Migraine Heroes
How Does Your Nervous System Affect Migraine and Wellbeing?
Gut-BrainStressAnxietyEmotionsGut Health
Subscribe onBy subscribing to the Migraine Heroes Podcast on Apple or Spotify, you will receive episodes twice a week with fresh evidence-based insights.

How Does Your Nervous System Affect Migraine and Wellbeing?

38 min

00:00
-38:00

In this episode, we explore the intricate connection between trauma and migraines with our special guest, Dulcie, a trauma-focused counselor and expert in polyvagal theory. Dulcie brings her extensive knowledge and experience to shed light on how our nervous system shapes our responses to past traumas and influences our present experiences. From childhood adversity to chronic pain, we delve into the profound impact of unresolved trauma on our daily lives and overall well-being.

Highlights:

  • The Nervous System and Mental Health: Discover how the nervous system is shaped by trauma and its profound influence on our mental health.
  • Understanding the Vagus Nerve: Learn about the vagus nerve, its role in trauma, and its connection to our overall well-being.
  • Defining Trauma: Explore the various types of trauma and what constitutes a traumatic experience.
  • Trauma in Children: Understand how trauma is defined in children, the physical signals to look out for, and the importance of early detection.
  • Coping Strategies: Discuss common coping strategies that develop in childhood and continue into adult life, such as people-pleasing, shutting down, and constant environment scanning.
  • Treating Trauma: Learn about effective strategies to treat trauma, make the nervous system more flexible, and how to stay present in the moment.
  • Polyvagal Theory: Dive into polyvagal theory and its crucial connection to understanding and healing trauma.
Transcript

[00:00]

Hello, this is the Migraine Heroes Podcast, a podcast where we share real stories from

[00:06]

real people suffering and battling with migraine disease.

[00:12]

In this podcast, we seek to provide support, hope, holistic health, advocacy and inspiration

[00:19]

for those who suffer from migraine disease.

[00:25]

Welcome Ducie Cardinal.

[00:26]

Thank you so much for having me.

[00:28]

I'm really excited to be joining you.

[00:30]

I am super excited too.

[00:33]

If you haven't heard it, Ducie is one of our Migraine Heroes and she has a podcast of her

[00:38]

own on this topic and I really strongly encourage you to see how Ducie's life got transformed

[00:43]

alongside the one of others.

[00:45]

In my practice, when I work with someone, at the very end, we meet again.

[00:50]

And I like to say that it's the first time I really get to meet the person I work with.

[00:56]

I always say that because I find women when they no longer have migraines and they no

[01:00]

longer have the fear and the anxiety that comes alongside and sort of the sadness that

[01:06]

comes with it, they've really lightened up and bubble up.

[01:09]

And in that conversation, we talked about what you do for a living.

[01:13]

And I had been searching for you, exactly you, for quite some time because what you

[01:18]

do is extremely relevant to some of my work, which has to do with trauma.

[01:26]

So I let you open the floor.

[01:28]

What do you do for work, Ducie?

[01:30]

So I am a counsellor and a trauma-focused counsellor especially, and I incorporate the

[01:38]

polyvagal theory quite frequently into my sessions.

[01:43]

And really what that does is helps us to understand the nervous system, how it was

[01:48]

shaped the way that it is and how it impacts us today.

[01:52]

If we have learned that there are many things out there that are threatening to be feared,

[01:59]

then our nervous system is constantly scanning the environment for these kinds of threats.

[02:05]

Yes.

[02:07]

And so the reason why it got me really interested is, as you know by now, I'm taking care of

[02:12]

hundreds and thousands of women across the globe, and women, men, and children across

[02:16]

the globe with their migraines.

[02:18]

But I could really see early on that there were some of them that had their migraines

[02:24]

since really, really early, so maybe five-year-old, six-year-old, and they have had an onset that

[02:31]

linked to a trauma.

[02:33]

And that for these people, food were really important, but there seems to be something

[02:37]

superseding and sort of damaging the vagus nerve in the first place.

[02:43]

And because I like to fight for every single one of you, I always like to find more and

[02:49]

more answers, even for the exceptions.

[02:51]

For me, I don't see like a success rate as a percentage of everyone.

[02:54]

I see success rate as this is 100% of the life of the person in front of me.

[03:00]

And I read theories on the facts, and I'd love to hear from you, on the fact that the

[03:04]

vagus nerve can be altered by trauma, and is the only place in Western science where

[03:09]

we can link emotions to a physical change, which is hard to see in other instances, but

[03:16]

in traditional Chinese medicine is present.

