This week Blair and Theresa welcome Jana Kapp to Dissecting Success. Jana shares her incredible evolving journey to embrace all of herself while recovering from concussions, which ultimately led her to becoming her soul self. This discovery shifted her feelings on healing by changing her perspective from external to internal. Jana was caught up in the should of “how to be” but there was a voice that kept coming up saying “you are not living the way you desire”.  This launched her into starting her Holistic Concussion Support Coach business. Although concussions are a form of brain injury, the symptoms are not only physical but emotional as well.  A functional MRI isn’t commonly available, so it is important to learn to trust and get to know yourself! 

About the Guest:

Jana Kapp MScPT, BSc Kin, is a Holistic Concussion Support Coach. 

She has a neuroscience background in Physiotherapy and Kinesiology and has personally healed from 3 Concussions and lived with PTSD and Post Concussion Symptoms for 7 years. She has been symptom free since 2018. 

As a Holistic Concussion Support Coach she guides you through your own unique recovery by marrying the physical aspects of healing ( Brain and Body) with the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects (Mind and Soul) of healing. 

Through her background in Neuroscience and Human Design, she supports you in understanding your brain, mind, emotions and energy to realign with your true essence so you can feel like yourself again and return to the life you truly desire to live. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465866978342445 https://www.instagram.com/intuitive.concussion.support/

About the Hosts:

Blair Kaplan Venables is an expert in social media marketing and the president of Blair Kaplan Communications, a British Columbia-based PR agency. She brings fifteen years of experience to her clients which include global wellness, entertainment and lifestyle brands. She is the creator of the Social Media Empowerment Pillars, has helped her customers grow their followers into the tens of thousands in just one month, win integrative marketing awards and more. 

Blair is listed in USA Today as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch in 2022 and Yahoo! listed Blair as a top ten social media expert to watch in 2021. She has spoken on national stages and her expertise has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur and Thrive Global. Blair is an international bestselling author and has recently published her second book, ‘The Global Resilience Project.’ She is the co-host of the Dissecting Success podcast and in her free time, you can find Blair growing The Global Resilience Project’s community where users share their stories of overcoming life’s most difficult moments.

www.blairkaplan.ca

You ever wonder what success actually means?

How do you get it?

And how do you keep it?

We all want it yet sometimes it feels only some of us get to have it.

Hi, Teresa and Blair here we are to badass entrepreneurs, best selling authors, coaches and business mentors who have had success, built success, questioned our own success and reclaimed it. Let's be real for a hot minute. 2020 has been a roller coaster ride, and many of us a start to wonder if the loser things that made them successful. So we got curious, Ron real about what success is truly about?

Can you put it in a box?

How can you get it?

Can people take it away? Or are you the one with the power?

Does it mean the same to all of us? Or are we the ones that create it?

From PGA golf pros to doctors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and spiritual mentors. We get together to meet with successful people from around the globe to dissect success for vibrant conversations and interviews. Make sure you click the subscribe button on the app store because each week we will drop a new episode to buffer the myths around success and dissect its true meaning.

Welcome back to another episode of dissecting success. I'm Blair Kaplan Venables. I'm here with my fabulous co host Teresa Lambert, and the one and only Jana Kapp. I love Jana. I'm so excited that she's here today we started off her journey because she was my physiotherapist. Then we both learned that we each other were Jewish, and then she became one of my only Jewish friends and Pemberton and we developed a really beautiful friendship going on walks her physiotherapy with me and beyond. So I'm really excited because we have done so much growth together. And Jana is here with us today. Jana is a holistic concussion support coach. She has a neuroscience background in physiotherapy and kinesiology ad has personally healed from three concussions and live with PTSD and post concussion symptoms for seven years. She has been symptom free since 2018. And what I think is so fascinating is I met her after her concussions, and I was with her alongside her during this journey. So I love where she's at today. So as a holistic concussion support coach, she guides you through your own unique recovery by marrying the physical aspects of healing the brain and body with the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects, mind and soul of healing. She's absolutely brilliant. And I'm so honored today for her to be here. Hi, Jana.

