1step2life

Blog Posts & Essays

Programs to Treat Children in Pain

There used to be just a few dozen practices in the world that specialized in treating childhood pain. Now there are 100 in 16 countries. Check out the updated list.
The 1step2life Podcast

Do you enjoy podcasts? Follow the 1step2life on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other major platforms.
What’s the difference between a service dog, therapy dog, and emotional support dog?

Service, therapy, & emotional support dogs are very different from each other. Learn how!
Brain fog? Try humming it out.

Stimulate your vagus nerve. Try humming to refocus when you have brain fog.
Want To Learn To Breathe?

Learning to breathe, meditate, or do biofeedback doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to cost money. It doesn’t require you to leave your house. It’s BREATHING and focusing. It’s what people did in cold medieval churches and in Tibetan monestaries. It’s what I learned to do – and got me through – labor!…
Cyles of Five: Another Way To Disrupt Anxiety

Cycles of Five is a simple technique to break pain and anxiety cycles.
Five Finger Breathing

Stress and anxiety make pain harder to cope with. This simple technique uses no tech and no equipment. Just use a finger and a hand to help you time and slow down your breathing. Focusing on the touch can make it easier to focus on breathing. You can repeat this exercise as often as needed.…
Patience

One of the best things I learned when my son became ill with chronic migraines was patience. That and teamwork. The Doctors will tell you that adolescents with migraines have to keep interacting with the world. That is really difficult for parents to get their heads around. Kids have to keep going to school even…
In Gratitude to Kind Teachers

We all know that in the United States under the American Disabilities Act, children have the right to a public school education. Many of us also know that what makes or breaks the success of this initiative is teachers and administrators. Some fight rules. Some hit the letter of the law but begrudge and guilt-trip.…
NYTimes Says There’s Never Been A Better Time To Have a Headache

Sunday’s NY times published a front-page article on headache. It talked about the decades (centuries) of neglect of headache disorders – a disease identified as one of the most disabling diseases in the world today. It talks about the FINALLY rising awareness of the seriousness of these diseases. It talks about new headache treatments –…
Beating yourself up about parenting?

I have studied parenting on five continents for close to four decades. I’m also a mom — the mom of two sons, one of them who is very sick. I know what it is to beat yourself up about not being a perfect parent. But too many parents beat themselves because they are trying to meet two entirely different, incompatible, and…
Podcast: Parenting a Child With Migraine

I am so honored to be interviewed for the Living With An Invisible Injury podcast. Listen here:
Why did a psychologist who studies families develop an app for tracking pain?

The fact that the 1step2life app grew completely out of our experience as a family is so deeply ingrained into the fiber of my being that I forget to tell people about it. Hence this post. I was asked for information about 1step2life by the editors of MyChronicBrain – an online magazine and newsletter for…
Pain and the TMJ: It’s complicated!

It’s really sort of amazing how complicated the working of the jaw is and how little we even think about chewing and swallowing until something goes wrong. I became interested in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and its related dysfunctions a couple of years ago when my mother took a really bad fall. She got a…
Reminders Of Progress

It’s been discouraging lately. Things seem better. Classes finished. Social life opening up. Exercise improving. But the setbacks still get you. The mourning for where you think you should be instead of where you really are. That’s where I was today. Until I got into my car. I opened the back door. The dog jumped…
How does multi-disciplinary pain treatment work?

Understanding pain helps people understand why they feel the way they do. It can be part of a multi-disciplinary approach to treating chronic pain. Here, I talk about the bio-psycho-social model of pain, focusing on different parts of the pain process and how they can be modified. I gave this talk on May 17, 2021…
Chronically Ill Teen? Fighting the Dread

I remember that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every Sunday afternoon. Sunday at 3:00 was youth orchestra. When my son first developed migraine disease, attacks came like clockwork. Every Sunday around 2:30, he’d begin to yawn. Then the auras would start. I’d see him start wincing from light and then, just as…
SPG Blocks

The previous post, Ganglia, Facial Nerves, & the SPG, described ganglion structure and function and the relationship of the SPG (sphenopalatine ganglion) and how it’s related to other facial nerves. The SPG is is a focal point for two cranial nerves, covering from the temples forward, down through the jaw, and back to the ears.…
Ganglia, Facial Nerves, & the SPG

Neurons are made up of cell bodies and finger-like dendrites. A ganglion is a clustered bundle of nerve cell bodies and associated dendrites assembled together to accomplish a discrete function. For example, the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) is located deep between the eyes. Among its many functions are regulating blood flow in the turbinates and facial…
Raynaud’s Syndrome

The first time I noticed I had Raynaud’s was in the kitchen. My hands felt kind of funny and I looked down and they were green. Not a little green. Like GREEN. And entirely numb. I started to move them and they completely spasmed. No pain. Just bright green hands that were spasming. Then they…