Heal with Grace
Heal With Grace is a podcast that invites listeners into the world of holistic healing. Hosted by Grace Secker, a trained holistic psychotherapist, yoga therapist, and nervous system coach, each episode delves into the interconnected realms of mental, physical, and spiritual health. The podcast offers a unique blend of personal stories, professional insights, and practical tools for healing.
Heal with Grace
115. Your Brain Is Creating Real, Severe Pain ; A Doctor Explains Why and How to Stop It with Dr. Rebecca Kennedy
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In this episode, Grace sits down with Dr. Rebecca Kennedy, a family medicine physician with over 20 years of clinical experience and founder of Resilience Health Care in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Kennedy spent 15 years at Kaiser Permanente where she led the Long COVID specialty group, treating some of the most severe cases in the entire Northwest region. After witnessing how profoundly the neuroplastic model transformed her patients' lives — and after developing her own severe neuroplastic symptoms — she left Kaiser in 2023 to focus exclusively on this work.
Together, they explore why so many people with long COVID, MCAS, POTS, and ME/CFS aren't getting better with conventional treatments, what the research actually shows about spike proteins and inflammation markers, and why the brain's threat response may be the unifying explanation that finally makes everything make sense. Dr. Kennedy shares why the placebo and nocebo effects are far more powerful than most people realize, why long COVID may be better understood as a post-pandemic syndrome, and what it takes to move beyond surface-level nervous system tools into the deeper emotional work that creates lasting change.
Covered in this episode:
✨ Dr. Kennedy's journey from Kaiser Permanente to founding Resilience Health Care — and her own experience with severe neuroplastic pain and fatigue
✨ Why spike proteins, cytokine changes, and abnormal blood tests may not be driving your symptoms the way you've been told
✨ The real science behind the placebo and nocebo effect — and what vaccine trial data reveals about the brain's role in side effects
✨ Why most people with long COVID are middle-aged women who were previously healthy — and what that tells us
✨ How MCAS, POTS, and ME/CFS diagnoses can unintentionally keep people stuck in fear and body-focused treatment
✨ The critical difference between nervous system regulation tools and the deeper emotional processing that actually turns off the signal
✨ Why stopping body-based treatments entirely can sometimes be the missing piece
✨ How to accept a neuroplastic diagnosis when everything you've been told points to something structural
Connect with Dr. Rebecca Kennedy:
How to work with Grace:
- Practitioner Training-Mind Body Integtration Method Founding Cohort Waitlist
- Mind-Body Healing Method Course - Regulate your nervous system now
- Free Masterclass: How to Know If Your Nervous System Is Behind Your Symptoms
- Work with us in private mind-body coaching
- Subscribe to my Substack for the deeper how-to's
Connect with Grace