The Concussion Nerds Podcast

Natasha Wilch
  • 4.4 (13)
  • MEDICINE
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Welcome to The Concussion Nerds Podcast, where we revolutionize concussion care! This show is for passionate clinicians who want to excel in their field, move clients from stuck to excelling, and celebrate life's moments. Join us as we bring you cutting-edge advancements, practical tips, and inspiring success stories. Together, we'll propel concussion care into a new era, blending science with heart and soul. Whether you're a seasoned pro, a fresh face, or an individual on their own healing journey, this podcast is your ultimate resource. Let's build a community that uplifts and empowers one another, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in concussion care. Get ready to laugh, learn, and grow with me, Natasha Wilch, on The Concussion Nerds Podcast!

  1. 9 HRS AGO

    EP 108: Navigating Concussion Recovery:The Nervous System's Role

    Are you trying to rehab vision, balance, or exercise tolerance… but secretly ignoring the one system that sets the ceiling for all of it? If you're a clinician piling on protocols without addressing nervous system state—or you're on a healing journey wondering why "all the right exercises" still flare your symptoms—you might be missing the foundation. Because no matter how advanced the intervention, if the nervous system feels threatened, it won't integrate change. And here's the hard truth: there is no 15-minute reset. No six-week magic switch. Nervous system regulation isn't sexy. It's consistent, daily work. But when you understand how state drives physiology, symptoms, and capacity, everything about concussion rehab starts to make more sense. In this episode, we explore how the nervous system truly sets the stage for recovery—through the lens of the Stephen Porges Polyvagal Theory—and why safety (or even just "okay-ness") must come before performance.     BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why concussion often leads to sympathetic dominance—and what that actually means physiologically The difference between ventral vagal (safety), sympathetic (mobilization), and dorsal vagal (shutdown) states Why you can't rehab peripheral vision, sound sensitivity, or vestibular symptoms effectively in a threat state How shifting from "I need to feel safe" to "I can feel okay" changes the entire recovery trajectory The nervous system isn't the side quest—it's the foundation. And when you start there, everything else becomes possible.         ​​Let's connect!   Instagram:  @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership

    28 min

  2. FEB 23

    EP 107: Why Doing Everything Right Still Feels Hard: A Concussion Journey

    Are you doing everything right for your concussion recovery… and still feeling like you're getting absolutely nowhere? You're booking the appointments. You're doing the exercises. You're cleaning up your sleep, your diet, your supplements. Maybe you're even adding breathwork and therapy on top of it all. And yet—you're exhausted, overwhelmed, foggy, and wondering why it still feels so dang hard. Here's the truth no one talks about: more rehab isn't always better rehab. When your nervous system is already overloaded, piling on every "right" intervention at once can actually slow you down. If you've ever felt lost, forgotten what your doctor told you, or like you're spinning in a hamster wheel of appointments with no progress—you are not alone. And you are not broken. In this episode, we're kicking off a brand-new season of Concussion Nerds by diving into the real reason recovery can stall: multi-system overload, siloed care, and a nervous system that simply doesn't have the capacity for it all—yet. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why "doing everything right" can still keep you stuck The hidden cost of siloed concussion care (and how it overwhelms your nervous system) Why information overload after concussion leaves so many people feeling lost How to recognize when it's time to pause, zoom out, and restructure your rehab plan If recovery feels harder than it should, this episode might just give you the permission—and the strategy—to do less, better.   Let's connect!   Instagram:  @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership

    20 min

  3. FEB 20

    Grounding into Earth Meditation

    Grounding into Earth Meditation Feeling overwhelmed or disconnected? This gentle meditation helps you slow down, release tension, and reconnect to steady, grounded strength. Through breath awareness and a visualization of roots growing into the Earth, you'll be guided to let heaviness melt downward while drawing calm, enduring support upward into your body. Repeat softly to yourself: I am supported. I am connected. It is okay to slow down. Come back to this practice anytime you need to feel steady, present, and held. The Earth is always here.   Let's Connect! @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership

    8 min

  4. FEB 2

    EP 106: Empowering Brain Health: A Conversation with Cognitive Protocol with Scott Thomson

