Gigi Cockell calls her healing journey hugely empowering. The twenty-something London woman says it initiated a more joyous life. This was far from her perspective for a decade of debilitating symptoms that usurped her teenage years, at times leaving her homebound.  

She was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome at age 14. Two years later, Gigi’s symptoms escalated. The 16-year-old became so dizzy and fatigued, she struggled to walk. After POTS symptoms came Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, with a cascade of rotating pain and inexplicable sensations. 

When the Bermuda-born teenager told doctors it felt like an egg was being cracked on her head, they met her with blank stares. Specialists called her lab results normal and said she’d have to live like this. Understandably, Gigi was terrified.  

After eking by with compromised health for ten years, Gigi developed unbearable pressure, urgency and pain in her bladder. A physician diagnosed her with interstitial cystitis, another medically unexplained condition with no known cause or cure. Her mum took her to doctor after doctor, looking after her in the low points.  

Gigi managed to study biology at Oxford. She combed peer-reviewed papers for answers, but couldn’t find any. Meanwhile, her mum discovered mind-body healing through the work of Dr. Howard Schubiner and therapist Nicole Sachs. She recognized her daughter as having what Dr. John Sarno called the “TMS personality,” someone with perfectionist tendencies who strives to please others while suppressing their emotions.  

Gigi’s reaction to the idea that her ailments were caused by a stressed brain? “There's absolutely no way!”

Little did Gigi know, mind-body healing would become her cure and her career.

With both skepticism and desperation, Gigi explored this unlikely remedy. She happened across my recovery story from 13 years of ME/CFS and saw striking similarities between us. As she devoured hopeful narratives—and learned about the neuroscience supporting neural pathway symptoms—she saw glimmers of possibility.  Gigi admits her recovery journey wasn’t quick, but it was deeply worthwhile.

🖐🏼5️⃣ strategies that helped Gigi become symptom-free.

 🧐 Belief

Studying the knowledge gave Gigi a new way to view her body. She learned that the brain creates our experience of pain, with or without structural damage. It can switch pain on in any situation it views as threatening. “That to me was mind-blowing,” she said. Gigi also discovered the brain is neuroplastic until the day we die. It can learn and unlearn symptoms, based on the internal and external feedback it receives. 

 “Everyone has a little bit of doubt, maybe I’m the one who can’t get better,” says Gigi. “The people suffering from mind-body symptoms are the most likely to rewire their brain because we’ve all rewired our brain to experience pain… We just need to do it in the opposite direction. That’s easier when you’re filled with the knowledge of how the brain works and the fact that you’re going to be fine.”      

🕵️‍♀️ Evidence List

Once Gigi understood that her subconscious brain created her symptoms—through no fault of her own—she sought proof for how the mind-body connection played out in her life. First, she connected emotional stressors to her symptoms. She recalled a time when she felt physically better after a deep, body-based cry. She also remembered how taking antibiotics halted her bladder pain within minutes. Since the medication can’t act that quickly, she realized it was a placebo effect. Plus, her bladder symptoms came back in force a few days into the antibiotics. Seeing the inconsistency of her symptoms further convinced Gigi she could recover. 

📝 Expressive Writing 

In this style of writing, we spill our deep, dark emotional landscape onto the page with abandon. It’s a way to mine subconscious thoughts and emotions that are creating internal pressure, much like lifting the lid off a pot of boiling water. Gigi scribbled out her past hurts, forgoing her polite, rational self. Journaling became a safe space to express herself freely. Gigi says expressive writing helped her process traumatic memories buried under the surface.

 🧘‍♀️ Somatic Tracking 

As Gigi’s confidence grew, she started confronting sensations that frightened her, leaving her in perpetual flight-fight mode. Through the practice of somatic tracking—noticing uncomfortable body sensations with mindfulness and indifference—Gigi diffused fear about her internal experience. With practice, she began to experience safety in the presence of discomfort. This lowered her brain’s reactivity and the symptoms themselves. Somatic tracking was a powerful piece of her recovery. (You can try a short version of somatic tracking here or a longer somatic meditation here.) 

🧒🏼 Inner Child Work 

Gigi started unpacking her perfectionistic personality traits, asking “why do I want to overachieve?” She realized she simply wanted to be valued and loved, essential human needs. Her brain was trying to keep her safe by striving to do better, but that strategy has downsides. It can create a never-ending cycle of striving, keeping the brain’s danger alarm signal on. Gigi started visualizing her younger self, and offering the child part of her what it needed—encouraging words or a self-hug. One of the most empowering parts of her healing journey became the love she could give herself.

In her recovery, Gigi learned to treat herself with kindness instead of enmity. Instead of being at war with her body, she gave her brain cues of safety since it was only trying to protect her. 

“It couldn’t directly communicate that a lot of my life I’d felt threatened, not particularly safe or not particularly comfortable,” says Gigi. “The only way it could express that was through my body. Over time I developed a whole new appreciation and understanding for why I was the way I was. I found that very healing.”

Gigi learned to shift her inner dialogue. When she got POTS symptoms—a racing heart, low blood pressure and lightheadedness—she viscerally felt a sense of danger. In response, she reminded herself of one irrefutable fact: “You have a 100% survival record.”

Gigi now emphatically believes that our bodies have the ability to return to equilibrium and our brains are neuroplastic at all ages. Her message is one of science and self-love..

“You can get better and you will get better! I know how difficult these experiences can be. But there are no symptoms so severe or length of time that’s too long that you cannot get well. I passionately believe that.”

Watch my video interview with Gigi here!