Making Headway

Domestic violence survivors are a unique subset of brain injury.  Many have experienced several types of brain injury from blunt force trauma and strangulation inflicted on them by their abusers.  They commonly experience several types of trauma and mental health struggles.  Substance use and limited social support can also play a role.  Getting survivors the services they need...

We're off for the July 4th holiday but wanted to re-air an oldie but a goodie- one of our very first interviews with our friend Chris Dittrich! He has been an inspiration to us since we met! Hope you all enjoy. Eryn and Mariah interview fellow survivor, Chris Dittrich, who suffered from a traumatic brain injury as a result of a car crash during his senior year of high school. Early on, his family...

Recovery is a journey. It is not an event with a defined end-point. The road can be hella hard! Fortunately, there is help out there! Lea Damata joins us in this episode to talk with us about her experience with post concussive symptoms. She shines a light on all the different types of therapy that have helped her.  Riding on this twisting path is filled with ups and downs. Self-compassion, m...

Our brains are truly remarkable organs!! They are what make us unique! It provides the connections needed to support all our body functions, thoughts, personality, and well-being. Their complexity and highly individualized nature are what make it the most misunderstood organ. There is no medicine or one size fits all approach to treatment which makes it a poor fit for traditional medicine. Today,...

If you have been listening to us for a little while you’ve probably figured out that sometimes, Mariah and Eryn just talk. Are we the smartest people in the room? Maybe if we are by ourselves (hehe)!  But seriously, sometimes we just want to get real and talk about what we’re going through. In this episode we broach fear, fitness, cookies, selfishness, self care, and ego. Check it out and let...

Are you looking to regain movement and independence days or years after your stroke? Take a listen, this rehab approach may be for you! Our last episode introduced everyone to Motus Nova, a company that uses technology and video games to regain movement post stroke or neurologic injury. We were so fascinated by this pairing of technology and recovery that we wanted to learn more about how it works...

Looking for new ways to regain movement after stroke or brain injury? Does your recovery feel stalled? Are you tired of the limited amount of time and number of rehab session insurance will cover? Do you feel like the healthcare system just isn’t giving you enough to regain movement? Look no further, Motus Nova may be a solution for you! In this episode, we interview David Wu, CEO of Motus Nova. T...

How can we say this without shocking anyone?? We are not the only podcast looking to connect survivors together!!! Today we talked with our friend, Joe Borges, host of the podcast NeuroNerds. He suffered a hemorrhagic stroke from high blood pressure in 2016. He was feeling lonely and like no one understood him post-injury. It wasn’t until he met his future co-host, Lauren, who also suffered a brai...

Have you ever heard the saying knowledge is power? When it comes to stroke, nothing is more true. Many of the risk factors for having a stroke are things you have control over--quitting smoking, a healthy diet, and exercise are just a few. In this episode, Dr. Jenna Tucker, DPT teaches us about regaining physical balance to increase mobility and rebuilding a healthy, balanced lifestyle to help pre...

Shit happens! We don’t choose what occurs to us. We may feel victimized and out of control. We may feel scared.  How do you get through it?  In this episode we talk with Joanne Susi, life coach, stroke survivor, and a student of the law of attraction.  We talk about how to move through fear, learn from it, and choose joy. The only control we actually have in life is our thoughts. Ne...

Are you fatigued after using your eyes? Since your brain injury do you feel anxious in crowds or grocery stores? Are you dizzy or do you get headaches? Does reading bring on symptoms? Do you have trouble tolerating screens even when you take breaks? Is it hard to pay attention? You may need neuro-optometry! 20-30% of brain injury survivors have symptoms caused by oculomotor disturbances that do no...

Have you ever wondered what the long term effects of your brain injury will be?  We know that brain injury is a risk factor to developing types of dementia like Alzheimer’s.  BUT not all who have brain injury get dementia.  Today in our See BI segment, we are joined by The Ohio State University’s CBI researcher Olga (Niki) Kokiko Cochran to discuss TBI + what = Alzheimer’s.  Co...

