I'm thrilled to bring you my conversation with Shaheen Jaffary, a UK-based holistic health practitioner, who shares not just her expertise but her own conquest of chronic pain. Shaheen's personal narrative of transformation with mind-body techniques offers a dash of hope for those with stress-induced conditions.
Shaheen shares her transition from suffering to coaching, illustrating the powerful transformation that happens when holistic health tools, such as EFT and journaling, are applied with dedication. Her near-complete recovery and subsequent passion for guiding others are nothing short of inspiring. We hope you enjoy our chat.
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
I'm thrilled to bring you my conversation with Shaheen Jaffary, a UK-based holistic health practitioner, who shares not just her expertise but her own conquest of chronic pain. Shaheen's personal narrative of transformation with mind-body techniques offers a dash of hope for those with stress-induced conditions.
Shaheen shares her transition from suffering to coaching, illustrating the powerful transformation that happens when holistic health tools, such as EFT and journaling, are applied with dedication. Her near-complete recovery and subsequent passion for guiding others are nothing short of inspiring. We hope you enjoy our chat.
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain-free, then subscribe to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones, and today I have a special guest. Shaheen Jafri is joining us from the UK. Hi, how are you? I well, thank you. How are you, dana? I'm doing great. Why don't you tell everybody what you do, as the dog shakes and you know all the things? Because you, you're a busy person.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I am. So basically I I have a local holistic business that I run, leaves Holistic Health. So through the business I deliver reflexology and other holistic therapies, but I also essentially my work revolves around helping women to recover from chronic pain and other what we call stress-induced conditions chronic pain and other what we call stress-induced conditions. So I might be doing that through the holistic therapies and the reflexology, but I'm also delivering quite unique programs which will be normally done online, or sometimes I might get clients that want to do the coaching work, combining it with the holistic therapy, you know, as a face-to-face treatment for them as well, kind of a one-stop shop, yeah, yeah, because they can combine the two. So that's been quite like a, it's almost like a life transforming program because it can offer, you know, the sort of strategies that we offer for you, offer for the TMS, mind-body stuff.
Speaker 1:
Fantastic. So how did you get there? Because I know all of us seem to so. For those of you who don't know, Shaheen and I are fellow SERPA people and that's kind of how we connected and it seems that a lot of us have our own pain stories. So would you like, would you mind, sharing your pain story with us? Of course, not?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, indeed we do. It's funny because when I talk about that and I sort of reflect upon the pain journey that I endured, because of the point that I've reached now and what I'm able to do, I just think to myself. In a way, I'm of like it was a blessing in disguise. So I I my first uh onset of my um we'll call call it TMS for sake of argument was at the age of 19 and I was healthy, strong, energetic teenager. I used to do most sports and go to the gym, et cetera, and I was literally just doing the vacuuming around the house, doing the chores for my mom something that I obviously do all the time and then, all of a sudden, a jolt of pain, just you know, shot through my body and just had me like bent over, like immobilized. Never had anything like that before. So that pain, it just gripped my back and it really frightened me. I couldn't stand, I couldn't sit properly, I was in agony and you know, my family were really afraid as well, so that in the end we had to be, we had to call the ambulance, because that's how, that's how much I was gripped with pain and um. At the hospital I was diagnosed with a slick disc which I'd never come across before and that, as you can appreciate, that frightened the jeepers out of and I was told to just go home and this is over 30 years ago Take bed rest, take painkillers and it will ease off in due course. So that's exactly what I did and I just took it easy.
Speaker 2:
The pain, basically over a period of time. I saw some relief intermittently, over a period of six weeks, just through the painkillers and most of the time I was just resting. And then eventually I got myself back into gear again and returned to work and returned back to my normal life. But everything was really different now because I had this belief and the fear around it that I had a slipped disc which it just conjured up all kinds of scary images for me. So as a result of that, I just started to live my life differently. I restricted myself by not engaging in all the physical activities I used to do prior to getting this. I used to go and do aerobics. I was really afraid to do aerobics. I was afraid to, you know, jump up and down. I thought it's going to jam a spine. Further. I stopped going jogging and I was very careful with myself. Oh, I have to treat my back very, you know, very cautiously in case I sustain further injury. When I looked after my back in that kind of a manner, I saw that the pain eased off a bit and then I just got on with my life.
