Hi Reader,

If you’ve lived with CIRS for any length of time, you know it’s not just a medical condition.

It’s a full-body, full-life experience that can feel deeply disorienting. The endless searching for answers. The disbelief from doctors or loved ones. The fear that your environment itself isn’t safe. The loss of your home, personal belongings, finances, and ability to work. The isolation that seeps in when you realize your favorite places may not be safe, your friends don’t understand, and you don’t feel well enough to do anything you used to identify with.

That, in itself, can be traumatic. Our safety is threatened, yet we feel powerless.

When our bodies and minds spend months or years on high alert, trying to survive illness and uncertainty, our biology changes. Our nervous system begins to anticipate a threat even when danger has passed, manifesting the very symptoms we are trying to avoid (anxiety, indigestion, diarrhea, shortness of breath, rashes, panic attacks, etc).

And at a certain point, we just hit a wall. When we realize that the challenges of this illness are bigger than what we can truly handle, we find our “line of overwhelm,” or our window of tolerance, and we dissociate and power down, much like a deer in the headlights. This is called the trauma response, or “overwhelm,” and it too can cause symptoms that look like a CIRS flare (depression, brain fog, insomnia, chronic pain, extreme heaviness and fatigue, low blood pressure, constipation, suicidal ideation, etc).

That’s why I asked Dr. Aimie Apigian to join premium members of the CIRS Healing Collective as our expert guest this month! Dr. Aimie Apigian is a double board-certified medical doctor, bestselling author, and the founder of The Biology of Trauma. She is one of the leading voices helping us understand how nervous system dysregulations can influence chronic illness, slow recovery, and keep us from feeling truly safe in our own skin. I have been privileged to participate in numerous professional training programs with Dr. Aimie, and am so excited to introduce her to those of you who don’t yet know of her powerful work.

Our live, group discussion with Dr. Aimie will be happening on November 11th from 10-11:30 am MST. Click on the image above to initiate a FREE 30-day premium membership to the CIRS Healing Collective (new members only please) so that you can join this special event, enjoy the replay, and attend our weekly members’ meetups.

Dr. Aimie’s approach is compassionate and deeply practical. She teaches that trauma isn’t just a story from our past, it’s a biological state that can be shifted once we understand how the body is holding it. Through her research and clinical work, she shows how we can begin to rewire our nervous system, restore regulation, and create the physiological safety our bodies need to heal.

For those of us walking the CIRS path, this conversation couldn’t be more relevant. Healing our biology means addressing not only toxins and pathogens, but also the emotional imprints left by years of struggle, medical trauma, loss, mistrust, overwhelm and fatigue.

Processing and integrating these experiences can reduce inflammation, improve immune resilience, and free up the energy that’s been locked in survival mode for too long.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to join us for this month’s CIRS Healing Collective Expert Guest session with Dr. Aimie Apigian, available exclusively to our Premium Members, which you can join for free. You’ll come away with a clearer understanding of how trauma influences your biology and how to safely support your body’s return to calm, coherence, and capacity.

If you’re not yet a Premium Member, this is the perfect time to join. You can begin a free 30-day trial (new members only) and be part of this powerful conversation that blends science, compassion, and real tools for recovery.

​Trauma, fear and overwhelm are tricky, but they CAN be processed.​

To your best health,

Jenny Johnson​​

Jenny Johnson, MSPT, FMCHC, NBC-HWC Physical Therapist CIRS Coach / Shoemaker Proficiency Partner Diplomate Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach Certified Professional Life Coach Certified in Functional Nutrition, Bredesen, Safe & Sound, Biology of Trauma and HeartMath​ ​

P.S. I recently connected with Dr. Aimie at Jeffrey Bland’s Thought Leader’s Consortium for the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute! We managed to snag a picture with her new best-selling book, which I am currently reading, we’ll be discussing in our live session.