5 Tools to Become the CEO of Your Healing Process

How to quiet the noise, trust yourself, and take ownership of your recovery

“I know this sounds crazy, but it will heal him in no time.”

My eager naturopath friend was calling from California, adding her advice to the mountain of suggestions my husband and I were receiving as we tried to help him manage his autoimmune disease.

“You need to start keeping bees,” she told me steadily. “And you need to have him stung once a day.”

That was it. That was the moment my husband and I looked at each other and realized: the advice had gone too far.

Everyone had an opinion. Everyone had a theory. Everyone had something we must try.

I want to share with you the best advice we received. It came from a neighbor’s father, who was a retired neurologist. He told us, “Listen to all the advice, but take it with a grain of salt. Ask plenty of questions. And remember that, in the end, you are the CEO of your body.”

My husband took that advice to heart. He continued to seek out experts, ask questions, and try different approaches, but he stopped looking for someone else to tell him exactly what to do. He learned to trust himself as the decision-maker in his own recovery—and that mindset served him well over the years.

I've been working with clients for more than a decade, helping them navigate and heal from mind-body symptoms. And I've seen the same pattern again and again: people who are already overwhelmed by their symptoms can become even more frazzled, exhausted, and confused when they encounter the seemingly endless ideas about how to get better.

Learning that your symptoms are neuroplastic can be an enormous relief. Finally, you may have an explanation, and hope for recovery. But then comes the next question:

What am I supposed to do?

You discover nervous system regulation, graded exposure, somatic tracking practices, meditation, exercise, journaling, therapy, coaching, books, apps, podcasts, and online communities, oh my. You hear the success stories and want that for yourself. Wait, did someone really heal from 10 years of migraines after reading one book?! What did they do? Because I need to replicate it!

Before long, the search for the perfect recovery strategy can become its own source of stress. Sound familiar?

This is where the CEO comes in. Being the CEO of your healing process doesn’t mean knowing exactly what to do, controlling every symptom, or finding the one perfect treatment.

It means gathering information without becoming overwhelmed by it. Listening to experts without handing over your power. Experimenting without demanding certainty. And, most importantly, leading yourself with compassion along the way.

So consider this your acceptance letter, inviting you to step into the CEO role of your healing journey. Congrats! I’m excited for you.

Here are five tools to help you quiet the noise, trust yourself, and take ownership of your healing process.

1. Know your mission

In the first session, I always ask my clients about their goals. Pretty much everyone gives me the same answer: “I want to be out of pain (or symptoms).”

Of course you do! I want that for you too. But that can't be our only goal, because we don't have complete control over what the body does (but boy, I wish we did). What we can control is setting realistic, achievable goals like lowering anxiety, reducing fear, processing emotions in healthy ways, and taking the pressure off ourselves so we can function more freely.

One of my clients made it his entire mission to stop living a fear-based life. We focused on finding ways to trust people again after so many difficult relationships. At 53, he began learning to trust his own intuition for the first time. Anxiety and fear about an uncertain future had been crippling him, but he learned how to let go and accept what is. As his fear began to loosen its grip, his body relaxed, and over time, his pelvic pain began to ease, too.

His mission wasn’t to get rid of his pain. It was to build a life that wasn’t ruled by fear. The pain changing was a welcome bonus.

So, what is your mission? What can you work toward, regardless of what your symptoms are doing?

2. Build your advisory board

The mind-body world can be overwhelming, but it’s also full of wonderful resources. Find a few that you resonate with and start to build your support system. Choose advisors who leave you feeling more empowered and informed—not more afraid, confused, or dependent.

Your advisory board might include a doctor, therapist, coach, author, podcast host, online community, or even a friend who has been through something similar. You don't need everyone on your board. In fact, having too many voices can make it harder to hear your own.

I have a client who has tailor-made her support system with Curable groups and Insight Timer meditations. She realized she couldn’t listen to everyone and needed to narrow it down to the resources that helped her the most. Once she stopped jumping from one source to another, she had more space to actually practice what she was learning.