Hi, Blair. Hi, Theresa. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so let's dive right in. What does success mean to you?

This is the best question. And it has changed so much, especially from listening to your podcast, I think to success when it came out what, like almost a year ago. So initially, I think Success for me was always about what I did. And now for me, success is more about a feeling and kind of more about how I feel on the inside from all these experiences that I'm getting engaging with in life.

I love that Jana. It's so nice when that shift occurs, from making success be the thing we experience when external things happen to actually it becoming an innate feeling that we can all tap into how did you end up getting, you know, experiences transformation, like what led you there?

It is a great question. It's been like this evolving process, I guess. It initially started with this shift for me and my own healing journeys with concussions. I was kind of caught up, especially from the physiotherapy perspective of, you know, what can I do to heal so that all the things that people could see, in terms of returning to work returning to sport, you know, being able to go to a restaurant, all those things with my concussions, I was so focused on the outer worlds, and I did use the physical aspects of healing. And it really did make shifts in my journey. But I didn't make this full recovery where I felt like myself again, even though I could go to work. I was still having symptoms, even though I could ski I was still not it didn't have a ton of energy and So I started to realize that to really heal, to feel like myself, again, I had to address all the aspects of who I am. And that does include the brain and the body. But I needed to also look at my mind, my thoughts, my patterns, my limiting beliefs, and really connect more to my true self, my essence, that soul, all of those aspects needed addressing for healing. And then it shifted for me out of this, what I could see what I was doing into more of this internal feeling of a being myself again. And that's when I really felt that I was healthy again, because I was me.

I love that. And that's so important. How did you know you, weren't you? And then how did you know you came back to yourself? Like, where was that transition that you realize I am not who I am, I don't recognize myself to you being comfortable or knowing who you are now, because who you are now is probably not who you were before the concussions?

Yeah, correct. Like I, this healing journey hasn't wasn't about going backwards, it was about moving forward. So there are still aspects of who I was prior to the injury that are still present. But there are deeper, more meaningful aspects of myself that are now more present in my life and how I live. For me, not knowing that I was myself was because when I was going through my journey, I was wild with anxiety, depression, and stress. And I just continued to hear this voice in my head going, I can't live like this anymore. And I was so caught up in the shoulds, of how to be in, you know, in the physio world of because at my concussions, I had one right before physio school and right after physio school. And so and concussions weren't as popular back then in terms of what information and research was available. So it was just trying to live my life, even though I was still experiencing all of this depression and anxiety. And I felt like I was at rock bottom, like this turmoil, and just that voice constantly, every so often would come up of I can't keep living like this anymore. And when I was allowed myself to really tune into that, that's when I started to realize like, I am just not living the life I desire. This is not a life, this is me on autopilot, just going through the motions. And I am not me anymore. It really changed how I approached my healing journey. And I really started to expose myself more to other people's healing journeys, not necessarily specific to concussions, because trauma, whether it's physical or emotional, we all kind of go through similar journeys. And we really do learn from each other when we share a story. So listening to other people's journeys, I saw aspects of my own story in that, and that and listening to what they did to heal and how they found their own unique way to healing encouraged me that there was a way for me to heal, I just had to tune into me to figure out what was going to be the right moves, and aspects and treatments and alternative therapies and all the things that would that I would find that would resonate for me for my healing.

