Explore every episode of the podcast Dear body, I'm listening
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Invisible Illness, Visible Clues: Tuning Into Your Skin, Your Labs, and Your Inner Wisdom Differently with Dr. Jonathan Carp
10 sept. 2026
00:55:18
"You are fully capable of becoming your own authority in your health." —Dr. Jonathan Carp
Invisible illness rarely announces itself with a clean diagnosis — but the body often leaves clues, if you know where to look. In this conversation, board-certified dermatologist and lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Jonathan Carp joins Donna Piper to talk about what 25 years of practice have taught him about the connection between skin, gut health, and insulin — and why so many of these clues get missed in a rushed appointment. Dr. Carp walks through how conditions like SIBO, celiac sensitivity, and insulin resistance show up on the skin long before they show up on a standard lab panel, and why fasting insulin can flag metabolic problems five to ten years before a diabetes diagnosis. He also shares how he uses mental imagery techniques with patients — including one who healed chronic skin picking using an image she created herself — and why he tells patients to keep major lifestyle changes private from anyone outside their household. This episode is especially for anyone managing chronic illness, invisible symptoms, or the exhausting feeling of not being believed by their own doctor. It's a reminder that visible clues — on your skin, in your labs, in your own instincts — are worth trusting, even when no one else has connected the dots yet. Key takeaways: • Rosacea has a strong documented link to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and Dr. Carp expects SIBO testing to become standard for rosacea patients within five years. • Fasting insulin can climb for years while blood sugar stays normal, meaning elevated insulin can predict diabetes risk five to ten years before it would otherwise be caught. • A normal fasting insulin range is roughly 15–25; results consistently above 10 are worth discussing with a provider. • Fasting insulin and SIBO tests can both be ordered independently through labs like Quest or LabCorp, without waiting on a doctor's approval. • Only about 1 in 200 patients in Dr. Carp's practice are ready to make a full diet and lifestyle overhaul, which is why he recommends picking one path and going deep rather than jumping between approaches. • Mental imagery — where patients generate their own healing image rather than following a guided visualization — has helped patients manage conditions ranging from neurodermatitis to chronic warts. • Sharing a major lifestyle change with people outside your immediate household often invites judgment that can derail progress before it takes hold.
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Episode Highlights: 03:28 Meet Dr. Jonathan Carp: From Dermatology to Lifestyle Medicine 07:42 The Gut-Skin Connection: SIBO, Celiac & Psoriasis 10:30 Acne, Insulin Resistance & the Fasting Insulin Test 14:09 Reversing Insulin Resistance Through Diet 18:28 Inside Wednesday Night Live & Miracle Noodle 20:16 How a Trip to Japan Sparked Miracle Noodle 23:34 Why Ordering Your Own Blood Tests Is Empowering 28:48 The 1-in-200 Rule: Why Lifestyle Change Is Hard 36:27 Mental Imagery Healing With Dr. Gerald Epstein 47:10 Final Advice: Pick One Health Path and Go Deep
Ground Control for Bendy Bodies: How to Move Without Pain (Finally!) with Dr. Melissa Koehl
27 août 2026
00:47:41
"You have to give your body the time to repair between sessions and respect, from a cellular perspective, how much energy it can effectively produce on any given day." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
Hypermobility exercise isn't supposed to leave you in more pain than when you started — but for most bendy bodies, it does, because nobody ever taught them the rules were different. In this episode, Donna sits down with Dr. Melissa Koehl, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Pilates instructor, and founder of Chimera Health, to unpack why traditional fitness advice can actively work against people with joint hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorder, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Melissa isn't just speaking from 24 years of clinical experience — she's speaking from her own late-stage EDS diagnosis, which reshaped how she trains clients and how she sees "healthy movement" altogether. This conversation is for anyone who's been told their pain is "just anxiety," anyone chasing more reps and more stretching with less relief, and anyone who suspects their fatigue, brain fog, or chronic soreness is connected to something deeper than a bad workout plan. Together, Donna and Melissa dig into the real symptoms of hypermobility beyond bendy joints — including fatigue, dysautonomia, and mast cell activation — and why connective tissue needs a fundamentally different recovery timeline than the average client's muscles do. Key Takeaways: • Hypermobility symptoms extend far beyond flexible joints — fatigue and brain fog are two of the most common and most overlooked signs, often driven by blood pooling in the lower body instead of circulating back to the heart and brain. • Movement for hypermobile bodies should prioritize stability and controlled strength work over stretching, since excess flexibility is already the problem, not the solution. • Connective tissue — tendons, ligaments, and fascia — repairs more slowly than muscle, so rest between sessions isn't optional; it's a cellular requirement for actual progress. • Hypermobility spectrum disorder and hypermobile EDS are frequently misunderstood as separate tiers of severity, when in reality the two overlap significantly. • A formal diagnosis and self-advocacy with providers can be the difference between years of dismissed symptoms and a treatment plan that finally makes sense. • Chronic pain and fatigue in hypermobile bodies is not a personal failure — it's a physiological pattern with an identifiable cause and a manageable path forward. Melissa is currently offering a free 32-page Hypermobility Posture Guide, and her Ground Control program opens again on September 21st. Download the free Hypermobility Posture Guide here: https://www.chimera-health.com/hypermobility-posture-guide-donna-piper
Episode Highlights: 04:09 Meet Dr. Melissa Koehl: Her Own Hypermobility Journey 07:15 Inside the Ground Control Program 10:26 Hypermobility Symptoms and Misconceptions Explained 21:13 Why Rest Is Non-Negotiable for Hypermobile Bodies 32:08 Getting Diagnosed and Advocating for Yourself 36:31 Resources and Support for Hypermobile Patients 39:43 You Are an Orchid, Not a Dandelion
Dear Body, It Runs in the Family: What Lipedema Genetics is Finally Revealing
13 août 2026
00:52:30
"This is fascinating, and is also exactly the kind of science we need to handle responsibly because epigenetics is not a new way to blame yourself. If future research shows environmental or epigenetic factors and how they influence lipedema expression, that is exciting. But that does not mean that you caused the disease to come out when you were stressed, that you ate wrong, that you failed to regulate your nervous system. No. Susceptibility, predisposition, hormones, biology, environment, and gene expression can interact in extraordinary, complicated ways, and this is a very complicated disease. The purpose is understanding that interaction to create better treatments, not better ways to blame yourself." —Donna Piper
For most of her life, Donna was told her body was a lifestyle problem — eat less, move more, blah blah blah. In this Dear Body Book Club episode, she opens Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment, edited by Stanley Rockson, MD, Leslyn Keith, OTD, and Catherine Seo, PhD, and dives into the genetics section — Chapters 3, 4, and 5. Donna doesn't read the book to you line by line. She translates the genome-wide association studies, the acronyms, and the dense clinical language into plain English, then filters it through her own 53 years of living undiagnosed. The question shifts from "why does my body look this way?" to "what's actually happening inside the tissue?" — and that shift changes everything. In this episode, we discuss: Why an estimated 40% to 89% of women with lipedema report a family history — and why that range is so wide Why researchers believe lipedema is often passed down through the paternal line, even though men rarely show visible symptoms What a genome-wide association study (GWAS) actually is, explained without the jargon The UK Biobank study and how researchers built a "proxy lipedema phenotype" to work around chronic underdiagnosis Two genetic regions — VEGFA and GRB14-COBLL1 — linked to blood vessel formation and body fat distribution Findings from a 200-woman UK cohort, including an average age of onset around 16.8 years old The AKR1C1 gene and its connection to progesterone metabolism Why there is still no single validated genetic or blood test for lipedema The TNXB gene and its overlap with a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, connecting hypermobility to lipedema biology What multiomics research (transcriptomics, metabolomics, lipidomics) revealed inside lipedema tissue itself Elevated inflammatory markers, including IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha, found in lipedema tissue The "Fat Atlas" concept — why fat in different parts of the body may behave like different tissue entirely How estrogen, progesterone, and major hormonal transitions like puberty and menopause factor into lipedema onset Why epigenetics matters here, and why it is not a reason to blame yourself The real technical reasons lipedema research moves slowly, from liposuction-damaged samples to small patient cohorts 🗒️ Donna's Sticky Notes The highlights I don't want you to miss — if you only remember three things from this episode, remember these: Sticky Note #1: Don't forget dad's side of the family. If lipedema doesn't seem to show up on your mother's line, look to your father's — photos, family members, body shapes. Inheritance appears to run through the paternal line even when fathers show no visible symptoms themselves. Sticky Note #2: There probably isn't one lipedema gene. It's not one gene causing lipedema on its own — it's how genetic predisposition interacts with hormones, fat biology, connective tissue, vascular pathways, metabolism, lymphatic function, and inflammation, all at once and differently in every body. Sticky Note #3: Lipedema tissue appears to be biologically different tissue. Researchers are finding real differences in gene expression, lipids, metabolites, inflammatory signaling, fat cell development, blood vessel pathways, and connective tissue genes. The better question isn't "why do I have so much fat here?" — it's "what is happening inside this tissue to make it behave this way?"
💛 What this means in plain English None of this research hands you a genetic test you can take to your doctor tomorrow. What it does offer is direction. Researchers are seeing real, measurable differences inside lipedema tissue — in genes, lipids, hormones, and inflammation — not just differences in how much fat someone carries. That distinction matters, because it moves the story away from blame and toward biology. It also explains why two women can have the same diagnosis and completely different experiences of pain, swelling, and progression. And it's why looking at your father's side of the family, not just your mother's, can open up a piece of your history you didn't know to look for.
Key Takeaways Family history shows up in an estimated 40% to 89% of lipedema cases, but the strongest inheritance signal appears to run through the paternal line, even when fathers show no visible symptoms themselves. Two genetic regions, VEGFA and GRB14-COBLL1, showed significant association with lipedema in UK Biobank research, tied to blood vessel formation and fat distribution rather than a single "lipedema gene." There is currently no validated genetic or blood test for lipedema — diagnosis still depends on clinical evaluation, which is exactly why patient and provider education matters so much. Multiomics research uncovered more than 4,400 gene expression differences, 900 lipid changes, and 600 altered metabolites in lipedema tissue compared to typical fat. Inflammatory markers, including IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha, appear elevated in lipedema tissue, suggesting inflammation is part of the tissue environment, not the whole explanation. The TNXB gene, linked to a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, offers an early biological clue for why hypermobility and lipedema so often show up together in the same women. Hormonal transitions — puberty, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause — are consistently tied to lipedema onset and progression, pointing researchers toward estrogen and progesterone signaling pathways. Studying lipedema tissue is genuinely difficult because most samples come from liposuction, a process that can damage the very tissue architecture researchers need to examine.
A Question to Sit With Have you ever looked at your father's side of the family for the bruises, the heaviness, the body shapes that never quite matched the rest — or has your search always started and stopped with your mother's line?
💛 Connect With Me If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. ✨ Follow the podcast. ⭐ Leave a review. 📚 Share this episode with someone navigating lipedema or chronic illness. And if you're reading along with me, let me know: What was your biggest takeaway from this chapter?
Move Smart, Not Hard: The Movement Mindset Chronic Illness Actually Needs with Tyler Bramlett
06 août 2026
00:55:27
"It's not about pushing yourself and judging yourself and trying to change how you look. It's about accepting yourself and learning how to appreciate your body and using that as fuel to show up and take care of it at the end of the day." —Tyler Bramlett
Chronic illness movement doesn't have to mean choosing between pain and progress — and this episode makes the case for a third option. Donna sits down with Tyler Bramlett, co-founder of WeShape, whose own body forced him to rebuild everything he thought he knew about fitness after two major injuries and five knee surgeries. What emerges is a conversation less about workouts and more about relearning how to trust a body that hasn't always felt trustworthy. This episode is for anyone living with hypermobility, EDS, POTS, migraine, fibromyalgia, lipedema, or any invisible condition where movement helps — but the wrong kind of movement makes everything worse. Tyler and Donna dig into why high-intensity, no-pain-no-gain fitness culture actively harms chronically ill bodies, and what mindful, scalable movement looks like instead. Listeners will walk away understanding why "20-plus failed routines" is the norm, not the exception — and why that's a sign the model is broken, not the person. Key takeaways: Hypermobile joints get injured by overshooting end range of motion, not by moving too much — awareness of that range matters more than intensity. Chronic tension in the neck and traps can worsen migraine symptoms, and learning to engage opposing muscles can help release that tension over time. Self-hatred as a motivator eventually backfires, because it trains the brain to keep disliking the body no matter what changes. Movement scores — tracking strength, mobility, balance, and core function — offer a way to measure progress without relying on the scale. Starting with two 10-minute sessions a week is more sustainable than an hour five days a week, and consistency over years builds capacity that intensity never will. Recovery isn't linear — peaks and valleys are part of the process, not evidence that something has gone wrong. Try Tyler's free movement assessment: www.weshape.com/dearbody
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Episode Highlights: 02:13 Meet Tyler Bramlett: The Injury That Redefined Fitness 06:44 Hypermobility, EDS, and Overshooting Your Limits 11:34 Why High-Intensity Workouts Fail Chronic Illness Bodies 14:48 Breaking the One-Step-Forward, One-Step-Back Cycle 19:58 Becoming Your Own Guru: Mindful vs Mindless Movement 23:07 Body Image, the Fitness Industry, and Raising Daughters 31:41 Inside WeShape: Personalized Movement Progressions 40:00 Quantifying Progress With Movement Scores 43:03 Start Small: The Power of Two 10-Minute Routines 50:28 Try WeShape Free and Where to Find Tyler
Dear Doctor, Please Look Again | Dear Body Book Club: Chapter 2
30 juil. 2026
00:34:18
"Dear Body… I will remember that I am not only a patient. I am your witness. I am your advocate, and I am your partner." —Donna Piper
In this episode of the Dear Body Book Club, Donna explores Chapter Two of the new medical textbook Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment, edited by Stanley G. Rockson, MD; Leslyn Keith, OTD; and Catherine Seo, PhD. "Chapter Two, Addressing Lipedema: Challenges to the Primary Care Physician," was written by Matthew Carmody, MD. This chapter looks at seven major challenges primary care providers face when diagnosing and caring for people with lipedema. But it also asks something bigger: What would healthcare look like if the patient's lived experience were treated as a form of expertise? Donna translates the chapter's clinical language into everyday conversation and explores what compassionate, collaborative lipedema care can look like—from differential diagnosis and physical examination to pain, weight stigma, treatment planning, mental health support, and multidisciplinary referrals.
BUY THE BOOK Read along with the Dear Body Book Club: Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment Affiliate disclosure: This may be an affiliate link, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through it, at no additional cost to you.
IN THIS EPISODE We discuss: - Why lipedema may be missed or diagnosed as obesity or lymphedema - How lipedema, obesity, and lymphedema can occur together - Why each condition still needs to be recognized and treated separately - Why BMI alone does not provide a complete clinical picture - How body-fat distribution and waist-to-height ratio can offer additional information - Why coping with chronic symptoms may cause patients to underreport their pain - The value of asking a patient to describe a typical day in her life - How lipedema can affect pain, fatigue, heaviness, movement, sleep, social life, and quality of life - A plain-language explanation of what may be happening inside lipedema tissue - Why the patient is an important co-expert in her own care - What a respectful, collaborative lipedema examination can look like - Why treatment goals need to be individualized - The role of office staff, follow-up systems, and care coordination - The psychological effects of lipedema and repeated medical dismissal - Weight stigma, internalized anti-fat bias, and healthcare avoidance - Why primary care physicians are important in coordinating multidisciplinary care - Possible referrals for compression, MLD, CDT, movement, nutrition, mental health support, weight management, vascular care, and surgery - Why sustainable, patient-specific changes are more realistic than an overwhelming list of new rules
THE SEVEN CHALLENGES PRESENTED IN CHAPTER TWO 1. Differentiating lipedema from—and identifying it alongside—obesity, lymphedema, and other co-occurring conditions 2. Understanding the patient's lived experience 3. Defining and explaining the pathophysiology of lipedema to patients and healthcare colleagues 4. Transforming the traditional medical model into one based on patient-provider collaboration 5. Accommodating and caring for people with lipedema within a primary care practice 6. Supporting the psychological effects and addressing biases associated with lipedema 7. Coordinating care, providing resources, and making appropriate referrals
DONNA'S STICKY NOTES Sticky Note 1 Lipedema, obesity, and lymphedema can coexist—but they are not interchangeable. A patient may have one, two, or all three conditions. Each one needs to be identified so that the patient receives care for what is actually present instead of having every symptom blamed on weight.
Sticky Note 2 Coping can hide the severity of chronic illness. People who have lived with pain, heaviness, fatigue, and restricted movement for years may stop reporting those symptoms because they have learned to build their lives around them. Sometimes asking, "What is a typical day in your life like?" reveals more than asking for a number on a pain scale.
Sticky Note 3 The patient is not the least-informed person in the room. The clinician brings medical education and diagnostic knowledge. The patient brings years of experience living inside the body being examined. The best care happens when both kinds of expertise are treated with respect. KEY TAKEAWAYS - A thorough lipedema assessment involves more than weighing the patient or calculating BMI. - Lipedema can exist without obesity, and obesity can exist without lipedema. - Obesity may aggravate lipedema and may contribute to secondary lymphedema, but it should not erase the presence of lipedema. - Pain may be experienced as aching, tenderness, burning, tightness, congestion, heaviness, or discomfort with light touch. - People with lipedema may minimize their symptoms because those symptoms have become their normal. - A respectful physical examination should include explanation, consent, communication, and attention to the patient's comfort. - Treatment goals may include reducing pain and congestion, improving mobility, supporting emotional health, increasing disease knowledge, stabilizing weight when appropriate, and considering surgery when clinically indicated. - Conservative care may include compression, intermittent pneumatic compression, manual lymphatic drainage, complete decongestive therapy, water exercise, gentle movement, skincare, nutrition support, and patient education. - No medication is specifically recommended in this chapter as a treatment for lipedema itself. - The psychological burden of lipedema is not evidence that the disease is psychological. - Weight stigma is not treatment and can contribute to healthcare avoidance, distress, and poorer well-being. - Primary care physicians do not have to provide every treatment themselves, but they can help patients build and coordinate an informed care team.
CHAPTER RESOURCES The chapter includes several practical tables and resources for clinicians and patients reading along: - Table 2.1: Diagnoses associated with functional venous insufficiency leading to lymphatic failure and lymphedema — page 20 - Table 2.2: Weight-management strategies based on WHO weight-status classifications — page 21 - Table 2.3: Practical strategies for the management of lipedema — pages 24–25 - Table 2.4: Physical examination checklist for lipedema — page 27 - Figure 2.3: Understanding the pathophysiology of and interventions for lipedema — page 29 - Table 2.5: Building the office treatment care team — page 30 - Table 2.6: Roles and responsibilities of office staff in a clinical practice — page 31 - Table 2.7: Referrals to specialists for lipedema management — page 33 - Table 2.8: Referrals for diagnosis-specific interventions — page 34 - Table 2.9: Communicating general lifestyle recommendations for patients with lipedema — page 35
RESEARCH AND REFERENCES Primary chapter Carmody M. Addressing lipedema: challenges to the primary care physician. In: Rockson SG, Keith L, Seo C, editors. *Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment.* Springer Nature; 2026. pp. 17–36.
