Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Justine Feitelson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Justine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
After 8 months of excruciating, unrelenting symptoms, I was finally diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome via bone scan. On one hand I was so relieved to finally have some answers and my pain be validated by a diagnosis. On the other, that diagnosis was of an incurable, progressive disease that was poorly understood, with even poorer treatment options. Everything you read on Google is horrifying, it’s nicknamed “the suicide disease”, and the images of affected limbs are the stuff of nightmares. For like a week I bawled my eyes out to Nickelback in my room (a CD I don’t think I’d listened to since high school) lol. I let out so much grief and anger and rage and confusion. And then I thought, how the will I I change this? That week was the week I decided to put everything I had into learning how to use movement to decrease the insane pain in my leg full force and try to avoid further atrophy and bone loss as best I could, knowing that the extreme pain I felt wasn’t really so much from anything structurally wrong, but from an out-of control inflammatory state I could experiment and play with the response of, knowing however much it hurt, I wasn’t causing actual damage (within reason). That’s inflection point is the moment I forged this path instead of probably killing myself after having already lost 9 years of my life to a brain injury previously.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Once I realized movement was a critical piece of improving CRPS symptoms, I dove full force into into learning as much as possible about movement, mechanics, anatomy, pain, disease, and the human body. Ironically, I started in Cross Fit because I needed quick but effective workouts with minimal equipment because I could still barely tolerate standing. As I experimented and learned more, I moved toward individual design programming with a focus on corrective exercise.
I offer a 1:1 outpatient CRPS pain program, group programs, DIY courses, on-demand webinars and community challenges for those struggling with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or other forms of chronic pain.
I use my signature MARSMethod to educate and empower patients to better understand pain and how to impact it in an individualized, outpatient manner unlike any other chronic pain program out there. My patients are able to decrease flares, build stability and strength, and dramatically improve their mindset and symptom management strategies by layering in personalized strategies for movement, awareness (mindfulness), recovery and stress.
I am most proud of being able to change the lives of those who deserve it most. The patients who have been cast away by the medical system and told there’s nothing else that can be done for them. Who have like me even after relatively good medical care, have been left to their own devices to manage the rest, unseen and unheard for years and sometimes decades. Lighting the fire for those people in our population lights me up more than anything.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Empathy. People want to work with you because they trust you and feel a connection with you, because they feel how much you care. It doesn’t matter how much you know or how smart you are if you can’t SEE people. This isn’t as required in every field necessarily as with my population, but it’s what has helped set me apart from a lot of their other medical experiences and providers too.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I was in a car accident 5 months after graduating college suffering a severe brain injury. Over the next 9 years I endured over 100 medications and various treatments suffering severe cognitive impairments, depression, insomnia, and gastrointestinal issues as the medications piled on further, fluctuating up to 170 lbs and down to 110. It was just as I had nearly climbed out of that and started jogging around the block that my leg started developing insane symptoms. The prior experience in how I had approached the TBI, thinking and expecting something else to save me, for there the be an easier softer way that was external to myself – the depths of despair that lead to – dramatically impacted my approach to living with CRPS. I essentially did the opposite of everything I did before, I learned how to do things differently, by doing it all wrong before.. WE must be our greatest advocates, we must save ourselves to the degree we can. Not because it’s fair, but because it’s our responsibility, our burden either way. We need the medical system, but we also need to empower ourselves in the things we control so we have more agency and genuine hope we cultivated through our own resilience.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.resilientwarriorcoachingllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resilientwarriorcoaching/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justine.feitelson
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/justine-feitelson
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuRo76age4BX7Tv21yBG3jg
- Other: Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Matt Brown