That's so cool. Gianna. And you know, one thing that sort of came through for me, as you were talking is that so many of us were so wired off looking outside of ourselves for the solutions, especially when it comes to healing, right, like physical. But also like, I mean, it's always somewhat physical, even if it's not physical in the body, right, like, whether, you know, in your case, it was this healing journey from your concussion. But often, it's also we're like looking outside of ourselves to, you know, to, to get make more money, we're looking outside of ourselves to be able to build a business, like we're looking outside of ourselves for all these things, when so often, the real solution, the real deriva, that sort of the engine of all of it really is an internal connection that comes from there. So for you to be able to go through this. And you know, I feel like physically is especially because we're like, what's the pill we're going to have to take to fix us? What's the thing we're going to have to you know, take what's the food we're going to have to eat, what's the things but to really start to recognize, hmm, healing can only occur through outside sources for so long, and then that's when you When it stops, and the remaining healing and the magic really have also, I'm sure like coming back from a concussion, like, the hard thing is you can't physically see it, right. It's not like you have a, you know, a broken bone and you have to cast on. And then eventually you take the cast off, and you wiggle your wrist again, and you're like, you know, now my wrist feels like it's good. Again, I feel like because with a concussion, it's not a visible injury in that sense, this healing journey, I just think it's so fascinating that you, you tapped into it, and we're like, Hmm, there was a deeper layer to this, there was a deeper level of this, there is a depth required of myself, going to a new place, which is inside of us, not outside of us. And then also, using that inspiration of your own and that experience of your own to start to also realize that so many people around you in our stories are a reflection of what we experience and how much we can actually see within ourselves, when we allow to look at what we see and and take it back on. Like, it's like this, it almost feels like a bit of a dance, you know,

reflection. Yeah, and it's like it because it's a lived experience, right. And so it's more than just Oh, I like you said, like, I just do this exercise, I take this pill, I eat this, all of that is important to heal our physical bodies, for sure. But we often forget that our emotions, when we emotions are energy that want to move. And when we don't allow them to move, they get stuck in our bodies, and then can come out from a physical ailment. So I've noticed this in the clinic, myself, when I'm working on people's physical bodies that I'm like, I've been doing this over and over again, technically, this should be better, but it's not. And so maybe it's not a physical issue, maybe there's something emotionally that's stuck, preventing you from moving forwards. And so this was like this unique way of looking at it. Because if emotions can get stuck in the body, it's so much more bigger to just bend your knee, because you know, or be, you know, obviously, with my concussion at the beginning, like I couldn't walk for 15 minutes. And so being able to go for a walk and expose myself to that not walking, I wasn't going to get better to walk in. But the anxiety that I experienced to leave the house of who I was going to bump into out of the house that was still all of these emotions I wasn't addressing, and they needed that ability to move. And I think that that's what I started to learn witnessing other people's stories is that there was so much more to being human, that we're this holistic being and often in our western traditional medicine, they're just looking at the physical. And so we do get stuck and unlimited and getting to feel like ourselves again. And so being able to dive into that is really what shifted so much. And so listening to your podcast, when I really wanted to embark on this business journey, and help and support other people through this, I started to realize this is not just about healing, the feeling as well. This is about all the experiences in our lives, that it's about how I want to show up in my world, and engaging with other people, but it's about how I feel it's not about what I do what I say, like those things are important. But they when you show up from a feeling, then all of that other stuff falls into place. And you don't have to necessarily have to come from the logical mind where I spent so much of my life prior to my concussion of just in these shoulds. And this shift has just been so transformative for me.

So brilliant. I wanted to do a little like sidebar here, because we're talking lots about concussions. And I think nowadays we're a bit more aware of activities that can cause concussions. You know, I know I used to think you fall in hit your head, maybe you have a concussion, but I was in a car accident and I got a whiplash concussion. And I think a lot of people especially like living in a place like where you are in the whistler in the mountains. A lot of people do have hit it head to head injuries and they don't know. We maybe just like talk a little bit about concussions because you help people healing from their concussion journey but there's people walking around who have no idea they even have a concussion and I think we should just touch on that a bit. Because a I'd love people to dive into your world who maybe feel a certain way, like they might have a concussion.