    What if the symptoms you've been "living with" for years aren't something you have to accept at all? If you've ever been told to just shake it off, sit in a dark room, or wait out your concussion symptoms—chances are you've been missing one of the most foundational pieces of brain recovery. In this episode, I'm joined by Scott Thomson, co-founder of Cognitive Protocol, to unpack a hard truth: ignoring nutrition (or oversimplifying it) keeps people stuck in inflammation, brain fog, headaches, mood changes, and fatigue—sometimes decades after their last hit to the head. The solution isn't doing nothing… it's reclaiming agency. Strategic, targeted nutrition can calm the storm in the brain, reduce inflammation, and support real healing—without needing 25 different supplements or a full-time job in the kitchen.     BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why brain health was ignored for so long in sports—and how that mistake is still affecting adults today How Scott Thomson's background in professional athletics and nutrition led to the creation of Cognitive Protocol The critical role of omega fatty acids, creatine, and inflammation-reducing nutrients in brain recovery How intentional nutrition gives concussion patients and caregivers back a sense of control and momentum in healing     Brain healing isn't passive—and as Scott Thomson shares, you don't have to live with lingering symptoms forever when you give your brain what it actually needs to recover. Listener Discount Code: CONCUSSIONNERDS20 Website: https://cognitiveprotocol.com/         Let's Connect! @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership

    42 min

  5. 2025-12-08

    EP 105: Taking Time for Self-Care and Growth

    Have you ever felt the pull to deepen your healing—but found yourself terrified of what might surface if you actually slowed down long enough to listen? If you're like many people on a concussion or trauma-related healing journey, you might be unintentionally doing the very thing that keeps you stuck: staying in your head, trying to control every outcome, and avoiding the "box" of unresolved experiences you're afraid might burst open. But here's the truth—healing rarely happens in the mind alone. And when you try to logic your way through everything, you disconnect from the very place your healing actually begins: your body. In this episode, Natasha shares a raw and personal update as she heads into a 300-hour somatic-based trauma training in Spain—reflecting on what it takes to be open, curious, and courageous in your own healing… even when you have no idea what might come up. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why staying "in your head" can stall nervous system and concussion recovery The deeper connection between trauma, the body, and persistent symptoms What it really feels like to surrender control and let your healing unfold How you can start reconnecting with your own body in small, safe, meaningful ways Whether you're navigating your own recovery or supporting someone else, this episode is your reminder to slow down, breathe, and come home to yourself—one moment at a time.     Let's Connect! @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership

    12 min

  6. 2025-11-25

    EP 104: From Meditation to Mobilization: Engaging the Nervous System

    What if the real reason your nervous system work isn't "working"… is because you've been aiming for the wrong goal? So many people in the concussion and healing space are trying to "feel safe," "stay calm," or "get into parasympathetic mode" — only to end up more frustrated, more dysregulated, or even more disconnected from their bodies. And here's the kicker: It's not that you're doing it wrong… it's that you've been told to chase an outcome you can't physiologically access yet. In this episode, Natasha breaks down the misconceptions around nervous system regulation and exposes the hidden ways our approach may actually be keeping us stuck. From meditation backfiring, to emotional suppression showing up as symptoms, to the importance of meeting your body where it actually is — we go there. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why "feeling safe" is often too big of a first step — and the realistic place to start instead How to know when meditation and calming tools will help… and when they'll make you feel worse What your body is really asking for when you feel snappy, irritable, wired, or "crawly" in your skin Why repressed emotions turn into physical symptoms — and the journaling practice that helps move them out instead of storing them Your nervous system isn't something to "fix." It's something to understand — and today, you get the clarity you've been missing.     Let's Connect! @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership

    31 min

  7. 2025-11-19

    Concussion Nerds: The Roundtable EP 4: Healing Paths Explored: Traditional vs. Contemporary Approaches