References cited in Chapter Two 1. Allen EV, Hines EA. Lipedema of the legs: a syndrome characterized by fat legs and orthostatic edema. *Proc Staff Meet Mayo Clin.* 1940;15(15):184–187. Available from: https://klosetraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1940-Lipedema-of-the-Legs.pdf 2. Faerber G, Cornely M, Daubert C, Erbacher G, Fink J, Hirsch T, et al. S2k guideline lipedema. *JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft.* 2024;22(9):1303–1315. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddg.15513 3. Sudduth CL, Greene AK. Lymphedema and obesity. *Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine.* 2022;12(5):a041176. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a041176 4. Herbst KL, Kahn LA, Iker E, Ehrlich C, Wright T, McHutchison L, et al. Standard of care for lipedema in the United States. *Phlebology.* 2021;36(10):779–796. https://doi.org/10.1177/02683555211015887 5. Klock S, Ziegler CG, Dischinger U. Obesity and its comorbidities, current treatment options and future perspectives: challenging bariatric surgery? *Pharmacology & Therapeutics.* 2023;251:108549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2023.108549 6. Keith L, Seo C, Wahi MM, Huggins S, Carmody M, Faerber G, et al. Proposed framework for research case definitions of lipedema. *Lymphatic Research and Biology.* 2024;22(2):93–105. https://doi.org/10.1089/lrb.2023.0062 7. Rubino F, Cummings DE, Eckel RH, Cohen RV, Wilding JPH, Brown WA, et al. Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity. *The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.* 2025;13(3):221–262. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(24)00316-4 8. Fukaya E, Kolouri R. Nonsurgical management of chronic venous insufficiency. *The New England Journal of Medicine.* 2024;391(24):2350–2359. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMcp2310224 9. Purnell JQ. Definitions, classification, and epidemiology of obesity. In: Feingold KR, Ahmed SF, Anawalt B, Blackman MR, Boyce A, Chrousos G, et al., editors. *Endotext.* South Dartmouth, MA: MDText.com, Inc.; 2000. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279167/ 10. Dudek JE, Białaszek W, Gabriel M. Quality of life, its factors, and sociodemographic characteristics of Polish women with lipedema. *BMC Women's Health.* 2021;21(1):27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-021-01174-y 11. Bauer AT, von Lukowicz D, Lossagk K, Aitzetmüller M, Moog P, Cerny M, et al. New insights on lipedema: the enigmatic disease of the peripheral fat. *Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.* 2019;144(6):1475–1484. https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000006280 12. Dudek JE, Białaszek W, Ostaszewski P, Smidt T. Depression and appearance-related distress in functioning with lipedema. *Psychology, Health & Medicine.* 2018;23(7):846–853. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2018.1459750 13. Puhl RM, Suh Y. Health consequences of weight stigma: implications for obesity prevention and treatment. *Current Obesity Reports.* 2015;4(2):182–190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-015-0153-z 14. Pearl RL, Puhl RM, Lessard LM, Himmelstein MS, Foster GD. Prevalence and correlates of weight bias internalization in weight management: a multinational study. *SSM – Population Health.* 2021;13:100755. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100755 15. Whooley MA, Avins AL, Miranda J, Browner WS. Case-finding instruments for depression: two questions are as good as many. *Journal of General Internal Medicine.* 1997;12(7):439–445. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.1997.00076.x
Acceptance Isn't A White Flag
23 juil. 2026
00:37:51
"Acceptance is not saying 'I love everything about this'. Acceptance is saying 'I'm done making myself the enemy. Acceptance is not a white flag. It is not surrendering into suffering. It is surrendering the war against yourself." —Donna Piper
Body acceptance gets messy fast when your body is changing without your permission — and that's exactly what this episode of Dear Body, I'm Listening digs into. Host Donna Piper unpacks the real, often uncomfortable difference between acceptance, resignation, and avoidance for anyone living with chronic illness, invisible symptoms, or a body that no longer looks or functions the way it used to. This isn't a "just love your body" pep talk. Donna is mid-recovery from lipedema surgery, dealing with swelling, a changed shape, and a formal event she has nothing to wear to — and she's not pretending she's at peace with it. Instead, she walks through why acceptance, resignation, and avoidance can look identical from the outside but feel completely different inside the nervous system, and why chasing acceptance too fast can backfire. Along the way, she brings in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and what chronic pain research actually says about psychological flexibility — without turning it into toxic positivity. This episode is for anyone who's been medically gaslit, dismissed, or told to just "accept" a diagnosis they never wanted. It's for the days when body positivity feels like a lie and grief feels more honest than gratitude. Key takeaways: • Acceptance, resignation, and avoidance can look the same from the outside but feel completely different in the body — and most people cycle through all three. • Resignation says "there's nothing I can do"; acceptance says "I may not be in control of this, but I still have choices." • Chronic pain research links acceptance to better adjustment and less disability — but acceptance never means the pain isn't real or symptoms are "in your head." • Avoidance isn't a failure — it can be a protective emotional airbag, but it becomes a problem when it becomes the whole house. • You can accept that you don't accept your body yet, and that's still a valid form of honesty. • A simple breath practice (inhale, longer exhale, "this is where I am today") can help regulate the nervous system without forcing false positivity. • Ready to stop fighting your body and start listening to it? Press play on this episode now.
Episode Highlights: 01:06 Acceptance, Resignation, and Avoidance: The Difference 05:08 Real Talk: Why Body Acceptance is Complicated 19:56 Connective Thread: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) 29:38 Myth Busters 33:20 Feel Good Flow 36:25 Shared Education and Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Reference: The research language in this episode is mostly drawn from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, which uses acceptance, mindfulness, values, and committed action to support psychological flexibility. ACBS describes ACT as using acceptance and mindfulness strategies alongside commitment and behavior-change strategies to increase psychological flexibility. For chronic pain, research has repeatedly found that higher pain acceptance is associated with better adjustment — including less depression, anxiety, disability, pain interference, fear, catastrophizing, and greater life satisfaction or self-efficacy. A 2023 overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses summarized ACT evidence for adults with chronic pain across pain intensity, pain-related functioning, quality of life, and psychological factors. Another meta-analysis found significant effects on depression, anxiety, and quality of life after ACT for chronic pain. "Resignation" is not always the exact research term, so I translated the research more carefully through passive coping, helplessness, and avoidance. Studies on chronic pain have found passive coping is associated with more depression, pain, flare activity, functional impairment, and lower self-efficacy, while fear-avoidance factors are associated with anxiety, depression, pain-related disability, and pain intensity.
What Is Lipedema, Really? | Dear Body Book Club: Chapter 1
16 juil. 2026
00:40:26
"Maybe we don't have every answer yet, but we have something we didn't have before: momentum, curiosity, research, hope, a textbook." —Donna Piper
Welcome to the very first official Dear Body Book Club episode! In this new series, we're opening the books that are shaping the future of chronic illness care and translating the research into everyday language. Today we're exploring Chapter One of the newly released medical textbook: Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment Edited by Stanley G. Rockson, MD, Leslyn Keith, OTD, and Catherine Seo, PhD (Springer Nature, May 2026). Together, we discuss Chapter One: "What Is Lipedema? Moving Towards a Widely Accepted Definition" by Sandro Michelini and José Luis Simarro Rather than reading the chapter word for word, I pull out the concepts that stood out to me, translate the medical language into plain English, and explain why these ideas matter for those of us living with lipedema. In this episode, we discuss: What lipedema is—and what it isn't The history of lipedema and why recognition matters The World Health Organization's recognition of lipedema in ICD-11 Germany's recognition of lipedema within its healthcare system The newly approved U.S. ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes expected to take effect in October 2027 Why lipedema is different from obesity Why BMI alone often misses women with lipedema Genetics and why lipedema may be inherited through either side of the family Hormones, puberty, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause Emerging research on connective tissue and childhood-onset lipedema Clinical diagnosis and staging Pain, inflammation, and tissue changes Common comorbidities associated with lipedema Current diagnostic tools Conservative and surgical treatment options discussed in Chapter One Where lipedema research is headed
Resources
Table 1.1 – Differential Diagnosis of Lymphedema and Lipedema
Adapted from Chapter One of Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment (Michelini & Simarro, 2026).
Clinical Feature
Lymphedema
Lipedema
Family history
Possible
Often present
Gender
Male or female
Almost exclusively female
Limb involvement
One or both limbs
Usually both limbs (bilateral)
Hands and feet
Usually involved
Usually spared
Age of onset
Birth, childhood, or adulthood
Most commonly at puberty (may occur before puberty)
Joint hypermobility
Usually absent
Often present
Pitting edema
Usually present
Usually absent
Stemmer sign
Usually positive
Usually negative
Pain
Usually absent
Common
Response to conservative therapy
Generally good
Varies
Response to surgery
Variable
Generally good for appropriate candidates
Compression garments
Flat-knit custom garments (Class II–IV)
Flat-knit custom garments (Class I–III), depending on the individual
Clinical follow-up
Regular
As needed
💛 What this means in plain English One of the biggest takeaways from this table is that lipedema and lymphedema are not the same condition, even though they're often confused. Women with lipedema are more likely to have: Symmetrical enlargement of both legs (and sometimes arms) Feet and hands that are usually spared Painful fat tissue Joint hypermobility A negative Stemmer sign A family history of similar body shapes
People with lymphedema are more likely to have: Swelling that includes the feet or hands A positive Stemmer sign Pitting edema Less pain in the affected tissue Different treatment goals and progression A trained clinician looks at all of these features together—not just one—to help determine the correct diagnosis.
Key Takeaways from Chapter One Lipedema is a recognized disease of adipose tissue—not simply obesity. Lipedema most commonly affects women and often runs in families. Hormones appear to influence lipedema, but genetics and connective tissue may also play important roles. There is currently no single laboratory test to diagnose lipedema. Diagnosis is based on clinical examination. Complete Decongestive Therapy (CDT) can improve symptoms but does not remove pathological lipedema tissue. There is currently no medication scientifically proven to treat lipedema itself. Liposuction is an important therapeutic option for appropriately selected patients. Bariatric surgery does not treat lipedema. More research is still needed to better understand the disease. Research & References This episode is based primarily on: Michelini, S., & Simarro, J. L. (2026). What Is Lipedema? Moving Towards a Widely Accepted Definition. In S. G. Rockson, L. Keith, & C. Seo (Eds.), Lipedema: Principles and Practice of Diagnosis and Treatment. Springer Nature. Additional references cited by the chapter's authors can be found in the reference section of Chapter One (pp. 13–15) of the textbook. About the Dear Body Book Club The Dear Body Book Club is a series on Dear Body, I'm Listening, where we explore books that are shaping the future of chronic illness care. Each episode translates medical research into plain language while remaining faithful to the authors' work. These conversations are designed to help listeners better understand their bodies and the evolving science behind chronic illness. They are not a substitute for reading the original textbook or receiving personalized medical care. If you'd like to explore the research in greater depth, I encourage you to purchase the textbook and read the chapter for yourself.
💛 Connect With Me If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. ✨ Follow the podcast. ⭐ Leave a review. 📚 Share this episode with someone navigating lipedema or chronic illness. And if you're reading along with me, let me know: What was your biggest takeaway from Chapter One?
Episode Chapters: 01:56 Welcome to the Dear Body Book Club 05:24 The 1940 Origins of Lipedema Recognition 09:27 What Is Lipedema? Defining Abnormal Adipose Tissue 12:47 BMI Myths and the Genetic Link Through the Father's Side 16:44 Hormones, Connective Tissue, and Childhood Onset 18:24 Treatment Options: CDT, Compression, and Surgery 27:27 Why Bariatric Surgery Doesn't Solve Lipedema 31:47 Donna's Sticky Notes 37:24 Dear Body Letter 38:59 Shared Education and Lived Experience
19 Liters Later: The Progress Update No Before-and-After Could Tell You
09 juil. 2026
00:41:36
"Remember that you can celebrate what your body can do without demanding more than it has to give… Progress does not have to be perfect, linear, or photogenic to be real." —Donna Piper
Six months into her lipedema surgery recovery, Donna sits down to tell the truth about what actually changed — and what didn't. In this honest update, she shares what life looks like after two leg surgeries and 19 liters removed: more mobility, less pain, better circulation, and wearing shorts in public for the first time in decades. But this isn't a polished before-and-after story. Donna also opens up about the parts no one shows — appetite loss, hair shedding, upper-body swelling, and the emotional whiplash of feeling free in her legs while her nervous system, MCAS, POTS, and hypermobility EDS keep asking for patience. She walks through her shifting compression routine, the aqua therapy classes that rebuilt her ability to move, and what it meant to host friends for the Fourth of July after years of watching life from her bedroom window. Along the way, she busts three persistent myths about surgical recovery — including the idea that healing should be linear, photogenic, or total. This episode is a grounded, unfiltered look at what it really means to heal inside a chronically ill body: not a straight line, but two things being true at once. If you're navigating lipedema, surgical recovery, or a body that's changing faster than your emotions can keep up, this one's for you. Listen to the full episode now: https://tinyurl.com/29njdb9n
Episode Highlights: 02:01 Real Talk: 19 Liters and 6 Months Later 15:24 Connective Thread: More Mobility Does NOT Mean Unlimited Energy 31:32 Myth Busters 35:01 Feel Good Flow
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Quotes: 01:34 "Healing is rarely a straight line; sometimes it looks like a miracle, sometimes it looks like needing two days recovery after a beautiful day, and sometimes it looks like both things being true at the exact same time." —Donna Piper 08:17 "There's something about not having to manage your body every single second that creates some more spaciousness, more choice, and more freedom." —Donna Piper 18:58 "I have to remember that I still have this multitude of symptoms that are not in my control. I hear them, I listen to them, and then I manage my energy as best I can throughout the day." —Donna Piper 25:44 "That is also something that comes up with surgery— as your body changes and morphs, so is your idea of your body, how it feels like." —Donna Piper 29:24 "With these conditions, it's really about every single day reframing yourself that you haven't fallen behind, you didn't do anything wrong. Some of these things with your body are just out of control. The reality is, sometimes we're just at the mercy of our bodies, and we just need to listen to what they need every moment of every day." —Donna Piper 33:23 "Something that is joyful doesn't mean that you're not going to have flares and fatigue… If you exert yourself past your capacity, you're going to have to take some time to rest and recover." —Donna Piper 39:54 "Remember that you can celebrate what your body can do without demanding more than it has to give… Progress does not have to be perfect, linear, or photogenic to be real." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
From Decade-Long Misdiagnosis to AI-Powered Chronic Illness Care with Haresh Patel
02 juil. 2026
00:52:16
"Stay curious and start believing in some things you may not want to believe in. Leave all professions open, and if you do, you can find a cure." —Haresh Patel
A decade-long misdiagnosis is what pushed one founder to build an AI chronic illness diagnosis platform — and it started with a doctor who asked one simple question no one else had: what's your whole story? Donna sits down with Haresh Patel, founder of Sanare Health, to unpack how his own mast cell autoimmune disease went undetected for ten years while specialist after specialist treated only the piece in front of them. The turning point came from a doctor who spent two hours mapping Haresh's full history instead of the standard thirteen and a half minutes most patients get — and found the answer by connecting decades of scattered symptoms instead of chasing one at a time. From there, the conversation moves into the deeper systemic issue: why women wait longer and see more doctors for the same symptoms, and how AI can help patients centralize their full medical and personal history before they ever walk into an appointment. It's a candid, sometimes unexpected conversation about staying curious, refusing "there's no cure" as a final answer, and understanding that your body's full story might be the missing clue your doctor never had time to ask for. If you've ever felt dismissed or rushed out of an appointment, this episode will change how you prepare for the next one. Loved this conversation? Rate and review Dear Body, I'm Listening on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-body-im-listening/id1822768774
Resources: 📖 Book The Ghost in My Body: What Twelve Doctors Couldn't Find by Haresh Patel: https://a.co/d/05z4KfwZ 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Episode Highlights: 02:00 Meet Haresh Patel 06:09 The Doctor Visit That Sparked Sanare Health 11:45 Misdiagnosed for a Decade: A Mast Cell Disease Story 16:05 Costa Rica, Grief, and an Unconventional Path to Healing 27:00 How Sanare Health's AI Builds Your Medical Story 33:32 Why Even Healthy People Are Turning to Longevity Tools 36:19 The Tinnitus Case: The Art of Asking Better Questions 42:14 Raising Investment and Building a Mission-Driven Team 47:31 Fixing the Broken Doctor-Patient Match With AI 49:13 How to Join Sanare Health's Beta
Connect with Haresh: Born in India, raised in New Hampshire, and trained as an electrical engineer at Notre Dame, Haresh built a 25-year Silicon Valley career before founding Mercatus — growing it from a kitchen-table startup into a global private equity data standard, acquired by State Street in 2021. But his most profound achievement was personal: after 55 years of mysterious symptoms that stumped twelve specialists, he applied the same systems thinking that drove his business success to solve his own medical mystery. That breakthrough now fuels his mission to intelligently bridge conventional and alternative medicine — and inspired his forthcoming book chronicling the journey from diagnostic dead-ends to healing.
How Lyme Disease Stole a Decade —And What Came After with Diana Gordon
25 juin 2026
00:58:58
"I lost a decade of my life, but there was an afterwards. There are times when you don't know if you're ever going to get out of this, but keep on… My life at the moment is the fruit of everything that's come before. So, keep the faith, keep trying." —Diana Gordon
When your brain won't stop looping through everything that's wrong, distraction isn't avoidance — it's medicine. That's one of the hard-won truths poet and novelist Diana Gordon shares in this episode of Dear Body, I'm Listening, after spending a decade navigating undiagnosed Lyme disease, neurological sleep disruption, and the particular grief of the world going on without you. Diana opens up about five years of dismissed symptoms before finally finding effective treatment, what the loneliness of chronic illness actually feels like from the inside, and the one friend whose phone calls every three days proved more healing than any support group. She also shares the unexpected story of how reading her unpublished novels aloud to a bedridden friend — someone living with a severe, rare pain condition — not only mitigated that friend's pain in real time, but reignited Diana's own creative life. Three books are now coming out as a direct result. Diana reads two original poems live in this episode: "Letter from a Long Illness" — a meditation on the invisible solidarity between people sick in separate rooms, written to every person who doesn't know if they'll ever get out of it. "Medicine in Mystery" — sparked by a Chinese acupuncturist who diagnosed her with demonic possession and prescribed dragons. She also talks binaural beats, the medicinal power of Netflix, and why conversation — just ordinary, everyday conversation — may be the most underrated healing tool there is. Diana's poetry book Loosestrife for Porcupines is available now at dmgordon.com. Her Substack, Leaf Sheep, delivers short animal poems to your inbox — perfect for interrupting the loop on a hard day.
Poem 1: "Letter from a Long Illness" If you have been to this land as I have been, where I am now, You will know the chill fog. Know that the fig tree, so far from light, will not fruit. Maybe you are here, even as I write. Maybe you haven't escaped. We can't see each other — alone in different sick rooms of the same country, borders closed, pinned motionless. We did not meet at the atrium. You didn't complain your jeans were tight and choose the Reuben. I didn't use a matchbook to study a table leg. We don't do simple things here, where minutes are broken, and we can't make plans. Though you can't see or hear me, I'm writing on the faith that saying it keeps possibility alive, that it might not be too late for either of us to hike the prairie and collect sand spurs on our socks, to drive ourselves into thunderstorms. Not too late to stroll down Madison Avenue, admiring shirts displayed on seas of opalescent buttons. We might yet pass each other on the boardwalk, you in your tight jeans, shopping artisan stalls, your little dog in a basket on your handlebars, waiting for the borders to open — on the faith that thinking it keeps possibility alive, I am hoping to meet you there.
Poem 2: "Medicine in Mystery" I've come at last to the Chinese doctor — diagnosis: demonic possession, spirochetes unbound by tissue, blood, or bone. His cure: release the dragons — iridescent white to fight the unnamed, salmon-colored to attack the known. I imagine them with folded wings, small enough to swim in human cells, sent after demons equally ancient, equally small, wh0 show themselves in cytoplasm the way creatures in opaque ponds create concentric rings unseen, break the skin of the water, Then return to hide in the mud. The war proceeds between the winged and wingless, And as in all histories, the winner will write it. The winner will be deemed good, Though every demon, electric, toxic, feels it is a child of the universe. Yet isn't there something always wrong about invasion? something always noble about defense So, in the end, I stand on a lacquered bridge over swollen runoff, a churning pond behind — It's April, ice on all the edges, the air hurts wonderfully to breathe, the water foams white, the sky, late and high, is riddled with salmon-colored contrails. The last dragons leaving.