Yeah, it's true. Like we do get very caught up again in the, what we can see. So if you fall and you hit your head, therefore you have a concussion. And before I kind of go into this, I'm going to say what I always like to say about concussions. So a concussion is a form of a mild traumatic brain injury. So it is a brain injury. However, not all mild traumatic brain injuries are concussions. So brain injuries are on a spectrum. And they kind of the hard part for concussions as you cannot see it, whether it's like from the physical person, but even in the medical world, they won't show up on CT scans or MRIs. And this is what really took me into more of the other bigger picture of addressing the aspect of healing from an emotional mind perspective, because a concussion affects the inner workings of your minds. So all of those neural pathways that you've created, since the day you were born, to the day you experienced, this injury has made you you. And that mechanism of injury, whether it's falling in hitting your head, getting whiplash, people experience concussions from loud like blasts. So explosions. You can get concussions from violent interactions. So if you're in an abusive relationship, there could be or blows to the head. If you already have an underlying concussion, that never really got a chance to properly heal, then that will lead you to become more vulnerable and susceptible to experiencing more concussions. So if you're, you know, I had a client once who got with a teacher, and a snowball hit her in the head, and that gave her like this full blown concussion. So there's, you do not need to hit your head, that mechanism that's going to cause your brain to move within your skull. That is enough. And that's where these neural pathways and connections they get stretched and frayed. And so they're affected. But we have no way of seeing this in the medical world. Unless maybe you have millions of dollars. And you take a functional MRI, you know that they do and research. That's really the only way. There is some interesting research coming out and evidence for blood markers to recognize concussions. So that's been working on coming up for a while now. So there's ways but really, that's why to me, it was so much more important about how I felt because there is no way to really see that concussion. And if you're feeling funky off like for me in the beginning my first two concussions, I had zero physical symptoms. I had no headaches, no dizziness, no nausea, no vomiting. All of mine were emotional symptoms. There was irritability. I was fatigued, so much exhausted. I had all of these crazy emotional outbursts. I wasn't thinking clearly I couldn't concentrate when I was in a restaurant like so. But I just assumed, okay, I just graduated physio school. I'm tired. Okay, that was a busy work day. It's been a busy few months, right? Like I always excused it, because I didn't hit my head. But I had these whiplash mechanisms from skiing, and didn't realize that yeah, like they were contributing to what I was feeling on the inside.

I I'm really happy that you're, you're good. And you're okay. And that you recognize that you had to do this healing because a lot of times businesses are born out of necessity, and that you did a lot of healing with yourself and the tools that you had, but also research and whatnot, but you didn't have someone guiding you through that. That's why you turned your experience into a business.

Yeah, so actually, after my third injury, when I was navigating it on my own and starting to get this information. And at that time, so this was around like 2015 It was research was coming out more courses were starting to be available, and I was starting to learn more. And there was actually what I wanted to do was run a concussion support group and another woman in the whistler area. She was an occupational therapist. Her name is Patricia Stroup and she also had brain injuries and concussions. And she had the same thought and I was working for a clinic and Whistler at the Time and they connected us. And so I was a participant in the beginning, and then became a co facilitator with her of this group. And when I finally connected to people who understood what I was going through, it made such a shift in how I felt about the experience of recovering from this injury. Because at first, I just thought I was a crazy person, I wasn't really sure if what I was feeling and thinking and doing was legit, but learning from each other and recognizing that, you know, we don't we everyone is an individual. So no two concussions will be alike, because no two individuals are alike. That's just how we view the reality of it. And so we may be all it's having our own unique experiences, but we're kind of navigating the same storm. So we relate to one another. But we're not ever going to be exact, like the things that worked for me may not work for someone else, but we can share and learn and try. And that's what I started to realize, because I had this knowledge from my physiotherapy background, that many people do not have the neuroscience background to understand the brain and body and their concussion recovery journeys. But I also recognize that I couldn't necessarily fit the box of the research and how it was meant to be, you know, how the, the exercises should go. And so when I was in the concussion support group, often people would say, well, Jenny, you really get it. Like my physio over here is saying, you have to do your exercises every day, I've done it up. But I knew that I couldn't do them every day, it was just not possible. And so this support aspect, and working with people really changed my recovery. And that's what really gave me the motivation to start this type of business of support. Because being alone in your journey is so scary and so isolating. And you can't explain that, like you just can't, it like there are no words. And so when you work with someone who has knowledge and concussion management, and then has the addition of a lived experience, it just completely changes it.

