MARSMethod Mentorship

Why is health and fitness the norm for comparatively healthy people, yet taboo or a luxury for people who’s quality of life depends on it most?

Health doesn’t come from eradicating illness. It comes from increasing wellness.

“Wellness is illness but with a ‘we’ instead of an ‘i’…

because WE can do this.

— Movement Coach

 
 

Resilience can be learned and trained, and is the most critical skill for thriving with chornic pain.

 

If you're somebody who lives with CRPS or other complex pain, you are not too sick to make changes. There is always something you can do. Many people when they start with me are unsure if they're going to be able to be consistent enough, really decrease pain, if I'll be too intimidating, if they'll disappoint me or often, if they'll dissapoint themselves.

The reality is that never really happens. Because there's a multitude of things we're working to improve symptoms. So no matter where you're at, we're working on the things that are affecting your life now until you grow into being able to utilize movement more. If you've tried everything or don't want to have to, please reach out. I can help.

A note on costs

For more no-cost resources, please follow me on social media, join the RWC Newsletter, listen to various podcast conversations, and check out our official podcast, It’s Not in Your Head for even more education and content.

I know finances are often a concern. Being in the position to spend precious expendable income on more healthcare is never what one wants. My goal is to help patients be more self-sufficient and taken advantage of less so they can decrease the overall cost of care tremendously going forward and avoid further losses. My clients find what they get out of my programs is far more than the price, and despite keeping it as low as possible for the quality/value provided, I know the mentorship can still be too much - which I also why I offer different 1:1 services and many free resources.

Clinics that take advantage of patients desperation, tout unproven therapies, and lack truly individualized care, charge $12, $20, 50K+ because they promise miracles. I’ve been where you are and and understand the wanting it to just go away. I know how scary it can feel to bet on yourself, but betting on yourself is the best bet you can make because it’s your body. Medical trauma creates an understandable lack of trust and valid fear over another person overselling and underdelivering.

But how many other people of therapies have you spent money on, or will continue to if you keep going like this? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Let’s change things for good, together.

The MARSMethod Mentorship

This program is like a 1:1 outpatient pain program. (Appropriately individualized, without the harm).

After completing a patient evaluation with Justine, you can join the Mentorship where we create a comprehensive plan we implement together, teaching you the full MARSMethod in your own environment and real challenges - so you can better understand your pain, what’s happening in your body, and how we can impact it in ways you never have before. This Mentorship is NOT like other pain programs. You’ll learn how to integrate the MARS Method strategies in your own environment/triggers with Justine. We identify the realities of your routine, resources, and other barriers we must consider in creating a sustainable step-by-step plan we progress and implement together week to week in real time.

This program is for patients who:

  • Require/benefit from the highest amount of support

  • Want to become less reliant on medications

  • Are very sedentary and want to become more active/independent

  • Are ready to impact the pieces of their life they can to decrease pain

  • Have tried everything there is to try and exhausted programs/viable treatment options

  • Have been diagnosed with central sensitization, or have symptoms of:

    • Sensory sensitivity, sleep disturbance, extreme, fatigue, cognitive impairment, mood dysfunction, motor disturbance or dystonia(s)

The MARSMethod Mentorship includes:

  • 90 min Initial Intake

  • 60 min Movement Assessment

  • Twelve 50 minute video calls (incl. recordings with lifetime access)

  • CoachRx app client portal, check-ins, messaging, and feedback on ongoing movement and lifestyle prescriptions

  • Unlimited communication with Justine between sessions

  • MARSMethod resources and education

  • Access to evolving movement library

  • Please complete all sessions within 4 months. Of course things come up, and we can space appts out appropriately, but consistency is KEY!

 

What Do You Impact As a Patient?

Movement

Individualized movement strategies tailored to your unique brain and tolerances including desensitization, release techniques, proprioceptive, visual, and vestibular sensory strategies, stability, strength and aerobic programming strategies, all through a nervous system system lens so you can desensitize the impaired extremity and do more.

Awareness

Increase your intention in all areas of your life so you can begin to identify how your current habits actually affect pain, and positively impact symptoms with mindfulness and diaphragmatic breathing. Once you improve your understanding of what affects your symptoms, anxiety, depression etc. and can see the patterns that tie into your pain, you can affect them.