Resources: 📖 Loosestrife for Porcupines by DM Gordon 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖 Get Tricia's Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now
Episode Highlights: 03:03 Meet Diana: A Lyme Disease Odyssey 08:33 Why So Many Are Getting Lyme Disease 15:08 Crushing the Loneliness of Chronic Illness 19:03 Conversation is a Medicine 29:00 Brain Looping Challenges 35:52 Poem: Letter From a Long Illness 39:54 Poem: Medicine in Mystery 45:04 Grab Diana's Books 52:02 Life After a Lost Decade
Quotes: 02:02 "A lot of times, when we go through stuff, that's when some of our deep creativity comes out. There's always that beauty in the crack." —Donna Piper 06:32 "There was a year and a half when I was on 81 pills a day, taken 17 different times a day… I think this is a pretty common journey for people who are struggling with mystery illnesses." —Diana Gordon 14:35 "Depression is a real part of chronic illness. You need to know what works for you, too." —Donna Piper 19:17 "Just having a conversation is so healing when you can't do anything else." —Diana Gordon 26:03 "It didn't take a whole organization to do it, just that one person and that conversation. I think conversation is medicinal." —Diana Gordon 51:20 "You need to find these little moments to slow down and to heal yourself very slowly. It's a very long game. But by doing that and finding pleasures in that, then you really start to heal." —Donna Piper 52:10 "I lost a decade of my life, but there was an afterwards. There are times when you don't know if you're ever going to get out of this, but keep on… My life at the moment is the fruit of everything that's come before. So, keep the faith, keep trying." —Diana Gordon 53:57 "You can get better, you do get better." —Donna Piper
The Perrin Technique— Review of the Books Part 3: The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients by Dr. Raymond Perrin
18 juin 2026
00:35:24
Category: Health & Wellness — Chronic Illness / Invisible Illness Support
"Sometimes, healing begins when your symptoms finally have a story that makes sense, not a perfect story, and not the only story, but a story that helps you stop blaming yourself." —Donna Piper
There's a specific kind of grief that hits when your body has been trying to talk to you for years, and nobody ever handed you the translator. That's where this episode starts, before Donna introduces the book that finally gave her one. This week is a book talk on The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients by Dr. Raymond Perrin, the patient-friendly companion to his larger clinical text. Donna shares why it was the first thing that made her ME/CFS feel less like a mystery and more like a map. In this episode: The body-based theory behind the Perrin Technique, and how a disrupted nervous system and lymphatic drainage create fatigue, brain fog, and crashes that feel random but aren't. Why ME/CFS isn't "just tired," and what post-exertional malaise (PEM) really feels like, including the delayed crash that hits a day or two later. The phrase that changed Donna's relationship with her limits: do half of what you think you can do. What changed at home once her husband read the book, too. A simple daily pacing check-in you can try with no equipment. Who it's for: anyone living with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, long COVID, POTS, MCAS, hypermobility (including hEDS), lipedema, or any chronic illness involving pacing or nervous system dysregulation, plus the partners and family trying to understand it. Book mentioned: The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients by Dr. Raymond Perrin: https://amzn.to/4h7Vmwa
Episode Highlights: 01:29 The Perrin Technique: A Clearer, More Practical Path 05:01 Real Talk: A Specific Kind of Grief 08:24 Connective Thread: A Patient Handbook 09:58 Takeaway 1-ME/CFS: A Body-Based Explanation 11:57 Takeaway 2-ME/CFS: Not Just About Energy, It's Recovery 13:37 Takeaway 3- The Perrin Technique: Patient Involvement 18:56 Takeaway 4- ME/CFS: Doing Half 20:44 Takeaway 5-Emotionally Validating 24:00 Myth Busters 27:08 Feel Good Flow 32:47 Shared Education & Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖 Book The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients by Dr. Raymond Perrin https://amzn.to/4h7Vmwa The Concise Perrin Technique is described by Hammersmith Books as a practical patient handbook explaining the "why and how" of using the Perrin Technique to support ME/CFS recovery and healthy lymphatic drainage from the brain; the publisher also lists contents including how the technique works, CFS/ME and fibromyalgia, treatment, FAQs, tests, and the Perrin questionnaire. The official Perrin Technique site describes the approach as an osteopathic method developed in 1989 that aims to support drainage from cerebrospinal fluid into the lymphatic system through spinal movement and soft tissue work around the head, neck, back, and chest. The Perrin Technique self-help guide states that at-home routines are intended for patients currently working with a licensed Perrin Technique practitioner and include flexibility, breathing, self-massage, contrast bathing, active head rest, strengthening exercises, and cross crawl. The CDC describes ME/CFS as a complex, chronic, debilitating disease involving reduced ability to function, post-exertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, and either cognitive impairment and/or orthostatic intolerance. The CDC also defines PEM as worsening symptoms after previously tolerated physical or mental exertion; symptoms often worsen 12 to 48 hours later and can last days or weeks, and pacing is used to help prevent flare-ups and relapses. 🎙️Podcast The Perrin Technique Part 1: https://bitl.to/5uZn The Perrin Technique Part 2: https://bitl.to/5uZo
Fascial Counterstrain
11 juin 2026
00:47:54
"Your body may not need more force, it might just need more safety. Your body might not have been resisting healing, it's just maybe a continuation of the protecting that it's been doing the whole time." —Donna Piper
What if your body isn't failing you… it's protecting you? In this episode, Donna Piper unpacks a quiet but powerful shift for anyone living with chronic illness: healing doesn't always come from pushing harder—it often begins with feeling safer. Through a deeply personal lens, she introduces fascial counterstrain, a gentle, hands-on therapy that works with the body instead of against it. You'll hear why so many chronic illness bodies stay stuck in tension, how the nervous system plays a hidden role in pain, fatigue, and swelling, and why "doing more" might actually be keeping you from healing. Donna breaks down how this approach supports everything from lymphatic flow to brain fog—without force, strain, or overwhelm. If you've ever felt dismissed, confused by your symptoms, or exhausted from trying everything… this conversation offers a different way forward. In this episode, you'll learn: What fascial counterstrain actually is (in simple terms) Why chronic illness bodies stay in protective "bracing" patterns How gentle therapy can support pain, fatigue, and nervous system overload The connection between fascia, lymphatic flow, and whole-body healing A simple way to start rebuilding trust with your body today Key takeaway: Your body may not need more effort—it may need more safety.
Episode Highlights: 01:01 What is Fascial Counterstrain? 03:16 Real Talk: Living with Chronic Illness 08:09 Fascial Counterstrain: The Gentle Way 11:41 Connective Thread: Precision, Not Pressure 22:22 What is Fascia? 25:32 Fascia and the ME/Chronic Fatigue Connection 29:29 Why Facial Counterstrain Matters to Lymphatic and Venous Flow 33:56 Myth Busters 38:16 Feel Good Flow 44:11 Shared Education & Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Patient Resources: Learn exactly what to expect during a session and how FCS targets the interstitium on the Fascial Connections Patient Guide.
Mechanisms & Education: Dive deep into the physiological rationale behind the technique, such as the reduction of interstitial inflammatory stasis, via Tuckey and Associates Education Page. [1]
Training Pathways: Healthcare professionals can explore course levels and Mastery Training requirements at the Counterstrain Training Schedule.
No, Karen! I Couldn't Diet My Way of the Lipedema
04 juin 2026
00:43:25
"Just food alone isn't going make all of these systems behave together. Most of the time with connective tissue disorders, you have constipation, you have gut issues, you have dysautonomia. There's so many things that you have that food alone isn't going to change the actual diseased part of this." —Donna Piper
If you've ever been told to "just eat less and move more" while living with a chronic illness, this episode is for you. Today, we are tackling the heavy emotional toll of lipedema, gaslighting in modern medicine, and the myth of the "perfect diet." For decades, many of us have lived with unspoken, unnamed chronic conditions, carrying the guilt that our bodies weren't responding the way society says they should. In this episode, we break down why the responsibility of nutrition isn't about finding a magic, reinvented wheel—it's about learning how to interact with food in a way that genuinely supports your unique body. You are in control of your plate, and you deserve to feel good about what you eat. Key Takeaways from This Episode: • You Did Not Fail: Lipedema is a medical condition, not a willpower issue. You are not lazy, weak, or the problem. • The Nutrition Myth: Why 99.9% of commercial diet programs won't work for lipedema, and why the real power lies in figuring out what foods support your unique inflammation levels. • Finding Peace in a Label: How getting an official diagnosis for a chronic illness can help you finally ease into healing rather than fighting your own anatomy. • Remember: You have been living in a body that has not been fully understood by modern medicine. You are not alone, and you are doing the best you can.
Episode Highlights: 01:23 The Lipedema Talks 07:07 Diet is NOT the Whole Story 12:14 Real Talk: You Cannot Reverse Lipedema with Just Diet 22:08 Connective Thread: Nuance 29:17 Myth Busters 34:19 Feel Good Flow 39:10 Shared Education & Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Dear Body, I'm Back! Surgery, Swelling, and the Sacred Weirdness of Healing
28 mai 2026
00:40:38
"Remember why you want surgery. It's no one else's business." —Donna Piper
Chronic illness can turn basic things like walking, sitting, or flying into strategic missions. When surgery enters the chat, it is not about chasing skinny; it is about survival, mobility, and pain relief. This solo episode sits in that tender, unglamorous middle of fear, hope, and raw honesty. In this story, Donna shares a second high-volume lipedema surgery in Germany, traveling solo with ME/CFS, POTS, MCAS, and hypermobility EDS in the mix. Her experience reshapes what healing, body image, and "success" look like inside a chronic illness body. Hit play to hear the real cost and quiet wins of this decision, and how our bodies keep asking to be trusted again. • Why lipedema surgery in Germany was about walking, not shrinking • Navigating flights, hotels, food, and accessibility with chronic illness • High-volume liposuction details and anesthesia tweaks that helped • Compression garments, MLD, swelling, and the reality of recovery • Body dysmorphia, vulnerability, and learning a new body story • Myth-busting around "vanity," weight stigma, and mental health • Simple 4-4-4 breathwork to calm the nervous system in hard moments
Episode Highlights: 01:48 Real Talk: 2nd Surgery 07:53 Solo-Traveling to Germany 10:49 Surgery Details and Recovery 20:03 Post-Surgery Challenges and Adjustments 22:52 Emotional and Mental Aspects of Healing 27:21 Conective Thread: Healing is Not Linear 31:25 Myth Busters: Remember Your Why 34:47 Feel Good Flow 37:31 Shared Education & Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible
💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v
💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
The Perrin Technique: How To Diagnose And Treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Me And Fibromyalgia Via The Lymphatic Drainage Of The Brain by Dr. Raymond Perrin, 2nd Ed. Part 2
16 avr. 2026
00:47:23
"ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is more than just fatigue. What we do, or specifically what we don't do, actually aids in more healing. So doing less equals faster, better outcomes."—Donna Piper
A focused revisit to the Perrin Technique that zeroes in on practical steps for easing crashes and brain fog. This is part 2 of our series on The Perrin Technique. This week, Donna dives into chapter 10 to pull out clinician-ready moves and patient routines. Her experience shows how targeted lymphatic drainage, thoracic mobility, and pacing change day to day tolerance over months. Donna describes weekly clinic work and daily self-care that turned theoretical protocol into measurable recovery, and why slow, gentle practice mattered most. Play this episode to hear the chapter 10 breakdown and actionable next steps. • Chapter 10 deep dive from Dr Raymond Perrin 2nd Ed • Perrin Technique steps for neuro-lymphatic drainage • Contrast bathing and thoracic region protocols • Cervical and cranial sacral techniques explained • Pacing and rest as core treatment strategies • Practical self-care routines and when to seek a certified practitioner
Episode Highlights: 01:28 The Perrin Technique: Chapter 10 Intro 10:13 Real Talk: ME/CFS— More Than Fatigue 16:14 Connective Thread: A Systemic Dysfunction 35:25 Myth Buster 41:15 Feel Good Flow 45:02 Shared Education &Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 💗Books: 📖The Perrin Technique: How to diagnose and treat CFS/ME and fibromyalgia via the lymphatic drainage of the brain, 2nd Ed: https://amzn.to/4sV1ehf 📖The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients: https://amzn.to/47JSEcG 📖https://theperrintechnique.com/self-help-guide/
X: DO LESS, HEAL BETTER. The Perrin Technique Chapter 10 unpacked: contrast baths, cervical drainage, thoracic mobility, and severity scoring to track recovery. Tune in and get clear actions to discuss with your clinician. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #ThePerrinTechnique #DrRaymondPerrin #MECFS #ChronicFatigue #fibromyalgia #LymphaticHealth #NeuroLymphaticDrainage #AutonomicNervousSystem #ThoracicSpine #Inflammation #ContrastBathing #SelfGuidedMovements #StressReduction #DietAndNutrition #Hypermobility
Quotes: 05:30 "Pain equals no gain; more equals no gain; more actually makes me worse." —Donna Piper 07:14 "For healing, you want to look at it as a few years that you're going to be doing this. It's taken a long time to get sick in most cases, so it does take a while to get better. This is not a miracle… You probably are going to feel worse because you're going to be detoxing. Some of these toxins are going to be coming out, so you might feel worse. And then that is how you know that it's working." —Donna Piper 19:08 "When you have ME/CFS, you're not just tired, you're having a whole body problem with drainage, nervous system stress and physical dysfunction."—Donna Piper 26:08 "You're not doing anybody any favors, including yourself if you push yourself through the pain barrier. Pain is the body's natural protection; it tells you when to stop." —Donna Piper 36:09 "ME is one of those conditions that punishes excess. Too much stimulation, that's a problem. Too much activity is a problem. Cognitive effort is also a problem. Too much emotional stress is a problem. Too much treatment, believe it or not, is also a problem." —Donna Piper 39:27 "Some healing is microscopic at first. You can't see that healing that it's doing inside of your body. You may notice you're crashing less violently. You may see that you recover a little faster… You have slightly more room between effort and consequence, and that is really where the nuances are, and that's what counts." —Donna Piper 40:15 "Don't let the internet, or what you think you should do, or a timeframe bully you into thinking subtle progress is fake progress."—Donna Piper 46:09 "ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is more than just fatigue. What we do, or specifically what we don't do, actually aids in more healing. So doing less equals faster, better outcomes."—Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
The Perrin Technique: How To Diagnose And Treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Me And Fibromyalgia Via The Lymphatic Drainage Of The Brain by Dr. Raymond Perrin, 2nd Ed.
09 avr. 2026
00:32:44
"Take a look at everything that's been going on with your body and your health, and see if you can be at least okay with the knowledge that this is something that you need to treat in a different way, and relish in the fact that it is not something you've been making up and it there are some real treatment out there." —Donna Piper
A clogged brain drainage system rewires energy, hormones, and recovery so daily life becomes a series of compromises. This matters now because new research and hands-on approaches reveal a physical route to symptoms often written off as psychological. This week, Donna walks through her Perrin technique diagnosis and yearlong treatment journey after unexplained fatigue, showing how structural, autonomic, and lymphatic factors converged to create measurable change. Her story reframes chronic fatigue syndrome and ME as treatable physiological conditions. Tune in to hear the practical breakdown: Perrin technique and neuro lymphatic drainage How hypothalamic dysfunction drives ME/CFS symptoms Common structural and autonomic signs to watch for Self assessment basics and when to see a practitioner Realistic timelines and treatment expectations Related conditions: fibromyalgia, EDS, MCAS
Episode Highlights: 01:01 Discovering The Perrin Technique 06:22 Real Talk: Dr. Raymond Perrin and His Life Work 10:35 Connective Thread: 7 Facts 25:57 Myth Buster: Not Psychological, But Physiological 27:48 Feel Good Flow 29:59 Shared Education and Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible
💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v
💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
💗Books: 📖The Perrin Technique: How to diagnose and treat CFS/ME and fibromyalgia via the lymphatic drainage of the brain, 2nd Ed: https://amzn.to/4sV1ehf 📖The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients: https://amzn.to/47JSEcG 📖https://theperrintechnique.com/self-help-guide/
My Season 2 Premiere
02 avr. 2026
00:27:07
"When you have these chronic illnesses, it's not a sentence. Saying that you have a disease is empowering, as long as you don't hide behind it." —Donna Piper
A fresh start does not always look productive. Sometimes it looks like a missed week, a body that feels louder again, and the quiet fear that progress is slipping. This conversation sits in that space where healing feels uncertain and hard to trust. Donna shares where things stand right now, preparing for a second surgery while navigating the return of chronic fatigue symptoms, and how that tension is shaping a more honest approach to healing. Press play and stay with the conversation as it unfolds. • chronic illness and non-linear healing • chronic fatigue syndrome flare-ups • preparing for surgery with medical trauma nervous system patterns and shutdown • rebuilding self-trust in the body • the Perrin Technique and future tools • redefining what progress really means
Episode Highlights: 01:14 Season 2: A Very Human Beginning 02:48 Real Talk: Surgery #2 07:32 Connective Thread: What Actually Helped 17:28 Myth Buster: 22.44 Feel Good Flow: Micro Moves, Macro Reliefs 25:30 Shared Education and Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Starting over is not always clean. Sometimes it is messy, delayed, and honest. Donna talks about surgery prep, chronic fatigue flare-ups, and rebuilding trust with the body. Press play! #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #healingtools #selfregulation #lipedema #fatigue #healingprocess #chronicillnesssupport #healingjourney #chronicfatigue
Quotes: 04:24 "There's a practical side of getting ready for surgery: the logistics, the packing, the timing, the body prep, the emotional prep. And then there's a deeper layer that's underneath it: the vulnerability, the uncertainty, the memory of what it means to go through something intense in the body again." —Donna Piper 12:00 "There is no magic fix. My surgery is helping with my lipedema, but I'm always going to have it, so I do need to manage it. So if there's anyone saying you don't need to manage your symptoms forever, that's just not true." —Donna Piper 13:28 "When you have these chronic illnesses, it's not a sentence. Saying that you have a disease is empowering, as long as you don't hide behind it." —Donna Piper 16:16 "Everything is connected, and you just have to find the one thing that resonates with you and to look for it in your daily lives." —Donna Piper 16:48 "When you're dealing with chronic illness, fragments matter a lot. Because sometimes, those fragments can become your lifeline, sometimes they become a framework, sometimes they become the thing you return to when your body gets louder again." —Donna Piper 18:14 "A symptom return does not cancel the healing that's happened." —Donna Piper 22:03 "You did not fail. Your body's just changed." —Donna Piper 23:20 "Maybe beginning again is not being together. Maybe it's about being more truthful." —Donna Piper 26:22 "When we have more understanding with ourselves and we know more about what's going on with our bodies, we feel safer, we feel more relaxed, we feel more connected." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Depression After Recovery: Grief, Guilt, Shame, and Finding Yourself Again
19 mars 2026
00:39:18
"Maybe the depression that shows up after recovery is not a sign you're doing it wrong. Maybe it is a sign that your body finally feels safe enough to tell the truth." —Donna Piper
Depression after recovery can arrive right when energy improves and symptoms ease, and it can feel like the rug gets pulled out from under us. Chronic illness shapes our identity, routines, relationships, and sense of safety for years, so when the body finally stabilizes, old grief, guilt, and fear often rise to the surface. This episode sits with that reality and treats post-surgery depression and chronic illness recovery as a nervous system story, not a personal failure. Donna shares her journey through lipedema, POTS, hypermobility, and ME/chronic fatigue syndrome, including lipedema reduction surgery that brought more energy than she expected and a wave of depression that arrived weeks later. Her story, clinical background, and research into survivorship and post-treatment depression come together to name what so many of us experience but rarely hear described. Press play to feel less alone in depression after recovery and explore how our bodies, brains, and hearts try to make sense of life after long illness, including: • Depression that shows up after recovery from a chronic illness or surgery • How chronic illness reshapes identity, relationships, and daily life • Grief for lost years, missed moments, and a self that never got to exist • Survivor's guilt when progress arrives, and others are still suffering • Research on survivorship and why depression can appear years after treatment • The nervous system's role in delayed emotional processing • Simple body-based practices to honor grief without losing our progress
Episode Highlights: 01:41 Depression After Recovery 04:44 Real Talk: Healthy Lifestyle But Not So Healthy 21:26 Connective Thread: When the Story Meets the Science 31:23 Myth Buster: Less Hype, More Health 33:51 Feel Good Flow: Micro Moves, Macro Reliefs 36:24 Shared Education and Lived Experience
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖Free 32-page Hypermobility Posture Guide: https://www.chimera-health.com/hypermobility-posture-guide-donna-piper
🔬Research Mentioned • Taylor WD, Yabroff KR, Mariotto AB, et al. "Late-Onset Depression in Older Adults Among 5-Year Survivors of Cancer." JAMA Network Open • Brandenbarg D, Maass SWMC, Geerse OP, et al. "Prevalence of Symptoms of Depression in Long-Term Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." PubMed • Götze H, Brähler E, Gansera L, et al. "Depression and Anxiety in Long-Term Survivors 5 and 10 Years After Cancer Diagnosis." PubMed • Cheshire A, Ridge D, Hughes J, Peters S, Panagioti M, Simon C. "Sick of the Sick Role: • Narratives of What 'Recovery' Means to People With CFS/ME." PMC • Bury M. "Chronic Illness as Biographical Disruption." PubMed • Andersen BL, et al. "Management of Anxiety and Depression in Adult Survivors of Cancer." • Journal of Clinical Oncology / ASCO Guideline • Raison CL, Capuron L, Miller AH. "Inflammation and Its Discontents: The Role of • Cytokines in the Pathophysiology of Major Depression." PMC • Review on chronic stress and depression mechanisms. PMC
X: Recovery is not a movie montage. It is pain, progress, then a strange emptiness when life gets quieter. Tune in for a grounded take on post-surgery depression, survivor's guilt, and rebuilding a self after long illness.#DearBodyImListeningPodcast #survivorship #postoprecovery #depressionafterrecovery #healingjourney #nervoussystemhealing #griefwork
Quotes: 04:53 "When you've been sick for years, illness becomes a whole ecosystem. It shapes your schedule. It shapes your relationships. It shapes your identity. It shapes how much hope you allow yourself to feel, how much joy you have. It even shapes what you believe you're allowed to want." —Donna Piper 11:07 "Now that you're in a new stage, you're actually feeling better. It opens your eyes on a different level, with a different pair of glasses, and you might be feeling years you lost, or a version of you that never got to exist." —Donna Piper 18:02 "Take two minutes, feel the sadness, feel the guilt, and then replace it with something that you're feeling now." —Donna Piper 21:12 "Having the slow, being depressed, having all these complex feelings, is just part of the process, the other part of the chronic illness wheel." —Donna Piper 25:52 "survivorship research absolutely shows that depressive symptoms can show up or keep showing up after the worst part of the treatment is over… Some studies found that new depression diagnoses still appear five to 10 years later. In other words, this is not just in the middle of the crisis, saying it can land later." —Donna Piper 26:46 "Identity disruption, chronic illness, and or cancer — any of that can change who you think you are, and recovery changes that identity again. So now you're not just healing physically, you're renegotiating your entire sense of self." —Donna Piper 31:42 "You can be relieved and grieving. You can be healing and heartbroken. You can be better than you were and devastated by what it took. Those things are not opposites. They're roommates. Sometimes depression after recovery is not your body being negative— it's just your body being honest." —Donna Piper 35:04 "I am allowed to grieve as I heal." —Donna Piper 36:40 "Maybe the depression that shows up after recovery is not a sign you're doing it wrong. Maybe it is a sign that your body finally feels safe enough to tell the truth." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Stop Pushing Through Pain: A New Chronic Illness Playbook with Amy Behimer
12 mars 2026
00:57:43