Speaker 2:
But I, this pain stayed with me intermittently over for a period of 21 years and it there were times when, when I look back now, I can recall times when the pain was so intense it was like it was it. Just I couldn't function like a normal human being. I couldn't, you know, some days I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't. I couldn't go to work, I couldn't do normal everyday things. I was very, very depressed. I was crying a lot. I was just obsessed with it, constantly searching how I could get better from it. So I would try different things. I tried mostly.
Speaker 2:
I went to see an osteopath on and off. For years and years I spent thousands of pounds visiting osteopaths, visiting a chiropractor. I tried acupuncture, herbal medication. You know, as it got progressively worse, I started to do steroid injections that were suggested to me and I was just like a different person, you know, I just felt like my life had been just. The joy had been sapped out of my life. And what was really really, really strange, though, dana, was that I never, I never connected the dots. I never stopped to think hang on a minute.
Speaker 2:
You know, two months ago, I was completely fine and we went. We'd go on holiday as a family and we'd go trekking, and I would be okay, and then we'd go back to you know, go back to work, go back to busy life, and then, suddenly, I'd be gripped with pain for about a period of three weeks, and then I'd be trotting off back to the osteopath, nursing my bad back again, blaming something. Maybe I went to the gym and, you know, overzealously, did something. Maybe I lifted up that box. I shouldn't lift it up, or I did too much. I should have known that I shouldn't have done that. So this is, how crazy is this is.
Speaker 2:
You know the stories that you tell yourself, and then you just stay locked in this, in this pain, for years and years, and that is exactly what happened to me, um, and then we moved overseas, to Dubai, when I, when I was pregnant with my youngest, my, uh, my youngest, who's now 17. So when I was pregnant with Mariam, um, the pain was probably at the highest level it ever reached, and it got to a point where I was begging the doctors at the Dubai hospitals to give me morphine. The highest medication they were willing to give me was tramadol. I mean, I was. Sometimes I was just drugged up to the eyeballs when I was having the bad episodes. And even when I was having the not so bad episodes, I would still kind of be maintaining my pain meds, because that's the kind of thing you do, because you think, oh, I need those. If I don't, it's going to, you know, it's just going to deteriorate again. So you rely on them. They're like your oxygen.
Speaker 2:
So I was on these pain meds for years.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I would have to, I would put them in my pocket, like I would have the pills in my pocket and I couldn't leave the house Unless I knew. Yes, you never leave the house with them, yeah, and if? I like I didn't care how far away if I forgot them, then I would drive all the way home because I knew I couldn't go somewhere without them, which I think is a really weird.
Speaker 2:
but you know, kind of it's the way it was for us back then, when you knew no better and we were relying on them, and the obsession that we had with and that belief that that's what we, you know, that's what was helping us. It was that a hundred percent categorically, that we believed were okay. Only because of those, you know that pain medication we take and then you know the doctors were reluctant to give me anything beyond um, the trauma doll. And then what happened? Um, I suppose I that level of pain I suffered for about, for, about, um, well, for the whole duration of that pregnancy.
Speaker 2:
But um, I mean, I've jumped ahead to that pregnancy but even maybe a couple of years prior to that. And now, when I think back, it coincided with relocating abroad and everything that came with that, which I didn't I just I didn't think about. You know, I didn't like understand or recognize that. There was a huge amount of stress upon me and had, you know, young children and I was homeschooling a couple of the two eldest because we couldn't find a school initially. So there was a lot of pressure and I was missing my family back home and I was trying to get used to a new place and all the things that come with relocating.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I haven't even started.
Speaker 2:
Forget about the whole self-induced pressure from your personality traits. Well, that's it.
Speaker 1:
I mean and I find that a lot of times that that's what happens, right Is that? You know the slip disc or the pain in the back as you're vacuuming is probably that one moment when you're trying to. You know, you know being the goodest right You're, you're checking off all the things that your mom had for you that you needed to help with and you know you probably were not thinking very, you know you were probably not very present, shall we say, as you were doing, that you're just knocking off a thing so that you can get to the next thing.
Speaker 1:
And I want to go back to well, and that's what I was saying like, now that you've done all this work and reflecting back, like, do you like, is there a thing that you think of of, of, you know, for the amount of pressure or whatever that you were feeling? Where, you know, 19-year-old Shaheen was, like, probably needed a little bit more love and a hug as opposed to let's, you know, drive on and get all the things done? Like, do you see that moment? You see that?
