Meet Lauren Freedman

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Freedman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Hi Lauren, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

The weekend after my 34th birthday, I found myself bedridden. I woke from time to time, but I spent about 40 hours asleep. That Monday, I made an appointment to see my doctor.

Prior to this event, I’d been experiencing a tangle of unexplained symptoms, which I’d written off because I’d always been able to push through them. Exhaustion, brain fog, joint pain, cognitive decline…I was making minor mistakes at work, and they were adding up.

I arrived at the doctor’s office Monday morning and was lucky enough to work with an NP who had the wherewithal to order autoimmune tests. The result: I’d arrived in what she called a “thyroid storm”, and was in a holding pattern awaiting a diagnosis of autoimmune hypothyroidism, or Hashimoto’s disease.

I’d kept a close eye on my thyroid for years because of a genetic predisposition. But nothing had prepared me for what lay ahead.

As I received my diagnosis — it turns out, far earlier than most in my shoes — I began treatment. Synthetic thyroid hormone pills. I found an endocrinologist — one of the specialists who was certified to handle my complex case.

Months later, I found myself sitting in my endo’s office, feeling exactly the same…while she told me my labs looked great, and I must be feeling a whole lot better. “I still feel the same,” I explained. “I’m so tired. Some days I can’t get to work until after 2pm. I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me.”

She took a considered look at me, glanced again at my labs, and said, “Maybe it’s time you see a psychiatrist.”

I grew up in NYC with a health-conscious family who imparted to me that what doctors said was more powerful than scripture. Their word was final. And yet here I was, already in treatment for my mental health, being overlooked by another woman, albeit with an MD…and I knew she was wrong.

I called my #1 support system: home. My mum immediately told me, “You never have to see that doctor again.” My mind was racing. All I could think was: am I actually right? Is this physiological and not all in my head? Can I be right, and can this doctor be wrong?

This was the first lesson I learned: that I could fire and hire my caregivers. I later learned that what I had experienced was medical gaslighting.

As I continued to move through the medical system, I began to wonder: if this is what I’m suddenly experiencing…what’s it like for my friends? What’s it like for people who DON’T “look well”? For BIPOC folks? For my LGBTQIA+ friends? For friends whose first language wasn’t English? It took me 30+ years to experience medical gaslighting…or at least to recognize it and reclaim my agency. But what about everyone else?

I was soon given additional diagnoses: obstructive sleep apnea (not just for older, overweight white men!); idiopathic hypersomnia (a diagnosis I still take issue with, as I don’t believe it addresses root causes — but essentially means that I’m chronically exhausted); gastroparesis.

But I might not have gotten all these diagnoses — or found the doctors in the system who acted with my best interest at heart — had I not begun to reach out to my wider network for support.

At this point in my life, I’d been in the midst of a career change — from acting to…something more sustainable! When I got sick, my plan was derailed. I couldn’t work anymore. I found myself at home, too tired to do much but wake up for a few hours each day. It was depressing as hell.

Prior to this time, I’d done some freelance writing on women’s health, which had happened because I’d posted about the switch to menstrual cups on Facebook. I figured I might as well repeat the process, since it had been a successful one before: put it all out there and see who might have advice.

I couldn’t BELIEVE how many friends — especially those who identify as female — came out of the woodwork to offer their experiences. From fellow Hashimoto’s survivors to others who had silent health crises in their 30s and 40s…all the way to lifelong genetic disorders. And I had never known a thing. Even with the closer friends; even with friends I’d LIVED WITH. We had ALL been moving through these rollercoasters alone. Often entirely unsupported.

It was bad enough we weren’t talking more openly about bleeding. And these conversations were helping me find my footing, learn to advocate for myself, and rediscover who I might become. So I decided to hit “record” on them. I figured that if I could help one other person find their way, I was doing the right thing. It turns out, I was right.

Uninvisible (R) Pod — my podcast about living with non-apparent chronic conditions and disability — was born. I created, hosted, produced, and offered over 150 episodes over the next five years, doing everything from creative marketing to guest search. I became connected to an incredible community of patient advocates and other “Spoonies” — a term I came to know intimately as it encompassed my own conditions, and helped me find common links with others. In its first year, the podcast won a WEGO Health Award for Best in Show: Podcast (now known as the Social Health Awards). Here I was, making something out of having my life virtually turned on its head.

The podcast became a platform not only for sharing stories — from individuals living with chronic conditions to caregivers across varied modalities, and beyond. But it also became a rumination on identity. How does the way we present affect the experiences we have, not just within medical institutions, but also among loved ones? When does discrimination based on any of these intersectional identities constitute a medical crisis? And do these first-person accounts have the power to change not only the way we think, but also the way our systems and infrastructure around medical care are constructed?

Over the course of the years that I produced the pod, I met health coaches who shared with me what they did. I recognized that this was what others were asking me to do — offer my advice, experience, and a guiding hand as they, too, learned to stand on their own two feet again. It felt like the organic outcropping of the work I’d committed myself to as an advocate. And so I pursued training.

Several years later, I have (semi!) retired the podcast and moved full-time into my coaching work. I now specialize in helping professionals fighting chronic conditions to elevate their energy and confidence — learning tools to advocate for themselves where perhaps they didn’t have any before; understanding what is under the realm of their influence to change in their day-to-day; making necessary adaptations; and creating sustainable systems and strategies to get back in the driver’s seat where their health and wellness is concerned. The work is incredibly heart-centered, and I bring my years of personal experience managing my own conditions to it, alongside my advocacy expertise and multiple certifications in coaching, environmental toxins, nutrition, mindset, communication, and more. I’m even national board certified!

