Podcast
Unstoppable Body and Mind
Hosted by Betsy Jensen · EN
Science based strategies for the brain and nervous system, and thought work tools from life coaching to help you feel better in your body at any age!
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Episodes
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Episode 140- Busting Pain Myths with Charlie Merrill
Mar 501:08:03Tap to summarizeIn this Episode I have the pleasure of interviewing Charlie Merrill,a well-known physical therapist specializing in the mind-body approach, to discuss the importance of emotional and physical healing in patient care. Learn more about how pain and many bodily symptoms are frequently generated by the brain as a protective state rather than only by tissue damage, and the importance of distinguishing primary neural drivers from secondary physical changes (tightness, weakness, spasm, swelling) that may resolve when the protective state is addressed. We explore how emotions and fear can impact physical pain and movement, with Charlie explaining concepts like "smudging" - where the brain loses clarity in perceiving the body - and the importance of introducing prediction errors to update harmful pain patterns. We cover practical applications including working with athletes, managing acute vs chronic pain, and the role of movement in healing, with Charlie emphasizing that the brain learns through mistakes and surprises, and that movement is crucial for feeding the brain accurate safety information. You can find Charlie Merrill on his website https://www.mperformance.com/ Email: charlie@Mperformance.com Listen for more, click subscribe, and share with someone who wants an Unstoppable Body and Mind!
Transcribe →Episode 139- The Five Love Languages... For Yourself!
Feb 1200:15:24Tap to summarizeYou may have heard of the Love Language concept- that there are 5 main "Love Languages" which represent the ways we receive love best. Most of the time this concept is used in relationships, but what if we turned them inward? Self love is the biggest tool to recovery, so in this episode we explore the ways you could apply the five love languages to YOURSELF! Self-love isn’t indulgent — it’s regulating to your nervous system. It’s actually the kindest thing you can do for the people around you, to practice self love! Read that again and let it sink in. Listen for more, and click subscribe because this year I'll be recording more shows and bringing on some awesome guests!
Transcribe →Episode 138- What I Learned in 2025
Feb 800:22:59Tap to summarizeHere's a quick recap of my 2025, where I took a step back from coaching, focused on Grief Recovery, and explored other things that brought me joy. The biggest change was my name- going from "Betsy" to "Elle" for my 50th Birthday. *Correction- at about 6:40 I meant to say "placebo", instead of "nocebo." Hope that makes more sense. Listen for more, and click subscribe because this year I'll be recording more shows and bringing on some awesome guests!
Transcribe →Episode #137- The Healing Power of Dance
Jun 200:50:09Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we welcome Jake Trembath, a dance teacher from Utah, who shares his journey from discovering dance as a social outlet to using it as a tool for psychological healing and brain rewiring. Jake explains how dance can help process emotions, improve self-love, and create a flow state that is beneficial for personal growth. He discusses the impact of dance on mental and physical health, highlighting its ability to rewire the brain, improve memory, and treat depression. The episode also covers the dynamics of lead and follow in dance, how it relates to masculine and feminine energies, and the importance of creating a safe space for self-expression. Jake's community, Soal Coast, and its various retreats and events are spaces where people can experience these transformations, check them out below. 00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Announcement 00:34 Jake's Journey into Dance 01:55 From Dancing to Teaching 03:05 The Healing Power of Dance 05:17 Understanding Attachment Styles Through Dance 10:23 The Role of Self-Love in Dance 22:52 Creating Safety in Dance 24:56 Discovering the Power of Safe Dance Environments 25:59 Building a Supportive Dance Community 27:26 Health Benefits of Dance 29:34 Overcoming Personal Barriers Through Dance 40:17 The Flow State in Dance and Life 43:46 Upcoming Events and Retreats 45:41 Rapid Transformation Through Dance You can find more about Jake and Soul Coast events on the website: https://soulcoast.dance/ Instagram @soulcoast.dance
Transcribe →Episode # 136- My Surprising MRI Results