Recovery

Unfortunately without predictable, dependable recovery, you don’t give yourself a chance with this disease. A lot of our daytime behaviors affect energy management and sleep. Improving circadian rhythm, sleep/wake cycle, nap hygiene, meal quality, timing, and sourcing and pacing strategies are critical to better manage persistent insomnia and fatigue.

Stress

Pain is inextricably tied to our sympathetic drive. That’s why learning how to better manage stress and impact your nervous system by improving your daily routine, boundaries, and down-regulating strategies so you are less helpless and more in control of your life, increasing your bodies sense of safety and capacity so you can sustainably layer more in.

What Will You Learn?

  • Sleep hygiene and circadian rhythm: We deal with the physical and mental challenges around sleep. How to fall asleep easier, anchor your sleep cycle better, nap less. We’ll audit daytime behaviors that are inadvertently making it tougher to fall asleep and improve your environment, so you get better sleep quality, wake up with more energy and have less dips during the day.

  • Meal quality and timing: We all know we need to eat better, but how to get healthier food easier and more consistently isn’t easy with these symptoms. You’ll gain strategies to make sourcing easier and improve systems around prep with limited energy or standing capacity, taking specific common challenges/needs into account like protein with hEDS, gastroparesis, nausea, lack of appetite, food aversions and intolerances.

  • Energy management and pacing: The daytime side of recovery. You’ll learn how to better manage allostatic load, progress activities properly, organize yourself more sustainably, and know when to ‘push’ and when to ‘listen to your body’, integrating pressure release valves and built in flexibility that allow you to still achieve goals. As I semi-joke, “it’s not about doing less, it’s about being less stupid”. How you organize yourself matters. As you gain capacity with increased recovery and lower stress, you earn more freedom with this.

  • Mood and stress strategies: How to better manage your nervous system and down-regulate on demand with various breathing and mindfulness we progress so you can lower your sympathetic, get stress out of our bodies better, separate from stressful thoughts easier and decrease anxiety as a global sensitizer. Your perspective with pain matters. This is a safe space to talk about the challenges it creates with connection and other things we love but struggle to sustain, and how to work around that better so depression has less of an impact too.

  • Sustainable movement: You’ll learn how to better address the neuromuscular inhibition and sensory issues that develop, plan and execute movement with less pain and flares, and more ways to begin to overcome intense pain, neuropathy, and the resulting weakness and compensations. You’ll leave with strategies to improve brain mapping in different areas, joint differentiation, and the weakness/spasm cycle that develops from how you’ve had to adapt to moving your body around pain and challenges with proprioception e.g. hypermobility in particular.

  • Individualized pain science: The challenge of chronic pain is deciphering how much is due to amplifiers, contributors, identifiable causes and past experiences - and what specific types of pain are contributing to the output of someones symptoms. It’s in teasing out all the inputs resulting in the outputs the patent is experiencing. Pain intervention is responsible for part of that, we are responsible for addressing the ones we can which include peripheral sensitizations, brain mapping issues, scars, inhibition etc. so you can decrease the amount of positive feedback loops increasing your overall pain levels and amount of symptoms.

The Mentorship is $2600, or 3 payments of $970.

If this still feels like too much of an expense, please check out BASE CAMP, which has all this education in a group format without the individualized movement and lifestyle prescriptions, at a fraction of the cost.

  • “Prior to me starting with Justine, in 2022 I had a really hard year with CRPS. I ended up with multiple hospital stays due to dehydration, medication complications and CRPS flares. My biggest change in 2022 with Justine came with me identifying I had purpose, I had meaning and I just needed a little bit of structure and support in the way I interacted with life. The biggest thing Justine was able to accomplished for myself, was allowing me to consider my life with CRPS differently and know that I still had value and meaning, and I could push through it be the rockstar I knew I was. I’ve lived with CRPS for 7 years now and honestly if you have any question, or doubt, take the leap. It’s in you, you know you’re in there. You’ll be able to get places with Justine you never thought were possible. The mental challenge, the fun, the guidance is there. You just have to believe in yourself. ”

    — Matt B.

