A Dr. Laurie Nadel for the Long Haul

Episode 15: The Five Gifts - Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

This week on A Friend for the Long Haul, I welcome a fellow traveler on the path of chronic illness! Dr. Laurie Nadel, a renowned journalist and therapist, joins us to share her incredible journey.

Dr. Nadel has battled chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and COPD, and understands the physical and emotional toll of long-term illness. We'll delve into her amazing career, her own struggles with chronic illness, trauma, and loss - and her dedication to helping Long Haulers. Some history from Dr. Nadel's website that I think you'll just eat up:

"After an internship with the London Daily Mirror, she worked at Reuters Television in London where she became the first woman news writer. Returning to New York, she became the first woman news writer-producer at ABC News, working with correspondents and cameramen around the world. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Nadel produced news about the Vietnam war and the anti-war movement, Watergate and the Nixon-McGovern presidential election when President Nixon won a second term."

"In 1988, after a long battle with chronic fatigue syndrome, Nadel was laid off while she was medically disabled. As she started to improve with the help of meditation, hypnotherapy and Chinese medicine, she rebooted her journalism career by writing for airline magazines and Men’s Fitness. Around this time, she returned to graduate school to earn two doctorates in psychology and clinical hypnotherapy. These credentials opened the way for her to focus on behavioral health topics and led to her writing several psychology books."

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Dr. Nadel's experience with CFS shaped her work as a therapist.
• Her unique approach to healing, incorporating elements of psychology, hypnotherapy, and indigenous wisdom.
• The "Five Gifts" from her book, explained as they relate to Long Haulers (she's committed to offering long-term support for women who endure permanent chronic health difficulties since the first wave of COVID in 2020. With Dr. Noah Greenspan’s Pulmonary Wellness Foundation, she helped launch the longest ongoing support program for Long Covid patients.
• Practical tools and strategies for building resilience and finding hope amidst chronic illness

Dr. Laurie also takes us through some ways to trust our bodies and our guts in an effort to find our inner wisdom and inner healer, and shares some of her favorite meditation techniques.

Whether you're a Long Hauler, someone with ME/CFS, or facing any chronic health battle, this episode is a beacon of strength and support.

Don't miss Dr. Laurie Nadel's inspiring story and advice!

P.S. Check out Dr. Laurie Nadel's book, "The Five Gifts," for an "emergency Go-Kit" for your heart and mind. You can find it on Amazon here but she's also written 7 other books!

You can find Dr. Laurie's website at: https://www.laurienadel.com/

On the Services page, you can find a video meditation journey she speaks of in this episode: https://www.laurienadel.com/services-events.html

Dr. Laurie's Reiki and energy healing for animals and their human companions page is: https://animalreikiplanet.com/

Find out more about the Pulmonary Wellness Foundation here (btw, this isn't an ad, they're just good folks!)

This episode also has a special message from Lior Ocean, my friend and guest from episode 5, who is looking to expand their services to long haulers by offering a sliding scale and even free sessions.

Hit subscribe and leave us a rating to let us know what you think! We're here for you, friends. And thanks again to Dr. Laurie Nadel for joining me!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/afriendforthelonghaul⁠ for updates and unhinged content.

My website is: ⁠https://sites.google.com/view/friendforthelonghaul⁠

Don't forget to check out the pod playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3n0GXLFRWqDJyifglNNM4K