[03:18]

And so therefore, I'm dying to have this podcast to learn so much more from you.

[03:24]

What's happening in the body?

[03:25]

How is it changing?

[03:26]

How is it suddenly wiring and how can you unwire that?

[03:30]

Yeah, as a fellow migraine hero, I noticed a strong relationship between my own mental

[03:37]

health and chronic pain.

[03:40]

When my nervous system was in a defensive state, I was feeling stressed or anxious,

[03:46]

then the pain was more intense, more frequent, and the medication didn't work.

[03:51]

With the vagus nerve, so it extends right from the brainstem, goes down and into all

[03:59]

of the organs, it connects to all of the organs, and it's communicating between your

[04:04]

organs and your brain back and forth.

[04:07]

And it's constantly scanning the environment, looking for cues of either safety or of danger,

[04:14]

and then it responds accordingly.

[04:16]

If there are cues of safety, then you stay in your calm and safe and social state.

[04:22]

If there are cues of danger, then you start entering a state of activation, fight or flight,

[04:28]

or even shut down if there's nothing that you can do to protect yourself.

[04:33]

And so I want to be very cognizant that our listeners might not be familiar with what

[04:38]

the vagus nerve is.

[04:39]

So can you, in a few simple words, describe what it is?

[04:43]

It's a pathway of nerves that runs from the brainstem down the spinal cord and then connects

[04:51]

to various organs.

[04:54]

And there's a sympathetic system, part of the nervous system that is built for activation.

[05:03]

So if there's a threat, we are ready to fight or to flee.

[05:07]

And then the vagus nerve part, there's two parts of that.

[05:10]

There's the ventral vagus, which is active when we are feeling safe and calm, and that

[05:18]

helps us reach homeostasis.

[05:20]

And then there's the dorsal vagal, meaning in the back, that allows our body to shut

[05:25]

down completely.

[05:27]

In the case of trauma or fear, then we shut down out of fear in order to dissociate or

[05:34]

to not experience what's happening.

[05:37]

But if we are safe, then our body shuts down in order to rest or sleep or meditate.

[05:43]

So each part of this system is helpful and your body reacts depending on whether it's

[05:50]

sensing safety or threat.

[05:53]

Thank you so much for explaining that.

[05:55]

Can we start with the types of threats that you work with?

[05:58]

What do we call the trauma?

[05:59]

So the types of threats, I especially focus on development, the developmental years.

[06:06]

That could be persistent trauma of abuse, neglect, being in a household that is not

[06:13]

safe.

[06:15]

It could also mean that the caregiver themself is not feeling safe and that gets projected

[06:22]

onto the child.

[06:24]

That shapes the child's nervous system as well.

[06:28]

So yeah, just if there's been events in the person's life that have been overwhelming

[06:36]

or have caused them to go into one of the defensive states and now they are so easily

[06:44]

brought into those defensive states and it gets hard to get out of those states.

[06:50]

It's kind of the longer impact of the trauma.

[06:53]

And so for example, what would we have in that category?

[06:57]

Like if a sexual abuse, for example, would belong to that category or maybe time of war,

[07:03]

war would also qualify.

[07:04]

Yes.

[07:05]

I mean, there are so many different things that can go on.

[07:08]

Yeah.

[07:09]

Maybe also like a very difficult divorce, financial stress.

[07:13]

Could that be that traumatizing?

[07:16]

I mean, anything that is overwhelming to you and you feel like you are alone and constantly

[07:24]

fearful, anything that brings that response out in you.

[07:30]

So it's more defined by how you feel than what's the intensity of the situation.

[07:36]

Yes, I would say so.

[07:38]

I mean, the DSM has very specific examples of what trauma is.

[07:43]

So we could definitely use those.

[07:45]

But in day to day life, we also experience regular things like divorce or even having

[07:53]

a child is amazing, but it can be so traumatizing.

[07:57]

Right?

[07:59]

Not in a bad way, but usually.

[08:02]

Absolutely.

[08:03]

Sorry, you mentioned the DSM.

[08:07]

Would you mind clarifying?

[08:08]

Yeah.

[08:09]

The DSM-5 now is kind of the diagnostic and statistical manual for disorders.

[08:17]

Okay.

[08:18]

So that lists all of the disorders and what the requirements are to be categorized as

[08:24]

having one.

