Hello Zebras!

This page is for you! Why the Zebra?

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is an under diagnosed and under-managed connective tissue disorder -- a complicated, complex illness that is multi-systemic. It affects almost every body system often in connected yet unexpected ways, with symptoms that can change every year, every day, every hour, come on suddenly and then vanish, or remain chronic for years.

–Diana Jovin, Disjointed

Read below to learn how psychotherapy can help. Check out the resources listed here, and visit @HypermobilityPsychotherapist, an Instagram page dedicated to education and resources.

Hypermobility & Mental Health

Living with such a medical condition poses unique challenges and a number of distress factors. Even though many of these stem from a physical source, they may lead to psychological symptoms. Psychotherapy can be part of a multi-pronged treatment approach that takes into account both physiological and psychological aspects of EDS/HSD. It can include providing compassion and support while navigating overwhelming challenges, facilitating an understanding of the interaction between physical and emotional processes, coordinating care with other healthcare providers, and processing associated traumas.

As a person living with hEDS, Averie is committed to awareness and advocacy. With nearly two decades of experience treating trauma and anxiety, as well as a passion for supporting people living with pain and ongoing health challenges, she often works with medical and clinician associated trauma.

While not all pain is trauma-related, chronic pain can be traumatic in itself. More than a physical experience, pain has existential consequences. It changes the sufferer’s relationship with their body and the world and may involve loss of abilities, identities, pleasures, and relationships. The sufferer of non-traumatic physical pain, despite not having suffered a trauma as defined by the DSM, may experience clinical levels of PTSD symptoms.

Research shows that EMDR can help ease chronic pain symptoms, create clarity around physical sensations of embodied trauma, reframe negative beliefs, improve energy and mood, and help to create a different relationship with pain so that it does not define the person experiencing it. Treating pain with EMDR begins with assessing whether the primary presenting problem is pain, trauma, or the effects of pain/stress and then, applying either the pain or trauma protocol.

As an integrative somatic trauma psychotherapist, Averie weaves elements of various somatic modalities and embodied practices into a therapeutic framework of EMDR and Brainspotting. These work with the self-healing aspects of our biology, restoring balance to the nervous system, and influencing neural patterning so that deep and lasting change can occur.