May Awareness: Mental Health + Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders

Mental health was my first calling. After completing degree programs at LSU and Tulane, I pursued specialty trauma training and certification in Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Brainspotting (BSP)— the two evidenced based brain-body psychotherapies utilized in my practice. Information about these modalities is available on my website and Instagram page, @CrescentCityPsychotherapy.

Years later, through my own journey with hEDS, I developed a special interest in treating medical trauma and supporting people living with chronic pain and complex health conditions. Along the way, my experience with EMDR and BSP has been transformative both personally and professionally.

Research shows that these modalities 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.

Recently, I created a second Instagram account, @HypermobilityPsychotherapist, to share information about EDS and HSD with patients, healthcare professionals, and the community. Resources collected along my journey are highlighted here.

Mental Health and EDS/HSD information overlap on these two Instagram accounts. My goal is to integrate more of the two over time to promote awareness about both and their connection to each other. It is an honor to be a part of the EDS/HSD community and to do meaningful mental health work.

Thanks for reading, and please stay tuned!