[08:25]

Okay.

[08:26]

Very good.

[08:27]

And how does that play back?

[08:28]

So let's imagine we're a child and we're going through a trauma.

[08:33]

Do we notice in Western science that if we are younger, the trauma has a deeper influence

[08:41]

on the vagus nerve or not quite?

[08:43]

It impacts the development.

[08:45]

So yes, if the child is younger, then aspects of their personality are not formed, aspects

[08:51]

of their physiology are still developing, and they don't have access to words.

[08:59]

They're pre-verbal, so they aren't able to even process those experiences verbally.

[09:05]

So the way that they process it in that time is by screaming and fussing, and it really

[09:11]

comes down to the caregiver, how the caregiver then meets those needs.

[09:16]

And if the needs are not met, then that also increases the impact of the original trauma.

[09:23]

Oh, okay.

[09:25]

I understand.

[09:26]

Okay.

[09:27]

So because of the lack of language, just processing what you're saying, because of the lack of

[09:30]

language, it's much harder for the child to understand what is going on with them.

[09:37]

And yeah, that makes a complete sense.

[09:39]

Yeah.

[09:40]

I understand.

[09:41]

Okay.

[09:42]

And it shapes their physiology without them even knowing.

[09:44]

And it shapes their physiology.

[09:46]

Can you share a little bit of examples of maybe posture or behavior?

[09:53]

Of behavior that would be seen afterward?

[09:56]

So I won't go into detail in terms of what kinds of trauma, but you might see the original

[10:03]

trauma being played out in their play or when playing with other children.

[10:08]

So you might see them acting out, maybe if there has been some sexual abuse, then they

[10:15]

might be acting that out, reenacting that with toys or with other children.

[10:20]

It might come out in their drawings, how they feel about a certain parent.

[10:24]

But yeah, it usually just comes out in play and drawings as well as behaviors that look

[10:31]

like ADHD and anxiety, not being able to focus, not being able to handle regular situations.

[10:41]

And in terms of posture, you mentioned the dorsal part of the vagus nerve.

[10:49]

Would you say that the posture also can softly indicate?

[10:53]

So yeah, the dorsal vagal, it just runs on the back part of the spine, whereas the front.

[11:01]

So I would say posture would definitely be impacted depending on what the trauma is.

[11:08]

And generally with trauma comes elements of shame, so that can certainly be carried

[11:12]

out in how you hold your body.

[11:15]

Oh, okay.

[11:16]

So with trauma come elements of shame.

[11:19]

So even though the child is not quite conscious what they feel, they feel intuitively shameful

[11:25]

about the situation?

[11:26]

Yeah, yeah.

[11:27]

Even though it is not their fault at all, that feeling of shame gets directed towards

[11:34]

themselves.

[11:35]

If it gets pointed towards their caregiver, it means that they have faulty caregivers

[11:41]

and therefore are not safe.

[11:44]

If it gets blamed on the environment, then it means their environment is not safe and

[11:48]

therefore the child is not safe.

[11:50]

So it must be my fault as the child, I have to take that on in order to feel some semblance

[11:57]

of safety.

[11:58]

Ah, so they take it on, they feel responsible.

[12:01]

Yeah.

[12:02]

And then the child becomes a young adult, and so I guess there's like different times

[12:08]

at which people meet you.

[12:10]

How does that translate if you correct that early versus late?

[12:13]

Yeah, I mean, of course the goal is to work with the person as early as possible.

[12:21]

Really we're learning more and more about mental health now, and so it's much more likely

[12:27]

that I would encounter an adult who's been through situations in the past when there

[12:33]

weren't the right kind of resources for them back then.

[12:36]

But looking at a teen or an adult, you would see similar sort of coping strategies that

[12:44]

were effective for them when they were younger.

[12:47]

So if the child learned to protect themselves by remaining hypervigilant, it's very hard

[12:53]

to focus when you're constantly scanning the environment for danger.

[12:58]

So that hypervigilance helped them to feel safe because they are prepared.

[13:02]

There is potential danger and I need to be prepared.

[13:06]

As they get older, hopefully that danger is not present anymore, but that natural instinct

[13:11]

still is.

[13:13]

So there comes a lot of work learning the tools that they would have learned through

[13:17]

co-regulation and then bringing that into themselves.

[13:21]

Being able to regulate with themselves to not be in that defensive state so frequently,

[13:29]

to be able to find a sense of safety and to come back to that feeling of safety more easily.

