That wasn't me having a go at you, Rosie.
- 49:44I'll jump in there. Sorry. Go on, you go first.
- 49:49I'll forget what I wanted to say otherwise. I'm having a very ADHD evening. I think it's crazy.
- 49:55Anyway, I won't get sidetracked. Give me your personal wisdom.
- 50:02So I think a lot of this is letting people in, giving people autonomy.
- 50:10When i give people advice on sort of
- 50:14what i always say look you're the expert on you i'm here
- 50:17you know to talk this through we're trying
- 50:20to figure this out together you know this is this is a team team
- 50:23effort it's not telling you something you know i think i need all of that experience
- 50:29that you've got all of your nations and together we're going to come to to put
- 50:33something together i think when people understand they're the one who's who
- 50:38are in charge of making those decisions and you give them that autonomy back.
- 50:42I think generally people tend to do much better and they feel that.
- 50:48Empowered to go away and to experiment with things that's
- 50:52really cool yeah they may even know who they're supposed
- 50:55to be calling they may even be already being told they might have been told but
- 50:58they're just not doing it but if you give them that autonomy that they're in control and
- 51:01you're here to walk with them bam and that's massive isn't
- 51:04it really cool there is a slightly tricky thing when it
- 51:07comes to you know if somebody comes in and i've had
- 51:10it those few times they're obviously neurodivergent and it's
- 51:13a question of should i mention this you know is this a conversation we're going
- 51:18to have and sometimes I will and sometimes I won't a lot depends on the context
- 51:22again there's a there's no real easy way to sort of say you know do or you don't
- 51:29and that I think it depends on you know do I think this is going to be a useful
- 51:32conversation about person,
- 51:34and I will never frame it as a diagnostic in a diagnostic way because I'm not
- 51:40qualified to do I will never say, I think you are.
- 51:43What I might say is, what do you know about?
- 51:47What do you know about? Have you seen any divergence?
- 51:52And sometimes I will talk a little bit about my experiences.
- 51:56Sometimes, you know, again, I might sort of suggest that this might be something
- 52:00the person might want to look into.
- 52:03If it's something that I think is clinically affecting the thing that they came
- 52:07to me to deal with, But I will always be a little bit careful about how I frame
- 52:11that because, again, you know, in my head, I might be thinking, yeah, obviously.
- 52:17But actually, again, I'm very aware that I'm not qualified to make that diagnosis.
- 52:23I'm not a psychologist.
- 52:25So I'm always going to sort of hedge it.
- 52:28But it's giving that person the awareness so that they can then go and look
- 52:33into that for themselves if that's appropriate.
- 52:36Very cool. Great advice. And at the table, Jess, what are you thinking?
- 52:41I think to follow on from that, really, I think there is something really important
- 52:46about finding out goals or wants or what brought you here today,
- 52:52what are you hoping to achieve from our time together, how would you like to
- 52:56feel when you leave today.
- 52:57I think it's really easy, particularly actually
- 53:01when you tend to work with a particular
- 53:04community to start to make assumptions about why somebody's arrived
- 53:07what it is they might be wanting you know
- 53:10I think um I certainly if I go for a massage
- 53:12which is very rare because I don't like it on
- 53:16the whole I don't leave feeling very good afterwards but
- 53:20if I go I'm going because I I want to
- 53:22have a lie down I want to switch off probably but if you read
- 53:25my medical history then you start thinking well probably need
- 53:28to rehab that ankle and you know she's hyperextending
- 53:31and knees and not breathing properly and all the
- 53:34rest of it but I think these things are really important
- 53:38because we can so easily catch
- 53:41on to the thing that we're interested in or the
- 53:44thing that we hear or that we just happen to have watched a podcast about or
- 53:49whatever it might be yes of course the neurodivergence hypermobility comes into
- 53:56play Of course it does in the decisions we make in how we treat that person
- 54:00or the aftercare that we give them.
- 54:02But that might not be why they've arrived.
- 54:05So I think some of those kind of open questions become really important.
