Lyme Resilience Collective

10/22/2026

🍂 5 Tick Facts for Fall! 🍂

Fall adventures are beautiful, but ticks don’t disappear when summer ends! 🍁🕷️

In this series, we’re sharing five important tick prevention tips, from protecting your pets and treating clothing to what you should know if you find an attached tick.

🔬 Did you know you can send ticks in for testing? Some resources include, TickReport.com, TickCheck.com, and PA Tick Lab. Take clear photos of the tick that you can share with your healthcare provider, and consider submitting it to a tick testing service above. Remember, tick testing does not diagnose or rule out an infection in a person.

⚠️ If you need to remove a tick:
• Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp it as close to your skin as possible.
• Pull upward with steady, even pressure.
• Do not use essential oils, heat, or a lit match to try to remove it.
• Remove the tick as soon as possible.

If you plan to submit a tick for testing, follow the lab’s instructions for proper storage and submission rather than flushing it or throwing it away.

💚 What should you do after a tick bite?

We encourage people to consult ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) for clinical recommendations for adults and children and speak with a knowledgeable healthcare professional about appropriate next steps. Early evaluation can be important, even if symptoms have not yet appeared.

🍁 Have additional tick prevention tips or helpful resources for our community? Share them in the comments! Feel free to include links to trusted resources so we can all learn from one another.

📌 Save this post for your next fall adventure, and share it with friends and family. The more we know about tick prevention, the better equipped we are to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our pets!

10/22/2026

Six years ago, when I first began my Brainspotting journey, I had many dreams. Last month, I finally got to live one of them. 🏜️✨

I drove myself to Sedona, Arizona, to assist at a Phase One Brainspotting Training alongside mental health professionals and healers from all over the country. Something I had dreamed about for years became a reality, and I still find myself reflecting on just how much this experience meant to me.

Joy Myong is a beautiful facilitator, and this training was unlike anything I could have imagined. It didn’t feel like a typical training. It was deeply experiential, holistic, and immersive. It was an experience I know I will carry with me for the rest of my life, even if I never quite find the words to explain it.

I know one thing for certain: I came as one person and left another. 🥹

For six days, I got to experience the beauty of being in person, learning and teaching alongside others, sharing space, and feeling a sense of community that means more to me than words can express. There is something so powerful about being surrounded by people who understand the depth of this work and the heart behind it.

I love assisting at Phase One trainings because people often arrive curious, and sometimes even skeptical, and then witness firsthand just how powerful this modality can be. Seeing participants become excited to bring Brainspotting back to their clients and share it with their coworkers is truly heartwarming.

And in addition to all of the Brainspotting content we learned, the entire experience supported us on so many levels. We stayed at Sedona Margo, a beautiful Korean-owned wellness retreat center that created such a peaceful and nourishing environment for the training.

We were provided with three healthy, delicious meals each day, thoughtfully prepared around food restrictions. They even accommodated my SIBO recovery, which meant so much to me and allowed me to fully participate without having to worry about whether my body would be supported.

Our mornings included sunrise yoga, tai chi, qigong, movement practices, mindfulness, and breathwork. These practices helped us connect with our bodies, regulate our nervous systems, and arrive more fully each day. The training wasn’t just something we learned intellectually. It was something we experienced through our minds, bodies, hearts, and spirits.

As someone who has spent years on her own healing journey, getting to be on the other side of the room, supporting others as they begin theirs, was incredibly special.

This experience reminded me that sometimes the dreams we carry for years are leading us toward something even more beautiful than we could have imagined. 💚 It’s okay that my health renewal has been taking time. It took a long time to get as sick as I was and I’m so proud of my body.

I have so many more reflections to share, but for now, I’m just feeling incredibly grateful that I got to be there.

Sedona, you were something special. The people I met, even more so. 🌵✨

More reflections coming soon. 🤍

10/19/2026

Season of Giving 2026 ✨
A Lyme Resilience Collective Giving Initiative

For the past two years, the Lyme Resilience Collective community has come together to support families in need during the holidays, and your kindness has made a real difference. This year, we would love to come together again to support families in our community who are experiencing financial hardship or navigating difficult circumstances related to Lyme and tick-borne illness, mold exposure, displacement, and other health-related challenges.

Through our Season of Giving Project, we will be selecting a few families in need to receive support through personalized Amazon wish lists created just for them. Our goal is to help provide resources, ease some of the financial burden, and bring a little extra comfort to families navigating difficult circumstances during the holiday season.

The need is real, and so is the love we have for our community. 🎁

💚 How you can help:
• Nominate a family or yourself to be considered for this year’s project
• Share this post to help us reach individuals and families who may benefit from additional support
• Join us in November when the wish lists go live and help make the holidays a little brighter! If you would like to donate, you can email us at [email protected] starting today.

This holiday project is inclusive of all backgrounds, faiths, and traditions, honoring the shared values of compassion, generosity, and resilience that unite us all.

🕯️ Submissions are open until November 2, 2026.

Families selected will be contacted privately before their wish lists are shared publicly, and only with their permission.