[13:37]

And so the more the person's going to wait or is going to be made to wait until they

[13:43]

get help and the situation is acknowledged because it requires a lot of acknowledgments

[13:47]

from the caregiver point of view.

[13:50]

Then what happens when the young adult comes and realizes that the childhood was not adequate?

[13:55]

So many things.

[13:56]

I mean, that's the time when they start recognizing, okay, my parents are humans and have faults

[14:04]

of their own and okay, now I need to take that in.

[14:08]

I also need to be able to talk about what's happened, which is very scary.

[14:14]

And I also need to spend more time feeling the emotions that I've been trying to push

[14:19]

aside, like fear and shame.

[14:22]

Those are emotions that are really difficult to tolerate if your caregivers were not able

[14:28]

to stay with you and help you deal with them in the moment.

[14:33]

So now there are probably pretty good strategies that the person has been using to push those

[14:40]

feelings aside.

[14:41]

So avoidance tactics, engaging in substances, perfectionism to kind of help control things

[14:50]

or people pleasing because it helps to manage other people's emotions so that they don't

[14:56]

take them out on you or shutting down and being depressed because nothing else worked.

[15:02]

So you're going to stop trying.

[15:04]

And so where to from there?

[15:06]

So when they meet with you, how did you come to do your work and then how do you do it?

[15:12]

How do you get them out of that situation and out of those strategies?

[15:15]

Totally.

[15:16]

Yeah.

[15:17]

I mean, that's the question.

[15:18]

So for me, I also have experience with anxiety and ADHD and was personally motivated to find

[15:25]

strategies that were actually helpful so that I could achieve my own goals without all of

[15:32]

the roadblocks that anxiety and ADHD often provide you.

[15:37]

Focusing on two techniques especially or two orientations.

[15:42]

So following the polyvagal technique of learning about the nervous system and understanding

[15:49]

when I'm in what state and how to gently allow myself to get out of it as well as somatic

[15:57]

experiencing.

[15:59]

So engaging in body movements and using the voice to help release the stuck trauma.

[16:08]

So basically the goal is to have a more flexible nervous system.

[16:13]

It's normal to go into the defensive states.

[16:17]

So there's the green state of feeling safe and social and that's homeostasis.

[16:24]

Then there's the yellow state which is mobilization.

[16:28]

There's a threat that is perceived and it's time to fight or to flee.

[16:32]

The third state is the red state of shutdown.

[16:36]

This is when nothing else has worked.

[16:38]

So time to preserve energy, shut down, dissociate, not experience what's happening.

[16:45]

And it's normal for us to go in and out of these states throughout the day.

[16:49]

Things trigger us.

[16:51]

It happens automatically without our choice.

[16:54]

But we can notice when that's happening.

[16:58]

We can act the way a helpful co-regulating parent would for ourselves.

[17:03]

We can pay attention to what's happening in the body, the sensations, pay attention to

[17:10]

the thoughts because whatever state you're in is going to be determining what kind of

[17:15]

thoughts come up, emotions and bring in elements of self-compassion and curiosity and elements

[17:24]

of safety.

[17:26]

It helps you to stay present in that moment, to not be afraid and shove the emotions to

[17:32]

the side, but to stay present, to really acknowledge them and to process them effectively in that

[17:39]

moment so that they're not lingering.

[17:42]

And so concretely, then you would listen to someone's story, explain to them what happened

[17:46]

and then give them sort of homework and then see them regularly or how, because it's not

[17:50]

an easy thing to correct a strategy that has been building up over the years.

[17:55]

Totally.

[17:56]

So even for with me, sharing the story of the trauma is completely optional.

[18:03]

There's no need to verbally tell me the story.

[18:06]

If that is something the client wants to do in order to process it in that way, that's

[18:11]

great.

[18:12]

We can definitely do that.

[18:13]

But for us, we would look at what were their coping strategies for that time in the past?

[18:20]

What were they doing in order to protect themselves then?

[18:24]

And then we look at situations now and see how those patterns are repeating in their

[18:30]

lives today.

[18:31]

And then we would take each of those situations from today, we would slow them down and examine

[18:39]

What's going on in the environment?

[18:41]

What's going on in the body?

[18:43]

What are you starting to feel?

[18:44]

What are you starting to think?

[18:46]

What are your emotions?

[18:48]

Just identifying those and having kind of a distant perspective to be able to recognize

[18:54]

that this is just a moment in time.