"Slow is not only okay… but maybe it's even better than fast." —Amy Behimer
Some days, chronic symptoms run the entire show, even when labs look "fine." Fatigue, brain fog, flare anxiety, and the pressure to stay positive can turn life with chronic illness into a full-time mental job. This conversation is about creating a steadier inner world so our bodies do not have to carry everything alone. Amy Behimer shares how multiple autoimmune diagnoses, including MS, pulled her out of quick fixes and into science-backed mindset work and habit change. Her story shows how belief "seeds," tiny actions, and nervous-system-aware support can change how we relate to our body, even when symptoms stay complex. Press play to tap into grounded hope and practical tools for life with chronic illness and autoimmune disease, including: • How mindset and language around symptoms drain or protect our energy • What autoimmune disease and MS can look like day to day • Loneliness, invisible illness, and the reality of being misunderstood • Belief seeds and habit science for reshaping chronic illness mindset • Why tiny habits on bad days still create real progress • Rest, slowing down, and building a nervous-system-safe life • Community, coaching, and systems that bend with flares and fatigue
Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖 Get Tricia's Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now
Episode Highlights: 02:56 Meet Amy: A Journey with Autoimmune Diseases 09:53 What Is MS? Autoimmune Basics, Myelin, and Types of Multiple Sclerosis 15:06 How Much Do You Share? Finding Safe People and Protecting Your Energy 25:48 Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast: Redefining Productivity With Autoimmune 31:45 Why Goals Fail: Building Flexible Systems for Flare Days and Low Energy 41:17 Tiny Habits, Big Impact: Trusting Small Actions on Bad Health Days 48:37 Club Habit Hub & Autoimmune Health Secrets 52:15 The Long Game: Decade-Long Mindset Shifts, Joy, and Gentle Discipline
Hypermobility, Fatigue, and "Why Am I Always Sore?" — What I Wish I Knew Sooner (Ground Control / Posture Guide)
05 mars 2026
00:20:49
"Your body is at its max, and you're tired, and it's not because you're lazy, and it's not because you're weak, and it's not because you're bad at consistency, it's just because you might be overspending your energy on stability." —Donna Piper
Our bodies can be flexible and still ache all the time, crash after "healthy" workouts, and collect headaches like a part-time job. Many of us are told it is anxiety, deconditioning, or lack of willpower, while our nervous systems work nonstop just to hold us together. This episode sits in that gap, where chronic symptoms, hypermobility, and exhaustion overlap. Donna shares how a lifetime of dance, marathons, and teaching movement lived alongside mysterious pain, gut issues, and fatigue, and how learning about symptomatic hypermobility and connective tissue changed everything. Through her work with Dr. Melissa Koehl's Ground Control approach, she reframes exercise, posture, and recovery for hypermobile bodies that are already working at their limit. Press play to hear this conversation and explore how we can honor our capacity and support our bendy bodies with less push and more stability, including: • Why hypermobility often shows up as fatigue, brain fog, GI issues, and headaches • How connective tissue, blood flow, and mast cells link to chronic symptoms • Why "just exercise more" can backfire for ME CFS and hypermobile bodies •The problem with more stretching and end-range work for symptomatic hypermobility • Practical shifts for posture, stability, and daily movement that protect energy • A short, hypermobility-friendly grounding and breathing reset • How programs like Ground Control can support chronic pain and dysautonomia
Episode Highlights: 02:10 Hypermobility + Fatigue + Brain Fog + GI Issues + Headache 04:49 Real Talk: Healthy Lifestyle But Not So Healthy 09:53 Connective Thread: When the Story Meets the Science 12:16 Myth Buster: Less Hype, More Health 15:13 Feel Good Flow: Micro Moves, Macro Reliefs 18:30 Shared Education and Lived Experience
Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖Free 32-page Hypermobility Posture Guide: https://www.chimera-health.com/hypermobility-posture-guide-donna-piper 🎙️Listen to: Ground Control for Bendy Bodies: How to Move Without Pain (Finally!) with Melissa Koehl: YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ecs0eBwjOoo Libsyn https://five.libsyn.com/show/episodes/view/39071105
X: Our joints can touch our toes, but a flight of stairs wipes us out. Hypermobility is not a party trick; it is an energy leak. Hit play while we unpack fatigue, brain fog, GI chaos, and "no pain no gain" myths. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #Hypermobility #ChronicPain #Dysautonomia #ChronicFatigue #PostureGuide #GroundControl
Quotes: 04:25 "Posture is one of those things that takes a lot of our energy." —Donna Piper 06:42 "So I used to think, if I'm sore, I should push through, that I needed to do more when actually, I just really needed to do less. Hypermobile bodies don't respond to 'more' at all. Sometimes more is what creates a flare." —Donna Piper 09:37 "Your body is at its max, and you're tired, and it's not because you're lazy, and it's not because you're weak, and it's not because you're bad at consistency, it's just because you might be overspending your energy on stability." —Donna Piper 12:00 "If you're breaking down tissues faster than you can repair them, you get that downward spiral: more pain, more fatigue, more flares, more confusion." —Donna Piper 12:32 "A lot of hypermobile bodies need stability, not more range. So hanging out in your range can cause more flares because your body's over-stretched anyway." —Donna Piper 18:19 "Don't go further. More is not better with all of this hypermobility stuff, so just take it up tomorrow." —Donna Piper 19:51 "Remember to be gentle with your capacity. Meet yourself where you are." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
My Lipedema Surgery Update: The Misses, The Hits, And What I'm Looking Forward To
26 févr. 2026
00:36:40
"For me, it's not hype about when people say [lipedema surgery] is life-changing. It has been because it's just been so much relief." —Donna Piper
Chronic pain can sit in the background for decades until it becomes the entire storyline. When lipedema surgery suddenly shifts that pain and heaviness, the body and nervous system do not just "bounce back" because the procedure went well. This conversation stays with the messy middle of recovery, where compression garments, swelling, and fear that relief will disappear all collide. Donna shares the realities of traveling to Germany for lipedema surgery while living with ME, chronic fatigue syndrome, POTS, MCAS, hypermobility, and long-standing medical trauma. Her story traces every step from missteps in pain management and communication with an anesthesiologist, to the quiet miracles of walking with less heaviness and having enough energy to participate in her own rehab. Press play to sit with a real-life picture of lipedema surgery recovery and why nervous system work matters as much as compression and MLD, including: • What went wrong and right during the first lipedema surgery in Germany • How chronic illness, anesthesia sensitivity, and pain management interact in the hospital • Practical tools that made recovery bearable, from flat knit class 2 compression to inflatable wedges and MLD • Why more energy after surgery is not "in the head," and how reduced pain load frees capacity • The emotional whiplash of living in a smaller body after years of lipedema pain • A science-informed mirror and nervous-system capacity practice for post-surgery body image • Reframing the myth that improvement will not last in chronic illness healing
Episode Highlights: 03:20 Real Talk: The Misses 10:28 The Hits 15:22 Things I Can't Live Without 18:27 What I'm Looking Forward To 21:03 Connective Thread: Surgery-Recovery 23:41 Myth Buster Moment 26:03 Feel Good Flow 34:15 Healing Is Spiral, Not Linear
Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
Emotional Eating Explained: Why Willpower Isn't The Problem with Tricia Nelson
19 févr. 2026
00:44:22
"You have a living problem, not an eating problem." —Tricia Nelson
Food rules, lab results, and shame spiral thinking keep showing up, yet the body keeps sending the same distress signals. Chronic symptoms, weight swings, and late-night eating start to look less like a lack of discipline and more like the body asking for a different kind of help. This conversation goes straight into that gap between "knowing what to do" and not being able to do it. Tricia Nelson shares how decades of emotional eating, strict dieting, and self-loathing turned into a path of mentoring, research, and a practical framework that helps emotional eaters understand what food has been doing for them. Her story shows how addressing buried emotions, people pleasing, and stress patterns can transform both our relationship with food and our sense of safety in our own body. Press play to explore a kinder, more honest way of working with emotional eating and chronic symptoms, including: • Why emotional eating is a living problem, not an eating problem • How stress, people pleasing, and overdoing keep bingeing and stress eating in place • The PEP framework and what food is actually doing for our pain, escape, and self-punishment • Why traditional diets and willpower backfire for emotional eaters • The role of community and speaking up in releasing shame around food • Simple self-care practices that calm the nervous system and support food freedom
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖 Get Tricia's Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now
Episode Highlights: 04:35 Meet Tricia: Struggles with Emotional Eating 07:54 The Role of Emotions, Stress, and Habits in Emotional Eating 24:57 Practical Tips for Overcoming Emotional Eating 28:56 How Coaches Can Help 35:50 Feelings of Failure 40:06 The Importance of Community and Support
X: Emotional eating is not a food problem. It is a life problem. Hit play for a smart gut check on stress, people pleasing, chronic illness, and the PEP method for food cravings. Our snacks have receipts. #DearBodyImListening #EmotionalEating #lymphbreath #movementherapy #eightloss #foodaddiction #stresseating #selfcarehabits #communitysuupport #selfesteem
Quotes: 12:21 "Our emotions impact our health, our gut health, our immune health, and cancer. We've got to figure this out, or we're going to die from burying our emotional selves and not using our voice." —Tricia Nelson 14:01 "We don't get taught how to deal with anger and shame… we're not an emotionally intelligent society." —Donna Piper 14:14 "You're not just your weight, you're not just your spirit, you're not just your mind, we all work together." —Donna Piper 15:06 "You have a living problem, not an eating problem." —Tricia Nelson 17:34 "Over-eaters are overdoers. Every time, we'll trash ourselves getting it done. We want that approval, so we are working for it, and that comes at a high cost to our health. So that's a problem, because stress causes stress eating." —Tricia Nelson 21:54 "We need to get together and laugh about the crazy things we've done, because otherwise, we'll live in isolation, which just perpetuates the problem… It's not food we're really craving. We need connection." —Tricia Nelson 34:33 "We're not only overeaters, but we're also over feelers, and we feel guilty about everything." —Tricia Nelson 39:07 "We have to practice this. We need to be schooled in changing our belief system about ourselves. It's just it's hard to come by strong self-esteem without working at it." —Tricia Nelson
Connect with Tricia: Tricia Nelson is an internationally acclaimed author, transformational TEDx speaker, and Emotional Eating Expert. Tricia has successfully helped thousands of people heal their relationship with food. Born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, Tricia's own struggles began in early childhood, where she attempted to cope with life's stresses and emotional pain by overeating and other destructive behaviors. Continuing into adolescence, she began binge drinking and eventually gained more than 50 pounds. After years of experimentation with 12-step programs, therapy, and self-help books, Tricia finally hit a spiritual and emotional bottom. Tricia attended Amherst College and began her career working at the Seattle Art Museum. While in Seattle, she began working with a spiritual healer who helped her recognize and heal the root causes of her addictions. By creating a lifestyle steeped in positive self-care, self-love, and improved self-esteem, Tricia was able to stop drinking and overeating. She has maintained a fifty-pound weight loss for over 30 years now. Tricia has spent the past three decades studying the addictive personality and shares her findings in programs, workshops, and retreats online. Many doctors, psychologists, and other health practitioners benefit from her insight about what drives people to overeat and how to stop.
Chronic Illness Grief: Missing Your Old Life Without Making Your New Life Wrong
12 févr. 2026
00:31:49
"Grief is not the opposite of healing. Grief is a part of making room for your real life. You don't get over this, you learn how to carry it without it swallowing you whole" —Donna Piper
Some days, the hardest part of chronic illness is not the symptoms, but the quiet grief for the body and life that used to feel possible. Plans shrink, energy disappears without warning, and ordinary tasks start to feel like marathons no one else can see. Grief and gratitude sit side by side, and our culture often gives us language for neither. Donna shares how chronic illness restructured her body, work, and identity, from marathon days in Chicago and full client loads to lipedema surgery and unpredictable flares. Her training as a psychotherapist, body worker, and spiritual practitioner meets her lived experience, and together they shape a grounded way of moving with chronic illness grief instead of around it. Press play to hear a real-time grief toolkit for chronic illness and to explore gentler ways of living with a body that changed without consent, including: • What chronic illness grief looks like when there is no funeral, flowers, or casserole train • How gratitude and grief can coexist without canceling each other out • The roller coaster nature of symptoms and stamina in conditions like lipedema, MCAS, hypermobility, and chronic fatigue syndrome • Why the nervous system stays on high alert with chronic illness and medical dismissal • The identity whiplash of going from strong and reliable to "limit days" and cancellations • Naming specific losses so grief does not harden into shame and self blame • The "two lives list" and how it helps separate old expectations from current capacity • A "wave plan" for grief ambushes, including anchoring, breath, and timers • Reframing flares from personal failure to information from the body • Building a soft identity that honors essence, not productivity or stamina • Mythbusting chronic illness grief, including "others have it worse" and "I should be over this by now" • A short feel good flow for safety, permission, and resting without guilt
Episode Highlights: 02:46 Chronic Illness Grief Without Funerals or Flowers 04:26 Looking Great ❌ Functional 08:55 How Chronic Illness Hijacks Your Nervous System & Sense of Safety 15:47 Two Lives List 19:16 Feeling Grief Safely: Wave Plans, Timers & Letting Emotions Move 24:05 Myth Busters: Acceptance, Grief Moves, Pain Competition, Timing 28:33 Gentle Grief Practice: Breathing, Self-Permission & Soft Identity
Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Looking "fine" while our body rewrites every rule is its own heartbreak. Queue this episode for real talk on stamina loss, medical gaslighting, and building a softer identity with chronic illness.#DearBodyImListeningPodcast #chronicpain #lipedema #MCAS #hypermobility #CFS #grief #identityloss #spoonielife #mentalhealth #bodychanges #newvoussystem #selfcare #acceptance #healing
Quotes: 02:57 "Grief doesn't mean you're negative. Grief means you're honest. When your body changes, your life changes, not always in dramatic ways, sometimes in 1000 tiny, weirdly humiliating ways." —Donna Piper 04:26 "Looking great is not the same thing as feeling functional." —Donna Piper 06:50 "Grief is not a weakness. It's our human response to loss… and it needs its space. It needs its time. It needs its recognition to really help you navigate this." —Donna Piper 09:07 "When life is predictable, your system can relax. When life is unpredictable, your system starts scanning for danger. And for most of us with chronic illness, our bodies are trying to catch up." —Donna Piper 10:40 "Grief isn't just emotional, it's biological because uncertainty is stressful on the nervous system… So you're not just grieving your physical ability. You're grieving who you thought you'd be, what you thought your life would look like, what you assumed was guaranteed, the version of you who didn't have to negotiate with her body all day." —Donna Piper 11:52 "Grief is not the opposite of healing. Grief is a part of making room for your real life. You don't get over this, you learn how to carry it without it swallowing you whole" —Donna Piper 20:50 "Stop interpreting your symptoms as personal failure." —Donna Piper 23:47 "Remember you're not your stamina. You're a whole person. So you can be all these beautiful things you always were. That's who you are, just your body needs a different way to be treated, and grieving helps." —Donna Piper 24:54 "What keeps people stuck is pretending they're fine. Grief moves when it's allowed." —Donna Piper 26:14 "Don't go comparing your issues to other people. Your pain and how you feel about your body is yours, and it's justified, and it needs recognition." —Donna Piper 27:25 "My timing isn't always the timing my body needs." —Donna Piper 29:41 "You don't have to love your reality to belong in it… Honor where you are. Allow yourself some time and space. Give yourself permission to be here, safe, and feel —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
MCAS vs Histamine Intolerance Why Your Body Reacts to Everything (And You're Not Crazy)
05 févr. 2026
00:34:44
"A reaction is not a moral failure— it's information. Your body is just responding to something, and right now it's giving you signals that it doesn't want that or it needs some extra help." —Donna Piper
When every meal feels like a risk and symptoms seem to come out of nowhere, it can start to feel like the body has turned against us. Many in the chronic illness community are stuck between labels like "histamine intolerance" and "MCAS" while still getting no clear plan or validation. This conversation names what is happening in the body and why it is not "all in the head." Donna Piper shares decades of lived experience with connective tissue disorders, chronic fatigue, and relentless food and environmental reactions, and how finally understanding mast cell activation and histamine load changed the way she navigates daily life and medical care. Her story becomes a practical map that blends science, self tracking, and nervous system care. Hit play for grounded support and real language around symptoms that are often dismissed, including: • The difference between histamine intolerance and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) • How connective tissue disorders, hypermobility, lipedema, POTS, and ME/CFS intersect with mast cell issues • Why food reactions can seem random and show up hours or days later • The "histamine bucket" idea and how overall load from stress, hormones, sleep, and environment matters • Three trigger buckets: food, environmental, and internal factors • How to track symptoms without spreadsheets using simple logs or voice notes • Why leftovers, storage time, and food freshness can change histamine reactions • A practical reaction scale and when symptoms call for urgent care • Exact phrases that can help doctors take MCAS and histamine intolerance more seriously • Common myths about sensitivity, inconsistency, and "it is just anxiety" • A short pre meal nervous system practice to make eating feel safer
Episode Highlights: 01:10 Why Your Body Reacts to Everything 05:30 Connective Tissue Disorders, Hypermobility, and Chronic Symptoms 09:45 Histamine Intolerance Explained 15:00 HIstamine Intolerance vs MCAS 18:00 Three Trigger Buckets: Food, Environment, and Internal Stressors 23:00 The LeftOver Rule 27:52 Myth Busting: It's My Fault, It's All in My Head, & Inconsistent=Not Real
🔬Research and Studies Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic+2PMC+2 JACI In Practice+1 JACI In Practice+2PMC+2 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Our body is not overreacting. It is overprotecting. Hit play to hear how MCAS, histamine intolerance, and our "histamine bucket" can turn meals into landmines, and why it is not in our head. Listen now for real talk, science, and tools. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #MCAS #MastCellActivationSyndrome #HistamineIntolerance #LowHistamineDiet #ChronicIllness #InvisibleIllness #GutHealth #Hypermobility #Lipedema #POTS #MECFS #NervousSystemRegulation #HealthPodcast #WomensHealth #PatientAdvocacy
Quotes: 02:22 "You deserve to eat without feeling like you're playing a horror movie called, What will my body do next?" —Donna Piper 16:20 "Instead of what's wrong with me, the more helpful question is, 'what is filling my bucket? What drains my bucket?'" —Donna Piper 17:16 "The three trigger buckets: food bucket…environmental bucket…then the internal bucket. So if you only track food, you'll think that it might be more random, but if you track all three, you could start to see patterns that show themselves." —Donna Piper 26:20 "Sometimes, you just have to know the magic words to say to your doctors in a way that makes sense to them as they do your deferential diagnosis." —Donna Piper 28:03 "A reaction is not a moral failure— it's information. Your body is just responding to something, and right now it's giving you signals that it doesn't want that or it needs some extra help." —Donna Piper 28:35 "Histamine and mast cell mediators are real chemistry. They have real implications in the body. They have real jobs in your body, and when those jobs are overworking, and you're having symptoms, and you're not feeling good, then they're doing it too well. So you need some sort of intervention." —Donna Piper 29:41 "It's consistently inconsistent, and that's one way to look at it if you're always cycling through these symptoms. A little bit of data gathering is going to be so beneficial for you and your doctor." —Donna Piper 32:45 "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You've just been living in a body that's been misunderstood. Science doesn't have all the research to go to and or the training." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Rest Without Guilt (When Your Worth Got Tied to Output)
29 janv. 2026
00:31:22
"Rest isn't a character flaw. It's what your body needs in order to heal from these invisible illnesses. And for some of us, it's also a grief process, because we're not just resting from task; we're resting from the version of ourselves who thought we had to earn love through output." —Donna Piper
We talk about rest like it is simple, but for many bodies it brings guilt, fear, and shame. When worth gets tied to productivity, stopping can feel dangerous even when the body is breaking down. This conversation meets the tension between exhaustion and identity without sugarcoating it. This week, Donna shares her lived experience with chronic illness, nervous system dysregulation, and post-exertional malaise, alongside research that reshaped how she approaches rest, pacing, and recovery. Press play and sit with this one, then return to it when the guilt shows up. Topics covered: • Rest without guilt, and why it feels so hard • Chronic illness, fatigue, and invisible symptoms • Nervous system regulation and safety • Post-exertional malaise and pacing strategies • Why pushing through backfires • Identity loss when productivity disappears • Practical rest tools that actually work • Boundaries, scripts, and energy budgeting
Episode Highlights: 03:05 The Impact of Chronic Illness on Identity 07:52 The Role of the ANS 10:50 How to Rest Without Guilt 19:01 The Importance of Pacing and Boundaries 21:41 Reframing Rest as Productive 25:34 Intentional Breathing and Mindfulness
Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Your worth is not measured by stamina. Period.This episode dives into fatigue, shame, pacing, and nervous system safety—plus tools to rest without guilt. Press play if your body's tired but your mind won't quit.#DearBodyImListeningPodcast #RestWithoutGuilt #ChronicIllness #NervousSystem #FatigueSupport #InvisibleIllness #RestIsMedicine #PEM #HealingJourney #WomensHealth #RestAndHeal #NervousSystemCare #FatigueAwareness
Quotes: 02:06 "A lot of us don't just have fatigue. We have fatigue plus shame, and shame is heavy. It's like wearing a weighted vest you did not consent to." —Donna Piper 04:06 "Rest— there's no volition to it. You need it, and the more you don't do it, the worse it gets." —Donna Piper 09:42 "We all want to be relied on. It's a lot of women do too much… So it's not a negative that we do that a lot. It's just that if it becomes too much of our identity, it takes away from our health. So that's really where we want to learn some safety in our body and what that looks like." —Donna Piper 14:23 "It's not forced rest. Rest is being safe. Rest is self-respect in the body that has limits. And so, we want to just first look at what our relationship is with rest; know that rest is essential in your healing." —Donna Piper 17:55 "Rest works better when it's a choice you can name, not avoiding your brain fears." —Donna Piper 18:34 "The safer you feel in your body, the more the environment is primed to help you see things differently, manage things differently, and also get you on your road to recovery." —Donna Piper 20:18 "Treat rest like an appointment; you don't cancel on yourself. You're not lazy, you're energy budgeting." —Donna Piper 24:44 "Rest is not giving up. Rest is what helps you prevent the worst of the crash cycle, especially with PEM patterns." —Donna Piper 25:11 "Sometimes, stopping is the only reason anything stays intact." —Donna Piper 26:54 "Your body is the doer and the be-er. So the more you support your body, the more you're actually taking care of yourself in order to do the things you want to do in the future." —Donna Piper 27:45 "Rest isn't a character flaw. It's what your body needs in order to heal from these invisible illnesses. And for some of us, it's also a grief process, because we're not just resting from task; we're resting from the version of ourselves who thought we had to earn love through output." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Is It POTS? When Standing Up Feels Like a Trap
22 janv. 2026
00:13:12
"You're not making it up. You're not weak, you're not failing. Your body is working hard to keep you upright, and you deserve support that matches the reality of that." —Donna Piper
Standing up should not require strategy, recovery time, or mental math. When heart rate spikes, dizziness hits, and showers wipe us out, the hardest part is not the symptom. It is being told nothing is wrong while our body says otherwise.