I often encourage my clients to notice how they feel after consuming information. Do you feel hopeful and empowered? Curious and motivated? Or anxious, overwhelmed, and convinced you need to add another five things to your recovery routine? Pay attention to that. Your reaction is information, too.

And remember, your advisory board doesn't have to stay the same forever. You might need different support at different stages of your journey. It's okay to take someone off the board if their advice no longer serves you—and it's okay to add someone new when you need a different perspective.

I'm actually proud when a client tells me they've outgrown me and are ready for a new direction to deepen their healing journey. It means they're listening to their intuition and trusting themselves to know what they need next.

Gather information, but remember: advisors advise. You make the decisions.

3. Experiment instead of searching for certainty

Whenever I have a client try a new tool, I tell them to have fun with it. Try it out, take the pressure off, and see what happens. It might work, it might not. It might work one day and not the next, and then it might work the following week again.

I was recently under a lot of stress with an international move, and I was having all sorts of crazy pain symptoms popping up all over my body. Tools like somatic tracking, which had worked for me before, weren’t cutting it. I was frantic and felt like I didn’t have time to journal or meditate.

So I made up a new game for myself. I call it the Symptom Freeze Frame Game. When a symptom starts, I say to myself, “Oh, goody!” and then I work very hard to keep it the same. I try to freeze it for as long as possible. Tricking my mind into thinking I was excited about the symptom and that I wanted it to stay often resulted in it changing or dissipating rather quickly.

Even though there are experts in this space telling you what tools to use, remember that you are allowed to invent your own tools, too.

4. Don't micromanage

Nobody likes being micromanaged. Whenever someone is looking over my shoulder and micromanaging every little thing I do, I not only make more mistakes, but I also want to scream and run away.

The same thing can happen when you micromanage your recovery.

You might wake up and immediately check your symptoms. You analyze every sensation, wondering what it means. You spend the day evaluating whether yesterday's meditation helped, whether you walked too much, whether that twinge means you're getting worse, or whether you should try a different technique. Suddenly, instead of living your life, you're managing your symptoms all day long. And nobody is paying you to do that full-time job! 

Try stepping back. You don't need to monitor your recovery every minute to make progress. Give yourself permission to have a bad day without deciding what it means. You can notice a symptom without investigating it. You can try something without judging whether it worked. 

A good CEO doesn't hover over every decision. They set the direction, trust their team, and adjust when needed. Your job isn't to micromanage every moment of your healing. It's to create the conditions that allow you to move forward.

5. Lead yourself with compassion

After doing this work for more than a decade, there is a reason I always make self-compassion a priority: because it helps us move forward. When we are hard on ourselves, we can become paralyzed. When we lead ourselves with compassion, we think more clearly, operate more efficiently, and enjoy life more.

Nobody wants to work for a terrible boss who berates them for making mistakes. Be the compassionate, encouraging, and loving boss you’d want to work for.

When I left my job in television to go back to grad school in my thirties, I was given my first client at the VA just three weeks in. She was a 55-year-old Black, unhoused veteran with PTSD and military sexual trauma. I was terrified.

My mind was on repeat:

You are in over your head. You are going to say the wrong thing. You know nothing about how to handle any of this. You might mess her up even more.

Thankfully, I was reading Kristin Neff’s book, Self-Compassion, at the time. I gave myself a new script and said it over and over again like it was my job:

Rachel, you are not always going to say the right thing. You’re not perfect. But you love people, and you’re here for the right reasons. I’m so proud of you.

Eventually, I was able to get on my own team and stop stressing so much. Showing myself that compassion and encouragement allowed me to actually show up and be present with her. It turned out to be one of my favorite client relationships of my career.

When you’re on your own team, the possibilities are endless.

So, my friend, I wish you well in this new role. Feel free to add “CEO” to your LinkedIn profile. This is your opportunity to take back your power. I believe you’re strong and capable of navigating this. And if none of this advice works, remember: you can always try the bees.