[18:56]

This is my nervous system responding the way that it's supposed to, what it thinks is a

[19:01]

threat and that will pay for my body to do this.

[19:03]

I'm going to listen to what my body needs.

[19:07]

I'm going to be compassionate towards myself and I'm going to think of things that I can

[19:14]

do to help take care of myself in this moment.

[19:18]

And you know, it doesn't always happen right away.

[19:21]

Sometimes we stay in that state for a period of time and it takes practice, but that helps

[19:28]

to move you back into the green state.

[19:33]

With migraine disease, we only have each other to make a difference.

[19:38]

If you know of someone suffering from migraine attacks, share this podcast with them.

[19:43]

Okay, very good.

[19:46]

And so let's imagine that someone who is listening to you is a caregiver of a child, but maybe

[19:51]

not the prime caregiver, a secondary caregiver.

[19:55]

Can be a teacher, can be grandparents, can be a friend, can be a godmother, godfather,

[20:00]

and suspects trauma in the child's life.

[20:04]

How can they be certain and how can they try to approach finding a solution?

[20:09]

Would you have any advice?

[20:10]

Yes.

[20:11]

So that's a heavy topic and something that I have to face from time to time with my clients.

[20:16]

If I suspect that there's some form of abuse, then it is my duty to afford it.

[20:21]

So if you are working with a child and you recognize signs of abuse or that the child

[20:31]

is in some sort of danger, then it definitely is important to take notes of what you're

[20:37]

seeing and document that, then to talk to somebody.

[20:42]

Talk to somebody.

[20:43]

If you're in a place of work, talk to your boss, somebody who can help you, or you can

[20:48]

go directly to authorities and make a report.

[20:52]

That then means that that family will be visited by what is called MCFD here, but they'll be

[20:58]

visited by police officers and social workers and they'll do an investigation and they'll

[21:04]

make a plan.

[21:06]

Know the consequences of what you're doing, but also it is important to do so if you really

[21:11]

believe there is trauma.

[21:14]

Would you recommend, if there's doubts, encouraging the child to draw and understand, look at

[21:21]

the drawings and sometimes children can speak a bit more.

[21:24]

I'll speak of personal experience.

[21:26]

When I was seven, I lost my godfather from an accident and he was sort of gone overnight

[21:32]

and I hadn't been told for a while for valid reasons, but as a child, you feel you always

[21:38]

would have understood and would have been able to deal with a coma and deal with more

[21:43]

things.

[21:44]

It was really hard for me to process grief when funeral and coma and death had happened.

[21:48]

It's a bit, maybe something that you told, like never hide death from a child, but this

[21:53]

happened and I completely forgive and understand why these things happen.

[21:57]

I myself made the same mistake with my daughter when she lost her guinea pig.

[22:00]

I tried to hide it and get a new one and announce it much later because I thought, oh my God,

[22:06]

how is she going to react?

[22:08]

And so as a child, I remember going to the psychiatrist and to draw and through drawings

[22:13]

for the psychiatrist to understand the importance of that person in my life and what they meant

[22:18]

to me and help me thrive later on.

[22:20]

But I find whenever I see children with that, like just asking them to draw, you can really

[22:25]

see the level of darkness in their drawing and the level of distress that they might

[22:29]

not be able to express otherwise.

[22:31]

I don't know, would that be a, because sometimes you have doubt, right?

[22:34]

So we can say when there's a doubt, there's no doubt, but still sometimes, like you say,

[22:38]

this has consequences, so you want to investigate more.

[22:41]

Yeah.

[22:42]

And with certain types of trauma, you might see that child reenacting scenes that they

[22:49]

have experienced themselves and of course, yes, it can come up in drawings, that's a

[22:54]

big one, or in how they are playing with their toys.

[22:58]

If you listen to the conversations that they're having amongst their toys, you can gain insight

[23:04]

into their world.

[23:06]

Oh, interesting.

[23:08]

I hadn't thought of that.

[23:09]

Yes.

[23:10]

Very good.

[23:11]

Okay.

[23:12]

So now we have a trauma.

[23:13]

We have a young person or young adults or older adults coming to you and then they undo

[23:19]

their trauma.

[23:20]

What is to expect as symptoms when the person is in trauma versus after or finding resolution

[23:28]

with that trauma?

[23:30]

Before they have learned to kind of work through their trauma, I wouldn't say that everybody

[23:37]

gets healed from their trauma and it is no longer a thing, but they are able to encounter

[23:45]

a trigger and to not react as strongly to that.