- 54:10Absolutely. Absolutely. Very cool. Very nice. Yeah.
- 54:15Okay, Bonnie. So definitely great tips from both of them.
- 54:20Totally agree with that. I think the autonomy thing is something I definitely do.
- 54:25They come in and I'm always asking them what they want that week.
- 54:30You know, what is it you would like? And I let them lead my way completely through
- 54:36a session rather than doing what I maybe think they need.
- 54:39Because they're not going to respond to something that I think they don't want.
- 54:46I think also one of the things I always ask them, especially if they're a new
- 54:50client, is what kind of treatments they've had before and what's worked and what hasn't.
- 54:56Because if they've got stuff that hasn't worked before, I'm not going to be
- 54:59the magic person that it works for.
- 55:02So you can get a really good idea of how that person's responded to different
- 55:06things by asking that question.
- 55:09I think that's kind of definitely a top tip.
- 55:12My other thing is... I believe in that. Yes.
- 55:16Educate yourselves on all aspects.
- 55:19I know that we have our own, you know, we can't diagnose and we can't do other
- 55:24things, but for me, educating myself in every aspect,
- 55:29the gut issues, the dysautonomias, the POTS, the MCAS, the neurodivergence,
- 55:35having the ability to see and understand when they come to you and the problem
- 55:41isn't going to be fixed by me
- 55:43until they've seen another practitioner and then being able to refer out.
- 55:48And if you know they're not getting anywhere medically, then refer them to the
- 55:52support groups and the charities.
- 55:56And they can give you the information that you need to move forward and they
- 56:02will have all of the consultants' names and all of the best places to go.
- 56:07So just don't be afraid as a practitioner as well to go in and use those charities.
- 56:13You don't have to have the condition because they're all set up for practitioners
- 56:16as well as people with the condition.
- 56:19So I would say don't be afraid to do that.
- 56:22The more you understand the whole picture, the easier it is to then just work with that client.
- 56:29Amazing. Great advice. I'm really good. It's 9.02.
- 56:35People who are joining us live, they're still there watching and writing things down.
- 56:39I can hear you have stuck with the whole hour. I really appreciate it.
- 56:43And thanks for the comments in there.
- 56:45If people who are watching have got some questions, there was a few in comments
- 56:49in there which we didn't have time, with symptoms and things,
- 56:52then what do you suggest these people do?
- 56:54Could they send an email to somebody, Bonnie, do you think? I'm very happy to answer.
- 57:01I'll just say Bonnie, for example. I see people endlessly on Zoom.
- 57:06I see lots of people all the time.
- 57:09And if you have trouble with a client, I'll see you with a client too.
- 57:12That's great. We'll make sure links like this go into the show notes.
- 57:16And indeed, if you want to contact any of our guests, it might not be straight away.
- 57:20And they might say they'll do it and then you'll never hear from them again.
- 57:22But that's the beauty of it. But we will chase them up if you do send something
- 57:26in. We'll give you the links.
- 57:27And also use YouTube as well. We can continue conversations on YouTube.
- 57:31It's a beautiful thing. YouTube just stays there. It appears more on Google.
- 57:34One thing before we go as well, there was a question, Rosie,
- 57:36which you reminded me of, which was last week. I think we kind of touched on
- 57:40it on Dr. Google and looking things up.
- 57:42When it comes to your divergence, what's your advice on that?
- 57:45You picked up on that, didn't you?
- 57:46Yes. So, yeah, if people want to look into this a bit more for themselves,
- 57:51there is a lot of really good information online.
- 57:54To some extent, it's about knowing where to go because there is,
- 57:59as with everything, also bad information online.
- 58:02I think looking at information...
- 58:06There's increasingly more and more sort of lived experience type neurodivergent
- 58:10led groups, organizations, create content creators out there.
- 58:15And I think they can often be a great place to start.
- 58:19If anyone is struggling, not knowing where to go, or they're not sure if some
- 58:23information they found is good or not, I'm very happy to send an email to Matt.