Donna shares lived experience with POTS, dysautonomia, and multiple comorbidities, blending physiology with trauma-informed insight. Her work is shaped by years of being dismissed and the clarity that comes from finally naming what is happening in the body.
Press play to ground into language that makes sense of your symptoms and offers support without pushing.
Signs of POTS and dysautonomia in daily life
Why standing, heat, and showers trigger symptoms
Heart racing vs anxiety and why both can exist
The mental exhaustion of medical gaslighting
Gentle nervous system supports for upright intolerance
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
X:
Standing up shouldn't feel like a full-body ambush. If your heart races, showers wipe you out, or upright time feels risky, this episode breaks down POTS signs, daily triggers, and gentle supports. Pull up a chair and listen for clarity and support..
04:18 "This isn't you just being dramatic. This is your body sending data, not drama." —Donna Piper
04:47 "There's absolutely nothing wrong with you. You may have been dealing with regulation issues, and they deserve support, not shame." —Donna Piper
06:59 "POTS can shrink your world, not because you're incapable, but because your body is doing extra math to keep you upright." —Donna Piper
08:17 "Here's the spicy truth: being dismissed can make you anxious. So you can have both anxiety and POTS." —Donna Piper
08:33 "POTS can fluctuate. Your good hours don't erase the hard ones. You're not faking. You're cycling through capacity." —Donna Piper
08:47 "For a lot of us, pushing through is what makes symptoms worse. Sometimes, the bravest thing is choosing smart support instead of self punishment." —Donna Piper
11:20 "You're not making it up. You're not weak, you're not failing. Your body is working hard to keep you upright, and you deserve support that matches the reality of that." —Donna Piper
Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Traveling with Chronic Illness: Germany Edition
15 janv. 2026
00:12:31
"If you're traveling with chronic illness, I want you to hear me. There is nothing wrong with you. You just have to prepare a little bit. You deserve to travel in a way that doesn't punish you, that helps you, that makes you feel good." —Donna Piper
Travel takes more out of the body than most people admit. For those living with chronic illness, the cost shows up before the suitcase is even packed. Energy drains through lines, noise, time pressure, swelling, and the fear of crashing far from home. Donna shares her real-time approach to spending a month in Germany while managing lipedema, chronic fatigue, MCAS, hypermobility, and nervous system overload. This conversation blends lived experience with practical science to show how support, pacing, and preparation make travel survivable and humane. Press play for a grounded, no-hype conversation and explore: • Traveling with chronic illness without pushing or proving • Energy budgeting before, during, and after trips • Nervous system overload and why travel hits harder • Swelling, compression, and movement on long flights • Flying with lipedema and chronic pain • Planning layovers, buffers, and recovery days • Using accommodations without guilt or explanation • Safe food strategies for MCAS and histamine issues • Why rest protects the trip instead of ruining it • Micro-regulation tools for airports, flights, and hotels
Episode Highlights: 01:59 Travelling with Chronic Illness 05:14 How Travel Can Stress Your ANS and What to Do About It 07:02 Myths and Misconceptions About Travelling with Chronic Illness 08:23 Practical Travel Tips and Mindfulness Practices
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Traveling with chronic illness isn't Eat, Pray, Love. It's planning, pacing, compression, and rest. In this episode, we talk fatigue, swelling, flights, and nervous-system-safe travel—without the gloss. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #ChronicIllnessTravel #InvisibleIllness #Lipedema #ChronicFatigue #TravelTips #NervousSystemSafety #SelfAdvocacy #BodyAwareness
Quotes: 02:34 "Travel costs energy before the trip even starts. There's the physical stuff: standing in lines, hauling bags, temperature swings, weird food timing, and bathrooms require a map, and emotional courage. And then there's the invisible stuff, decision fatigue, sensory overload, nervous system activation, the pressure to 'make it worth it', and that sneaky fear of what if I crash and I'm not at home." —Donna Piper 03:33 "Build a buffer like it's your job… Two, use help like it's normal… Three, Plan the flight like it's a body event…Four, bring safe food… Five, treat landing like recovery day." —Donna Piper 06:44 "You're not aiming for no symptoms. You're aiming for support, strategy, and self-trust." —Donna Piper 07:15 "Rest is what makes a trip survivable. Rest is what keeps you from needing a week-long recovery afterward." —Donna Piper 09:52 "If you're traveling with chronic illness, I want you to hear me. There is nothing wrong with you. You just have to prepare a little bit. You deserve to travel in a way that doesn't punish you, that helps you, that makes you feel good." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Pack, Move, Fly, Heal: Why I'm Choosing Germany for Lipedema Surgery
08 janv. 2026
00:19:49
"Movement and less pain is why I'm doing this and why I've chosen to go to Germany." —Donna Piper
Big life changes rarely wait their turn. When health decisions collide with exhaustion, logistics, and uncertainty, clarity matters more than certainty. Donna shares the personal and medical reasoning behind traveling to Germany for lipedema surgery while managing multiple chronic conditions. This episode traces how lived experience, failed conservative treatments, and the need for long-term care shaped a choice rooted in mobility, pain reduction, and nervous system safety. Press play for a grounded, unfiltered conversation, then explore the key moments: • Why Germany was chosen for lipedema surgery • Living with lipedema, ME/CFS, hEDS, POTS, and MCAS • Limits of conservative treatments for lipedema • Surgery as debulking, not a cure • Managing chronic illness during major life transitions • The role of aftercare and hospital-based recovery • Reframing healing away from aesthetics • Nervous system support during overwhelm • Making slow, aligned medical decisions
Episode Highlights: 01:40 Personal Update and Upcoming Move 04:56 Choosing Lipedema Surgery in Lipedema 11:23 The Importance of Practicality and Compassion 13:38 Surgery is Not a Miracle Cure 17:32 The Importance of Community Support
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Big life moves don't pause for healing—but your body still matters. Donna is packing, moving, and flying to Germany for lipedema surgery, choosing care over speed. Listen for surgery decisions, nervous system safety, and real-life prep. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #lipedema #chronicillness #medicaldecisions #healingjourney #bodywisdom #lipedemasurgery #chronicfatigue #spoonielife #healthchoices #patientadvocate
Quotes: 02:48 "It has been important for me to go slowly through this process, as much as I wanted to speed up sometimes, but to really make sure that my nervous system and everything was in alignment so I can make these huge moves on top of healing." —Donna Piper 08:37 "Healing does take a lot of energy." —Donna Piper 11:12 "Movement and less pain is why I'm doing this and why I've chosen to go to Germany." —Donna Piper 11:46 "Surgery isn't your only option, and surgery isn't a miracle; you still need to continue to do conservative things." —Donna Piper 13:34 "It takes about a year after surgery to really start to see the results." —Donna Piper 17:10 "If you're in a moment where life is asking a lot of you and your body is already carrying a lot, remember: there's nothing wrong with you. You've just been living in a body that hasn't been understood." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Lipedema Surgery Vs. Non-Surgical Care… Do I Have To Choose?
01 janv. 2026
00:38:38
"Anything you choose is not weakness. It's the best for you… Instead of thinking surgery or no surgery, try this question: 'What would make my next step safer?'... Safety is a step, not a switch." —Donna Piper
Pressure around medical choices can turn care into panic. When the body is complex and money, time, and fear are involved, certainty starts to feel like a deadline. This conversation slows that moment down and gives it room to breathe. In this episode, Donna shares her lived experience navigating lipedema and the long road of conservative care, research, and choosing surgery without shame or urgency. Her perspective is shaped by years of dismissal, chronic symptoms, and learning to trust the body again. Press play and walk your healing journey at your own pace. We cover: • Lipedema surgery vs non-surgical care and why it is not an either-or decision • Decision paralysis, medical trauma, and fear-based choosing • Conservative treatments like compression, lymphatic care, and supportive movement • Pain, mobility, swelling, and quality of life considerations • Money pressure, timelines, and realistic recovery expectations • Why not ready is a valid and protective choice • Nervous system safety and building trust after being dismissed
Episode Highlights: 02:16 Lipedema Surgery: The Financial and Emotional Pressures 04:41 Lipedema Surgery vs Non-Surgical Care 08:33 Lipedema Management and Support 15:14 Navigating Medical Trauma and Decision-Making 17:11 Myths and Misconceptions About Lipedema Treatment 27:05 Creating a Decision Container 38:30 Supporting Women in Their Health Journey
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: There is no "right" choice—only the one that fits your body. This episode unpacks the surgery vs non-surgery dilemma, fear loops, and how to decide without pressure. Listen for grounded truth, not ultimatums. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #lipedema #healthdecisions #bodywisdom #chronicillnesssupport #selftrust #bodyautonomy #lipedemaawareness #chronicpain #medicaltrauma #selfadvocacy #healingjourney
Quotes: 07:02 "With Lipedema, it's always trial and error. Not everyone's body responds the same way as someone else's body does. Listen to yourself, trust your intuition, and do your research, because education is what's going to help you." —Donna Piper 09:40 "Medical trauma and uncertainty equals decision paralysis.. When you're being asked to make a big medical decision inside a system that didn't protect you, of course, you're spinning." —Donna Piper 11:10 "The panic you feel is not proof that you're behind it's not proof that you need to make one decision over the other. It's proof that you care and the decision is real, and you're taking some time to really weigh out your options." —Donna Piper 19:45 "If you make any decision of panic or feeling pressured, then you're never going to feel peaceful, even if it's the right one." —Donna Piper 20:29 "Surgery is not just this thing that is going to make everything better. In some cases, it may not be the right thing for you, so just know that opting for whatever care and how you piece it together is the best thing for you. It's not one or the other." —Donna Piper 25:00 "Anything you choose is not weakness. It's the best for you… Instead of thinking surgery or no surgery, try this question: 'What would make my next step safer?'... Safety is a step, not a switch." —Donna Piper 29:59 "None of this is the perfect choice, because the lipedema is not perfect at all." —Donna Piper 30:56 "If you're not ready to make any decisions, that's also a decision. Take some pressure off yourself to explore some things again." —Donna Piper 32:45 "Don't let shame be your surgeon… Shame is not a pre-medical professional. Shame doesn't get a vote. Just let the goal of your quality of life guide you." —Donna Piper 35:44 "You don't have to make a choice. You're not required to choose at all, let alone from a place of fear. This isn't a test of your toughness or your the best decision-making. It's really about your body's decision, and it deserves time, tenderness, and clarity." —Donna Piper 37:20 "Sometimes, the most healing thing is realizing that you're not alone in the mess of it. Whatever you choose, let it be rooted in agency, not shame." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Hot Flashes, Heavy Legs: Lipedema Meets Perimenopause & Menopause
25 déc. 2025
00:20:26
"Lipedema is not a willpower issue. Shame is not a treatment plan. Late diagnosis does not mean late reality. It means late recognition. Your best advocate is yourself. There's nothing wrong with you. You've just been navigating a body that hasn't been understood by the medical world yet. Be gentle with your capacity. Meet yourself where you are." —Donna Piper
Bodies can change in ways that do not follow the rules we were taught. Pain, swelling, and heaviness show up, and the explanations never quite fit. Many women carry this quietly for years, assuming it is just weight or age. In this episode, Donna shares lived experience and clinical insight around lipedema, a connective tissue disorder often missed until perimenopause or menopause. She connects personal symptoms, years of dismissal, and emerging research to explain why midlife is often when lipedema finally gets recognized. Press play for grounded clarity, validation without hype, and language that helps make sense of what has felt confusing for too long. In this episode, we cover: • What lipedema is and how it differs from typical weight gain • Why perimenopause and menopause can intensify lipedema symptoms • Common signs like pain, tenderness, bruising, and symmetry • The role of estrogen, inflammation, and connective tissue • Why labs can look normal while symptoms worsen • Gentle, supportive movement for lymphatic flow • How to talk to doctors and advocate for a diagnosis • Myths that keep women stuck and misunderstood
Episode Highlights: 01:43 Understanding Lipedema and Its Symptoms 04:44 Defining Perimenopause and Menopause 07:04 Lipedema and Hormonal Connections 10:35 Gentle Supports for Lipedema 13:06 Seeking Diagnosis and Support 16:15 Breathing Techniques and Exercises
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: You're not failing at weight loss—your tissue plays by different rules. Hear how lipedema shows up, why hormones turn up the volume in midlife, and how to recognize the signs. Listen in for science, lived experience, and gentle next steps. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #lipedemaeducation #perimenopausejourney #womenswellness #chronicpain #healthadvocacy #hormonehealth #perimenopause #menopausehealth
Quotes: 01:37 "If you've never heard the word lipedema, you're not alone. Most women haven't, and that's part of the problem." —Donna Piper 06:08 "Every time they told me my labs were just fine. And that is also part of lipedema… One of the parts of lipedema is that your labs can look different than what your body is doing and the reality of what your body is going through." —Donna Piper 08:00 "It doesn't mean that you're failing. You haven't done anything wrong. You're just your tissue is different, the connective tissue that you have and the adipose tissue, and how your lymphatic system works." —Donna Piper 09:49 "Lipedema symptoms can become more noticeable, not because you did something wrong, but because your internal environment has changed. Then, lipedema arrives. Newer model suggests menopause can act like a turning point in lipedema progression." —Donna Piper 13:45 "Unfortunately, you have to be your own advocate, and you have to educate your doctors. And fortunately, there's a lot more research out there. There is a lot more support out there." —Donna Piper 15:03 "Lipedema is not a willpower issue. Shame is not a treatment plan." —Donna Piper 15:13 "Perimenopause is the fluctuating lead-up. Menopause is the 12-month marker, different seasons, different support." —Donna Piper 15:24 "Many women have symptoms for years and get diagnosed later, often turning during the perimenopause or menopause phase, because that's when the pattern becomes undeniable. Late diagnosis does not mean late reality. It means late recognition." —Donna Piper 18:52 "Your best advocate is yourself. There's nothing wrong with you. You've just been navigating a body that hasn't been understood by the medical world yet. Be gentle with your capacity. Meet yourself where you are." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
How Trauma Rewrites Pain Part 4: Flare or Trauma Response? When the Body's Signals Get Confusing
18 déc. 2025
00:15:12
"Flares and trauma responses often look the same because fascia remembers, the nervous system protects, and the immune system overreacts to help defend itself, and the body is trying to keep you alive, not confused. So your job isn't to decode perfectly. Your job is to offer safety consistently, because when the body feels safe, the symptoms soften, and when the symptoms soften, the story changes, and when the story changes, the healing becomes possible." —Donna Piper
The body can shift from steady to overwhelmed without warning, leaving confusion about what just took over. Pain, fatigue, and emotional overwhelm can blur together until everything feels like danger at once. There is relief in knowing this reaction has a reason. In this final episode of the trauma rewrites pain series, Donna draws from lived experience with chronic illness and trauma to unpack why flares and trauma responses often feel identical and how years of illness, stress, and not being believed shape the nervous system's reactions. Press play for clarity without pressure and a grounded way to respond when symptoms and emotions collide, plus a gentle roadmap back to safety. • The difference between a chronic illness flare and a trauma response • Why flares and trauma responses often activate together • How fascia, the nervous system, and the immune system overlap • Research linking trauma, PTSD, and autoimmune conditions • Why the body is pattern-matching, not malfunctioning • A simple grounding practice to support the nervous system • Reframing self-trust without self-surveillance
Episode Highlights: 02:49 Flare vs Trauma Response 04:05 Flare Symptoms vs Trauma Response Symptoms 06:30 The Overlap Between Flare and Trauma Response 08:40 The Science: PTSD, Autoimmune Disease, and Chronic Inflammation 11:55 How Trauma Rewires the Autonomic Nervous System 14:00 Gentle Nervous System Grounding
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: Your body isn't broken; it's pattern-matching to survive. This episode unpacks why flares and trauma responses feel identical and offers a simple roadmap back to calm without self-blame or pressure. Listen and breathe along. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #NervousSystemRegulation #ChronicIllnessSupport #TraumaAwareness #SomaticHealing #SelfCompassion
Quotes: 04:30 "Your flare can trigger your trauma response, and your trauma response can amplify your flare, and they share some of the same components. So a flare and a trauma response can co-activate each other, not because you're dramatic, disorganized, weak, or not healed enough, but because your nervous system has been trained by the illness, by trauma, by years of not being believed to over respond when something feels familiar." —Donna Piper 07:25 "Your body is trying to protect you loudly and perfectly and sometimes inconveniently." —Donna Piper 09:00 "After chronic stress or emotional wounds, your autonomic nervous system becomes biased towards protection. So this is not a judgment, this is just pattern recognition." —Donna Piper 10:25 "It's not your fault. You're not failing. It's nothing you can do. Your body is doing its best with the map it has." —Donna Piper 10:57 "You're not supposed to perfectly diagnose your internal state that is not self-trust, that is self-surveillance." —Donna Piper 13:22 "Flares and trauma responses often look the same because fascia remembers, the nervous system protects, and the immune system overreacts to help defend itself, and the body is trying to keep you alive, not confused. So your job isn't to decode perfectly. Your job is to offer safety consistently, because when the body feels safe, the symptoms soften, and when the symptoms soften, the story changes, and when the story changes, the healing becomes possible." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Transformation Boundaries: Protect Energy And Design A Purposeful Life with Didi Selwa
11 déc. 2025
00:54:24
"Move forward, take action. It may happen, it may not, but it's just about putting one step in front of the other— doing that is so important. When you go forward, you realize, 'oh, that's not for me', but in the process, you discover what is." —Didi Selwa
Drop the guilt of being stuck and discover a movement that meets your body where it is. Press play to hear how embodiment, faith, and small practical steps shift shame, chronic illness limits, and stalled dreams into forward motion. Didi Selwa went from a 25-year banking career to a Certified Transformational Life Coach and Level Two TranscenDance Facilitator by following a mix of mindset training, embodied practice, and faith-guided risk-taking. Her work blends mind-body-spirit coaching with guided movement to help women reclaim confidence and take consistent action. Press play to hear a grounded conversation about how to make affirmations actually work, how movement becomes a tool for trauma release, and why tiny actions matter now. • What transcenDance movement is and how it differs from a dance class • How to use embodied movement to release shame and trauma • Practical mindset tools to turn affirmations into real habits and visioning practice • Adapting transcenDance for chronic illness and low-energy days • The role of faith and spiritual practice in coaching and embodiment • How small, repeatable actions build confidence and creative momentum