[23:50]

They can notice that this is one of my triggers.

[23:53]

I'm not in actual danger right now.

[23:56]

My body is reacting because it has noticed the trigger and it doesn't want what has happened

[24:02]

to me before to ever happen again.

[24:04]

So it is now doing all the things it needs to do to get me away from that.

[24:09]

Okay.

[24:10]

But we have the frontal lobes of our brains to kind of help us, okay, this is how I'm

[24:15]

feeling, but it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm actually in danger.

[24:20]

We can slowly become more able to access those parts of our brains, calming down the emotional

[24:26]

elements of encountering a trigger.

[24:30]

And then they might still go through the phase of, okay, I am triggered now for this period

[24:37]

of time.

[24:38]

I am in one of the defensive states for this period of time.

[24:42]

That's okay.

[24:43]

It's totally okay to be in one of those states.

[24:48]

Life is harder.

[24:50]

Our mindset is worse.

[24:52]

It's harder to accomplish things because we have that voice in the back of our head saying,

[24:57]

you sure you think you can do that?

[25:00]

I don't think so.

[25:01]

But we can, again, recognize I'm in a defensive state.

[25:05]

The story my brain is telling me does not necessarily mean that that is the case.

[25:11]

And what can I add in to support myself during this time?

[25:15]

And it's okay to distract yourself sometimes.

[25:18]

Do the software, do the listening in, and then if it's too much, fine, go watch TV,

[25:23]

go do whatever else you need to do.

[25:26]

That's okay.

[25:27]

It's just kind of building up that tolerance for these uncomfortable states and feeling

[25:33]

safe enough during them to allow yourself to do what it needs to do.

[25:38]

Yeah.

[25:39]

You mentioned that sometimes this can be triggered by something externally happening.

[25:43]

Did you also find or that someone can be triggered by the thought of them or the memory

[25:49]

of an event?

[25:50]

I remember working with a woman and she would go better, better, better.

[25:56]

To Cassie Knorr migraines, but then she would sometimes have these migraines that were triggered.

[26:01]

I didn't know by what, not by food, not by hormones, not by anything visible.

[26:06]

So I remember sitting down with her, it was four years ago and saying, look, I don't know.

[26:10]

Help me out here.

[26:11]

I'm missing a piece of the puzzle.

[26:13]

I'm feeling illogical.

[26:14]

I mean, it must be logical, but illogical to me with your body.

[26:17]

What are these migraines about?

[26:18]

And she explained to me that she had been sexually abused when her migraine started.

[26:22]

And then she was thinking of coming out with that trauma and sharing it with the world.

[26:27]

And whenever she was having those thoughts and that memory of that man, she would go

[26:34]

through a migraine.

[26:35]

So we discussed a lot about letting go and maybe having the time of her life to have

[26:39]

her children, et cetera, and not maybe come out with that story now because it would probably

[26:44]

induce more migraines, but maybe later when she has her daughter and she wants to protect

[26:49]

her.

[26:50]

But yeah, I vividly remember, yeah, it's really shocked me how, like, oh wow, it's the thought,

[26:56]

it's something that you're processing.

[26:57]

And that's why also when we put women in clinical trials and we say, oh, the medication, let's

[27:01]

just keep men in the clinical trial because it's really bizarre that some of the data

[27:05]

is unexplained.

[27:06]

But when you actually talk to people and it's completely explainable, you have to take the

[27:09]

time to acknowledge what's going on inside.

[27:12]

It makes perfect sense.

[27:15]

And I really commend her for wanting to tell her story and a lot of courage and that will

[27:24]

likely provide her with a lot of confidence once it's done.

[27:27]

But of course she needs to take care of herself and her family and figure out the right time

[27:33]

for that.

[27:34]

But to the nervous system, pain alone is a cue of danger, inside the body, inside the

[27:44]

mind, outside the body, in a relationship, all of these can be cues of danger or safety.

[27:51]

A thought can be a cue of threat and it's important to then be aware that that was the

[27:59]

cue, that was the trigger.

[28:00]

We talked about letting go of emotions and trying to change emotion.

[28:05]

I don't know if this is something you've heard about, but I find a bit like you were saying

[28:09]

earlier, try a distraction, do this, do that and ultimately, you can watch a movie if you

[28:15]

feel like it.