Jana, as you're talking, you know what you're like the prime example of an entrepreneur, who literally you needed something to happen for you. In this case, it was something unpleasant. A lot of concussions, okay. But you took that you, you brought it into your healing journey, you started to recognize, you know, as a physio, you, you started to recognize that there was more to healing than the physical, you brought in this emotional aspect, you heal yourself. And then you turn it into a business. And I love and I love when that happens. I love when that happens. And because so often, this may happen to us. But we don't dare to actually be like, hang on a second. There is something missing here, there is a missing piece, a missing link, there is a gap. In a healing journey, there is a gap in you know, business, there's a gap in whatever, right like Korea, like make it bigger, like whatever it is that people do. But I love that you through your own healing journey, recognize that other people saw it, and then you took matters in your own hands. And I know Glen is so blessed that we were able to support you because you were one of the first people who joined us for momentum. And it was amazing. And we were able to help you grow your business. And I love it so much. Because not only a you not only have you've gone through this, but you really created this business from such a depth of understanding. And I love that and I would love to just know for you to tell us how you know your experience and momentum and really bringing this to life has changed the way you work and has helped you start this business and how you're helping people now because, you know, I want to make sure our listeners also know how they can work with you.

Awesome. Yeah, momentum was definitely exactly what I needed to get my business going. I've I always had this desire in mind, but I never knew what to do. I didn't know I wasn't on social media at the time. I like I bet I'd probably been on Instagram for a handful of months just kind of getting to know it. I've never really been a fan of social media, I had taken a business course in my master's program for physiotherapy, but it was very directed to how to open a clinic. So, you know, I had an idea of how a business, you know, essentially should or could be run. But I had never done it before. And momentum was amazing, because it gave so many tangible ways of kind of how to set up your business and to understand more of the background of what you don't see online, that you see people posting things, or running classes or creating containers. But I didn't know how to get from my desire of wanting to do it, to actually doing it. And when I was contemplating signing up for a momentum, my husband actually was the one that was like, You keep talking about wanting to do this, if this is the thing that's going to like, give you basically the momentum, you need to get this going, then do it. And I'm so glad he said that. Because I have now, like, I had never been on my stories and talking prior to momentum. Now I do it every day. Like it just gave me so much confidence in how to show up in my business to make it not only tangible for me, but tangible for my clients. Because I really understood all these different aspects to the business and felt it gave me the confidence and the knowledge to be comfortable with it with social media, with putting myself out there and selling me selling my programs, and knowing so much more of what an online business can be about. And I yeah, I still go back to all of the modules, just to refresh myself and go back to it. And every once in a while think like, I think I feel like I want to take that again, because it was just so helpful. In those areas of business that I didn't, I didn't even know what I didn't know. And I walked away with so much knowledge. And I was like, I didn't even know I was gonna learn that. But this is so essential to running an online business. So yeah, I highly recommend momentum. And really, at any point, like it was a great starting point for me, but this is why it's like, Okay, I've evolved, my business has evolved to take that knowledge, again, would only just give me more and more momentum in my growth. So you may see me in momentum, you know, at some point again, down the road.

Like, you know, we'll have you V join, anytime. And we are starting one again in the fall. And it might be longer this time. So you know, it's not like you don't know where to find us. But thank you so much for sharing that. And, and you know, one thing that I and obviously, our listeners can't see you, but they can hear you. And I'm sure Blair will second this. But seeing your transformation, and seeing you run with things and seeing you starting to show up. And I know we were having conversations and I remember at one point you were doing this story, and you were shaking your hand. And you were like, oh my god, like as somebody with a concussion. Like it's really important that the image is still and I'm like, I don't even notice Jana. And like we I was like, you know, there was ways you can study it out, like put it down. And we were talking about different tools. And then what I loved about it too, Jana, like following you and seeing you and even like hearing you speak now compared to when you started that journey with us when you started your business and where you are now having speaking engagements, like getting your first client, like so exciting having this online presence being on this podcast, but you're also doing other really cool things is so so amazing, is just that I learned so much about concussions and what you do and it it that is the cool thing about bringing your gifts out into the world. And I love that you do that because similar to you, you know, having this realization off off, there was so many things I didn't even know that were happening and I didn't even know that knowledge existed and I needed I feel like that's so relatable to anyone listening who might have experienced a concussion who may still experience some of these emotional symptoms and who may not realize or recognize that that actually is related B because we like to compartmentalize things so much so so as you share this incredible, like success story with us and your kind words and like I absolutely, like we absolutely loved working with you, and we'd have you anytime again. What I was thinking too is like, this is the thing, right? Like, this is your gift, you show people, the holistic approach to healing of concussions just as bland, I help people with a holistic approach to their business. Right? So is, this is so cool, and I want to hire your husband as our salesperson. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm gonna, when, like people I'm sure will be interested in finding out more they may be as they are listening, knowing somebody who's had a concussion, what's a great place for them, to to find you.

