Long Covid Podcast

I talk with Marisa Renee Lee about Long Covid, identity, and what it takes to endure a season where answers are slow and uncertainty is constant. We explore grey grief, reality based hope, and the practical choices that help us keep moving towards healing even on the hardest days.  • Getting ill after being highly capable and reliable  • Rewriting a book when life flips the premise  • Authenticity...

I sit down with Dr Mel Houser to rethink neurodiversity as a normal fact of human life and to name how shame, masking, and burnout can build when the world expects one way of being. We connect those realities to Long Covid and ME/CFS, showing how access needs, cognitive pacing, and community support can change what recovery and participation look like.  • Neurodiversity as the full range of human...

I'm joined by Fatigue Coach Pamela Rose as we dig into why pacing feels so hard and why “energy management” is a better, more practical way to think about it. We share how to find a steadier baseline, account for cognitive and emotional load, and start increasing activity without tipping into PEM. • Defining pacing as shaping the day around available energy • Prioritising needs and wants over...

Chris Sykes-Popham shares how he goes from an adventurous Royal Marines career into a brutal ME/CFS crash, then back to full recovery and a life rebuilt around balance and self-trust. We explore perfectionism, invisible illness, and why nervous system regulation can feel like the least popular answer yet still be the most practical path forward.  • Early warning signs like post-exertional payback...

I talk with Heather Wilde, a doctor of physical therapy, about why Long Covid and ME/CFS symptoms can be downstream of blocked drainage and disrupted nervous system signalling rather than a single “broken” part. We follow her plumber and electrician framework from real client stories into craniosacral therapy, inflammation, and why hope often returns when someone finally finds the true restriction...

Dan Neuffer and I explore authentic living as a practical way to honour our needs without abandoning responsibility, and why that balance matters even more when we are unwell. We look at how fear, perfectionism, and people-pleasing create inner conflict, drain our energy, and can keep our nervous system stuck in threat.  • Defining authentic living as self-honouring with balance  • Why constant se...

We explore breath as a practical healing tool for Long Covid and ME/CFS, especially when breathlessness, air hunger, or panic keeps the body stuck in survival mode. I share why “appropriate breathwork” is gentle, flexible, and powerful enough to support both recovery and everyday health.  • Why breathing patterns change during illness and can stay dysfunctional afterwards  • The vicious cycle wher...

In part two of Jackie’s conversation with physiotherapist and Long Covid patient Robin McNelis (“Robin the Physio”) , they dig into how heart rate monitors and wearables can support (or sabotage) pacing in Long Covid and ME/CFS . Robin shares both clinical and personal examples of using tech as a behaviour-change tool , not a dictator, and how it can help people eventually trust their bodies more,...

Jackie is joined by Robin McNelis (Robin the Physio) , a cardio‑respiratory physio and Long Covid specialist, who went from running marathons and leading hospital services to his own Long Covid recovery journey. In this episode: What happens when all your tests are “normal” but you’re clearly not. Robin’s role as a “holistic detective” for complex breathing, fatigue and Long Covid cases. How ideas...

I talk with clinical psychologist Dr Jake Hollis about recovering from ME/CFS and Long Covid, and why the nervous system offers a more useful frame than the tired “mind versus body” argument. We explore how validation, language, and recovery stories can shift the brain’s predictions and open up real possibilities for change.  • Jake’s lived experience of long-term illness and a slow recovery path ...

Five years after starting the Long Covid Podcast, Jackie introduces The Recovery Room – a wider, gentler space for anyone navigating Long Covid, ME/CFS, Dysautonomia, PoTS, Trauma, Burnout, nervous system overwhelm, and long-term recovery. In this episode, Jackie shares: Why the podcast is evolving and what “The Recovery Room” means. How her own recovery showed that healing is about more than symp...

Welcome to The Recovery Room with Jackie Baxter This space is the natural evolution of a journey that began during my own recovery and through 5 years of the Long Covid Podcast. A place for anyone navigating a health challenge where they feel misunderstood, isolated and uncertain of the future. A place where science and lived experience sit side by side. A place where fear can soften, and hope can...