[28:16]

I found that crying, if you felt very angry, was very helpful and that if you feel also

[28:22]

very stressed, sometimes just watching a stand-up comedy and allowing for a good laughter is

[28:27]

sometimes easier to do something, like I'm going to watch a really sad movie and cry

[28:32]

or I'm going to watch something really funny and laugh, then try to not have an emotion

[28:37]

that keeps on coming back.

[28:38]

And watching a funny movie is a cue of safety, so that would make perfect sense to add that

[28:43]

in.

[28:44]

Yeah.

[28:45]

Thank you for complimenting that.

[28:48]

And so how long does this polyvagal nerve theory date back from?

[28:52]

How recent is all of this?

[28:53]

Fairly recent.

[28:54]

I think Dr. Stephen Porges is the one who discovered it and it was in the 1990s, I believe.

[29:03]

He's very scientific, so he had very scientific-type papers, so it was hard to disseminate to the

[29:11]

rest of us.

[29:12]

Then, I don't know what she is, she's either a social worker or a therapist, counselor.

[29:18]

Her name is Deb Dana.

[29:19]

She also is great with sciency-type things and was able to translate what Stephen Porges

[29:28]

was saying and put it into practice to use therapeutically for us regular people to understand

[29:35]

how our bodies are responding to the world and that it's totally normal.

[29:40]

We don't necessarily have this disorder for life.

[29:44]

We are in a defensive state and we can navigate it.

[29:50]

And if I may share my perspective, so as you know, I work a lot with traditional transmedicine

[29:55]

in the Western science.

[29:56]

And in traditional transmedicine, emotions are a complete part of health since always,

[30:01]

right?

[30:02]

You can't...

[30:03]

And so some emotions will impact some organs and organs will impact emotions, so they expand

[30:08]

the gut-brain axis.

[30:09]

I agree only in a couple of decades, if not just years, that we've discovered that part

[30:17]

of how emotions impact health and how they're so important.

[30:20]

I was listening recently to a Harvard professor who was mentioning, hey, we just forgot a

[30:25]

whole chapter in the health department, emotions.

[30:30]

And in traditional transmedicine, if you listen to the podcast I did with Dr. Yifang Zhang,

[30:34]

with whom I've been working a lot, who's about 70 and is taking care of her 95 and 97 year

[30:39]

old parents, she says, look, back in the days when my father and my grandfather were selected

[30:46]

to be doctors, one was because they were extremely literate and so very, very smart.

[30:52]

The other reason was because they had a lot of emotional quotient and emotional quotient

[30:56]

was and is still today an extremely important part of a characteristic to be a doctor.

[31:03]

You couldn't be a doctor without that component of compassion and of picking up the cues and

[31:09]

a little bit like if you have a child in your practice and you see that that child's response

[31:15]

to things a bit bizarrely, just understanding what's the family situation, is there anything

[31:20]

more than just a bronchitis here or a new infection that is coming back on and on and

[31:25]

on.

[31:26]

So I find it quite fascinating.

[31:27]

But as with everything, the two medicines are emerging and are quite aligned with each

[31:32]

other at the end of the day.

[31:33]

And so we see that beautiful part, which I find the polyvagal nerve theory really prevalent

[31:38]

with trauma because this is where we, with a scientific eye, can see it and have proof

[31:44]

of it.

[31:45]

Now in a much smaller aspect, it does influence people that haven't gone through a trauma

[31:50]

before but have just an imbalance, but it's true that when there's a trauma, I do, and

[31:55]

I'm so grateful I found you, I do need someone like you to almost do the work before I can

[32:00]

do mine so that the vagus nerve gets into a much better state before we can completely

[32:06]

make it sleek and nice and efficient and painless.

[32:09]

Yeah, they do go hand in hand.

[32:12]

When we are in that sort of safe and social green state, then our body is functioning

[32:16]

properly.

[32:17]

Our body is able to heal, able to function.

[32:21]

And that of course would then allow the foods that you're recommending to be absorbed more

[32:26]

easily and efficiently.

[32:27]

Absolutely.

[32:28]

Absolutely.

[32:30]

And for a time, for a while, I was really wondering, I'm like, okay, there's just a

[32:33]

handful of women where I'm missing a piece of the puzzle and there seems to be a trauma.

[32:37]

It seems that because of that trauma, the food is not absorbed the same.

[32:42]

So in traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that the state in which you eat is

[32:47]

as important as the food you're actually eating.