Yeah, so um, one of my favorite places right now to be is Instagram. So I'm holistic concussions support, you can find me there or I have a free private Facebook group. And that's also holistic concussion support. So you can find me in those two places, or you can always email me at concussion healing space@gmail.com. And I do support obviously, individuals going through their personal unique journeys. But I also am starting to branch out a little bit more and support caregivers or spouses or people that are supporting other people in their journeys. You may not have a concussion yourself, but if you know someone, like if you're a parent, or you know, living with someone have a friend, and you're realizing because when you're in the actual journey yourself as a concussion individual, it's hard to reach out for support, it's hard to know, you're bombarded with all these symptoms. And so sometimes it's the people around you that might also desire that support to help you. So if you are listening, and you know of someone who has a concussion that you're supporting, and you feel like you desire support as well, come join us because you will learn and be able to. So it'll just encourage you and to feel confident to support other people in their journey as well.

So good at concussion healing space, that's where you find out, we'll also make sure that we drop all the links in the show notes as well. So make sure you check those out. So as we're wrapping up this incredible interview of you, Jana, what is one piece of advice that you would give somebody on the success journey, off healing from a concussion.

So the advice I would give someone is learn to trust yourself, learn to learn to get to know yourself, because it is about this inner world. And we are all individuals and unique and we should be celebrated for that. And when you get to know who you truly are, and The Good, the Bad, the Ugly like all of it, that's where you can become more of your holistic self. And I use human design as a tool to kind of help you to understand that because knowing how your energy is meant to be engaged, how your intuition is designed, how you know what strategies or things that you can use to be you. That is really the key to your success is getting to know yourself. So don't fear yourself in your healing journey and your business journey. Get to know yourself and trust. And it will do wonders for all of the experiences how do you show up in your world?

Powerful learn to trust and get to know yourself Jana, it's been such a joy having you on the podcast, it's been such a joy, just getting to know you and I'm so happy that we're able to help you get your message out through this podcast and into the world because what you do is so, so important. So even if you're not having a concussion or don't know, anyone who has a concussion you might want to check out Jana and follow her journey anyways because you never know when you're gonna need that support and all of us whether we have concussions or not I feel like get you know can learn to trust and know ourselves better to find that success. Thank you so much for sharing that play. I feel like you're dying to just say a few. I

just wanted to say thank you. Thank you so much for coming on this podcast and share your knowledge I think it's so Horton because Well, the fact that you turned like a personal experience into a business is really important because that's how a lot of businesses are created. And this story is an important story but also the work that you're doing is so important because I was constantly injured as a kid. My husband, he still doesn't wear a helmet when he skis and he's had it hit his head a few times. And it's interesting because, you know, the talk about concussions and normalizing brain injury conversations, you know, has really like led to understanding our relationship better my brain injuries, better things with his memory better and you know, I just want to you know, thank you for creating a space where we can have these conversations and for bailing being that concussion doula I love that. Yeah,

thank you so much. For like everything that you're saying these words just means so much to me. And I am just feel so blessed to be on this podcast. It was like the start of my journey listening to you guys and to be here now a year later is just the coolest thing. So thank you so much for having me on. I had a I really enjoyed our conversation. This has been awesome. We love to

two well, this is a wrap for another episode of dissecting success down. I thank you for being here. Everyone listening. Thank you for tuning in. Make sure you follow Jana if you're interested in working with Blair and I just hit us up on Instagram. Thank you so much, everyone. Janna go rock the world with what you do. We love you so much and peace that's a wrap for another episode of dissecting success. enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to blackout blonde Venables and Theresa Lambert's podcast dissecting success on the App Store.