Is stress making your pain worse, or is your pain elevating your stress? What if the answer is both?

This episode unpacks the powerful mind-body connection between chronic pain and mental health, bringing light to the invisible ways they interact. Because here’s the truth: mental health and physical health are deeply connected; and when one suffers, the other often does too.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, VSI Neurologist, Dr. Ella Akkerman, and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Yash Mehta, dig into the hidden ways emotional experiences like burnout, anxiety, grief, and trauma don’t just live in your head—they also echo throughout the body as tension, fatigue, migraines, chronic pain, and more.

Get ready to learn:

• How emotional distress can speak through the body as physical pain

• Why so many people suffer in silence, and how to change the narrative

• What real, healing conversations between doctors and patients can look like

• Actionable ways to care for both your mind and body—starting today

If you’re living in pain that no one seems to understand, this conversation offers clarity and validation and will arm you with practical tools to take the next step.

The body keeps score, and recognizing that connection is the first step toward experiencing relief.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Watch the full episode on YouTube by searching “VSI Spine”
For additional support and resources visit vsispine.com

It’s 2025, and women are still fighting to be believed, especially in medicine. From being told “it’s all in your head” to waiting years for a real diagnosis, many women know the silent sting of being dismissed. This experience has a name: medical gaslighting — and it’s more common than you might think.

In this powerful episode of Get Back to Your Life®, we meet Jakki, a VSI patient, mental health counselor, former athlete, and mother of three who endured 24 years of pain, misdiagnoses, and blatant medical dismissal. But Jakki refused to accept “there’s nothing wrong.”

Her story is a testament to persistence: when no one could explain her pain, she enrolled in radiology courses just to read her scans. Eventually, she found her answer — and her healing — through a diagnosis of Bertolotti Syndrome with Dr. Colin Haines at VSI.

This is a breakthrough story for women everywhere. Jakki’s comeback story is one of strength, self-advocacy, and breakthrough — not just in her body, but in a system that too often turns down the volume on women’s pain.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What medical gaslighting looks and feels like

• Why being dismissed can be so dangerous

• How to advocate for yourself in the healthcare system

• The signs that it’s time to seek a second opinion

• How persistence - and the right doctor - can change everything

Whether you, too, have been talked over, brushed off, or are still searching for your own answers, this episode will stay with you. This is a story about validation, self-advocacy, hope and most importantly….solutions. And it demands to be heard.

Listen now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

You can now watch this full episode on YouTube

Find additional expert resources & support at vsispine.com