Episode Highlights: 02:38 Meet Didi— From Banking Grind to Life Coaching 05:49 True Change— Faith + Mindset 10:52 Why Transformation Feels Uncomfortable 14:31 Breakthrough Tools 18:16 TranscenDance— Healing Through Joyful Movement 24:40 Breaking the Mold— Trusting Your Body 31:05 Breaking Old Beliefs and Celebrating Yourself 36:07 How Affirmations and Manifestations Really Work 42:36 Creativity for Healing and Growth 48:53 Confidence, Action, and Letting Go
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
X: You're allowed to celebrate even the smallest wins—celebration rewires shame into momentum. Hear this episode for baby-step tools, repatterning, manifestation, and mind-body movement as Donna sits with Dream By Design Coaching Founder, Didi Selwa. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #mindset #selfcare #movement #transcenDance #transformation #confidence
Quotes: 03:52 "Our purpose is there, we just don't uncover it. It's there speaking to us, and we're not listening." —Didi Selwa 09:01 "You have to find what works for you, what speaks to you and your soul, in order for it to actually have a transformational impact in your life." —Didi Selwa 12:19 "With transformation, it has to have an anchor— and it's uncomfortable." —Donna Piper 13:05 "Just being you and being authentic makes people feel safe to do the same." —Didi Selwa 25:26 "Transcendance is about moving to honor how your body wants to move in that moment. By doing that, you get more in touch with your body to what they need." —Donna Piper 35:50 "Honor and love your body where you are and yourself where you're at, still giving yourself that freedom to transform it as well." —Didi Selwa 36:17 "Affirmations and what you tell yourself 100% affect how you do your life. However, just by saying certain things doesn't always make them come true." —Donna Piper 37:46 "There's more to manifesting than just saying these things and putting them up on your vision board. And what it really comes from is our energy, becoming a vibrational match to that affirmation. So, it's not only saying the words, but also envisioning it." —Didi Selwa 44:18 "I like to tap into the creative aspect, because spirit loves fun, our body loves fun, our mind loves fun. And a lot of times, we don't really give ourselves enough time to do that creative expression." —Didi Selwa 50:38 "Move forward, take action. It may happen, it may not, but it's just about putting one step in front of the other— doing that is so important. When you go forward, you realize, 'oh, that's not for me', but in the process, you discover what is." —Didi Selwa
The Science of Feeling Safe: Gentle Practices to Regulate Chronic Stress with Ann Diment
04 déc. 2025
01:00:08
"We are the experts in our well-being and our own bodies, and it's important for us to advocate for ourselves. We're not defined by our past. Our past is gone. It's in the past, and the beliefs we formed about ourselves based on what we've been told by other people or experienced in the past aren't necessarily true." —Ann Diment
Some seasons of life push us past our limits, and the body keeps score long before we understand why. Many of us try to outwork the chaos, yet the real shift begins when we finally question the version of resilience we were taught to admire. There is a quieter kind of strength that lets us breathe again and rebuild without losing ourselves. Anne Diment learned this after years in science, health and safety, caregiving, chronic burnout, and a late ADHD diagnosis that reframed her entire story. Her work now blends coaching, EFT tapping, and creative practices to help people unlearn survival mode and create space for healing that feels humane and sustainable. Press play for a grounded conversation that meets our whole humanity, not just our symptoms. In this episode, we explore: • burnout that hides in plain sight • late diagnosis and the emotional impact of reframing a lifetime • ADHD, menopause, and the biology that shapes daily capacity • creative practices that regulate the nervous system • EFT tapping for stress, hypervigilance, and chronic pain • safety, acceptance, and the beliefs that keep us stuck • the pressure of productivity and the truth about energy budgeting • purpose, identity, and the healing power of creative community
Episode Highlights: 03:08 Meet Ann: An Unexpected Career Pivot 09:19 Ne Burnout, Inequities in Healthcare, and the ADHD Discovery 14:57 How EFT Tapping Works 23:43 Medical Gaslighting and Weight-Centric Bias in Healthcare 31:00 How Stress Quietly Destroys Health- Global Research Insights 37:35 Energy Budgeting and the Invisible Load of Neurodivergent Households 47:45 Purpose, Identity, and Chronic Illness 55:49 Turning the Tables on Burnout
X: Burnout isn't a personal failure—it's your body asking for a softer way forward. Listen in as Donna and Turning the Tables on Burnout author, Ann Diment, unpack safety, acceptance, menopause, ADHD, and the healing power of creativity. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #ResilienceReDefined #EFTTapping #MentalHealthMatters #BurnoutRecovery #NervousSystemHealing #TraumaInformedLiving #NeurodivergentWomen #HealingJourney #ADHDWomen #MenopauseSupport
Quotes: 05:53 "I thought, I'm done— I'm done with the hustle, done with the traveling, the stress." —Ann Diment 06:45 "I could see the benefits of expressing yourself through the creative arts—music, arts, poetry, dance—all these things that help people regulate themselves and express themselves in a safe way." —Ann Diment 11:30 "Our sense of safety can fool us, because you might feel safe, but that could be codependency, and that isn't really healthy." —Ann Diment 12:00 "The damage caused by adverse childhood experiences, trauma can reduce your life expectancy by about 20 years because of this toxic stress that manifests in your body." —Ann Diment 12:37 "I didn't realize that I was in that hyper-vigilant state from a very young age. So to keep myself safe, before I was aware all this, there'd be people pleasing, there'd be avoidance of conflict, there'd be putting your own needs last— that is a tick box for a burnout." —Ann Diment 18:39 "I do come from a prevalence that everything my body does, even though it has all these things I don't always want, is doing everything to protect me. We create safety to survive." —Donna Piper 26:08 "There is no medical research on specifically women and girls until 2017— that's eight years ago, so all the DSM diagnostic criteria are based on men and boys." —Ann Diment 32:16 "Stress kills around three-quarters of a million people globally, which means that lost years of quality living are due to chronic illness caused by stress. And it's entirely preventable." —Ann Diment 36:27 "Acceptance is the key to keeping your beautifully creative, problem-solving brain online instead of going into survival mode." —Ann Diment 42:13 "It's not our personality. It's our biology." —Ann Diment 43:08 "Whether you're a mom or a worker or a wife or all these things, or how much you actually want to do, or did do, or have done, like all of those things kind of come down to accepting the moment that you're in with what is presenting in front of you. With your biology, you need something different that's maybe not normative." —Donna Piper 47:08 "One of the symptoms of ADHD is you can't rest. You're constantly doing something. When I'm being creative, you can be hyper focused on something because you're just in the flow." —Ann Diment 50:09 "Lots of adults feel they're not creative, but I say, Well, you are creative. You just don't accept that. How do you style your hair? How do you dress? How do you put the food on your plate? It's all making creative decisions. There are lots of ways that you're being creative." —Ann Diment 57:41 "We are the experts in our well-being and our own bodies, and it's important for us to advocate for ourselves. We're not defined by our past. Our past is gone. It's in the past, and the beliefs we formed about ourselves based on what we've been told by other people or experienced in the past aren't necessarily true." —Ann Diment
Connect with Ann: Ann Diment is the bestselling author of "Turning the Tables on Burnout," with over 20 years of experience in the Health, Safety, and Wellbeing sector, and is in the top 1% of IOSH members, holding Fellowship status for over 10 years. Drawing from her personal journey with cPTSD and other mental health challenges, Ann has pioneered a creative and mindful approach to stress and resilience training through her socially engaged art practice. Recently diagnosed with ADHD, Ann has added a CPD-certified ADHD support practitioner certification to her wide-ranging skill set to provide specialised support for neurodivergent clients. As an ambassador for ADHD UK and the Institute of Personalised Care, Ann advocates for personalised care and neurodiversity awareness. She also trains NHS health coaches, judges international safety awards, and mentors global safety leaders. Beyond her professional endeavours, Ann is a multifaceted artist, poet, and musician, infusing her work with creativity and passion. Her vibrant approach and dedication to wellbeing make her a dynamic force in the field. Website: https://www.resilience-rebel.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-diment-changemaker/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resiliencerebel/
Loving You Through the Hard Days: A Caregiver's Honest Conversation
27 nov. 2025
01:01:22
"The holiday is around the corner, and what do you want for Christmas? All I really care about is I just want you to get healthy. I just want your body to stop causing you so much pain, and I want you to be excited about the clothes that you're wearing and the way that your body looks and feels, and to feel like you're back in the driver's seat of your life. And if I can give that to her, that's more than anything I could ever have hoped to get for my wife in her entire life. And so that's why, that's why I keep going." —Timothy James Piper
Some days ask more of a relationship than anyone ever planned for, and the weight of it can land in quiet places. Chronic illness has a way of changing routines, stretching patience, and shifting the small details that once felt effortless. This conversation sits inside that reality and explores what love looks like when the body rewrites the rules. In this episode, Donna's husband, James, opens up about the slow, unclear unraveling that led to her diagnoses and how those moments reshaped their marriage. His story traces confusion, fear, tenderness, and the unexpected growth that comes from caregiving in real time. Press play for a conversation that tells the truth without losing hope. Key topics: • The early signs of chronic illness that made no sense at the time • How physical changes impact identity and self-perception • The emotional load partners carry behind the scenes • The fear, grief, and loyalty woven into caregiving • Intimacy shifts and how couples adjust • Practical support during flares, crashes, and unpredictable days • What this journey taught them about love, acceptance, and long-haul commitment
Episode Highlights: 04:03 A Husband's Honest Perspective 08:53 Unselfish Support: It's a "We" Thing 25:55 Shared Struggles: Navigating Relationship Challenges 32:21 The Caregiver's Emotional Rollercoaster 44:59 When Healthcare Fails: Navigating Costs and Coverage 49:14 How Has Chronic Illness Changed the Caregiver 58:39 The Best Gift
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15
How Trauma Rewrites Pain Part 3—When Trauma Turns on the Immune System
20 nov. 2025
00:22:59
"Trauma doesn't just live in your memories, your fascia, or your nervous system. It can also reshape your immune system, especially when no one helped you feel safe. That doesn't mean it's your fault, and that doesn't mean your body isn't on your side. It means that your body has been on your side this whole time, trying to protect you the only way it knew how." —Donna Piper
Some days your body throws signals you cannot ignore, but no one seems to hear them. The swelling, the exhaustion, the crashes that make no sense on paper start to feel like a secret only you and your body understand. There is nothing dramatic about it. It is simply your reality. Donna shares the long road of being dismissed, misdiagnosed, and told to push harder until her symptoms forced a different truth. Her background in dance movement therapy and her lived experience with lipedema, MCAS, POTS, hypermobility, EDS, and chronic fatigue shaped how she now teaches women to understand the deeper layers of their symptoms. Press play for a grounded blend of story and science that helps you see your immune system in a completely new way and gives you language for things you have never been able to explain. Topics discussed: • How trauma and chronic stress reshape immune function • Why medical dismissal can worsen inflammation and flares • The link between ACEs, nervous system patterns, and autoimmune risk • The biggest myths women hear when labs look "normal" • Simple somatic practices to help your system stand down • A reframing that removes blame and builds self-trust
Episode Highlights: 02:02 Medical Dismissal and "Normal" Labs Spiral 04:36 Self-Blame and Turning Invalidation Inward 08:05 Childhood Stress and Autoimmune Disease Research Breakthrough 14:06 Immune Red Alert Mode 17:16 Grounding Techniques to Rewire Safety 21:05 Teaser for Part 4
Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
X: Your body has been protecting you for decades, not failing you. This episode dives into trauma-informed immunity, survival responses, and tiny practices to help you feel safer again. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #MindBodyConnection #TraumaRecovery #ChronicIllnessSupport #NervousSystem MedicalGaslighting #ChronicFatigue #AutoimmuneHealth
Quotes: 05:10 "Being invalidated for decades turned all of that invalidation inward, and I was like, 'maybe there's just something wrong with me'." —Donna Piper 08:01 "Research papers about childhood trauma and autoimmune disease: women with multiple adverse childhood experiences have a much higher risk of being hospitalized with autoimmune diseases later in life." —Donna Piper 11:30 "Emotional, physical abuse, neglect, and early stress have been associated with higher autoimmune rates in women, including lupus and thyroid disease." —Donna Piper 11:51 "Your history is not separate from your biology. Your immune system remembers what you survived, how you survived, how you lived" —Donna Pipe 14:28 "If you've lived through any childhood stress— but you told yourself it wasn't that bad, you learned to people please, over-function, ignore your needs to be safe, your nervous system got really good at scanning for danger, even when it wasn't there in any room." —Donna Pipe 15:40 "Your body adapted to survive, and now it needs the support to feel safe again." —Donna Pipe 16:14 "Normal labs with abnormal suffering do not equal your fine. It equals they don't have the right tool to measure your reality." —Donna Pipe 16:36 "Does that mean you chose or manifested autoimmune disease because you weren't positive enough? NO! You're not a failed manifestation. You're a human being whose body was walked through stress, genetics, environment, and a medical system that often didn't protect you. They all interacted. You didn't cause it alone, and you do not have to fix it alone either." —Donna Piper 20:29 "Trauma doesn't just live in your memories, your fascia, or your nervous system. It can also reshape your immune system, especially when no one helped you feel safe. That doesn't mean it's your fault, and that doesn't mean your body isn't on your side. It means that your body has been on your side this whole time, trying to protect you the only way it knew how." —Donna Piper 21:43 "Your body isn't broken. She's been trying to keep you alive in a world that didn't understand her." —Donna Piper
Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Thermal Imaging for Health: Early Answers, Less Guesswork with Dr. Robert Kane
12 nov. 2025
00:58:00
"It's a balance between getting information and trusting experts. It's really important that as a patient, you have to be your own advocate." —Robert Kane
When it comes to our body, uncertainty can be the hardest symptom to treat. Worry sets in when answers are fuzzy, and bouncing between specialists leaves us more confused than before. The real question is: how can we know what's happening inside before a health crisis begins? After doubting conventional answers and searching for tools that deliver real clarity, Dr. Robert Kane turned a career in health into a mission to champion thermal imaging. The pursuit for earlier answers and proof led straight to this breakthrough method that helps patients spot what matters sooner with zero guesswork. Jump in as Dr. Kane answers questions about thermal imaging, how it pairs with mammograms, why dense tissue matters, patient advocacy, beating invisible illnesses, prevention tips, and what it takes to really track your health.
Episode Highlights: 02:15 Meet Dr. Kane— From Chiropractic to Thermography 05:32 Mammography vs Thermography 10:42 Doctors and New Technology: Getting Buy-In 16:46 Using Thermography for Complex, Chronic Symptoms 21:30 Early Detection Beats Symptoms: Preventive Possibilities 28:22 Medicine 3.0— Prevent, Not Just Manage 32:11 How to Access Thermography: Where and How Much? 39:27 Affording Care: Geographic Differences 45:28 Can Thermography Help with EDS & Connective Tissue Disorders? 50:02 Lifestyle Change and Feedback Loops
X: Your body isn't a mystery waiting to happen; thermal imaging can uncover hidden issues before they get serious. Catch insights on early detection, real patient stories, and how this tech changes care in this episode as Donna interviews Dr Robert Kane. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #ThermalImaging #healthtech #earlydetection #womenshealth #preventivehealth
Quotes: 05:47 "I'm a fan of using technologies appropriately, not demonizing one and glorifying another." —Robert Kane 06:02 "We've seen studies now that have shown detection rates are higher. So you've got a mammogram that maybe shows 80 to 90% accuracy in detecting cancer. We've seen that number go up to 95% when we add thermography into the mix." —Robert Kane 23:40 "We're moving toward prevention. So before we can actually say we can prevent breast cancer, we need to start looking at the ways that it's possible." —Robert Kane 26:20 "When you talk to a lot of groups or women, you see what works. But again, the bigger companies that fund don't always look at the anecdotal sort of things." —Donna Piper 28:52 "Part of getting the right diagnosis or getting your health where you like it is you always have to be your own advocate, and you can advocate more if you have more information." —Donna Piper 30:17 "Medicine 3.0 is when we move past managing chronic disease, and we move towards the prevention of chronic disease." —Dr. Robert Kane 50:08 "We have a lot of evidence with different conditions to say that risk factors can be lowered… So to be able to get a baseline, take an action and then see how the body changes." —Dr. Robert Kane 52:11 "The AI is just going to be used to try to get to the source of the problem faster and more reliably." —Dr. Robert Kane 55:49 "It's a balance between getting information and trusting experts. It's really important that as a patient, you have to be your own advocate." —Robert Kane
Connect with Robert: For over three decades, Dr. Robert L. Kane has been at the forefront of clinical thermography for the integrative medical doctor and holistic practitioner— leveraging advanced infrared imaging to detect signs of inflammation, nerve injury, impaired circulation, and physiological stress, often before symptoms manifest. He is recognized as one of North America's leading interpreters, supporting over 50 thermography centers worldwide. Dr. Kane's mission is to empower health care providers with objective science-based tools to maximize health and wellness. Website: https://www.kanethermalimaging.com/
Chronic Pain & Trauma: Gently Breaking The Invisible Link with Science
05 nov. 2025
01:20:10
"The body's intelligent. We just have to show up. I equate it to a dance where the body leads and I follow." —Peter Stuart
You can run from nagging pain, but it keeps showing up in new ways—wrecking sleep, fouling up moods, and shutting down energy. The worst part? Real answers are rare, and the world keeps telling you to just "push through" or "try harder." Maybe it's not about willpower at all—it's about listening to the actual story your body's been trying to tell for years.
Peter Stuart spent decades fighting through his own injuries, dismissed symptoms, and invisible struggles before discovering gentle myofascial therapy. His hard-won insights as a chronic pain "insider" and now trauma-informed therapist reveal what really keeps people stuck and what finally helps them move forward with less pain and more hope.
Get the truth about pain, trauma, and what real healing looks like, plus smart self-care tools, the science behind gentle relief, why support systems matter, how medical dismissal damages recovery, and the most overlooked reason chronic pain lingers in this episode.
Life keeps piling on until your body keeps the score. It's time to listen! Catch this week's episode as Donna and trauma-informed therapist Peter Stuart drop truth bombs on trauma, chronic illness, pain relief, holistic healing, and smart self-care.