I’ve learned how to manage my life. I’ve been fortunate to have an incredible support system, and to have known when and how to ask for the help I needed. But I know not everyone has the same experience. It’s my hope that I offer tools to empower and enable others to become who they were meant to be when disease knocks them down, too. And the work is a true honor to witness.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned? Getting sick was an opportunity (hear me out!). I had a choice to stay sick or to become more alive than I had been before. An opportunity to see each day as a new opportunity; to seek deeper emotional and spiritual healing; and to remake my life around my needs, with rest as a sacred right at the center of my values. It’s been a long road. I’m still walking it! But I know now that I got sick so I could help myself…find gratitude…and then help others. I’d be a very different person if the universe hadn’t taught me to slow the f*ck down. But it can be done. With dedication, determination, the right routines, and a glittering circle of support whose love radiates out in the most healing of ways.

I lost things along the way, too. Some friendships, work, and travel opportunities fell by the wayside as I discovered what was in alignment with my highest sense of self. It’s impossible to live life without regrets — but I’d rather have them because I tried, than because I didn’t.

One thing that set my journey apart from the stories of some others that I come into contact with…is that I never, not once, considered that I wouldn’t make it. Perhaps that’s by virtue of my luck in the parent lotto 😉 But I also believe it’s a fire I’ve always had within me. It never burned out, even when my body did. And when I couldn’t see the light, I made it. Where the was nowhere to seek community and help, I created it. I gave birth to a new version of myself, in a new world entirely of my own making.

If I can do it, so can you. Yeah, sure, it takes chutzpah. I have that in spades. So if you need a lift, you know where to find me 😉 And remember: sometimes life knocks you down so you can learn how to stand up again. Bigger. Better. Bolder.

“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb

uninvisiblecoaching.com
uninvisiblepod.com
@chroniccoachlauren on Insta
Chronic Illness Freedom group on FB (facebook.com/groups/chronicillnessfreedom)

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a patient advocate & health coach helping professionals fighting chronic conditions to elevate their energy and confidence in just 90 days — no more feeling broken, lost, or burned out.

I’m currently developing a 12-week program called Chronic Health Code that will offer a foundational view of chronic health management, from symptom reduction (by addressing inflammatory triggers), mindset, and community to what I call the “advocacy toolkit,” and beyond. I’m really excited to get this out into the world, and it will be available in both 1:1 and group coaching settings. The main thing is: with this course, you can get back in the driver’s seat. You’ll have everything you need to influence your environment for the better, regulate your nervous system and stress response, and create longer-term healing. And dare I say…find some joy in the process!

This is incredibly special to me, as it’s the culmination of years of experience as a patient myself, as well as moving through patient advocacy circles and creating a platform for deeper, more nuanced discussion of the impact of various systems of oppression — as well as of release and freedom. So much of our success has to do with the stories we’ve chosen for ourselves. Are you ready to choose something new…and to thrive?

Follow @chroniccoachlauren and check uninvisiblecoaching.com for updates!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

IMPACTFUL IN MY JOURNEY:

1) My support system — beyond just family, including friends and loved ones. (And even if you think you don’t have one, there’s opportunity to create it!) Add to that my endless sense of wonder, so I’ve learned to appreciate this on a very deep and loving level!
2) My inner knowing — and learning to connect to my intuition and to hear my inner voice. Learning what my body needs, and that every pain or setback was actually my body asking for help. The opportunity to change. So I could learn to support myself in new, deeper ways.
3) My spirit of activism. This is a big one! When there is injustice to fight against, I get LIT UP. Not that I want injustices to persist! But that I am responsive to them on both a personal and professional level. At the center of fighting injustice, I believe that stories can change our world for the better or for the worse. And we have choices to make about the stories we tell ourselves, as well as the stories we are willing to tolerate…or commit to changing, for ourselves AND for others.

ADVICE: Let me give you some quotes that I always return to, as well as some other tidbits 😉

– “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb, and my personal motto
– “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison
– “What you resist, persists.” – Unknown (I think!?)
– “Life will present you with people and circumstances to show you where you’re not free.” – Peter Crone
– practice detaching from outcomes & releasing your story, especially if it tells you that you’re unworthy or unlovable in any way, shape, or form

And a few things I have hanging at my desk:

– “Go out and put good things into the world.” — or, as my friends say, do good karma

– “It’s a damn good day to give a damn.”

– “The question is not ‘Will you find your wings?’ It’s ‘What are you going to do with all those magnificent feathers?'”

– “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

– The guest house: by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Last but not least: keep yourself surrounded by inspiration; learn what vibrates high and low for you, and stay the course!

How would you describe your ideal client?

My ideal client is someone ready and excited to embrace change, look honestly at their behaviors, and choose a new story. They are motivated by something meaningful, heart-centered, open, and radically transparent. They are leaning into self-acceptance and willing to do the hard work. They want to lead with love. And they are ready for a guide on the side to usher them through to a new way of being in the world, showing up for themselves and others, and deeply committed to their future health.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://uninvisiblecoaching.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chroniccoachlauren
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chronicillnessfreedom/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chroniccoachlauren/
• Other: uninvisiblepod.co or wherever you listen to podcasts 🙂