A Friend for the Long Haul: A Long Covid Podcast

Welcome back to A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! I have wanted to have Olivia Belknap on this podcast for a long time, and I'm so glad we finally made it happen! Even though I was terribly late and embarrassed lol - Olivia was so kind and gracious!Olivia is a marriage and family therapist in California working with neurodivergent, chronically ill, COVID-conscious, and queer folks...basically all our favorite people. She's also a long hauler herself, which means this conversation is honest, specific, and zero percent "have you tried going outside more?"We talk about what it actually means to find a therapist who understands long COVID and chronic illness, and what it costs your nervous system just to get through a single day. We talk about why the therapeutic relationship matters more than any modality, more than EMDR, more than IFS, and why compartmentalizing your COVID consciousness in a session that's supposed to feel safe defeats the whole purpose.We also get into the messier stuff: the overlap of neurodivergence and chronic illness, interoception and why so many of us are simultaneously dissociated and hyperaware, the boom and bust burnout cycle, complex pandemic trauma, and the very specific exhaustion of being a chronically ill therapist who conducts sessions from the couch during a POTS flare while helping other people regulate their nervous systems.Olivia is also doing really important work to educate other clinicians because she doesn't think you should have to spend your session time teaching your therapist what long COVID is. That is not what you're there for.Topics covered:COVID-informed and COVID-conscious therapyLong COVID and mental healthFinding a therapist who understands chronic illness and disabilityThe overlap of neurodivergence and long COVIDInteroception, alexithymia, and body disconnectionComplex pandemic trauma and ongoing relational traumaPacing, burnout, and nervous system regulation for chronically ill peopleDynamic disability and how symptoms present in therapyBarriers to accessing therapy as a chronically ill personEMDR, IFS, and trauma-informed care for long haulersThe COVID-conscious therapist directoryPOTS, MCAS, ME/CFS, and neurodivergent-affirming careMentioned in this episode:Olivia Belknap: @oliviabelknaptherapy on Instagram | oliviabelknaptherapy.comBeyond Fatigue and Brain Fog: Help for Today's Cognitive and Health Issues: presentation through the Chicago School of Psychology with Olivia Belknap, Erin Batali, and Kate McNultyThe COVID-Conscious Therapist DirectoryDisability Visibility by Alice WongInternal Family Systems (IFS) | EMDR📞 The Long Haul Line: 720-432-9368 - You can leave a message or text this number anytime - leaving questions, messages, or guest suggestions📧 Email: [email protected]📬 Substack: f4lh.substack.comA Friend for the Long Haul is a low budget/high love production made by a disabled woman. If it means something to you, share it with someone whose earballs need it.If you'd like to help me keep the podcast going, you can:get your Amazon staples through my Storefrontgrab me something I could use from my Amazon Wish ListPurchase some long covid gear through my online store, where I sell tshirts, mugs, bags, etcCheck out my long covid stickers for sale