[32:50]

So you can eat something very organic, but if you're in that state of fright or flight,

[32:57]

you might absorb it the same way you'd absorb a poison, just because the body is associated

[33:02]

with threats and just not digesting it properly, therefore.

[33:06]

And so I was finding it quite challenging.

[33:08]

And so since then I have recommended you people and I'll continue to do that.

[33:11]

I find it just really, really beautiful to be able to work together.

[33:15]

And so would you like to tell us a little bit about your work, your process, how you

[33:19]

work with clients and where you can be reached out?

[33:22]

For sure.

[33:23]

Oh my goodness, to work with people who also experienced migraines would be just amazing

[33:29]

because I know exactly how frustrating it is.

[33:34]

And to be able to merge that chronic pain experience with regulating the nervous system

[33:40]

and to feel safe and allow the body to heal, I think it goes hand in hand.

[33:47]

So my practice is called Centred Self and I have a website, it is centredself.ca and

[33:58]

centred is spelt the Canadian way, so C-E-N-T-E-R-E-D, centredself.ca.

[34:07]

And we put it in the notes of the show.

[34:10]

So anybody in Canada, I can work with you as a therapist, as a counselor, and anybody

[34:15]

abroad, I can work with you as a coach.

[34:17]

So there's a small difference there.

[34:19]

If we're doing therapy, we're also able to process past traumas or experiences together.

[34:25]

If I'm working with you as a coach, it's more based on the present and the future, of course.

[34:31]

And we work in either of those cases, we work with the nervous system.

[34:35]

So we would do an intake together, we would go over a treatment plan and discuss the polyvagal

[34:43]

theory so that the client also understands the things that I'm talking about.

[34:49]

And then we address the important topics and look at how the nervous system is responding

[34:54]

to these situations and find ways of bringing in more awareness in those moments, bringing

[35:02]

in self-compassion and more cues of safety.

[35:07]

And this will help the person to be able to start processing their emotions as they

[35:12]

come rather than putting them to the side because it's too much.

[35:17]

Again, when I'm working with clients, we don't just dive in, we do it small bits at a time

[35:22]

because we need to do it slowly to just the amount that the client is comfortable with.

[35:28]

And then we calm down a little bit and we come back and take our time with those kind

[35:34]

of processes.

[35:36]

And then I like to send notes of each session to my clients, have everything written up

[35:41]

already to refer back to.

[35:43]

They know exactly what happened in the session and all of the techniques that we did as well

[35:49]

as sending them some exercises that they can work on over the week.

[35:53]

So I set my website and also I have Instagram, so centered.self.counseling.

[36:03]

And again, all of those are the Canadian spellings of centered and then counseling has two L's,

[36:11]

not just one.

[36:12]

Okay.

[36:13]

Very good.

[36:14]

Look, thank you so much for sharing that.

[36:15]

I'm sure it will move and change lives.

[36:18]

So thank you for connecting all of these emotions with how the body works and how pain can have

[36:24]

its way to communicate back to us.

[36:26]

Well, thank you.

[36:27]

Thank you so much for having me.

[36:29]

It was really enjoyable to talk about this stuff.

[36:33]

I always love talking about it, but also being able to connect it to physical health

[36:39]

and migraines, it's just, you know, I'm coming full circle right now.

[36:44]

Thank you.

[36:45]

Thank you so much for being a double migraine hero.

[36:50]

Thank you.

[36:51]

Bye bye.

[36:52]

The content in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered

[36:58]

a substitute for medical professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

[37:04]

Always consult with your healthcare provider for any health related concerns.

[37:09]

And remember, everyone and every situation is unique.

[37:14]

Remember, sharing is caring.

[37:18]

Share your story with me, take my free tests and let's connect to help you gain a deeper

[37:24]

understanding of your migraine profile.

[37:27]

Learn about the underlying imbalances that could be contributing to your genetic predisposition

[37:32]

for migraines.

[37:33]

Join our community of migraine heroes.

[37:37]

All the links in the description below.

Originally published June 2024

Don’t miss an episode

Subscribe to the Migraine Heroes Podcast on your favorite platform and get evidence-based insights twice a week.

Back to Migraine Science

Curious about the Migraine Heroes approach?

Discover your unique Migraine Profile—a clear picture of why recovery has been difficult. This report will shed light on the complexity of your migraines and reveal your healing potential.

Take Your Free Migraine Assessment
How Does Your Nervous System Affect | Migraine Heroes