Feb 9, 202500:15:16Tap to summarizeWow, I had an MRI done on my back and I talk about my surprising results in this episode. I’ve had some previous back issues- a snowboarding injury and a mid back problem with my rib that developed during pregnancy. A couple times in the last few years that my back “went out” for a few days (last time was over a year ago.) I do not have chronic back pain, and I do not have to restrict my activity. But if I had pain and numbness and these same MRIs results, I could qualify for disability. MRI and X Ray results actually do not accurately predict the amount of pain someone is in. Structural changes in the body are actually normal with age. And addressing normal degenerative changes with surgery is really nothing more than a placebo. We now know it’s common for pain free people to have bulging discs, torn rotator cuffs, torn meniscus of the knee, hip labral tears. We just haven’t been doing MRI’s on pain free people to see that. So here are the results if you want to read them- Right paracentral disc protrusion at T5-6 with mild mass effect on the ventral aspect of the cord. L2-3: Diffuse disc bulge extending 2.5 mm into the thecal sac. No spinal canal or neuroforaminal stenosis. L3-4: Diffuse disc bulge extending 3 mm into the thecal sac. Mild spinal canal stenosis. Mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. L4-5: Central disc protrusion measuring 16 mm in width and extending 5 mm into the thecal sac. Mild spinal canal stenosis. Mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. L5-S1: Central disc protrusion measuring 18 mm in width. Moderate to severe bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. No spinal canal stenosis. IMPRESSION: 1. Central disc protrusion at L5-S1 with retrolisthesis measuring 6 mm. Moderate to severe bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. 2. Central disc protrusion at L4-L5 with mild spinal canal stenosis and mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. 3. Diffuse disc bulge at L3-4 with mild spinal canal stenosis and mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. 4. Diffuse disc bulge at L2-L3 without spinal canal or neuroforaminal stenosis. 5. Modic type I endplate changes at L5-S1 with Modic type I endplate changes. 6. Straightening of the lumbar spine on the sagittal view which can be seen in the setting of muscle spasm. Below are some of the research articles I mentioned: -Takatalo- 50% of healthy 21 year old Finns had at least one degenerative disc and 25% had a bulging disc. -Boos- 73% of adults without back pain had bulging discs. -Briggs- hip labral tears in 89% of pain free young athletes 16 years of age or older, & 56% of pain free athletes 16 years or younger. -S Rajasekaran- Delivery of MRI results affects pain and healing. -Karayannis Fear of movement is associated with trunk stiffness. If you are a woman experiencing chronic neck or back pain, I am forming a group especially for you! Details to come soon.
Transcribe →Episode #135- Treating Neuroplastic Symptoms with Dr David Clarke
Nov 18, 202401:02:59Tap to summarizeToday I have a special guest, a leader in the field of Mindbody medicine and President of the ATNS (Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms, formerly PPDA), Dr David Clarke. Dr Clarke practiced Gastroenterology in Portland from 1984 to 2009, treating over 7000 patients whose symptoms were not explained by diagnostic testing. In this episode, Dr Clarke summarizes Pain relief Psychology. With research based methods teaching patients to take their focus off the symptom, shift attention to brain, and feel the emotions or deal with life stressors. Responding to chronic pain or symptoms this way rewires the brain, so that symptoms can be eliminated instead of just managed. Listen to hear more! Find Dr Clarke and the 12 question quiz on the ATNS website- https://www.symptomatic.me/ Dr Clarke's challenging patients course https://ppdassociation.org/online-course For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 135, Treating Neuroplastic Symptoms with Dr. David Clarke. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome. We have a special, special guest today. This is Dr. David Clarke. Welcome. Great to be with you, Betsy. Well, we are so glad to have you here. So Dr. Clarke is one of the pioneers and leaders in this field. The head of the PPDA, which is now the ATNS, we can talk about what all of these initials mean and acronyms. But why don't we start with a little bit about your story, coming from being a Western physician to what you do now? Yeah, I didn't know anything about this. The first seven years of my formal training and education, you know, it's kind of embarrassing to admit as a physician that nobody ever mentioned the idea that your brain could cause serious pain or illness in your body, in the complete absence of anything wrong structurally or with your organs. But then I encountered a patient, I didn't know the first thing about diagnosing or treating. In