    What if "evidence-based" isn't the only correct path — but picking the wrong alternative care could cost your client their recovery? Too many patients and clinicians get stuck in a binary: either "only evidence-based" or "anything that feels good." That leaves vulnerable people chasing unproven fixes, paying lots of money, delaying effective care — or worse, getting harmed. Here's the hard truth: the concussion space is messy and full of gray. Research often lags behind clinical observation, but that doesn't mean anything goes. The solution is evidence-informed, patient-centred care — blend what the best evidence shows, your clinical reasoning, objective outcomes, and informed consent so people safely get the care that actually helps them. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: How to tell the difference between helpful complementary care and care that's actively harmful (financial, symptomatic, or delaying effective treatment). Practical flags to watch for in a therapist's approach — e.g., inability to explain the treatment plan, no objective/subjective outcome measures, pressure sales, or discouraging other referrals. Why trauma almost always plays a role in persistent concussion and how addressing it (EMDR, somatic, or other trauma-informed approaches) can unlock rehab progress. How to prioritize and co-manage care (what to measure, how to test and retest in session, when to refer, and how to keep the patient's autonomy and safety front and centre). If you're a clinician: use this episode as a checklist to tighten your referrals and explain your reasoning to patients. If you're on a healing journey: use it as permission to ask tough questions and refuse care that feels coercive, vague, or unmeasured. Let's finish Season One by choosing curiosity over dogma — and by putting patient safety, clarity, and real outcomes first. Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Visit Natasha's Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com   Thank you to our sponsor Neuronic. Learn more about their photobiomodulation products and save $100 on your order by checking out their website here: https://www.neuronic.online/discount-handler?code=2568457

    44 min

  8. 2025-11-13

    EP 103: Navigating Vision Challenges Post-Concussion with Dr. Paul Rollett

    Have you ever wondered why your vision still feels "off" long after your concussion recovery was supposed to be complete? You're not imagining it — and you're definitely not alone. So many concussion survivors go through the motions of rehab, only to find their eyes still struggle to track, focus, or process movement the way they used to. The problem? Vision issues are often an invisible piece of the concussion puzzle that goes undiagnosed or under-treated. In this episode, Natasha sits down with Dr. Paul Rollett, a neuro-optometrist who understands this struggle on a personal level. After suffering a severe concussion during optometry school, Dr. Rollett experienced the same visual challenges he now helps his patients overcome. His story sheds light on how vision connects deeply to brain recovery — and why addressing it can make all the difference in your healing journey.     BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why vision problems are so common — yet so often missed — after concussion How neuro-optometry bridges the gap between vision and brain healing The signs your eyes may still be struggling post-injury How targeted vision therapy can accelerate your recovery and clarity     KEY TAKEAWAYS: Even in environments focused on vision, post-concussion visual issues can go overlooked — awareness and specialized care matter. Recovery is possible, but it often requires a collaborative approach between neuro-optometrists, physiotherapists, and other rehab professionals. Vision therapy isn't just about the eyes — it's about retraining the brain to process visual information effectively. Personal experience often fuels passionate, patient-centered care — and Dr. Rollett's journey is proof of that.     CONNECT WITH DR. PAUL ROLLETT: 🌐 Website: https://www.vividneurooptometry.com 📸 Instagram: @vividneurooptometry     If your world still feels visually "off" after a concussion, this conversation with Dr. Paul Rollett will help you understand why — and what you can do about it.       Let's Connect! @concussionnerds https://www.instagram.com/concussionnerds/ @natasha.wilch https://www.instagram.com/natasha.wilch/ Email: hello@natashawilch.com Website: https://www.natasha-wilch.com Learn how to connect & understand your nervous system so you can have greater outcomes in your health & healing journey: Grab a copy of the workbookhttps://www.natashawilch.com/understanding-connecting-your-nervous-system-1   Join the Clinician's Edge to have Your Weekly Taste of Neuro Wisdom  here: https://www.natashawilch.com/clinicians-edge   Join the Concussion Mini School and Membership! Get the support and resources you need for concussion recovery: Mini School: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school Membership: https://www.natashawilch.com/concussion-mini-school-the-membership         Connect with Dr. Paul Rollett 🌐 Website: www.okanaganvisiontherapy.ca 💬 You can use the contact form on the site to reach Dr. Rollett directly. 🎥 Bonus: Check out their 45-minute YouTube documentary on the main page to learn how vision plays a powerful role in concussion recovery.

    43 min
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4.4
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Welcome to The Concussion Nerds Podcast, where we revolutionize concussion care! This show is for passionate clinicians who want to excel in their field, move clients from stuck to excelling, and celebrate life's moments. Join us as we bring you cutting-edge advancements, practical tips, and inspiring success stories. Together, we'll propel concussion care into a new era, blending science with heart and soul. Whether you're a seasoned pro, a fresh face, or an individual on their own healing journey, this podcast is your ultimate resource. Let's build a community that uplifts and empowers one another, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in concussion care. Get ready to laugh, learn, and grow with me, Natasha Wilch, on The Concussion Nerds Podcast!

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