MS Understood

Today on MS understood we chat with Leann Stickel. Who works as a life coach with people with MS. She shares her diagnosis story, how she talked to her 4 kids about her diagnosis. She says she's genetically optimistic, how we can learn to be more positive and how her positivity was tested after her diagnosis. Leann is so positive that it's a joy to hear her speak. Hope you get some light out of li...

Today on MS Understood we hear from Mike Fitzsimon who is an exercise physiologist based in Melbourne. He excels at helping and supporting people to move well through life. Throughout this chat we talk about what an exercise physiologist is, why they can help, when we could start going to an EP and the difference between a physiotherapist, an EP and a personal trainer. I started seeing an EP after...

Today on MS understood we chat with Julie Stamm. Wrote a beautiful book call Some Days. After having rough days and writing letters to her son she turned these heart felt letters into a gorgeous children's book. We spend a lot of time chatting about how we are raising our kids, and the guilt we feel when asking for help. Julie's sister also has MS and she talks about how heaps of people in her gra...

Today on MS understood we chat with Dr Sally Shaw. She is a psychologist who was diagnosed with MS over 20 years ago. Sally works with a lot of people who live with MS, which I think is so great. Imagine seeing a psychologist who understands exactly what you're going through. I loved this chat! We talked about realistic optimism, a phrase I am now absolutely in love with, we talk about finding our...

Find the Reassess Your MS interactive assessment tool at reassess.com.au Today on MS understood we chat with Lexi Uff. We talk a lot about staying aware of our symptoms and keeping an eye on ever the ever changing nature of our disease. We talk about meditation and how that has been the best thing Lexi has added to her arsenal and how we should all find what works for us. I noticed throughout this...

Today on MS Understood we are chatting with Dr Samantha Balistreri. She's a physical therapist who works primarily with people who have multiple sclerosis and has even written a book for those wh have a new diagnosis called Breakthrough Multiple Sclerosis: For the Newly Diagnosed and Minimally Impaired. You can find the link check it out in the show notes. In this episode we talk about what prehab...

Today on MS understood we chat with Christy Batta. She has a beautiful hand lettering business called Human Plus Kind Co where she makes hand lettering about her MS experience. My favourite quote she shares is Because MS. We talk a lot today about the fears around others expectations of us living with an invisible disease and how this has impacted Christy's experiences. Christy talks about bravery...

On this episode of MS Understood we have Katy back to talk about how her mountaineering trip went. Her story is really one that makes me want to get up and go, make some sweet goals and start moving towards them. I'm so excited to be able to share her story with you. Find Katy on Instagram

Today on MS understood we chat with Katy Glenie. We cover a lot of things in this episode. Katy talks about how she has a meditation break in the middle of the day, as this allows a mini reset so she can feel refreshed for the afternoon. Katy mentions that she sees her neurophysio over zoom and how well that works. Just as a reminder for those of us who don't have a neuro specific physio in our ar...

Today on MS Understood we are chatting with Jo Betz, who is giving grief a voice. I first heard Jo's story about loosing her husband suddenly on another podcast and knew that I needed to talk with her for the MS Understood podcast about grief. We talk about the 5 stages of grief and how it's a great initial framework but doesn't list all of the emotions that we go through. We talk about the bullsh...

Today on MS understood we chat with Ashley Ratcliff. Soon after Ashley was diagnosed with MS she wrote a part memoir, part self help book, Jesus Year: The first year of the rest of my life after I was diagnosed with MS to provide others with what she needed when she got diagnosed. Ashley is passionate about people being their own advocates, finding a team to support you and about asking for help....

Today on MS Understood we are chatting with Alanna from YO-T, where she blends the benefits of yoga and occupational therapy interventions. We talk about the difference between occupational therapy and physiotherapy. We talk about mental health support with yoga and the connection to sense of self through this modality. We talk about strengths that Alanna has seen in his clients with multiple scle...