To help ensure that support reaches families genuinely in need, the Lyme Resilience Collective will request basic verification of household members or family circumstances. This helps us prevent fraudulent submissions and maintain fairness for our community. All information shared will remain private and confidential.

❄️ You can be a family of one, too! Individuals are welcome to nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else.

👉 Link to nominate: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxP0Fhz66aCM6xZ98MQEB6t6ke6SEfnSDpqaqN44YsFGyr7A/viewform

10/16/2026

🎃 If Spirit Halloween made a Lyme disease patient costume…💚

The costume may be fictional, but the experiences behind it are very real.

Years of misdiagnoses. Dozens of unexplained symptoms. Environmental and chemical sensitivities. Out-of-pocket treatment expenses. Disability claims denied. And the emotional toll of navigating an illness that is often misunderstood.

For many individuals living with Lyme disease and other complex chronic illnesses, these challenges are part of everyday life.

I chose to include my own photo because this advocacy is personal. I've experienced many of these realities firsthand, and I know I'm far from alone.

But there's something else I want people to see beyond the symptoms, medical bills, and barriers to care.

The extraordinary strength of the people navigating them.

People who continue to advocate for themselves despite being dismissed. People who adapt to circumstances they never imagined facing. People who continue searching for answers, building community, and finding meaningful ways to live.

And while that resilience deserves recognition, our strength should never be used as a reason to overlook the support, understanding, and accessible care we deserve.

This Halloween, I'm using a familiar seasonal trend to bring visibility to experiences that too often remain invisible.

Because behind every diagnosis is a person. A story. A life that matters.

💚 One of the strongest people you'll ever meet may be fighting a battle you cannot see.

Let's continue turning awareness into understanding, compassion, and meaningful change.

10/13/2026

⚠️💫Living with chronic illness can make staying connected feel harder, but connection doesn’t have to look the same for everyone.

When someone is living with chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease, or another chronic illness, even the simplest plans can take more energy than people realize. Limited energy doesn’t mean someone wants to be forgotten or left out. Sometimes, it just means we need to find different ways to show up. 🫂

Here are 3 practical ways to stay connected with someone you care about, even when their health challenges limit what they can do.

✨ Small gestures can make a big difference. A little flexibility, understanding, and consistency can remind someone that they still matter, even when they can’t show up the way they used to.

💌 Share this with someone who might need these ideas, or save it as a reminder that connection is still possible, even when chronic illness changes what it looks like.

10/12/2026

🏡⚠️ Be informed!

Stay and fix it, or start over somewhere new?

If you've dealt with mold in your home, you've probably asked yourself this. Nik and Olivia Stophel did too.

It started on moving day. The movers pulled out the fridge without fully turning off the water line, and within 24 hours, water had spread under the floors, behind the cabinets, and past the living room.

That leak was only the beginning. As they opened up walls, they found more water damage, other problem areas, and mold in places they never expected. They had every reason to walk away.

For them, the deciding factor was knowing what's behind the walls.
A different house might look perfect, but you won't know what's hiding in it until you look.

Today, Nik is a certified mold inspector, and his advice is the same no matter which home you choose: get a thorough inspection, even if you think you've already found every problem.

Have you ever had to decide whether to stay or move? What helped you decide? 👇

▶️ Watch or listen to the full interview at the link in the comments.

10/08/2026

JOIN TODAY! There’s still time to register & join the Tick-borne Illness, Global Summit! 💻🌎
This amazing virtual event has started and everyone attending is in for a treat with all the amazing guest speakers! ✨💚💫

Come learn, invite family and/or friends, and see what resources are available for our community.

You aren’t alone.

The Tick Chicks 📢📢

09/28/2026

💚 In Loving Memory of Michelle DuBois 🕊️

Our Lyme Resilience Collective community is heartbroken over the sudden and tragic loss of our fellow Lyme warrior, Michelle DuBois.

Michelle and her husband, Scott, were tragically killed in a head on crash in Reno after being struck by a wrong way driver who was driving under the influence. Their beloved dog, **Kimba**, who Scott had rescued, also lost her life in the crash. Their other dog, Lyka, survived.

Michelle was a beloved wife, mother, friend, and fellow Lyme warrior. While we mourn the loss of Michelle, we are also holding so much love for Scott, their two children, their family, their friends, and everyone whose life was touched by them. The loss of two parents and Kimba in such a sudden and devastating way is an unimaginable heartbreak.

Tonight, Lyme Resilience Collective will be holding a moment of silence for Michelle, Scott, and Kimba, as well as everyone grieving their loss. 🕊️💚

To Michelle’s family, their children, their friends, and all who knew and loved Michelle and Scott, we are sending you so much love. We hope you can feel the embrace of this community surrounding you during this incredibly painful time.

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️Their family is also facing the immediate financial burden of funeral expenses and other costs following this devastating loss. If you are able, please consider supporting their GoFundMe or sharing it with others. Every donation and share can help Michelle and Scott’s children as they navigate the uni[GoFundMe for the DuBois Family](https://gofund.me/22b266d9f

Thank you for taking the time to read this and honor the lives that were taken too way soon.