Speaker 2:
moment, I definitely I can look back and see my life the way it was and I I can definitely remember that I didn't give myself, um, a lot of self-kindness and self-compassion as we now understand it, and I'm middle child, uh, one of seven siblings, and I was always like a second mother to my siblings, and even now they remind me oh, you used to. You know, when mum was busy which she was all the time you would take care of us, you do so much for us, you would worry about everything. So I was a warrior from a young age and I I not only worried about my siblings and took care of all their needs, but I also, particularly the three younger. But I was more sort of over-responsible and more mature than you know, even my older three siblings, but it was also that I worried about my parents, I worried about everything.
Speaker 2:
I just it was just very I am an empath and I owned, you know, my mom's problems and I didn't know how to distance myself from, just like day to day challenges that were affecting the family and things were very different back then growing up. And so, yeah, definitely I can look back now and see that, oh, shaheen, you had a huge. You had the world's problems on your shoulders and you were doing very little. Um to you know, replenish your cup. You were definitely trying to pour from an empty cup all the time and it's almost like I didn't allow myself to be a child, I just was a child.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, definitely so after I sorry, excuse me. So it was at that time when I was when my pain reached debilitating levels, that literally, where I would wake up in the morning and just sort of um slumped over the sink to try to brush my teeth, I would have spasms shooting through my buttocks and hips and just have me, I would just collapse to the floor and cry. And you know it was so intense. And at that point I went and had an MRI scan done in one of the hospitals in Dubai and that's when the orthopedic surgeon gave me the diagnosis that disc is so severely herniated that this is what's causing all that sciatica that you have down your leg because the fluid is leaking out and causing all this sciatic pain because of the nerve damage and all this stuff. I mean I must have not even been absorbing the information when he was talking to me. I think my husband told me all the details later. But at that appointment, at that point, um, he said you know we asked well, what can I do about it? And that's when he said you need to have surgery and you need to have spinal surgery if you. And that's when I said I don't want to have surgery. Because immediately I thought I'm not going to have back surgery. And he said if you don't, most likely, almost definitely, you will have to be in a wheelchair. The little bit that you are mobile now that will be taken from you. You won't, you'll be like permanently in a wheelchair. So we left the hospital. I mean, I, you know, talk about nocebo effect.
Speaker 2:
I was so petrified, my the pain levels couldn't go any. They couldn't, you know, know, they shot up like that crazy. And then after that I just frantically was glued to the computer trying to search for something and I, you know, I said to my husband I'm not having the surgery, I'm not having the surgery, that's it. I'm not even going to discuss it. Something just wouldn't allow me to have it. And then it was really strange because amongst doing all this research that I was continuing to do, I came across three people at that time that had trained or knew of the protocol of Dr John Sarno's work, one of them being Georgie, another one, somebody who was based in Surrey. So I couldn't get to Georgie. Well, initially I wanted to go to Dr Sarno, but I couldn't because of the pain. So I thought I'll go back to the UK and I'll stay with my sister in London and I'll go and visit this other doctor in Surrey and he knows about Dr Sarno's work, because I oh sorry, I've jumped ahead oh no, that's fine.
Speaker 1:
That was my next question. Was you know how, did, when did you uh run into Sarno and you know?
Speaker 2:
what was your?
Speaker 1:
because everybody has their aha moment with Dr Sarno, you know. So this was it and what happened like? What did you do?
Speaker 2:
Well, it was whilst researching that I got really scared, because all I kept it was strange, because all I kept seeing was the negative failed. You know, spinal surgeries. Their stories were just standing out that I just kept coming across more and more. Don't go for your back surgery. Often you don't need it. Don't go for your back surgery. Often you end up far worse. Don't have spinal surgery. I had it and I've had another and yet another and it doesn't really solve the problem. So then I thought I knew I shouldn't. And I I knew that I was right, that I don't want to have spinal surgery.
Speaker 2:
So amongst reading, all of this stuff came and popped up, you know, dr Sarno's stuff came up, came popped up, you know, dr Sarno's stuff came up. That's when I first came across. People started to say search up this Dr Sarno's work, get his books, read about them. I've, you know, I was like a cripple and I was told I needed surgery and I've recovered and I'm, all you know, pain-free now and I was like really curious, what does this mean? And I was. I'm the kind of person I'm always up for, like you know, looking into, you know sort of like new things, exploring new ideas, seeing if. If there is something there I don't, just, oh no, that's not for me. I thought, well, it's worth looking into, there's nothing to lose, anything's worth looking into. So I started to research Dr John Sarno's work and I came across, you know, all the stuff that people were writing about him. And then I ordered his book and I started to read his book. And when I read his book, oh my gosh, I think it must have been healing back pain. I must have got one of his. I think that is his first book.