03:31 "It's a real identity shift. Not very talked about is when you lose who you think you are to pain, the amount of depression that sets in later on." —Peter Stuart
11:56 "My body is learning to survive but creating new pathways… Chronic pain is very insidious, and it changes you." —Donna Piper
14:59 "Aggressive styles tended to flare the nervous system, and the last thing you want to do is flare the nervous system with somebody who has chronic issues." —Peter Stuart
16:40 "A low-level pressure will create a change in the nervous system over time. It's patience… Incremental change over time creates permanency in the brain to make those changes happen and establish new neural pathways." —Peter Stuart
17:08 "The body's intelligent. We just have to show up. I equate it to a dance where the body leads and I follow." —Peter Stuart
18:56 "The pelvis is the foundation of the body. If you're off in your pelvis, everything above and everything below is going to be off." —Peter Stuart
25:12 "Sometimes people just want to tell their story— they just have pushed it down." —Donna Piper
30:22 "If you ignore people's scars, then you're doing them a great disservice." —Peter Stuart
34:18 "Most people will emote without making a connection to an event. It's just stuff that we've held on to—baggage—and just feeling like they have a safe place to allow that to happen." —Peter Stuart
35:41 "As much as your brain is trying to say, your thoughts are trying to control things all the time, your emotions and your feelings need to be expressed as well for health." —Peter Stuart
37:27 "No one goes through childhood unscathed. Everyone has stuff. Life brings stuff with us." —Donna Piper
39:05 "Most people who get into my profession are very empathetic people and are on the sensitive scale pretty high— and that makes for a really good therapist to be able to understand that some people will have these traumas." —Peter Stuart
42:06 "Most women usually underdo their pain… People can't see pain." —Donna Piper
56:51 "Having a provider that has that listening aspect is supportive, too…Just by not being dismissed, that's support." —Donna Piper
01:00:02 "Let's grieve what was so we can embrace this new path." —Donna Piper
01:06:59 "Once you recognize that you've changed, if there's a shift in pattern or your inability to do activities that you normally did, get on it. The sooner you get on your situation, the more likely you won't have to incur more, because trauma is cumulative." —Peter Stuart
01:10:36 "Being in relationship with what other actually is a healing aspect." —Donna Piper
01:10:54 "It's the relationship between the therapist and the patient and the transference and countertransference—that is the magic. It's not really the technique always." —Donna Piper
01:17:20 "If you want to get good at therapy, get therapy." —Peter Stuart
Connect with Peter:
For more than 30 years, Peter has helped people overcome chronic pain and trauma through trauma-informed myofascial release — a gentle, body-led approach that integrates science, empathy, and nervous-system awareness. He teaches practitioners worldwide, emphasizing that true healing addresses the whole person, not just symptoms.
Peter's grounded, compassionate style would complement Kristen's audience beautifully, particularly around themes of emotional release, embodied healing, and reconnecting with self after trauma.
How Real Connection Supports Healing (Even When You're Exhausted) with Heather Nelson
29 oct. 2025
01:06:09
"Push your life to be the life that you want and not accept that it's just the way it is. Every choice that you make should be toward loving the life that you have." —Heather Nelson
Connection isn't just a feel-good extra. It's a lifeline when the world feels heavy and invisible battles make us want to shut down. Isolation, overwhelm, and invisible struggles don't need to be our whole story; even small acts of reaching out can reshape everything. The truth is, connecting with the right people and sharing our messy middle is stronger than any secret solution.
Heather Nelson, founder of The Connection Hive and Host of Life Conversations with a Twist Podcast, turned a knack for listening into a movement, making careers, health challenges, and even surrogacy a shared experience, not a solitary climb. Her unfiltered take on relationships and resilience inspires a fresh perspective on both strangers and friends.
Press play to explore the profound impact of human connection as Donna and Heather delve into invisible illness, friendship, self-care rituals, flexible work arrangements, honest communication, and the raw beauty of surrogacy, all with candor and no sugarcoating.
26:28 Setting Business Model Based on Flexibility and Accommodation
33:11 Connection When You Don't Feel Like It
37:01 Navigating Surrogacy Journey
48:42 Challenges and Support in Surrogacy
01:01:44 Balancing Personal and Professional Life
01:04:59 Advocating for Surrogacy
X:
Some days, a real connection is stronger than any quick fix or advice. Listen in for raw stories about chronic illness, supportive friendships, and building a life that fits you as Donna sits with The Connection Hive Founder, Heather Nelson. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #connection #community #authenticity #support #surrogacyjourney #selfcare
Quotes:
04:53 "We all have a story, and I really want women to embrace theirs and be okay with talking about it, because at the end of the day, the goal is to inspire and empower other women to do the same." —Heather Nelson
08:23 "The more we talk about things that we think are shameful or embarrassing, the more we put our self-esteem." —Donna Piper
24:46 "We're here to learn how to connect with people and how to improve and go on through our relationships." —Donna Piper
28:38 "Something that goes missed with employers is showing appreciation, telling people you're doing a great job; I see you; I'm thankful for you." —Heather Nelson
30:44 "The more trust you build, the more that they're going to want to do for you." —Heather Nelson
35:08 "Give yourself grace when it's really not a moment that you can show up; it's okay to take a break." —Heather Nelson
50:44 "I really never push it upon people. If people want to have the conversation about [surrogacy], I will have it. If they don't, I leave it alone." —Heather Nelson
01:02:10 "Connect with an open-ended presence. Be flexible— that makes your connection with people and yourself and the world around you an easier flow." —Donna Piper
01:03:27 "The more you talk about things, even if it's scary or you feel weird about it, or you don't want to be judged, it opens up more true conversations, so you can have relationships that are more rooted in trust." —Donna Piper
01:04:21 "Push your life to be the life that you want and not accept that it's just the way it is. Every choice that you make should be toward loving the life that you have." —Heather Nelson
Connect with Heather:
A seasoned expert in the hospitality industry with over 20 years of experience in events. Heather is a significant influencer in Sonoma County.
As the founder of The Connection Hive, she is committed to empowering small businesses by curating innovative business development plans.
Her extensive network allows her to link individuals with the precise resources needed for growth—spanning marketing strategies, event curation, and business relations management.
There's a kind of tired that sleep can't fix, a crash that feels invisible to everyone but you. You push, you pace, you try to "do all the right things," yet your body still calls a timeout. Maybe it's not weakness or lack of willpower. Maybe your body's simply working harder than anyone realizes. In this episode, Donna unpacks a revolutionary study on chronic fatigue, the real science behind "the crash," and why pacing, rest, and nervous system care are the new power moves for healing. Expect myth-busting, practical science, and the kind of honesty your exhausted body has been waiting for.
Rest is not optional when your body's in survival mode. Learn how science is finally mapping the truth about chronic fatigue and the power of real rest. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #BodyConfidence #ChronicIllness #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #RestIsMedicine #MindBodyHealing #NervousSystemHealing
Quotes:
01:48 "There's actual science proving that for people with ME/chronic fatigue syndrome, your body isn't lazy, it's overloaded." —Donna Piper
03:14 "A lot of the prescription to help you heal is rest." —Donna Piper
07:59 "Your body isn't weak, it's working overtime in every direction just to maintain balance." —Donna Piper
09:59 "Myth: It's just anxiety. Truth: immune activation and metabolic strain show up in labs. This is biology, not mindset." —Donna Piper
10:26 "Subgroups differ in age, sex, and root drivers matter. Personalize everything." —Donna Piper
11:00 "Rest isn't laziness; it is a biological necessity." —Donna Piper
13:49 "Taking my perspective and intentionally resting is a game-changer." —Donna Piper
14:33 "Your crashes are not character flaws, they are a multi-system response that science is finally mapping out." —Donna Piper
Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Beyond the Diagnosis: Reclaiming Life and Purpose With Lipedema with Hiba Hamati
15 oct. 2025
01:08:23
"Trust your instinct… Our bodies sound an alarm bell that something isn't right, and we ignore it for years. Don't ignore it. Don't accept the bare minimum answer. Just because your labs are normal does not mean that your body is functioning optimally." —Hiba Hamati
Going to doctor after doctor, trying every tip, and still wondering why your pain and swelling never make sense. You know there's something happening that nobody else seems to see, and not getting answers just wears you down. This chat right here puts a name to all that frustration.
Hiba Hamati has been through the misdiagnoses, the surgery rollercoaster, the self-doubt, and all the "shoulds" that never quite fit to finally figuring out what actually helps. Now, she's sharing what it's really like to deal with lipedema: the messy, honest stuff plus a few wins along the way.
Listen in as Donna sits with Hiba to talk about the suffering of getting misdiagnosed, getting correctly diagnosed (at last), the good and bad of surgery, how body image messes with your head, daily survival tricks, what support really looks like, and why it pays to speak up.
24:27 The Unseen Emotional Toll and Daily Life Calculations
31:24 Life After Surgery: Trauma, Identity, and Breaking Free
38:51 Life Before and After Diagnosis
43:45 Finding What Works and Letting Go
48:33 Support and Advocacy
58:28 Naming the Invisible Battles: Finding Body Neutrality and Appreciation
01:04:11 Giving Back: Turning Pain Into Meaning
X:
Some pain steals life in quiet ways no doctor's report shows. Hear the truth about living with lipedema: hard lessons, true support, and tiny wins that matter with "Lipediva" Hiba Hamati. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #selfadvocacy #mentalhealth #invisibleillness #painmanagement #bodyacceptance #supportcommunity #healthjourney
Quotes:
04:21 "Anger destroyed me for a while, because that's all I could focus on. It's just how much of my life had been wasted, how much different my life could have been had I had a proper diagnosis. I realized I could let anger consume and destroy me, or I could funnel it into passion for helping others, for advocating for patients." —Hiba Hamati
07:01 "Just because someone doesn't have the time or resources doesn't mean they have to live with this horrible condition without knowing treatment options or ways to manage it." —Hiba Hamati
08:11 "We're very fortunate to have more and more surgeons well versed in lipedema, but an area that is severely lacking is post-op mental health care." —Hiba Hamati
08:40 "It is a huge undertaking to have surgery. When you focus on the physical but not give proper attention to the mental and emotional toll, it can be very dangerous." —Hiba Hamati
13:16 ""When you're not feeling well, recovering, and you've never had it before, you don't really know what to expect. It's brand new. There's a lot of anxiety and fear—what if it's worse than before?" —Donna Piper
17:06 "Sitting in that grief of never having a typical, standard body… I'm shaming myself because I can't make it look like how I want it to look. [It's important to] pause on that for your mental health and deal with those feelings. " —Donna Piper
18:42 "Your feelings really do influence your thoughts. It's not always the thoughts going down. You can't trick yourself into believing something that you know is not true." —Donna Piper
20:03 "I have to address the disconnect with my body... For so many years, everything hurt, nothing felt good, and I just wasn't aware of what my body was doing." —Hiba Hamati
25:22 "Pain makes you a completely different person. It chips away a little bit every day, and one day you look and there's a big gaping hole." —Hiba Hamati
45:44 "You have to constantly reassess and figure out where you put your time, because if you keep trying to do everything all the time, you'll end up doing nothing." —Hiba Hamati
47:50 "Trauma does change how we perceive things—it's also trying to realistically see how we were before, and how far we've come." —Hiba Hamati
53:33 "Trust your instinct… Our bodies sound an alarm bell that something isn't right, and we ignore it for years. Don't ignore it. Don't accept the bare minimum answer. Just because your labs are normal does not mean that your body is functioning optimally." —Hiba Hamati
57:03 "Chronic Illness of any kind is very, very difficult to manage… Try to anchor and ground your body and your emotions are so critical." —Hiba Hamati
58:35 "Maybe you don't love it, but having a different appreciation is the first step to that road." —Donna Piper
01:00:01 "When you think about your body carrying all of that excess weight and still functioning normally— that's phenomenal!" —Hiba Hamati
01:01:29 "It's the things you can't see that are way more painful and debilitating." —Donna Piper
01:04:05 "Putting meaning towards our life too, is when you heal your trauma." —Donna Piper
01:05:10 "Being able to turn that pain into something helpful really makes it feel less cruel. It feels cruel to have gone through this for so long because it feels like so much of my life was stolen by this disease in so many different ways." —Hiba Hamati
01:05:58 "It's not about enduring something— it's about acceptance, forgiveness. It could be messy and raw and that makes life more exciting and living the pain 'worth' it." —Donna Piper
Connect with Hiba:
Hiba Hamati is a prominent advocate and educator in the lipedema community, widely known as "Lipediva." As a board member of the American Lipedema Association, she leverages both her personal experience with lipedema and her professional commitment to raise awareness, improve care, and advance research for this chronic condition.
Hiba is an international speaker and thought leader, frequently presenting on the challenges of diagnosis, the importance of mental health in chronic illness, and empowering patients to advocate for their needs. Through her online presence and community work, she offers support and guidance for those navigating lipedema and related health challenges.
"Your body is not the enemy—the world's impossible standards are. And every time you name that truth out loud, you don't just free yourself, you also free someone else." —Donna Piper
Some lies are so loud they start to sound like truth—like the idea that confidence waits on the other side of weight loss. And the hardest part? The shame of not being skinny can at times feel heavier than our own weight, turning every step forward into a fight against an invisible anchor.
Donna spent years believing her size erased her gifts. It wasn't until she uncovered her diagnosis of lipedema and connected her lived experience with research on weight stigma that she began reframing her story—not as a failure to fix her body, but as proof that shame, not size, was her real burden.
In this conversation, Donna unpacks the shame-weight connection, how stigma literally rewires the nervous system, myths about size and illness, hidden biases in the wellness culture, why unlearning shame is as vital as any treatment, and simple daily practices to reclaim confidence without waiting on the scale.
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
Weight stigma and cortisol (stress response)
Tomiyama AJ et al., Psychoneuroendocrinology (2014) When people experience weight stigma, their cortisol levels spike—the same hormone that rises when your body senses danger. This study shows how shame literally stresses the body on a biochemical level.
The stress of stigma — cortisol reactivity
Major B et al., Body Image (2014) In a lab setting, women exposed to weight-related stigma had higher stress-hormone responses than those who weren't. It's proof that judgment—even subtle—activates the body's fight-or-flight system.
Chronic stress model of weight stigma
Tomiyama AJ, Appetite (2014) This review describes the "cyclic obesity/weight-based stigma" model: stigma triggers stress, stress alters metabolism, and the cycle keeps repeating.
Lipedema, stigma, and depression
Clarke M et al., International Journal of Obesity (2024) A study of 1,000+ women with lipedema found that internalized shame—not body size—was one of the strongest predictors of depression. It's not the fat; it's the stigma about the fat.
Internalized weight bias and mental health
Durso LE & Latner JD, Obesity (2008) Researchers created the Weight Bias Internalization Scale and found that self-directed stigma predicts worse emotional health, disordered eating, and avoidance of care.
Review of internalized weight stigma
Papadopoulos S & Brennan L, Obesity Reviews (2021) A systematic review showing that internalized stigma often acts as the missing link between outside judgment and the physical and emotional fallout that follows.
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Confidence isn't about losing pounds—it's about losing shame. This week, Donna gets real about chronic illness, fat bias + showing up as you are. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #BodyConfidence #ChronicIllness #SelfCompassion #BodyPositivity #SelfLove #WeightStigma
Quotes:
01:59 "Shame is sneaky. It doesn't just whisper in the dressing room. It leaks into your career, into your relationships, and sense of purpose." —Donna Piper
04:41 "It's incongruent— what you want to believe and what you truly believe. You can't trick yourself, so you really have to do a lot of different work around this." —Donna Piper
06:55 "It's a medical condition. It is not a lack of willpower. It's not laziness, it's not discipline failure. It's lipedema." —Donna Piper
10:06 "It just wasn't the fat, it was the shame about the fat." —Donna Piper
14:40 "Confidence doesn't come from subtracting pounds. It comes from subtracting shame." —Donna Piper
14:53 "Illness is not a size issue. It's a systemic issue." —Donna Piper
14:57 "Respect doesn't come from a body type. It comes from the humanity inside the body." —Donna Piper
16:03 "Living with and changing this internal system is tough, especially when you believe it, because here's the thing: affirmations only work if you really believe them." —Donna Piper
17:29 "Shame does interfere with your healing. It does affect your cortisol, it does affect your inflammation." —Donna Piper
20:37 "Looking at yourself in the mirror without judging yourself and saying positive things is a very powerful. Your system will slowly begin to shift because you're not just saying the words, you're teaching your body that it's safe to believe them." —Donna Piper
21:27 "Your body is not the enemy—the world's impossible standards are. And every time you name that truth out loud, you don't just free yourself, you also free someone else." —Donna Piper
21:41 "You're calling, your leadership, your gifts— they don't shrink because of your size. They expand the moment you show up as you are." —Donna Piper
21:55 "If you're breathing, you are worthy." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
How Trauma Rewrites Pain, Part 2: When Fight or Flight Gets Stuck
01 oct. 2025
00:27:06
"If trauma rewrote the wiring one way, that means safety relationship and somatic practices can rewrite it the other way— it is the long game; there is no quick fix." —Donna Piper
Sometimes you do everything right, but your body keeps sending SOS signals no one else can see. Doubt creeps in—is this real, or is something deeper going on? You're not alone; your body's story matters, and what you feel makes perfect sense.
For years, Donna felt invisible, questioned, and let down by quick fixes and dismissive answers. Her experience battling chronic pain, trauma, and misunderstood conditions led her to uncover how trauma tangles with our nervous system—and how small, real changes can finally bring comfort.
Step in for a raw look at how trauma rewires the fight or flight system, how connective tissue and fascia feed into it, why this connection explains so many chronic illness symptoms, the role of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), myths about pain, and the importance of safety relationships and somatic practices in rewriting the body's wiring.
Next up in part 3: explore the bridge between trauma and autoimmune conditions— and chronic illness, and what steps could make a real difference.
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
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When your body won't quit sounding the alarm, it's time to listen. Dive into how trauma shapes nerves, movement, and daily life in this real-talk episode—no sugarcoating, just support and practical tips. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #TraumaStories #HealingJourney #FasciaHealth #SomaticPractice #PainAwareness #NervousSystem
Quotes:
07:08 "It wasn't weakness, it wasn't something going off of what I was doing. It was that I need to rewire how I view my exercise… Having these connective tissues issues in this state that I'm in now is just constantly adding fuel to the fire." —Donna Piper
08:21 "There's studies now showing that chronic fatigue isn't something that's just lumped together. It is a neurological issue. There is some things going on with your brain." —Donna Piper
11:38 "The body is always trying to survive and do what it needs to do with what it's given." —Donna Piper
16:24 "Trauma doesn't just quietly sit in the background. It weaves itself through fascia, nerves, immune cells, amplifying the symptoms of every connective tissue also heightens the other ones. That's why many of us that have these invisible illnesses carry both trauma and pain. And it's not coincidence, it's biology." —Donna Piper
17:55 "Here's the myth: if your tests are normal, the pain must be in your head. But, there's no test for pain." —Donna Piper
19:34 "Your pain is real. Your nervous system is real. It's having a real response." —Donna Piper
23:18 "There's a dysregulation in your system. It's actually amazing that it's working for you. So be grateful." —Donna Piper
24:31 "If trauma rewrote the wiring one way, that means safety relationship and somatic practices can rewrite it the other way— it is the long game; there is no quick fix." —Donna Piper
25:47 "Your body isn't broken. It's been working overtime to protect you, and now, tell your body it's safe now, that will help a lot." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Dollars and Cents: The Real Financial Stress of Being Sick
24 sept. 2025
01:10:14
"I'm not my bills. I'm not my debt. I am worthy of care." —Donna Piper
Being sick isn't just exhausting—it's expensive in ways nobody warns you about. The stress of medical bills, insurance denials, and endless receipts can weigh just as heavily as the symptoms themselves. If you're tired of feeling like your wallet is as worn out as your body, you're not alone.
In this episode, Donna opens up about the real price tag of chronic illness, sharing her journey through misdiagnoses, out-of-pocket treatments, and the emotional toll of fighting for care. She breaks down the true costs while offering hard-won tips for tracking expenses, finding support, and making every dollar count.
Tune in and get the unfiltered truth about insurance battles, budgeting for treatments, organizing medical expenses, funding hacks, and the mindset shifts that make it all survivable—plus a few laughs and a lot of solidarity.
01:30 Why Money Stress Hits Harder with Chronic Illness
06:12 The True Price of Treatments, Surgery, and All the Little Extras
17:04 Mindset Shift: Spending for Quality of Life, not Guilt
25:22 Smart Spending: Where to Splurge, Where to Save
31:16 Why Documentation and Planning Every Expense Matters
39:00 Shake Off the Stress: Letting Go of Financial Tension
46:05 Practical Reset: Clear Your Mind Before Spending
54:11 Make a Money Map
01:02:48 Money Stress is Felt by the Body
Resources:
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
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Money stress hits harder when you're already fighting for your health. Get real talk on medical bills, insurance battles, and smart spending in this episode as Donna shares practical tips to track costs, budget smarter, and shake off the financial tension. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #Lymphedema #lipedema #MCAS #ChronicIllness #HealthCosts #SelfCare #Insurance #FinancialHealth #PatientAdvocacy
Quotes:
01:49 "Financial stress has its own smell, its own energy, and you feel it everywhere when you live in a body like ours." —Donna Piper
03:23 "Being sick is expensive, and I don't just mean co-pays and deductibles. I mean the whole invisible price tag." —Donna Piper
15:27 "When I spend this money, I'm buying for something that is going to drastically shift my quality of life." —Donna Piper
16:26 "Stress fuels the inflammation, which then fuels all the other stuff that we have. Having chronic inflammation and having chronic stress feed off of each other." —Donna Piper
31:31 "Figure out what other comorbidities you may or may not have, and then start to make purchases based on what you need." —Donna Piper
38:35 "Figure out where you need to splurge and save." —Donna Piper
43:46 "Invest in something that you want to do and what you like to do." –Donna Piper
51:52 "Think of a budget as what you want to spend, not what you are constricted by." —Donna Piper
54:17 "You can create a money map that supports your body without drowning your finances." —Donna Piper
01:04:33 "Say: I'm not my bills. I'm not my debt. I am worthy of care." —Donna Piper
01:05:21 "Just let your body feel free. Your body is already carrying enough. You don't have to carry the stress of money on top of it." —Donna Piper
01:07:11 "Say the numbers out loud, name the stress, and break the silence. It's a small rebellion, and it does help you come to grips with what is important." —Donna Piper
01:07:54 "Make the invisible visible with not only what the illnesses are, but all the other things that come with it." —Donna Piper
01:09:03 "Be gentle with your capacity. Meet yourself where you are." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
How Trauma Rewrites Pain, Part 1: My Body Kept Score
17 sept. 2025
00:34:38
"Moving is medicine. There's something with moving that you don't need to know why or how, or how it relates to your emotions or trauma. And just like how trauma rewrites pain, it is also the opposite when you feel safe, embodied, and in a compassionate relationship with yourself, you can rewrite your story for safety." —Donna Piper
Sometimes pain isn't just in your head—it's woven deep into your body, shaping how you move, feel, and even how you see yourself. When life keeps telling you to "push through" but your body keeps shutting down, it's easy to wonder if you're missing something bigger. What if the real story behind your pain is hiding in places you haven't looked yet?