I catch up with pain consultant Dr Deepak Ravindran on what four years of Long Covid clinic work and research has taught him about why people get stuck with fatigue, pain, brain fog and autonomic symptoms. We argue for a practical middle path that validates biological change while using neuroplasticity and whole-person support to help the system relearn safety and move forwards.  • Deepak’s shift...

I'm joined by Bal Matharu to talk about how breathing links the nervous system, stress biology, and Long Covid symptoms, and why recovery often begins with creating a genuine felt sense of safety. We share practical ways to assess and change breathing patterns, plus the role of co-regulation, boundaries, and carefully held breathwork support.  • Bal’s path from advanced respiratory physiother...

We hear Ana’s honest recovery story, from a gradual slide into Long Covid to the moment her nervous system finally stopped treating everyday life as a threat. We talk through neurodivergence, trauma, hypermobility and the practical tools that helped her rebuild a calm, creative life.  • The slow build of stressors that leads to a major crash  • Hypermobility and why intense workouts can backfire ...

I share three common recovery traps and how we can find our way out of them without blame. Today's episode focuses on pacing, nervous system safety, and emotional processing so your body can stabilise and move forwards.  • Pushing too hard on a better day and triggering the boom and bust cycle  • Banking energy for healing by spending some, enjoying some, and saving some  • Stepping off the s...

I talk with Jacqui from New Zealand about dropping from a high-energy, ultra-active life into severe Long Covid, then building her way back to running, swimming and full work. Mel Abbott joins us to explain why calming the stress response comes before increasing activity, and how tools like breathwork, visualisation and emotional processing can change the trajectory.  • Jacqui’s pre-illness pace a...

In this episode of the Long Covid Podcast, I explore one of the most common — and often most confusing — parts of recovery: overwhelm. Overwhelm can feel like your whole system suddenly says “too much”: too much noise, too many sensations, too many decisions, too many feelings, too much uncertainty. It can build slowly over time or arrive out of nowhere — and in Long Covid, ME/CFS, & other pos...

We hear Lalita’s Long Covid recovery story, from tachycardia and air hunger to a steady return to health by focusing on nervous system safety. We share practical tools for regulating symptoms in the moment, plus the mindset shifts that make self-compassion possible when you’ve been dismissed or frightened.  • Early signs after COVID including raised blood pressure, numb lips and fatigue  • Second...

I'm joined by Pierre Brunschwig & Margaret Hampton as we explore how Chinese medicine and conventional western medicine can work together to treat Long Covid, where symptoms are complex and constantly shifting. We focus on subtypes, nervous system safety, immune recovery and the practical foundations that help people feel like themselves again. • Why combining medical “languages” can fill...

We talk about how internalised pressure can keep the nervous system in threat mode and make recovery from Long Covid, ME/CFS and other health challenges harder, even when we are doing “all the right things”. We explore perfectionism, shame, and control, then land on practical ways to create space and choose small steps that help us feel a bit more okay.  • what internalised pressure means and why...

Nora shares her journey from years of back pain, gut troubles, and crushing insomnia to a calm, steady baseline by retraining a sensitised nervous system. Her story blends science, practical tools, and honest moments of fear, relapse, and quiet wins. • linking pain, GI symptoms and insomnia through fear-based conditioning • what "psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy" taught her • out...

I talk with board-certified homeopath Roddy Schrock about what homeopathy is and why it can appeal to people recovery from Long Covid, ME/CFS and other complex, hard-to-explain symptoms. We dig into symptoms as messages, the power of deep listening, and how homeopathy can sit alongside Western medicine as one piece of a bigger recovery puzzle.  • Roddy’s path from chronic pain and insomnia to stud...

In this solo episode, Jackie Baxter unpacks what rest really is during Long Covid and ME/CFS recovery—and why simply lying down often doesn’t feel restorative. She reframes the struggle to rest as your body’s way of protecting you, not failing you, and introduces the idea of “banking energy for healing” . Jackie explores the different types of rest we need—physical, mental, sensory, emotional, soc...

Clare shares how her son went from a viral crash at thirteen to full, active living through pacing, autonomic nervous system retraining, and Mickel Therapy. We trace the medical dead ends, the messy middle, and the simple joy‑based habits that tipped him into lasting recovery. • early sensitivity shaped by stress and frequent infections • onset at secondary school, loss of attendance and friends •...