year eight of my formal training, she was referred to us at UCLA where I was in training by another university because they couldn't find anything wrong to explain her symptoms. She was actually averaging one bowel movement per month, despite taking four different laxatives at double the usual doses. We did some specialized testing on her that also was normal. I was doing her exit interview and basically telling her she was just going to have to live with this because there wasn't anything more we could do. But just so the conversation wouldn't be over in two minutes, I started asking her about stress. She didn't really have any. You know, her current day life was really going just fine. But when I asked her about stress earlier, she started talking about having been molested as a girl by her father. Unfortunately, not just once or twice, which would have been bad enough, but hundreds of times. And I had never heard anybody say that before. I didn't know what to do with that information. I had no formal training in how to respond to that. But I fell back on basic instincts as a doctor, which is to try to get the story. When did it start? How often did it happen? When did it stop? Those kinds of things. And she was telling me the story in a perfectly calm tone of voice. It didn't look like she was distressed by this at all. If you didn't know better, you would think that, and I didn't know better at the time, you would think that she had completely processed this information and had moved on. And yet she has this terrible physical symptom with no explanation for it. So I didn't think the two things could possibly be connected, but they were both very striking. So I had vaguely heard of a psychiatrist at UCLA that was interested in conditions like this. And I thought maybe it'll help her to live with this a little better. So I connected her up with Harriet Kaplan, who was a psychiatrist and forgot all about her. Until I ran into Harriet in an elevator three months later, and I've told this story many times before, but this was the elevator ride that changed my career. Because in making conversation with Harriet, it turned out she had cured this patient with less than three months of counseling. And the idea that you could alleviate a serious, real physical symptom just by talking to somebody, that was nowhere in my medical education or training. And I thought, you know, if I'm going to be a complete doctor, I should know a little bit about this. So I got Harriet to teach me how she thought about these things. And I thought, you know, maybe I'll see a couple of patients a year that have this concern or this issue, and I'll be able to use this information, and get the patient over to whoever the Harriet is in my medical community. And I was, you know, started practice in Portland, Oregon a few years later. And I was wrong on multiple counts. First of all, there weren't any Harriots in Portland. I would send patients to mental health, they would get cognitive behavioral therapy, it wouldn't help them, and they would come back and they say, you know, now what do we do? And so I did, you know, I tried to help them by trial and error. And I'm confident I wasn't very good at it in the beginning, but even as a bumbling beginner, I was helping people. They were having improvement that they weren't getting from the rest of the healthcare system. So, you know, that was back in the 1980s. Today, it's been 7,000 patients I've treated like this. It was 250 or 300 every year, which was another shock for me, one out of three of my patients. And I just got better and better at it as time went on. My first book, which is called They Can't Find Anything Wrong, came out in 2007. And then I started getting invitations to speak. And then I met other people who were doing this work, which I'd never met before. And we founded a nonprofit in 2011, which is now the Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms. And you came to our conference in Boulder just six weeks ago. Yeah. That's where we met officially. And I realized how tall you are in real life. I look a lot shorter on Zoom. Yeah. You said it's your superpower to look short on Zoom. And yeah, that I have to say was such a cool conference. It was really, really amazing just being around all of these people who we've read their books, we've followed podcasts and done research and read a lot of works and studies that people have put out. And a lot of those big name people were there. It was kind of the everyone who's anyone of this world, the mind body world. It's really true. Yeah. The speakers we had were tremendous. I mean, I've been doing this all these years and I learned a lot from them. And the research is something we haven't had before. Just in the last mainly three years, there has been gold standard randomized controlled