Allied Health Care Support

Personal Pilates for You

Gentle Strengthening – Jane Taylor

Personal Pilates offers you sessions individualised to meet your specific needs. It aims to promote muscle strength across your body, so you are well supported and experience less strain while being compassionate and respectful of your management of ME/CFS. Using the principles explored in the SOFT BEGINNINGS program, you will be guided through a specially selected group of low-energy Pilates exercises, specifically modified to your needs, with low reps and plenty of rest. If orthostatic tension/POTS is one of your symptoms, then transitions between positions will be minimised.

For further details or to arrange an online session, email Jane below. An introductory 45-minute session is $45. Subsequent sessions are from $100 each. If you are not working due to illness, please discuss this with Jane for concession pricing.

OT Support for You

Chronic Resilience Lived Experience Occupational Therapy - Rebecca Rae-Hodgson

Rebecca is a multiply neurodivergent Occupational Therapist/Whakaora Ngangahau with lived experience of chronic illnesses, living in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

She offers occupational therapy with a focus on well-being, self-management and meaningful activity, supporting adults to live well with chronic physical illnesses and various types of neurodivergence. Support can involve exploring meaningful activity and interests, roles and routines, getting clear on values, problem-solving and troubleshooting existing strategies, learning new tools for supporting wellbeing and self-management, developing sensory strategies, self-advocacy, community connection, mindfulness, self-compassion, sleep, movement - or anything else you’d like to focus on!

Different supports and packages are available from $100 per hour, for more information go to www.chronicresilienceot.com or email Rebecca below.

Working With Our Allies In Health Care

Allied health professionals who provide personalised care to people with ME/CFS are extremely cherished. SOFT SESSIONS send a huge shout-out and thanks to all those who are supportive, adaptable, patient and listen respectfully to clients with ME/CFS. When you are bringing your professional expertise and humanity to help people with this confusing condition, who are suffering pain, fatigue and loss, you are assisting them to regather, replenish and be even more resilient. We would like to suggest four ways in which SOFT SESSIONS may act as an additional resource for you.

  • As ME/CFS is a complex, debilitating, multi-system illness with Post Exertional Malaise, it can be confronting to know how to discuss rest and activity in this unusual context. SOFT SESSIONS aim to shift perceptions from rest being considered as lying alone in the dark missing out on life, to a variety of different kinds of rest which are pleasantly replenishing and support an enjoyable life, despite its challenges.

    SOFT SESSIONS aim to cover many of the primary aspects of managing symptoms and the impact the illness has on the sense of self and daily quality of life. The Companion Guide, Check-In and Coping Strategies can be of use here. Links We Like offers a curated selection of sites discussing research, clinical and lived experiences that may also help someone with ME/CFS and save on tiring screen time as they find the information they need.

  • Many of the sensations and experiences associated with ME/CFS are outside the realm of normal vocabulary and, when unwell, it can be particularly difficult for clients to express the enormity of things. “Fatigue” can mean tired from a normal busy day or a deep, bone-weary aching deficit that leaves you wondering how to find the energy to sit propped up in bed, move one finger or hear sounds. “Brain fog” can be feeling a bit vague or it can be an inability to access or hold any thoughts. The Companion Guide may help people with ME/CFS to find words to share their experiences in areas that are most challenging for them, (even if it is to say “my experience is like this bit but a not like that”). For some clients, it may be more energy efficient to point to a picture of a Corgi than try to find words to express their relative state of being.

    You can also use SOFT SESSIONS to better understand what your client’s awareness and values are; for example, how do they think of pacing; can they be flexible when symptom severity changes; do they value actively seeking “uplifting moments of joy”. You may choose to use the Companion guide as a prompt to bring timely focus to the strategies you consider most beneficial for your client.

  • By undertaking some or all of the sessions yourself as an allied health care professional, and recognising how tiny the movements are that can be managed (or set aside as too challenging) by clients, hopefully you will gain a felt sense of what “exercise” is for people with ME/CFS.

  • SOFT SESSIONS can be used as a bridge between appointments. If the client and allied healthcare professional share a mutual understanding of how the program is being utilised, SOFT SESSIONS can offer self-managed support between appointments and facilitate conversations during rare and valuable face-to-face interactions. This may be particularly useful when a client’s financial hardship due to the inability to work for months or years means they can only afford infrequent appointments.

Your client’s self-knowledge will be your best guide, but if at any time you feel our lived experience and reflections at SOFT SESSIONS could be of additional assistance as you strategize, please drop us an email.