- 58:30I don't mind having a look over those and getting back to people.
- 58:35At uh as i say there are some i
- 58:39mean i don't want to name particular organizations because again
- 58:42there's lots and i will miss some but there
- 58:45is a lot of good stuff out there nowadays as we always with all of these things
- 58:49just apply your critical thinking you know don't don't take anything as gospel
- 58:54but check it out with a few sources and as i say i think best practice now as
- 59:01your organization is to include lots of lived experience and.
- 59:07People sharing their their own journeys great
- 59:11advice great advice and use us people use
- 59:14us i mean we're pre-reptable source sta clinician podcast use us you know we've
- 59:18got such a great array of guests and people we can put you in contact with and
- 59:22great communities um so yeah do um fire questions or send us emails matt at
- 59:26the sta.co.uk and i will be the conduit to to whoever could best answer your question.
- 59:33Before I forget as well, if you are a neurodivergent therapist,
- 59:37I feel so bad about not letting non-neurodivergent therapists into this group.
- 59:43It really is playing on my mind. But this group is all about just for neurodivergent
- 59:47therapists because we want to provide a safe place for neurodivergent therapists
- 59:51to kind of hang out and talk about their issues, concerns, and also share advice.
- 59:57So we have created on the back of this podcast, really, it was just about conversation,
- 1:00:03communication, a Facebook group, which is called Neurodivergent MSK Clinicians,
- 1:00:07saying what's in the tin, on the tin.
- 1:00:09And you're welcome, if you are a Neurodivergent MSK clinician,
- 1:00:13whether it's through formal diagnosis or not, to look us up on Facebook and
- 1:00:16join that. It's growing rapidly.
- 1:00:18We're having some wonderful conversations
- 1:00:19already in it. There's some nice resources being shared as well.
- 1:00:23It's not just a repeat for people who are interested in learning more about neurodiversity,
- 1:00:29It is at the moment, well, it is solely for people who identify as neurodivergent
- 1:00:34and providing a safe place for that, for those conversations without having
- 1:00:37to feel judged or worried about people not understanding you.
- 1:00:40I mean, there's still bound to be loads of misunderstanding in there,
- 1:00:42but it'll be more limited because at least everybody's kind of shooting from the same hip.
- 1:00:46So yeah, look us up at that. We're really good for each other, let's be fair.
- 1:00:51This is the beautiful honeymoon period of it. I think we're about 60 people
- 1:00:55now and it's all just flowing beautifully.
- 1:00:56Everyone loves each other and the comments are like kisses and hands and high fives.
- 1:01:00Yeah, this will change, I'm sure. But at the moment, yeah, really healthy place
- 1:01:03and it will grow. And we will look at doing webinars and things like that.
- 1:01:06I've got all sorts of ideas because it's growing so nice and we're getting some great feedback.
- 1:01:09So yeah, if you're a neurodivergent MSK clinician and you want to find somewhere
- 1:01:13to hang out and get ideas and also give your own help when you can,
- 1:01:16then that'll be, there is, that is existing now.
- 1:01:18And I'll put the link in the show notes for that as well.
- 1:01:21Next week, I'm sorry to interrupt somebody just then.
- 1:01:25No? Sure. Next week, we are going to go to part three of our series.
- 1:01:33It's going by so quickly.
- 1:01:34And we're going to be, it's called Barriers.
- 1:01:37And we're going to have another two people on the panel who will be taking us
- 1:01:41through the typical barriers which are faced.
- 1:01:43And again, how you can help neurodivergent clients or patients by reducing those barriers.