Find the Reassess Your MS interactive assessment tool at reassess.com.au Today on MS Understood we chat with Sarah Preissner. Sarah's story takes us back to when she was 8 years old when she and her mother noticed that her hand writing was messy and she had no control over it, she was then not diagnosed until the day after her 13th birthday. We talk about how it grew with her and how grief for her...

Today on MS Understood we are chatting with Sarah who was my local area coordinator with the NDIS. Today we talk about all things NDIS. She shares tips on how to get initially accepted access into the NDIS, and then talk through the next steps. She answers questions from Instagram like, what's completely unreasonable to ask for, how does she recommend creating a good application, and what's the mo...

Find the Reassess Your MS interactive assessment tool at reassess.com.au Today on MS understood we chat with Lance Lugo. He reached out to me to share his story, as a man who is Native American/Hispanic it's not a story we hear often. Today is a big one so buckle in. Lance is so open about his battle with alcohol and how that impacts his MS symptoms. He has two half sisters who also have MS and si...

Today on MS Understood is the first episode where I chat with someone doesn't have MS but can provide support to those who do. In the online MS community DR Gretchen Hawley needs no introduction. She is a physical therapist or physiotherapist who has trained specifically to support those with multiple sclerosis. We talk about how improving walking can mean different things to different people, how...

Today is an interview with, well, me. When I interviewed Stephen way back when I started the podcast, we got off the recording he offered that if I ever wanted to be interviewed myself then he would be honoured to do that. So I reached out to him for my 12 month anniversary of starting the podcast to interview me. In today's episode we talk about how the podcast has gone over the 12 months and tip...

Today on MS understood we chat with Rachel Reus. Rachel tells a story that will be all too common these days, being diagnosed during lockdown. We talk about having never met her neurologist in person. How she was diagnosed after having an epileptic fit. She yet another person living with the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis who has no symptoms. And we talk about her desire to have kids and how MS i...

Today on MS understood we chat with Dannii Orawiec. Dannii is an Emotional Health & Expression Coach; Holding her Bachelor of Health Science in Psychology and trained in emotional & energetic clearing, she now marries science with energetics to support epic healing and change for her clients. Her life mission is to show people that speaking their heart and showing their true selves - whether it's...

Today on MS understood we chat with Cara Molloy from Derry in the north of Ireland. When Cara was dealing with her per diagnosis symptoms she was living in London working in the career field of her dreams in the entertainment industry. Since moving back to Ireland because of both covid and her diagnosis she has started volunteering as a music therapist as is loving it. Throughout this chat Cara ta...

Today on MS understood we chat with Bridget Botelho. She is a certified integrative health practitioner who helps women with autoimmune issues intuitively rebalance their bodies to reclaim their energy and power. After her own personal journey living with Multiple Sclerosis she became inspired to be a health practitioner. Today we talk about supporting ourselves through a holistic approach, how ev...

Get my 10 tips to living the simple life with a chronic illness ebook here - http://www. Clarereilly.com/newsletter Today on MS understood we chat with Leanne Robson. Leanne is a mum of three girls who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2020. Leanne started having symptoms four years ago and had heaps of visits to the doctors regarding that, she was told her MRI was clear and that she had po...

Get my 10 tips to living the simple life with a chronic illness ebook here - http://www. Clarereilly.com/newsletter Today on MS understood we chat with Edie Sohigian. Edie was working as a vice principal when she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a high powered, stressful job and she had a stressful home life growing up and was unable to tolerate things very well. Throughout this chat a...

Get my 10 tips to living the simple life with a chronic illness ebook here - http://clarereilly.com/newsletter Today on MS understood we chat with Kate Wain a passionate MS advocate who believes that the more we talk about our illness the more understanding there will be in the world. Throughout this lovely chat Kate talks about her passion for fitness and how she's fitter now then before her diag...

Today on MS understood we chat with Fatima Mese is a hard working mum of two young-ins who works in the disability space as an NDIS support coordinator. Fatima has lived with her multiple sclerosis diagnosis for 10 years and while it's a part of her, she's so much more than her MS, as we all are. Today we chat about why Fatima didn't want to disclose her diagnosis and why she eventually decided to...