  • “Justine cares about helping people with CRPS. Her kindness and empathy comes through loud and clear. This is a very rare commodity in the medical community. She’s very intelligent and intuitive and is great at problem solving. She is able to adjust treatment so it will be effective and suitable for your condition; she has certainly done that for me. Unfortunately for her (but good for you) she has lived with CRPS and other unfortunate medical problems and understands what it takes to endure and more importantly help you live a good quality of life. Her system is designed to address the physical as well as psychological aspects of living with CRPS i.e. exercise, nutrition, mental health and personal relationships. The things that made the biggest difference for me was her understanding of my physical and mental challenges, positive attitude and solid communication skills, correct stretching and breathing regimen, matching the routines with my overall ability to accomplish goals, and looking forward to the variety of movement, strength exercises and helpful breathing techniques. My core has become much stronger which has helped me to keep moving, swimming and kayaking. Your breathing exercises have actually improved my lung capacity along with decreasing coughing. Your sense of humor and positive attitude helps me stay on an even keel…no trivial thing when living with the medical issues I have. Simply put, you’re a very good coach. You know what you’re doing.”

    — Richard R.

  • “If you are on the fence about working with Justine I’d say 100% go for it. She works with you and the hard times that come outside of chronic illness as well. I was hesitant as I didn’t know if I would be able to ‘keep up’, but it isn’t like that with her. She works with you and what you need, she listens and adapts everything about the program according to what you need as a person. There’s no judgment and she is just a wonderful person that just wants to help and share her passion! When I first started my biggest struggles and frustrations were pain. I have CRPS in my lower back and both legs/feet and overall just a ton of body pain and soreness. The two most helpful things I have put into practice would definitely be release techniques and deep breathing. These really help me dial back and ground myself throughout the day. Since I started working with Justine, life certainly hasn’t given me a break (as it doesn’t for many of us) and having these tools in my toolbox has been so incredibly helpful. Having someone keep me accountable but in a good way has been a game changer. I overall feel much better as I have more of a schedule, feel stronger and more grounded and secure in what I’m doing. Justine is always willing to answer questions with no judgement and will listen to what you have to say!”

    — Lauren C.

  • “As someone who has prioritized exercise their entire life, I thought I'd know how to cope and incorporate movement into a this new life with chronic pain. As it turned out, I didn't know where to start and felt overwhelmed. Justine's MARS ID program was exactly what I needed to get my confidence back, and to learn how to move properly with pain. She makes sure to address specific strengths and weaknesses, compensation patterns, and creates a uniquely tailored program for each individual. I learned more from her in 3 months than I did in a whole year of PT. The fact that she has CRPS herself gives her not only in-depth knowledge, but her understanding and empathy is so much more than I ever experienced in traditional PT. Can't recommend her enough!”

    — Shelley R.

  • “Justine is by far the most knowledgable person I’ve ever met who offers 1:1 coaching. I did not realize how much there was in my life that I can actually change, right now. Since I’ve been working with her, I’ve been to the beach more times in a few weeks than probably the entire year. It’s wild. Thanks to Justine, I now have daily attainable goals and tools. She’s helping me become unstuck, find solutions to the big things even if they are little, but most importantly she’s giving me hope. Thank you Justine.”

    — Jen H.

  • “Having 1:1 coaching with someone who has CRPS and understands that each person is different is incredible. You come up in so many conversations, especially with my doctors; everyone can tell I’m doing so much better. Justine helped me change my mindset. Having CRPS for so long, I had almost given up. In my head, it was just going to keep getting worse. If it wasn’t for your program, I wouldn’t have the confidence to ‘do’ normal things again. Thank you Justine for helping me see that I can do anything. You literally changed my life.”

    — Steph K.

  • “Honestly, you have already been an answer to my prayers. It’s so much easier to figure out this new way of life when I have a guide. Someone who understands what i am going through. The doctors, therapists, etc. don’t have their own experience of this illness. Just following your account opened me to understand more, and to have the opportunity to work with you - the best! I am not interested in the final results that much anymore. The whole journey is the thing. I don’t have to know what might happen or not happen. I am more at peace. I remember the pain and tiredness during the cramps. I will never forget it. But if it happens again, I know I will survive and I can help myself get back. It is empowering! And for that, I am grateful to you. You were there for me, even if it was the weekend. I will never forget it. “

    — Karla T.