Since brain injury is invisible, survivors are often left on their own to figure out their cognitive and mental health. After injury, it can be hard to recognize what is going on, realize that this is not how your brain would normally function, and that you need help. Survivor Sara Howe joins us in this episode to share her story and her realistic perspectives on recovery. She has found physical a...

C’mon, y’all know you’ve done some strange and laughable things while being brain injured. Maybe it was funny at the time, maybe it's taken years to laugh, or maybe you still can’t. Finding the humor in all the heart-(ahem, brain)-ache makes those hard days just a little easier. After Mimi Hayes suffered a brain hemorrhage from a ruptured cavernous malformation, she did just that. Taking her exper...

Domestic abuse and brain injury. Don’t let this scare you off. It is a conversation we all need to take part in. 75% of domestic abuse survivors suffer TBI as a result and you know we can’t leave friends in the community hanging! Today we join How to Love a Battered Woman’s Nia Renee to discuss domestic abuse and brain injury. Strikingly, overcoming both require similar skills of resilience, perse...

Surprise! Our brains control our bodies! While it’s common knowledge that our brains control thoughts, movements, and perception; did you ever think about it controlling your hormones? Hormonal imbalance may sound abstract but could be behind many persistent and chronic brain injury symptoms. Fatigue, brain fog, mood changes, not feeling like yourself, menstrual irregularities, changes in libido,...

What is one symptom all brain injury survivors have in common? No, the answer we’re looking for is not our overwhelming awesomeness--although that’s also true! It’s FATIGUE.  There are several different types of fatigue and many ways to manage it.  Join Jenn Freeburn, MS, CCC-SLP as she schools us on the hows and whys of cognitive fatigue.  She’ll help us strategize our way through...

Faces of TBI, Huffington Post, Brain Health Magazine, author of multiple books, brain behind the scene of many advocacy events...what do all these things have in common, Amy Zellmer!  Amy used her experience as a concussion survivor to build community, share resources, and advocate for policy to benefit brain injury survivors across the country. If you’ve wondered how you can get more involve...

Every once in a while, we like to give y’all an update on how we are doing and what we are learning from hosting the Making Headway Podcast (MHP).  Listen today as we get real on everything from our mission, to our reflections on hosting, and all the positive takeaways we’ve learned along the way.     Topics covered today: Making Headway Podcast Mission: To share brain inj...

Looking to learn more about how your diet can influence your brain injury recovery? Post-concussion and all other brain injury survivors, go no further!  This episode has it all!!  Chelsie Moore functional medicine nutritionist, action sport aficionado, and all-around super-smart, bad-ass teaches us about all things brain and gut.  We dive deep on neuroinflammation, the brain-gut co...

Mariah and Eryn were interviewed for episode 72 of the Concussion Talk podcast. If you like what you hear, check them out on a podcast platform near you- they have tons of great interviews and resources for brain injury and concussion survivors!

Two brain injured friends who were able to support each other through their recoveries and then start a podcast...WAIT, WHAT?!?!? We thought that was our thing but were so happy to learn that there are others using their friendships, conversations, and experiences with brain injury to help others! Today we talked with My Brain Injured Friends , Alexandra and Beate about their survivor stories and...

What can survivorship look like? This week’s guest has done it all! Join Chloe Luckett, a TBI survivor, program coordinator and community educator for Brain Injury Nova Scotia, yoga instructor for Love Your Brain, and podcast host of Between Two Brains.  She found yoga to be a tremendous help in getting her out of learned helplessness and into her new post brain injury life.  Listen for...

Life. Is. Hard! (Thank you Captain Obvious).  How we tell our stories and talk to ourselves directly impacts our mental health and abilities, to not only recover from brain injury, but to live a fulfilling life. In this episode we talk about how to love yourself through ALL times.  Vanessa Woodburn, integrative health coach, PCS survivor, and author of Bounce Back: Reclaim Your Life Afte...

We have heard from many of you that going through a brain injury has been a lesson in listening to yourself at a fundamental level. Having an invisible injury means you have to rely on what your body and mind are telling you; no one else knows! We all have a voice, an instinct, a gut feeling that guides us in knowing what is right. This is intuition. Intuition is alive in all of us. Susan Gorman,...