trials of the treatment methods that we recommend at the ATNS. And they've been getting stunningly good results at universities across North America, everywhere from Halifax to Los Angeles is showing the power of first of all, focusing on relieving people's symptoms like that first patient, not just helping them live with it, but actually relieving it and focusing on stress in people's lives, trauma, the long-term impact of adversity in childhood, other life challenges. When you do that, people actually get better. Yeah, yeah. And it's not just digestive issues, as we know. Like that can be a main one. That's what brought me to the work was ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel. Yeah, absolutely. That's how I started. But when people found out that I was doing this kind of work, they started sending me mysterious cases with symptoms from head to toe. You know, I didn't, I have to say, I didn't see that many with migraines, but all kinds of things, dizziness, itching of the skin was one, back pain was a big one, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain, pelvic pain was very common in my practice. I had a whole slew of gynecologists that would send me patients that they couldn't find anything wrong with the pelvis, and yet it was very painful for people. Some of them had genital or bladder pain as well. So, you know, joints, skin issues. Genital urinary problems, like incontinence could have a mind-body component, right? It should be checked for, that's the thing. What we emphasize is, you know, we're not going to have this mind-to-body connection in every single case, obviously, but there are a lot of people it should be checked for to get a complete evaluation. Yeah, I personally know that because I had incontinence issues during a super stressful time, and I also just had four kids. So I thought, well, this is just my life. I'm just going to have this now. But turns out I don't have that anymore. So, but I read Dr. Sarno's boo...
Transcribe →Episode #134- Stress, the Subconscious and Pain- Interview with Jim Prussack, the Pain PT
Oct 18, 202400:43:21Tap to summarizeFellow Physical Therapist, Jim Prussack, joins me today for an interesting interview about his experience moving from PT to pain reprocessing Coach. We discuss the principles of PRT (pain reprocessing therapy), and how we treat differently using a mind vs body based approach. Check out Jim at https://www.thepainpt.com/ >>> If you have not yet given my podcast a rating or review, PLEASE do that here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Transcribe →Episode #133- Embracing Your Emotions Meditation
Aug 16, 202400:14:01Tap to summarizeThis Meditation will help you find and process your emotions. Many of us have learned to subconsciously repress our emotions, to talk ourselves out of them or judge ourselves for having them. But we also know that what you resist persists. So sometimes the best way to “get rid of the emotion” is actually to lean into and embrace it. Emotions are just sensations, and can not hurt you as long as you don’t resist them. Allowing your emotions and learning to feel them safely will prevent them from being expressed through your body. Today’s meditation is based on Dr Howard Schubiner’s “Embracing Emotions Meditation” from “Unlearn Your Pain.” For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
Transcribe →Episode # 132- Hypnosis for Pain Relief with Melissa Tiers
Aug 6, 202401:00:03Tap to summarizeJoin me today to hear Hypnotist, Melissa Tiers, as we discuss integrative hypnosis and how it helps with chronic pain. Melissa has been training clinicians in the use of hypnosis for pain relief for over 25 years and her own chronic pain history was pivotal in the creation of her pain protocols. Melissa struggled with years of migraines and is now migraine-free through this approach (as long as she stays congruent! Listen for more details as to what that all means...) We discuss the unconscious lens, how to be more mindful, and how to change your memories through memory reconsolidation Addressing the subconscious directy is the fastest way to see change. Melissa Tiers is a multi-award winning author, lecturer, key note speaker and hypnosis trainer. She is the founder of The Center for Integrative Hypnosis, co founder of The Ethical Coaching Collective and creator of Coaching the Unconscious Mind. Melissa has earned three IMDHA Pen and Quill awards for her books, Integrative Hypnosis, Keeping the brain in mind, and Integrative Hypnosis for kids and teens:Playing for change. Check out "Integrative Hypnosis for Pain Relief" by Melissa Tiers Thursday, August 8, 6:00-8:00 pm EST Sign up here: https://www.centerforintegrativehypnosis.com/offers/FNGSVfrz/checkout Find Melissa at https://www.melissatiers.com/ For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