Welcome to season 4, episode 3 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! What was supposed to be a quick 10-to-15-minute chat turned into three hours. I am not sorry.CW: We do discuss topics such as medical trauma and gaslighting, the Faces of Covid Victims project, and the fear that wells up when folks in your support group don’t post for a while.I got to sit down with Emerson and Jessie from the COVID Long Haulers Podcast and at the end, I announced that I’m adopting them. We talked for so long that what you're hearing is just my portion of the conversation, and it still clocked in at an about an hour. That tracks.We talked about how both of our podcasts started: out of desperation, out of Discord servers, out of needing to find even one other person who understood what it felt like when plain water dehydrates you, or when your symptoms are so bizarre and so new that you don't have words for them yet. We talked about what it costs to do this work when you're homebound, bedbound, or running on borrowed spoons. And we talked about something that I think about a lot, which is what it actually means to be witnessed. Not fixed or reassured or told be positive. Just truly seen by someone who says: that sounds really hard.We clearly didn't want this conversation to end. I hope you feel the same way while listening to it.This is a Long COVID Awareness Month episode about grief, gallows humor, knitted activist vests, and the community that keeps showing up when everyone else kind of backs into the bushes like Homer Simpson.Topics covered:Long COVID community and patient-led advocacyIsolation, online support, and the limits of our abled friends and familyMedical gaslighting Grief, mortality, and bearing witnessPrivilege and representation in patient storytellingDysautonomia, POTS, MCAS, ME/CFS, and medication sensitivityCommunity-sourced treatment knowledge (we talk about meds that have and have not worked for us - always consult your doctor before trying anything new!)Co-hosting a podcast while chronically illRELEVANT LINKS:As a Linguist, I want to find the words to measure chronic illness by M. Corvi in The Sick TImesCovid Long Haulers Podcast Support Discord📞 The Long Haul Line: 720-432-9368, call or text anytime 📧 Email: [email protected]📬 Substack: f4lh.substack.comA Friend for the Long Haul is a low budget/high love production made by a disabled one-woman operation. If it means something to you, share it with someone whose earballs need it. You can support this podcast by buying long covid merch from my shop, buying your goods via my Amazon Storefront, or sending helpful stuff from my Amazon wishlist.

What does it really mean to be supported when you're living with Long Covid? In this special community episode, I share stories submitted by long haulers, caregivers, and allies...real voices answering questions about isolation, chosen family, and the kind of help that actually helps.Contributors include Dr. Julia Moore Vogel, pacing buddy extraordinaire Katrina Dreamer, Nina Storey, Katherine Fox, and members of the Covid Long Haulers podcast Discord, (Thank you to Emerson, Jessie, Mika, Vic, Kai, Robyn, Joyce, Jojo, and more) along with a handful of anonymous long haulers who remind us that sometimes the people who understand us most are the ones whose legs we've never seen.This episode explores what it looks like when community shows up: friends attending doctor's appointments to combat medical gaslighting, online friends building their own Covid-conscious community across Switzerland, a rental cat named Katja who has thoughts about pacing, and two little boys - Ellis and Holden - who became besties on PlayStation because their moms both have Long Covid and, as Ellis put it, "we understand each other."Contributors also talk about what people get wrong when they try to help, and what "let me know if you need anything" actually sounds like to someone who's already been fighting for their life for years.This is an episode about what we've built together. Not in spite of this illness, but because of it.Topics covered include:Long COVID community and chosen familyIsolation and online support for long haulersWhat caregivers and loved ones get wrong about supportCovid-conscious community buildingPeer support, pacing buddies, and mutual aidChildren of long haulers finding connectionLong Covid Awareness Month 2026Mentioned or featured in this episode:The Covid Long Haulers Podcast (Emerson & Jessie)Dr. Julia Moore VogelNina Storey (singer-songwriter & long hauler)Katrina Dreamer (my pacing buddy, ep. 1, season 2 & season 3)Lissy Donovan (long hauler and business owner, ep. 9, season 3)@alecbradburyfnp, @_jemma_bella, @dougieslifewithmecfs📞 The Long Haul Line: 720-432-9368! Call or text to share a story, suggest a guest, or just say hi!📧 Email: [email protected]📬 Substack: f4lh.substack.comI'm also on Instagram.A Friend for the Long Haul is a low budget/high love production made by a disabled one-woman operation. If it means something to you, share it with someone whose earballs need it. Thank you!

