Don't give up on future you.
I get it, you’ve tried everything and feel kind of lost in space with how to manage Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (formerly known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) or the culmination of multiple other chronic diagnosis…You’re doing your best to use your affected body parts as much as possible in the hopes of decreasing pain, but continue to feel stuck and hopeless with little guidance and support.
I know…I’ve been there.
But what if I told you it doesn’t have to be like that? That there are ways to take your power back to create more predictability and less pain?
And I can help.
I know finances are often difficult. Having to spend more on something that isn’t our fault is never fair. My goal is to help patients be more self-sufficient and taken advantage of less, not profit off pain myself. My methods, and what I have learned help people save a tremendous amount of money elsewhere.
Besides all my Instagram content, you can also join the free RWC community newsletter below, which I send out every week-ish with chronic pain tips, personal perspective and announcements around upcoming programs and partnerships.
PROGRAMS FOR PATIENTS
Need help decreasing pain enough to work out or creating an individualized workout plan?
Learn the MARSMethod and how to treat central sensitization with other awesome warriors.
DIY dude/dudette? I gotchu. Sometimes you don’t want/need high touch for impactful wins.
On-demand options to learn more about specific topics like breathing, movement, and sensitization.
Hi, I’m Justine.
I work with complex pain patients who have largely exhausted medical interventions and are looking for solutions to chronic pain and illness.
Living with a rare, chronic, progressive, difficult to treat, poorly understood diseases is unfortunately beyond what the medical system is designed to support. It often lacks the communication and individualized attention that helps patients understand what they can control and what affects the way we experience pain outside of medications and more invasive treatments. Doctors often don’t have the time or ability to cover and address the vast majority of variables in patients lives that are dramatically impacting their quality of life. Their job is to manage treatments and interventions, your job is to manage everything else about your life. My job is to help you identify what those things are and teach you how to do that more effectively.
I hope by being a leader and connector in the chronic pain space, I can help other complex pain patients and those of us struggling to get quality care with chronic illnesses create a sense of purpose and understanding despite the shared suffering, and find the joy and skills to live larger lives.
How did I get here?
I was born and raised in sunny San Diego, CA, and always loved being active, competing at high school varsity & AAU level basketball for four years before college. 5 months after getting my B.A. in Marketing at Washington State University, I was in a car accident suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Over the next 9 years, I went through a very slow and difficult recovery often in a cognitive haze, struggling through tolerating various severe treatments like electro convulsive therapy and tolerated over a hundred medication changes to combat the persistent insomnia, depression, chronic pain, and gastrointestinal issues. With the fortitude I developed as an athlete, I continued to persevere during this lengthy healing process and started regaining my independence cognitively and physically, developing the self care I’d lacked when so sick. As I got healthier, by June of 2019 I began running regularly. Unfortunately what began as a mild pain in my lower left leg turned into excruciating agony radiating from my shin. My left leg was covered in bruises and scalding hot, feeling as if my bones were freshly
shattered with an immense pulsating pressure. My skin from the knee down through my toes felt like there were bugs crawling on it and just the smallest bit of cycling at the beginning made it feel like my tibia was literally splitting and muscles were tearing. The spasms and contractures were relentless and constant limb guarding was the only way to survive. After months of not being able to put my foot on the ground, a bone scan in February 2020 finally confirmed the diagnosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). I was started on typical medications for neuropathic pain and received repeated lumbar sympathetic blocks with minimal improvement, finally making the decision to have a DRG Spinal cord stimulator (SCS) implanted in 2021. Although the SCS reduced symptoms, living with it while being as active as possible came with its own set of challenges, leaving me with the question, “How do chronic CRPS patients actually live with this disease once there are no more treatments to try?” That’s what I’ve learned to do, and have turned that experience into helping others do the same.
Let’s work together!
1:1 Programs
In the MARSMethod Mentorship we create a truly individualized program based on your unique medical and training history, daily routines, habits, stressors, resources and goals so you can develop more predictability over your symptoms, and sustainably decrease pain. In the Individual Design Program you get individualized stability, strength and aerobic programming, incl. monthly consults. In Private Movement Sessions, we focus on a brain-based approach with sensory neuro strategies so you can address underlying weakness, inhibition, brain mapping issues, sensory challenges etc.
Base Camp Group Program
Struggle with sleep disturbance, extreme fatigue, brain fog, sensory issues, dysautonomia, anxiety/stress or weird motor symptoms? You are dealing with the central sensitization piece of complex pain. This is an 8 week curriculum with other awesome warriors, together improving all the foundational factors that decrease pain and particular amplify central sensitization. Your sleep, recovery, energy management, pacing, nutrition, perspective and stress all affect the amount of capacity you have to layer more life without flaring.
Pain Academy DIY Course
Are you a DIY-er who just wants the information without the time or financial commitment of other programs? No worries, I gotchu! Grab Pain Academy, my educational course where I take you through the main dial movers of my MARS Method that I teach 1:1 clients in a 6 week email series delivered straight to your inbox for some easy-to implement wins. In four modules, you’ll learn how to implement these strategies with simple assignments after each email so you can actually put what you’re learning into action.
On-Demand Masterclasses
Masterclasses for you to learn about the importance of diaphragmatic breathing, how to progress movement with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and better understand and treat central sensitization - topics critical for complex pain patients to understand so you can better manage your nervous system and increase activity without increasing pain and flares. There is a way to make pain and symptoms more predictable and less intense over time, but without these concepts, it’s very hard.
Swifter to Sleep Challenge
Are you a pain patient who is sick of fighting so hard against painsomnia, specifically at bed-time? Do you dread nighttime and the process and tossing and turning or waking up without being able to fall back asleep? Welcome to improving your sleep skills and learning how to shut your brain and body down at night consistently. This is a 7-day challenge to get the accountability, support and streamlined education you need so you can improve your wind down routine and shrink the time you spend in bed frustrated and anxious trying to fall asleep.
Or, you can also get free content on Instagram and join the no-cost RWC community newsletter, which I send out every week-ish for more chronic pain tips, personal perspective and announcements around upcoming programs and partnerships!