Speaker 2:
Right, I was just crying, you know, I was just so overcome with emotion because that was my aha moment. I literally just saw myself. I know so many people say I saw myself on every page. I yes, it's a cliche now, but it is true when you do, you know, identify as a people pleaser, when you do realize, suddenly you realize actually, yeah, that's me, I'm a perfectionist. Oh my gosh, I am so non-confrontational. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I place so many high expectations on myself and therefore on others, like my family and all of this stuff. You know the personality traits of the typical tms um person and I.
Speaker 2:
I just realized that that's why I've got this back pain. It makes sense now. All of this makes sense. This is how I've been leading my life. So for me I know some people say they threw the bug. No, that's not true, but for me it was. I believe it wholeheartedly. I just knew that the it couldn't be anything other than all my emotions and all my crunch stress, because just suddenly it hit me.
Speaker 2:
The more I read, the more I could recognize yes, I have neglected myself. Yes, I have been a worrier from a very young age and I have taken on too much and I have not done much self-care and have been hard on myself. And that's what then made me accept that my pain must be. You know what Dr Sano coined the phrase TMS. This is also the point at which, when I started to believe that it helped to instantly release a lot of the fear that surrounded my pain and within I honestly, diana, I would say within days just from that alone.
Speaker 2:
You know the reading, and I was. I was just like gorging on his books. I was like all the time wanting to read everything. I just wanted to know everything. I mean, I like to read anyway and I like to research, so I was up for this. But the more I read, the more I realized that this was me. And then I saw the reduction in my pain from say 100% maybe to I don't know, 90% or 85%, and because I noticed that there'd been a shift that then confirmed it for me even more right. So that was my. That was another point at which I got better. That made a little shift for me, which was good because it was a starting point right well, I was going to ask you like, did you have a book here?
Speaker 1:
because there's so many people that do have the book here and never have to go back again, or there's people that have that instant release, but then they're still, you know, hanging on and so there's still work to be done, and you know, so it sounds like you were still. You still had work to do.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I still. From that point there had been a shift, but definitely it wasn't a book cure. The pain was still there, you know, like there was still a significant amount of pain. And that's at that point when I kind of like decided okay, I now have recognized potentially 99% what my pain is, where it's emanating from. So what do I do now? Because I'm not up for the spinal surgery, so I need to have my next plan. So that's when I decided well, really, the next plan is I need to go and see Dr John Sarno in the States. But I couldn't do that because I had three other children and nobody could take me and I was already living abroad. So then I thought, you know, I need to think of an alternative. And so that's when I found out there were these three practitioners, georgie being one of them. I couldn't access Georgie's work because she was located far from where my sister lived.
Speaker 2:
So, I thought, okay, I'll go to this other doctor who's based in Surrey, which isn't too difficult to get to.
Speaker 2:
So that's when I went to visit him. I, you know, made plans to go from Dubai back to UK, took one of my younger sons with me and my sister took care of my other three, the one being the baby, went to stay with my sister, pretty much like again, like you know, quite with the pain was still very, very bad and my son Ibrahim, who's now, bless him, he's 23. He was round about, I think, seven then, and I still have those sweet, bitter memories of being on the flight with him and luckily that it was a British Airways, uh, flight, and luckily there was like a whole row of seats that were not filled up. So I was, you know, appeared very uncomfortable with my pain symptoms and the flight attendants really took good care of me and they said come and you can, you know, lie down here where the seats are empty and I remember where I, for the best part of my journey, I was lying across about three or four seats, probably four, and my son, he didn't stop to massage.
Speaker 2:
He was like literally just rubbing and massaging my legs for hours of that flight because I used to have that sciatic pain and I always just needed to keep rubbing the pain and massaging it and I felt that's what that was like. You know, the the least that I could do to try and just comfort myself if the painkillers weren't um working. So he I reminded him that the the other day and I said you know, I'll never, ever forget how, how much you took care of me, just doing that for me. And he said yeah, but mom, you took care of us. You know you're our mom, that's so that's still a great boy, though.