- 1:01:48With me, I'm going to James Dewar-Haggart and Leslie Campbell,
- 1:01:53who a lot of you know will be coming as well to chat through that so again
- 1:01:56a lovely chance if you can come live that'd be fantastic and then
- 1:01:59the week after just remind you that's going to be the
- 1:02:02neurodivergent therapist that will be looking particularly at
- 1:02:05how you can help yourselves how you can help your
- 1:02:08colleagues if you are a neurodivergent therapist or
- 1:02:11you work with a neurodivergent therapist and and yeah
- 1:02:14just some great tips and it will bring in the whole kind of series together that'll
- 1:02:18be with sarah mahog and cassandra clemens and benjamin
- 1:02:21mace crossly as well so that's gonna be a fantastic finale
- 1:02:24to this season which hopefully everyone's still enjoying let the
- 1:02:27conversations continue like i say matt the sta.co.uk and off
- 1:02:30to youtube as well if you want to add some comments and talk amongst yourselves
- 1:02:33it's not just this week we talk about this hopefully we'll be there for a long
- 1:02:37time and we'll look back hopefully and laugh at things we said and thought and
- 1:02:41see how we've all evolved and how everything's sorted and and healthcare is
- 1:02:44just sorted it's wonderful and nobody will even remember who farage ever was
- 1:02:48it'd be a great time of the years. It'd be wonderful.
- 1:02:50Getting a bit political there. Right. Thank you so much for joining us live.
- 1:02:54We will hopefully see some of you next week at the same time,
- 1:02:57eight o'clock Tuesday on either YouTube or Facebook.
- 1:03:01And once again, just thank you to my guests. So Bonnie Southgate,
- 1:03:04thank you much for joining us, Bonnie. Oh, look at that. Names are mixed up on here.
- 1:03:10You're all identifying as someone else at the moment. That'll be confusing.
- 1:03:15I'm not going to So yeah, thanks so much, Bonnie Southgate, founder of Movement
- 1:03:18Anatomy Essentials, an MSK advisor that says Connective. I can't let it go. Sorry.
- 1:03:23Nicky Mansfield asked the question, when's the book coming out,
- 1:03:25Bonnie? I don't know whether to hit you with that because it's been a while.
- 1:03:30I think Therapy Expo 1983, I asked you about it. It decides to write a book, okay? Yeah, I know.
- 1:03:35It doesn't go well. Is it still in the pipeline? I'm hanging on John Gibbons'
- 1:03:40words that his first book took him 10 years to write.
- 1:03:43The problem is, is I did an MSC.
- 1:03:47Having written the book, I did an MSC sort of just before finishing and then
- 1:03:51decided to rewrite the whole thing.
- 1:03:53Oh really yeah that's that's but also there's so
- 1:03:56much research coming out the whole time and i have said to my my illustrator
- 1:04:04and my sidekick who helps me like not cry the whole time over it that if it
- 1:04:11it has to be done in 2026 there is no okay that's good fighting talk,
- 1:04:16hyper mobile moment is still staying with the title the
- 1:04:19hyper mobile universe it's all staying every chapter
- 1:04:22is written i'm just going through each chapter and then i
- 1:04:25get in black holes for days and weeks on end and
- 1:04:28then bad bits and then go i don't like it like
- 1:04:31the original better then i go back anyway i'm learning lots the whole time though
- 1:04:35i'm sure you are it's very nice for you but you've got a whole audience out
- 1:04:39there which is also sharing with you i promise i promise i will i will amazing
- 1:04:45okay there you go nikki there's the answer for that No more dates. No more dates. So, yeah.
- 1:04:50So, thanks, Body Southgate. Also, thank you, Jessica Yaneman,
- 1:04:53Advanced Clinical Massage Therapist at Ease Therapist. Thank you so much,
- 1:04:55Jessica, for sharing your story and your daughters and everything.
- 1:04:57Really, again, wonderful information. Thank you so much. Thank you.
- 1:05:00And thank you, Rosie Sexton, for coming twice in a week and sharing your expertise
- 1:05:05of osteopath at Alton Health and Performance. So, thanks, Rosie. Really appreciate it.
- 1:05:09Right, that's it, people. Again, everyone in the studio, thanks for joining
- 1:05:12us live. Love the fact you're joining us.
- 1:05:14And hopefully we'll see some of you next Tuesday. Until then, take care of each other.