  • “Justine is amazing! I was almost bed bound when I started working with her. Now I’m watching my granddaughter (3 years old) 1 day a week and I can recover from it. I couldn’t watch her on my own for so long and now I’m keeping up with a 3 year old! I still flare but now I have solid tools to use to help me. I am recovering much better than I ever thought possible! It used to be do one thing and be in bed for the week. Now even after bad flares and meltdowns I’m still able to regulate my nervous system and be OK to do more. Justine changed my life. She’s the link you really need to live with CRPS”

    — 1:1 client

  • “It was such an amazing consult. She was very receptive, thorough, and had such great energy that made me even more excited. The individual focus on each person that you coach is amazing.”

    — Ashley M.

  • “I have had the pleasure to work with Justine for a couple of months. It has been the best decision I have done since I got CRPS. Justine is a true professional in her field. MARS ID Method covers all the areas of life that CRPS affects on. If you want to learn how to live your best life with CRPS, are ready to make some changes, and are looking for someone to guide you on the way, you should book a call with Justine.”

    — Karla M.

  • “Friday was the day I got my first workout since the accident that led to CRPS. And man it felt good! Before the accident, I used to move around a lot. The last two years have been a weird time for my body. Been thinking I need muscle and body control for a long time, but when nerves don’t work properly, it feels impossible. Two months of persistence and daily preparation under Justine’s guidance brought me to this point. It has taken commitment and faith that the MARS I.D. Method works…At the beginning of June I spent two nights in the hospital with seizures and massive pain. I realized I am all alone with my situation because no one seemed to help me…I finally realized I need to take my healthcare back into my own hands. Fortunately, a little before that moment I had decided to hire Justine to help me. She helped me even when I was in the hospital, directing me through different exercises to calm my nervous system. From that moment on, Justine has guided me gently but purposefully down a path I had only dreamed of. In addition, my mindset has completely changed. I no longer focus on where I want to end up. I’m focused on what I have right now. I trust that life will carry on, when I have the courage to surrender to the path. There are plenty of mountains and stones ahead, but being afraid of them won’t help me.”

    1:1 client

  • “This is like learning a language again that I’ve been able to speak years ago. Familiar but different at the same time. My brain is working like crazy trying to figure it out. It is really like a challenging puzzle, but also fun. I think I have never enjoyed training this much! And I loved it also before.”

  • “My goals have changed from what I originally thought I wanted. I was ready to figure out how I was going to get back to everything I was doing before - working out was my priority. But now I’m really learning about slowing down and learning new ways to handle my condition. Breathing, pacing, release techniques - these are all things I had no knowledge/appreciation for. Now, I’m more focused on honing in on those skills. I’m definitely moving towards my goals.”

    — Dawn H.

  • “I am so happy we got here. The start of working together was not easy because of my massive flare up. But it doesn’t matter that we had to wait for this because with CRPS there are so many other aspects to tackle. Thank you for helping me get here. This was a huge win for me. “

  • “You have changed my life. You have shown me a path next to the one I was walking on. I know I am finally going where I have wanted to go. There are hills and big rocks ahead, I know. but with your help, I finally have the proper tools to get over those barriers. You are a star.”

Frequently Asked Questions

  • In the MARSMethod Mentorship we evaluate the previous weeks/months goals, troubleshoot stressors/challenges from previous period, go over exercise programming, cover resources/handouts, learn new movement techniques, and discussing medical/pain aspects of care. This is a real relationship, and I take a whole person centered approach to my care.

    In the Individual Design Program consults we go over exercise program design related issues.

    In Private Movement Sessions we focus on brain-based neuro movement strategies

  • We will typically have a scheduled recurring time to meet that works or you. That being said, this is life with chronic pain and treatments and if there wasn’t some flexibility we wouldn’t be successful. That’s why you have 16 weeks to complete the 12 session in the Mentorship.

    In other programs, please cancel at least 24 hours in advance.

  • To start, just some basic, accessible items so we can guarantee proper exercise selection, appropriately progress movement, and implement release techniques and sensory strategies. I'll provide a list of recommendations for mobility tools and bands, and based upon your unique situation and goals, discuss anything additional you may need as we progress. There is no need for a gym membership nor any expensive equipment to start.

  • Yep! You can pay in full to receive a discount, or in monThly installments for the MARSMethod Mentorship or Individual Design Program.

    Private Movement Sessions can be paid for by appointment as you go, or in regular chunks if preferred.