Speaker 1:
That's someone who is a wonderful human to recognize Really really is.
Speaker 2:
And he really has grown up to be a really wonderful human. And so when then, finally, I went to see this doctor, based in Surrey, and he was doing the work of, you know, like doctor, when I went to see him, it wasn't with a view to have like a physical type of investigative you know treatment in any way. It was more because he had me completing all these forms like similar to what we send out for like mind-body questionnaires, and I remember completing like so many questions asking about my mom and my dad and my childhood, and I remember that was like a real journey for me to go back into the past. And that's then what made me realize, oh my gosh, I've coped with so much and there's been so much stuff going on. So when I went to see him, I just remember sitting down on a chair in front of him and I was in a lot of pain that day and saying to him he just looked at me. He said, before he said anything, I said to him did you look at my forms? And he said I had a look through all your questioning and I said I just want to know one thing do you think I can get better or not. And he looked at me and he said well, after reading your forms, it looks like you've been carrying your mum's pain for a very long time and I think you can definitely get better. And that was that next moment where I just was so emotional and I just let it all out and I cried so much.
Speaker 2:
And that was the second time I saw a massive shift after he told me that and he gave me that hope based on the fact that you know he was following Dr Sano's protocol and I was already in that sort of. This is what's going to make me better and it reinforced it from him. And he just gave me a book to take away. I think it was on mind-body stuff. He told me about EFT and he told me a book to take away. I think it was on mind-body stuff. He told me about EFT and he told me a couple of other things. I don't think I learned about journaling from him. I came across journaling when I did the Serpa course with Georgie and then I was off on my way.
Speaker 2:
But I was a different person already. I was more upbeat, my spirits were lifted. I mean, on the train home from Surrey back to London, I think I just smiled through my tears, you know, and I was just so full of hope that I'm going to get better. I can actually get better. Doctor said I can, and I believe it. So that was when my second shift happened, and then I started to implement some of the stuff that he advised and that included, you know, like reducing the fear, understanding that you're not broken and that a lot of it is based on emotions and chronic stress, trauma. So this kind of stuff helped me to sort of identify with the true cause of the pain. But one thing I can say I definitely did do that helped was EFT. He told me about the EFT and that's when I started to do it, just by watching YouTube videos and I tapped along with them and I did a lot of that and that did help me.
Speaker 2:
I will definitely say that. And then, shortly after that, I stayed with my sister, maybe all in all about three months, and that's when I went back home again to Dubai and I was um. It took me maybe in total from maybe from the initial learning of Dr Sarno about a period of maybe four or five months to reach in a stage where I was um, maybe 80% better. Wow.
Speaker 1:
Okay, that's amazing. So you're on your way to getting better. And then, at this point, did you already have the reflexology stuff?
Speaker 2:
or was that something that you?
Speaker 1:
went after that.
Speaker 2:
After that. So then I went back to Dubai and we carried on living there for a few years and I was just doing some other work, and then it was when I I must have then obviously reached a fairly decent like almost 100% recovery that at that point I thought to myself you know, this is pretty much like a miracle to me from where I was and what I've become now and I just felt like I wanted to share this with the world. You know, you just you feel so passionate about it that you just want to go to the highest mountain and stand on it and say to everyone this thing works, I can help you. You don't need to be in pain for years and years and years, like I was, and this is what you want to do. But you're just very naive with it and you have to just understand that the world isn't ready to receive it right quite that time. So that's when I decided okay, I now need to think about how I can go into the wellness sector so that I can help people. And because I was in the education sector, I had to retrain. And that's when I found out I was researching. I found out that Georgie was delivering the SERPA training to help you with the SERPA tools so that you could go on to help people. But you had to already be, you know, working in the health profession and I wasn't. So I thought, okay, oh, okay, what can I do? What? What's the quickest way to get into the health profession? I don't think I can go and do medicine. Um, that's going to take too long and there were so many that you know I was unable to do because they were like quite long, extended courses. So I found, uh, I found out about reflexology and I always used to massage my mom's and dad's feet as a youngster grew up, like just always, you know, been interested in their feet and massaging them for comfort and to make them feel relaxed, and I don't know, it just pulled me that course. Just, I just gravitated towards it. And when I found out about and I thought, okay, this sounds like something that I could do, and I did, um, I think, the one year training, one to level five. I wanted to do the best with anatomy and physiology. So I did that one Whilst I was still working in a school and this was after we relocated back to the UK all of this started.