Season 4 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast is here! We're starting where it all begins: with each other.CW: in this episode, we do discuss depression, medical trauma, suicidal ideation, and suicide. In this first episode of the new season, I sit down with Kathleen Banks, a health systems researcher and Long Covid patient, for a conversation about something none of us planned for: finding our biggest cheerleaders and chosen family in our pockets.We talk about "pocket friends," - what Kathleen calls the people living in your phone who already know how you feel, who you can reach out to when a symptom scares you at 2am and, who don't need an explanation if you have to cancel a FaceTime. We explore how so many of us arrived on social media not necessarily looking for friends, but for validation, and found so much in each other. We also get into the real cost of being sick in America. It's not just co-pays and premiums, but the fancy expensive bandages you need because of MCAS, and the $77 supplements that you go without because you have to pay your phone bill so you don't lose access to your lifelines. We also discuss community care: what it looks like when you can just send someone money, no questions asked, because you know what it is to need it, or when strangers send your kids more birthday gifts than their grandparents do.Kathleen also shares her work training public health researchers in trauma-informed methods for interviewing Long Covid patients and why she used episodes of this very podcast to supplement her work. We talk about disability justice, the particular grief of Long Covid Awareness Month, and what it means to still be here, building something remarkable out of what's left.Oh, and somewhere in the middle of that, we talk about moss. I'm girl moss, not a girl boss.This is the first episode of my Long Covid Awareness Week series. Season 4 is about community - the ways we've been discarded, and about what we've built for each other anyway. We're still here because of us. My call for listener feedback on community was so well-heeded that this "episode" is being split into several parts that will all be released this week. More information about Kathleen, my beloved wife:Kathleen Banks is a health systems researcher with expertise on patient-physician relationships; systems thinking; patient advocacy; and dignity in healthcare. She specializes in the translation of evidence, high-level policies, and systems decisions at the point of care. Ms. Banks has worked with policymakers and officials from the grassroots to the global level, and uses that experience to bridge understanding on how to design and implement effective programs and policies .Ms. Banks is currently finishing her Doctor of Public Health degree at Boston University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on access to patient-centered healthcare for people living with Long COVID. Ms. Banks has been a member of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative since 2024.You can listen to the Long Covid Theme Songs Playlist on Spotify. It's full of songs from people who have joined me on the podcast. Each song represents some aspects of that guest's long covid experience. You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, and on my Substack, called Haulin' Ass.A Friend for the Long Haul is produced by a disabled Long Covid patient. Support community care through my Bonfire shop or my Amazon wishlist, or make purchases for your everyday items through my Amazon Storefront.

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 13 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! In this episode, I got to connect with Heather Schulte. Heather is the powerhouse behind Stitching the Situation. From her website: "Stitching the Situation is a continuation of artist Heather Schulte’s textile work, Situation Report, a daily cross-stitch documentation of the coronavirus case and death counts in the U.S. from Jan 20-June 25. The Situation Report panels began as the artist’s way to record cases in the US, and translate them visually with stitch. "We discuss a unique art exhibition called "It Comes in Waves," centered around the impacts of COVID-19. Set in The People's Building, an art gallery located on the east side of Aurora, Colorado, Heather took me on a tour of the displayed art pieces, which include drawings, dye sublimation prints, and masks. The exhibition, organized by Heather, features a mix of personal stories and collective experiences related to living with Long Covid. Special attention is given to the ‘Stitching the Situation’ project, which involves community participation in cross-stitching data and personal stories onto cloth. The discussion also highlights the incorporation of art from incarcerated individuals, collaborations with other artists, and the logistical challenges of managing such a significant project. I'm absolutely thrilled that this podcast is included in the exhibit. I called my portion "A Life Redacted," and it is made up of excerpts of episodes with words redacted from the transcripts. It Comes in Waves illustrates the power of art in documenting and processing collective trauma. Heather, you are amazing, thank you for all the work you do!You can find Heather on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/stitchingthesituation/ and https://www.instagram.com/heatherdschulte/Press for It Comes in Waves includesThis feature from Visit DenverA review from DARIA Art MagazineOne woman’s method for coping with COVID turned into a 5-year art project, now on display in AuroraArt Show It Comes in Waves Brings Long COVID Stories to LightFrom Denver Westword: Running through December 30, It Comes in Waves invites viewers to consider what happens when a crisis slips from public view but its consequences remain. Supported by an INSITE Fund grant from RedLine Contemporary Art Center, the project builds on artist Schulte’s ongoing initiative Stitching the Situation, a national effort to document the human toll of COVID-19 through collective textile work.