Transcribe →Episode # 131- Life After 30 Years of Chronic Pain- with Renee
May 30, 202401:05:04Tap to summarizeToday I interviewed Renee Kammer, who has an amazing healing story. From 30 years of chronic pain and 5 years being bed bound, to now hiking, biking, and gardening. Renee had several diagnoses, including: Stiff person’s syndrome, Ulcerative colitis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Ankylosing spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Migraines, Back pain, Hip pain, Anxiety, Depression, Pelvic pain/ IC, Chronic fatigue, Chest pain and High blood pressure. Renee joined Alignment Academy and went through all of the exercises in Dr Schubiner's workbook to unlearn her pain. She got off 14 medications in the last year, and has been feeling better and better! She now has more joy and hope in her life, and is even starting a baking business with her new found time and energy. Listen here for Renee's story. And if you want to apply the work Renee did to your life this summer, be sure and check out my Book Club Integration Group! https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/book-club-integration-group Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, episode 131, Life After 30 Years of Chronic Pain with Renee. In this podcast, we learned to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. Hello, my loves. Today we have an amazing episode, an amazing testimonial from Renee. I want you to listen to her story and apply anything that you can to your life, to what you're going through. Hi, everyone. Welcome. Today we have a special guest, Renee. She has such an amazing story. So welcome, Renee. Hi, it's good to be here. Great, great. It's so good having you. Renee has been in my coaching group, Alignment Academy. Oh, I was going to look up how long. Less than a year, I think, right? I think it's been since November, December. Yeah. So about like six months, seven months. And you've made such amazing progress. You were already on your way of this journey of like, getting rid of some medicines and some things. We'll go into your story, but watching your progress has been amazing. And I think it will be really inspirational for people. So let's just go ahead with maybe just a little bit about yourself and how you got to having chronic pain and the symptoms that you had. So my name is Renee. I live in Ohio and I grew up just across the river in Kentucky. I have two kids, a son who's 14 and a daughter who is going to be 17 next month. I've been married to my husband Justin for 23 years, and I love life. When I go to tell my story, it always starts when I was younger because as far back as I can remember, I remember carrying around Pepto-Bismol, because my stomach was always upset as a kid. As a kid, yeah. Yes, and it was kind of a family joke, you know, that she always has that Pepto with her. But my stomach was always upset, and I can see now that was just a lot of anxiety and worry. But there were just, there were several things that had happened with friends and in my life. When I was about 16, that I started getting chronic pain then. And so my story goes back over 30 years of chronic pain. It's honestly, when I think about it, it can be a bit overwhelming to see that the majority of my life, I've not known anything but pain. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We're getting deep fast here. But there's a happy ending though, you guys. Just very happy. But yeah, that's a lot, right? It's a long time. It's a long time. And so although I've had much easier years here and there coming and going, my body always managed to drag me down. And so I guess the relief that I feel now at being free from pain and not living in fear is just, it's so incredible. I have not felt like this the majority of my adult life. That is an amazing transformation. It's crazy. Yeah. Okay. So as far as your diagnoses that you've had or that you've been diagnosed with, do you have kind of a summary or a list so we can have an idea of what you were diagnosed with and how severe it was? So my latest diagnosis was actually stiff person syndrome. That was the last two years, which is a muscle disease, which they thought it might be autoimmune. But I think I proved that one wrong. I've been diagnosed with that when I have ulcerative colitis. I've been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for years. I was treated for enclosing spondylitis, which is just another form of arthritis. I've been treated for years for fibromyalgia, for headaches and migraines, back pain, hip pain, anxiety and depression. There were years that I went through therapy for pelvic pain and intercistal cystitis, chronic fatigue, chest pain, high blood pressure. All of those were diagnoses that I've had. And years actually include a lot of autoimmune ones too, which is kind of on the rare side. That's an area where that can cause physical damage and physical disease, and also can be regulated by the nervous system, can be controlled by the brain's interpretation of safety or danger. So you really defied some odds here. You're kind of the unicorn. You know, when reading the book, I read what Dr. Schubiner had to say about those diseases, but I decided that maybe it wasn't true for everyone who had that. And I was going to give it an honest shot and see if it really, you know, if it helped me. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so this is fascinating. Like, how bad was it as far as like, what did your daily life look like at kind of at its worst? And then how did you come to this work where you were just like, I'm going to give it an honest shot and just see what happens. I have had a life that was very active. My kids were active. I had had jobs. I had had a life years ago that I loved, that I managed to do well in despite some chronic pain. And then about five years ago, when chronic pain took over my life, I went from being an active wife and mom and sister and friend and church member and all of volunteer to living at home in my bed. I was in my bed all of the time. The things that I needed, my extra water or snacks, were just a few steps out of bed, so I didn't have to travel far. People came to my house to see me, to visit. I didn't go visiting. I didn't attend very many of my kids' games, get-togethers. I stopped all my volunteer work, which was really heartbreaking for me. I used to teach. I wasn't able to do that anymore. I didn't get to do a lot of my work at the church, which really, it all just really made me sad. And there was just so much that I couldn't participate in because unless it happened from my bed or my couch, then it didn't happen at all. And I wasn't going to live that way the rest of my life. My kids had things going on, and I wanted to be a part of my husband's life, my family's lives. And so I started looking for a way out of that. Yeah. And then how did you come to this work, and how did that go for you? I had downloaded the Cureable app, and I think I probably got it when it had a couple months free. And then the subscription snuck up on me, and I thought come out of my bank account, and I was like, oh, you know, I've not even used that. I had better go try it out since I just paid for it. I better go see what's on there. And so I read some of it and thought, I don't know about this. This is different. Oh, really? Yes. In all of my years of being sick, I just had not come across any of this mind-body work, which really blows my mind. And so I was researching, I came across your Instagram. I was researching some ideas that I had found out from the Cureable app, and I listened to the success stories. And oh my goodness, if these people can do it, why can't I? I mean, I had tried everything, and I was just so done with being in pain. It absorbed my days. Yeah. And you were taking a lot of medications too, right? Yes. And have you already started getting off some of those medications? Because you came off quite a lot of medications. Was that all just since Cureable or was some of that before? Some of that was before. I went to the ER last spring with high blood pressure. It was extremely high. And they automatically put me on three blood pressure medications. Oh, wow. And I came home and had quite a few side effects to those. And I was like, you know what? This is not what I want. I had a friend because I have been in a wheelchair the last couple of years. I had a friend take me to my regular, my family physician, and we were going through the medications about a year ago, and she gets, oh, my goodness, you take all of that medicine? And I said, yeah. I mean, I know that they had listed off about 16 things. And I thought, you know what? This is getting kind of crazy. And I knew that I had a lot of side effects from the medications. And so I guess after getting other people's reactions to those and realizing how crazy it was to actually be on all of that medication, that I decided I was going to start getting off of them. Okay. So yeah. So you'd already started that, and then you found curable. And checked into it, and it didn't resonate really at first. Yes. And so then once I followed your Instagram and did a lot more research, I thought, okay, you know, maybe this is something for me. And in the course of the last, I would say, 14 months, I have got off of almost 14 medications. Yeah, that is amazing. It blows my mind. Like you guys, Renee's story, it's so incredible, and it just keeps getting more and more incredible. So yeah. Do you want me to tell you some of them? Yeah. Because these are hard hitters, I feel ...
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