From childhood migraines to years of being dismissed by doctors, Donna lived through the confusion and frustration of chronic symptoms. This week, Donna breaks down how trauma gets trapped in your tissues and why real healing starts with listening to your body's truth.
Hit play and discover the real link between trauma and pain, the science of fascia, connective tissue, and why your body might be stuck in survival mode, myth-busting truths, practical advice on finding safety and community, and a simple fascial release exercise you can try today—so you can finally start rewriting your own story.
03:24 "The body carried the secrets the mind couldn't always speak." —Donna Piper
05:20 "I learned to tough it out, to keep going, and to push through. I thought that was strength, and that was my only option if I wanted to be present in my life." —Donna Piper
10:04 "Until my body really, really broke, I had to face the truth that there was something I was missing." —Donna Piper
11:23 "Trauma doesn't have to be a big thing that came down. A significant distressing event is something your body holds on to and creates trauma." —Donna Piper
13:21 "Moving is medicine. There's something with moving that you don't need to know why or how, or how it relates to your emotions or trauma. And just like how trauma rewrites pain, it is also the opposite when you feel safe, embodied, and in a compassionate relationship with yourself, you can rewrite your story for safety." —Donna Piper
19:35 "The connective tissue is the scaffolding of the body… When trauma happens and doesn't get discharged, fascia reacts, it tightens, hardens, and knots up, and that restriction can last for years and even decades." —Donna Piper
22:16 "The body really needs to feel safe for any sort of trauma work to happen. We think we can force our way through, but all that really does is create more defenses." —Donna Piper
33:44 "You're not broken, you're not lazy. There's nothing wrong with you. Your body has just been carrying stories, and these stories can be rewritten." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Pacing 101— Stop the Boom-Bust Cycle Before It Stops You
10 sept. 2025
00:29:47
"No one's handing out a gold star for the most depleted woman in the room… Rest now, rest every day, build that in. The rest is the healing aspect." —Donna Piper
Tired of feeling great one day, then totally wiped out the next? Maybe it's not about trying harder but about finding a pace that actually works for you.
Donna's been there—pushing through, crashing hard, and wondering what she was doing wrong. Now she's all about helping folks with chronic stuff find a better way, using real-life tips and a lot of honesty. Her big message: pacing isn't giving up, it's how you start feeling like yourself again.
Want to break out of the boom-bust cycle for good? Hit play for straight talk on energy budgets, the Visible app, post-exertion crashes, and why rest is actually part of the workout plan. You'll get real stories, smart tips, and a little nudge to be kinder to yourself.
Feel like your body's running on empty? You're not alone. Check out this week's episode for real-life pacing tips, energy tracking, and honest talk about chronic illness.
27:06 "You're not lazy, you're not weak, you're not broken, you're simply learning a new rhythm, one that will actually sustain you." —Donna Piper
04:37 "Energy isn't a gift card you have to use up in one go— it's a budget. When you are dealing with an invisible illness, you have a budget. Some days you've got a hundred bucks, and some days you've got twenty, and some days you're in overdraft. I realized I had a choice: spend smarter or keep going broke." —Donna Piper
10:16 "Pushing through was costing me way more than just sore muscles. It was costing me days of my life." —Donna Piper
10:32 "Learning to listen instead of push is what gave me back a sense of control and confidence." —Donna Piper
12:08 "Women need more spaces where modifying isn't shameful, pacing isn't optional— rest is built into the program, not treated like a weakness." —Donna Piper
13:49 "No system gets sick alone and no system heals alone." —Donna Piper
15:02 "Pacing is essentially a nervous system rehab. It tells your cells you're safe." —Donna Piper
23:08 "Rest is part of the training, saying 'no' is a part of the workout, and stopping early before the crash is the bravest thing you can do." —Donna Piper
23:30 "No one's handing out a gold star for the most depleted woman in the room… Rest now, rest every day, build that in. The rest is the healing aspect." —Donna Piper
28:58 "Rest isn't quitting. It's healing. Sometimes the bravest thing you could do is stop before you crash." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Medical Trauma is Real Trauma— Healing from Healthcare
03 sept. 2025
00:11:55
"You're not overreacting, you're healing in a system that was never built for your complexity— that makes you a damn warrior… Let's normalize naming the pain without being entangled in labels of being traumatized." —Donna Piper
When your body says something's wrong but the doctor's office says you're fine, it cuts deeper than you think. The pain of being dismissed, misdiagnosed, or told "it's all in your head" isn't just frustrating—it can shake your trust in yourself and leave scars you can't see. If you've ever left a medical appointment feeling smaller, unheard, or doubting your own reality, you're not alone.
Hit play to hear real talk on the emotional toll of medical dismissal, why your trauma is valid even if it's invisible, how to rebuild trust in your body, and simple steps to reclaim your voice and safety in healthcare spaces.
10:12 You Don't Need to Explain Your Pain to Earn Compassion
Resources:
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
X:
Being dismissed by doctors isn't just frustrating—it's trauma. Your pain is real, your story matters. Tune in as Donna exposes medical gaslighting and arms you with tools to heal and be heard.
01:44 "If your heart races at the thought of a doctor's office, if you've ever sobbed in the car after a five-minute appointment, if you've ever left a medical space feeling smaller than you walked in, you're not overreacting— you're reacting to harm." —Donna Piper
02:25 "Medical trauma isn't an isolated horror story— it's systematic, it's repetitive, and it's invisible to everyone but us." —Donna Piper
03:35 If you flinch at white coats, dread follow-ups, or have panic attacks in waiting rooms, your nervous system is remembering what your mind is suppressing— that deserves healing, not shame." —Donna Piper
05:45 "The body is smart and wants to protect you and keep you alive… We don't have to carry it forever. In addition to everything else, we want to look for a way to start to regulate our body so we're not carrying that." —Donna Piper
09:15 "You're not overreacting, you're healing in a system that was never built for your complexity— that makes you a damn warrior." —Donna Piper
09:37 "Let's normalize naming the pain without being entangled in labels of being traumatized." —Donna Piper
10:50 "You can be heard. It may take some time, but you can get your medical team on your side. Trust your body and remember that you don't have to explain your pain to earn compassion." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Clearing the Fog— How the Lymphatic System Supports Lipedema & Healing with Tina Shin, OTD
27 août 2025
01:08:33
"If you are going through a struggle with lymphedema, lipedema, or anything related to your lymphatic system, don't be afraid to do your own research and be your own advocate." —Tina Shin
What if the most important system in your body is also the least understood—even by your own doctor? This episode of Dear Body, I'm Listening dives into the hidden world of the lymphatic system and why it matters for anyone living with lipedema, lymphedema, or chronic illness.
Tina Shin is a certified lymphedema therapist and occupational therapist with years of hands-on experience helping patients navigate the confusing world of lymphatic health. From leading clinical teams at major medical centers to running her own practice, Tina has seen firsthand how misunderstood the lymphatic system is, and she's passionate about empowering people to understand their bodies, advocate for their needs, and find the right support—whether it's for chronic illness, post-surgical recovery, or everyday wellness.
Tune in to learn how to spot lymphatic dysfunction, find the right therapist, understand lymphedema vs. lipedema, and get clear guidance on the lymphatic system, MLD, post-surgical care, emotional healing, and self-advocacy.
57:44 When Lymph Gets Stuck— Fibrosis and Realistic Expectations
01:02:57 Biggest Lesson: Be Your Own Advocate
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Tired of the medical runaround? Get the facts on swelling, healing, and finding the right help this week with LANA-certified lymphedema therapist, Tina Shin. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #LymphaticHealth #MLD #SelfAdvocacy #Healing
Quotes:
01:00 "Swelling, brain fog, nervous system crashes, and the kind of symptoms that don't always show up on lab results—these are the things we need to talk about with honesty and compassion." —Donna Piper
32:00 "If you feel like you have something with your lymph or swelling, seek out a therapist. At least you could get some good information on what to do." —Donna Piper
45:12 "There's a transitional time with lots of emotions [post-surgery]. There's a period of reacquainting with your new body." —Donna Piper
01:01:49 "Your MLD, your OT, your PT, whoever does this, is really your partner in all this, and it really is a big support." —Donna Piper
04:00 "The lymphatic system is an incredibly important system, but it is greatly underappreciated. If our lymphatic system were to fail, we would die within about 24 to 48 hours." —Tina Shin
08:02 "The lymphatic system is so intertwined with other systems that it's difficult to parse out whether an issue is lymphatic, liver, kidney, or cardiac. That's why we don't have any lymph-specializing doctors." —Tina Shin
09:03 "With more awareness, advocacy, and more people getting educated, it's definitely getting better." —Tina Shin
16:33 "People with lipedema can eventually develop lymphedema because of the stress on the lymphatic system, evolving into lipo-lymphedema. But someone with lymphedema isn't going to get lipedema unless they were born with it." —Tina Shin
25:42 "Whoever you're working with should have a license to touch… Beyond that, look for a certified lymphedema therapist (CLT) or someone with MLD certification." —Tina Shin
30:22 "Most people have pretty well-functioning lymphatic systems, but they can get abused." —Tina Shin
40:55 "MLD and proper compression are huge for post-surgical care. Working with a qualified therapist gives you another set of eyes, reassurance, and support through the emotional ups and downs of recovery." —Tina Shin
45:32 "Letting people know that these emotions are common and they're not alone can be reassuring." —Tina Shin
01:03:54 "If you are going through a struggle with lymphedema, lipedema, or anything related to your lymphatic system, don't be afraid to do your own research and be your own advocate." —Tina Shin
01:04:16 "Don't be afraid to buck what some of them might be saying, because there's still a lot of education and growth needed in this area." —Tina Shin
01:05:02 "Educate yourself and then educate others. Just keep moving this forward." —Tina Shin
Connect with Tina:
Tina Shin is a LANA-certified lymphedema therapist with a clinical doctorate in occupational therapy. She completed her residency at the Keck Medical Center of USC in Los Angeles, where she eventually served as the lead lymphedema therapist for several years. In 2021, she also opened her private practice, OC Lymphatics, where she provides mobile lymphatic services throughout Orange County. She specializes in lymphedema, lipedema, oncology, peri-surgical care, and helping patients who suffer from chronic conditions.
Let SEO Work While You Rest with Brittany Herzberg
20 août 2025
01:11:51
"It starts with you. What do you want to get found for? What do you want to open your schedule and see, and what projects do you want to be working on?" —Brittany Herzberg
Feeling invisible online or too tired to keep up with the hustle? You're not alone—building a business shouldn't mean burning out or hiding your real self. There's a smarter way to get seen, make an impact, and still have energy left for life.
Brittany Herzberg started with zero clients and a lot of doubt, but a few smart SEO moves changed everything. Now known as the "SEO Queen," she's on a mission to help you use simple, human-centered SEO to get found, attract the right people, and grow your business—no matter your energy level or experience. Her approach flips the script: it's about your story, your voice, and making SEO work for you.
Tune in for real talk on SEO basics, practical website tips, content that connects, and how to show up online without losing yourself. You'll get honest advice, a few laughs, and the confidence to let your words do the heavy lifting—so hit play and start getting found, your way.
08:23 "The three questions are: Who do you help? How do you help them? And what do you want to be known for?" —Brittany Herzberg
09:57 "You want your client to come buy stuff, but you have to really put yourself first. How do you want to be searched?" —Donna Piper
10:29 "You do not have to know anything about your ideal client. You are starting with you." —Brittany Herzberg
11:23 "It starts with you. What do you want to get found for? What do you want to open your schedule and see, and what projects do you want to be working on?" —Brittany Herzberg
15:20 "Chronic illness is super expensive. When you're sick, you still need to eat, you still need to make rent, and you have to pay all this extra money to get healthy." —Donna Piper
18:40 "There are lots of chronic illnesses where that's the case, and you do feel really bad. I know I felt really bad when I would have to cancel massage appointments or push deadlines for clients." —Brittany Herzberg
19:17 "You don't have to worry about that with SEO, because it's just plugging words into these different places. You can optimize stuff that you already have." —Brittany Herzberg
21:46 "Even just by having image titles change, the impact and the quickness of the impact, the fast turnaround, the fast ROI, is so huge for people." —Brittany Herzberg
24:49 "You want to know that you're spending money on something that is going to actually happen." —Brittany Herzberg
26:57 "I blend really well, making sure the personality is there and the keyword. So it's like the art and the science are both present." —Brittany Herzberg
38:29 "It's not about the numbers necessarily. It's like, are you attracting the right people, and are they then converting in whatever that converting means?" —Donna Piper
44:05 "SEO can grow with you. Maybe you have this anchor word, but that can change as you go into the next season." —Brittany Herzberg
44:23 "Once SEO is in place, it does all the heavy lifting for you. You just have to make sure that you're still consistent with what you're doing," —Donna Piper
46:43 "SEO is front-loaded. You're doing a lot of work and putting a lot of time and effort in at the beginning, but then it gets easier, because you've already learned what this stuff even means." —Brittany Herzberg
54:19 "At the end of the day, if people can't find you, it doesn't matter how awesome you are." —Donna Piper
01:03:05 "If it's time to leave and you're getting the hint that it's time to leave, it's okay to end it. It was good for the time that it was in your life; you can go on to do something else." —Brittany Herzberg
01:07:53 "Honoring your intuition of knowing when to stop something is a huge thing, and then having the courage to keep doing that over and over, especially when you're shut down with it." —Donna Piper
Connect with Britany:
Brittany Herzberg is a copywriter, SEO expert, and host of The Basic B Podcast. Known as the "SEO Queen" by hundreds of happy clients, Brittany specializes in helping service providers—especially heart-led, energy-sensitive entrepreneurs—use storytelling and search engine optimization to get found online, attract clients, and create more space for rest.
Brittany brings a unique, human-centered approach to SEO, making it accessible and empowering for business owners at any stage. She offers a range of services, from DIY courses and group mentorship to done-for-you SEO solutions, and is passionate about teaching others how to leverage their voice and expertise to grow their impact.
"The pain I carry is real, and I no longer have to carry it in silence." —Donna Piper
How do you explain pain that no one can see? Lipedema isn't "just extra weight"—it's burning thighs, unexplained bruises, stabbing aches, and heaviness so dense it changes how you move through the world. This is the reality behind the polite smiles and quiet endurance.
With unflinching honesty, Donna gives language to a pain that millions silently carry. She reveals how her lipedema symptoms were mistaken for lifestyle issues, while the truth was a chronic, progressive illness impacting every part of her life—from digestion to mobility.
If you've ever been told you "look fine" while your body feels like a war zone, this conversation is for you. Hit play now to learn the signs, challenge the myths, and find solidarity in a community that sees you.
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
X:
Pain doesn't have to look loud to be true. Lipedema is real— and it hurts like hell! In this episode, Donna exposes lipedema's hidden pain & daily fight. Listen now. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #Lymphedema #lipedema #MCAS #ChronicIllness #BodyAdvocacy #PainIsReal #PainValidation #HealthEquity #ChronicPain
Quotes:
01:46 "Lipedema pain just isn't uncomfortable. It hurts like hell— and not just sometimes." —Donna Piper
02:16 "The worst part is being told you're fine." —Donna Piper
03:09 "Lipedema is an excruciating, underdiagnosed, soul-bruising condition that deserves better awareness. End of story; full stop." —Donna Piper
03:46 "We're masters of masking. We smile with pain levels at 7, 8, 9, 10." —Donna Piper
03:59 "Just because someone isn't writhing on the floor doesn't mean their pain isn't real." —Donna Piper
04:04 "Pain doesn't have to be performative to be valid." —Donna Piper
05:01 "The pain I carry is real, and I no longer have to carry it in silence." —Donna Piper
05:22 "You're not crazy, you're not lazy, and you're definitely not alone." —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.
Ground Control for Bendy Bodies: How to Move Without Pain (Finally!) with Dr. Melissa Koehl
06 août 2025
00:48:53
"You have to give your body the time to repair between sessions and respect from a cellular perspective how much energy they can effectively produce on any given day." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
Why does exercise leave you in more pain—even when you're doing 'everything right'?
If you're hypermobile, traditional fitness advice might be sabotaging your body instead of healing it. The truth? Bendy bodies need a whole new rulebook for movement—one that prioritizes stability over stretching and rest over reps.
Dr. Melissa Koehl is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Pilates instructor, and founder of Chimera Health. With 24 years of experience—and her own late-stage EDS diagnosis—Melissa bridges clinical expertise with hard-won personal insight to redefine what "healthy movement" really means for connective tissue disorders.
Ready to finally move without pain? Tune in to uncover why less is more, how to spot the hidden signs of overexertion, and the game-changing strategies Dr. Melissa uses to help her clients reclaim strength (and sanity).
If your joints are 'too flexible' but your pain is relentless, you've been lied to about exercise.
Hypermobility isn't just about bendy limbs—it's fatigue, brain fog, and a body that rebels against normal workouts.
Doctor of Physical Therapy and Pilates Instructor, Dr. Melissa Koehl, drops truth bombs on the shocking links between EDS, mast cells, and why your PT might be missing the big picture.
Listen now to learn how to move smarter, not harder.
02:54 "Even though I had been hypermobile my whole life, I had no idea it affected my daily living as much as it did." —Donna Piper
04:52 "I definitely didn't know anything about EDS or connective tissue disorders or anything like that. It just really like it made sense to me that, because I was bendy, I might have more injuries." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
11:40 "I think a big thing is understanding that your body shouldn't be in pain all the time." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
12:17 "Fatigue is a huge common symptom of hypermobility. I have yet to meet a patient or client of mine that doesn't struggle with it in a very serious way." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
17:02 "If more of your blood is hanging out in your feet and at the bottom of your pelvis, not as much as getting back up to your heart and up to your head, and that's a big driver of brain fog and fatigue as well." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
21:40 "It's not just your muscles that you're working out when we move, it's all of the tendons and the ligaments and the fascia, all of it needs to repair." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
22:24 "You have to give your body the time to repair between sessions and respect from a cellular perspective how much energy they can effectively produce on any given day." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
30:00 "There's a misconception that hypermobility spectrum disorder is a lesser than diagnosis than hypermobile EDS, when in fact, they are two completely overlapping things. " —Dr. Melissa Koehl
40:33 "I think the one important thing that everyone benefits from hearing is that it's not your fault." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
41:31 "There are extra things that need to be considered with a connective tissue issue. It is more challenging; give yourself the time to find the providers that truly understand it. "Give yourself the time to rest without apology, give your body the rest that it needs." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
43:40 "You don't need joint dislocations to have connective tissue disorder." —Dr. Melissa Koehl
46:10 "These symptoms are just not normal, so symptom management is huge. You don't have to be a pain all the time." —Donna Piper
Connect with Melissa:
Melissa Koehl is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Pilates instructor based in Chicago, IL, with over 24 years of experience. She's a board-certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist and spent more than a decade co-specializing in vestibular rehab.
Today, Melissa runs a virtual and mobile PT practice focused on helping people with symptomatic hypermobility, including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
Before launching her own practice, she worked at the University of Illinois Hospital, where she treated patients with complex chronic illness and trauma, and taught in their Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
After years of struggling with her own mysterious health issues—and nearly leaving the profession—Melissa was finally diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. That turning point gave her the clarity and treatment she needed to not only stay in the field, but to build a practice dedicated to helping others like her.