Speaker 2:
I did the training and then I was working in the school and then I started to. Once I qualified, then I wanted to open up my business and then I opened up the Leeds-based business with a view to helping people with the mind-body symptoms. Initially that's what my intention was and I was working the business around my part-time job in the school and the kids were still young. So again, I had a lot to deal with. But now that I had done the separate training, I was doing more self-care. So that was the difference, whereas previously yeah, now it was different I was understanding, all about self-compassion, self-kindness. Okay, you know, you need to take things easy and give yourself the the due rest. Well, so eventually, after about maybe two, three years of doing things side by side, I decided to just completely give up my teaching job and do the business full on, and that's what I've been doing.
Speaker 2:
But it was mostly working on the physical treatments. You know, I did extra CPD training and other stuff and um, this is where the whole problem comes in. You know, sort of um reconciling, doing physical modalities to help people with pain or stress induced conditions alongside your coaching that you do to work on rewiring the whole neural pathways. This is a problem that we encounter. So I found that I was doing just sort of settled into doing more of the physical work and then the coaching took like a backseat.
Speaker 2:
And then it's only Dana, since, maybe recently, about a year ago I just, you know, did some reflecting and I just decided you know what, you did this business because you got better from your bag and you were passionate about helping everybody with.
Speaker 2:
You know back pain and headaches and other mind-body symptoms and all of this stuff. And I'd been continuing to upgrade my skills. I did some online training in neural circuit disorders with Howard Schubiner that was amazing as well, and all this Georgie's training, and I was like you've got skills to help people and they're coming in all the time. You can identify when people are suffering from TMS, yet you're not really doing it. So that's what then? So that's what got you to the coaching was that you needed to do it. That's recently where now I've gone, and this year I said, you know, remember I said to you that this year is going to be different for me. This year I'm going to really be honing in on the on the coaching side and my programs that I really want to get out there with a view to helping more and more women that need my help.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's fantastic, because I was just going to ask you, because we're almost out of time and I was going to say so what's next for you? Now that you're feeling good about yourself, you're getting everything, all the ducks, in a row. So what is next?
Speaker 2:
Well, whilst I've really, really enjoyed and I still do, I thoroughly enjoy everything that I do in the treatment room and my clients are all awesome and I share content that will even, you know, make a shift for them so that they don't even have to come to me, like I want to see people saying, you know, a shift for them so that they don't even have to come to me, like I want to see people saying, you know, your content is helping just by every day, the stuff that you're putting out. And then, obviously, if there are, um, any of the people that are needing a bit more than what I'm putting out on a one-to-one basis, then they will come to me because they're ready to come to me, and that is what my next step is. That's exactly what I'm working towards. But there's also I'm also noticing that a lot of women that sort of find me also are kind of navigating perimenopause. So this next phase that I'm doing, yeah, so this next phase that I'm doing, yeah, the next phase that I'm doing, the current phase that I'm building on, is the coaching, working on the coaching programs. Group coaching is another initiative that I've got in the pipeline, but also I'm wanting to.
Speaker 2:
I can see that perimenopausal women can also be helped through the mind-body initiatives, whereas, you know, at the moment they tend to the conversation is it's all about hormones. It's hormones, hormones, hormones. That your hormonal fluctuations are responsible for all your symptoms. And I actually have seen that that's not the case.
Speaker 2:
I've actually seen, just even by giving, you know, some help to paramenopausal women through the mind, gently giving them some aftercare advice, which constitutes the, you know, the mind-body stuff, I've seen that they have maybe seen some changes in their symptoms, and that's regardless of if they're on HRT or not. So I can see that there's scope to help women. For example, there was a report that I saw that midlife women are um twice as many women. I can't remember exactly what it said, but basically the chronic pain is hitting them at midlife more than at any other stage in their life. So that for me, that said, suggested a lot of things. I wonder why, I wonder how much, to what extent this is mind body and to what extent it is, you know, just because of their hormones being out of whack.
Speaker 1:
Well, that is and that's so true, and that is a conversation for another day, because I have a ton of people who would love to hear about how all those things interact and, uh, and how to deal with it. So, uh, shaheen, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it and, um, we'll talk to you again.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for having me, donna. Uh, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much and look forward to it. Take care and all the best. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you all for listening and don't forget to rate and review. All of Shaheen's information will be in the show notes for you to connect if you are interested and have a good one.