Prefer listening or watching?
Listen to the full interviews with our graduates in Episode 178 of the Fibromyalgia Podcast®
Watch a video of the full interviews on our YouTube channel
Originally shared in Episode 178 of the Fibromyalgia Podcast®, this article has been adapted for readers of The Fibro Compass℠.
Four graduates. Four paths. One shared truth: feeling better is possible.
There just aren’t enough stories in the world of people with fibromyalgia who actually get better.
Most of what people hear — from doctors, articles, even well-meaning friends — sounds something like this:
“This is just how it is.”
“There’s nothing more we can do.”
“You’ll need to learn to live with your new normal.”
Fibromyalgia can be debilitating.
It can change your life.
And it’s possible to feel better.
It simply isn't true that nothing can be done.
Twice a year, we share our Fibromyalgia Stories of Hope — not as feel-good inspiration, and not as miracle stories, but as real examples of what can happen when people finally have education, structure, and support designed specifically for fibromyalgia.
What follows are four of those stories, featured during our Winter 2026 Fibromyalgia Stories of Hope & Healing graduation event.
They don’t start in the same place.
They don’t use the same tools.
And they don’t end with the same outcomes.
But together, they tell a larger story — one about clarity, pacing, support, and learning how to work with the body instead of fighting it.
Each story reflects what becomes possible when people are given fibromyalgia-specific education and support — not just encouragement to try harder.
In a medical system that often focuses on symptom management, our work is about restoring lives — helping people with fibromyalgia take back control of their health and design lives they love.
About the FIQR:
The Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire–Revised (FIQR) is a validated tool used in research and clinical settings to measure how fibromyalgia is affecting a person’s daily life, including function, symptoms, and overall impact. Lower scores reflect lower overall impact.
Graduates featured in Fibromyalgia Stories of Hope — Winter 2026 Edition.
Sabine: When clarity is progress
Sabine has been living with fibromyalgia for decades.
Over time, fibromyalgia became the explanation for nearly everything — pain, fatigue, limitations, and loss of function. Like many people who have lived with the condition for a long time, she had grown used to being the patient no doctor quite knew what to do with. As her symptoms worsened, she was often told this was simply part of fibromyalgia, part of aging, or even psychological.
One of the most significant shifts Sabine experienced during the Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class wasn’t learning a new coping technique. It was realizing that not all pain is fibromyalgia pain.
Sabine Nold, Germany
As Sabine learned to listen to her body differently and question long-held assumptions, it became clear that something else was going on. Severe hip pain had been overshadowed for years by her fibromyalgia diagnosis. Like many patients, she had learned to function through pain rather than investigate it — assuming there was little point in seeking further care.
That clarity mattered.
It helped Sabine recognize that untreated pain elsewhere in her body could be amplifying her fibromyalgia symptoms, and vice versa — fibromyalgia can amplify untreated pain. It also helped explain why, during the program, her Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire–Revised (FIQR) score actually increased — not because she was doing worse, but because she was being more honest about what was really happening in her body.
At one point, Sabine put it simply:
“I realized I couldn’t meditate my way out of my hip pain.”
That moment captures something important. Nervous system regulation and self-care matter deeply — but they aren’t the solution to everything. Some problems require different kinds of intervention, including appropriate medical evaluation and treatment — maybe even in the form of surgery.
With that understanding, Sabine began planning differently. She learned to pace more intentionally, manage her energy, and prepare realistically for her upcoming surgery and recovery. She also learned how to advocate for what she needs — asking for the conditions that support healing, rather than assuming she should simply push through.
Working with a coach who also lives with fibromyalgia made that process easier. Sabine didn’t have to explain how her body worked or justify her needs. Instead, she was supported in exploring what would actually help — with guidance, patience, and enough space to discover those answers for herself. That trust made it possible to try things she never would have considered before. Sabine’s coach during the program was Kerstin — whose own story of living with fibromyalgia comes next.
Sabine is continuing on into the Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® program, carrying forward a lesson many people with fibromyalgia need to hear:
Sometimes progress doesn’t look like feeling better right away.
Sometimes progress looks like finally understanding what’s really going on.
And sometimes the way forward requires a step back.
Kerstin: From Discipline To Sustainability
Kerstin came into the Advisor and Coach programs with decades of experience in the health and fitness world — including owning her own gym and working as a personal trainer and fitness instructor for more than 30 years.
She knew how to work hard.
She knew how to push through.
What fibromyalgia required her to learn was something very different.
Kerstin has spoken openly about realizing that the way she had worked with her body before — even with the best intentions — simply wasn’t sustainable with fibromyalgia. She didn’t need more discipline. She needed a different strategy.
Kerstin Goldstein, Germany
One of her most important shifts was learning to use structure as a form of protection, not pressure. She began treating her to-do list as a pacing tool rather than a measure of productivity or worth — intentionally leaving about 20% of her energy unspent each day.
That margin mattered.
Instead of trying to use every ounce of capacity, she planned breaks, adjusted expectations, and allowed good enough to truly be enough. The result wasn’t less engagement with life — it was more sustainable progress.
Kerstin’s FIQR score has improved by more than 80%, dropping into a range many clinicians would consider near remission. More importantly, her symptoms have become predictable. Flares are shorter. Recovery is faster. She can make plans — and trust her body to follow through.
What changed wasn’t her work ethic.
It was how she applied it.
Today, Kerstin lives a full, active life. She works full time, travels internationally, and enjoys long hikes with her husband — including what she describes as the hike of a lifetime: a multi-day trek to Everest Base Camp in 2024.
During that hike, she says, she wasn’t just walking for herself — she was walking for the fibromyalgia community. A reminder that what’s possible looks different for each person, but that many limits are more flexible than we’re often led to believe.
Kerstin also served as Sabine’s coach during the Advisor program, helping her navigate the process of slowing down, listening more closely, and identifying what her body truly needed — including advocating for appropriate medical care alongside self-care.
Now a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, Kerstin brings together two worlds that rarely intersect: deep lived experience with fibromyalgia, and a long professional background in movement, fitness, and health. Her work reflects a central truth of fibromyalgia recovery:
Sustainability matters more than intensity.
Biani: Rebuilding Trust Through Early Action
By the time Biani joined the Advisor program, she had already lived with chronic illness for years.
Diagnosed with hypothyroidism as a teenager, she spent more than a decade learning — sometimes the hard way — what can happen when symptoms are minimized, treatment is delayed, or the body’s signals are ignored. It took years before she got the care and follow-through she needed — and she remembers what that delay cost her.
So when Biani received her fibromyalgia diagnosis, she chose a different path.
Biani Garcia, Mexico
“I didn’t want to wait this time. I had to start addressing this right away.”
Part of that urgency came from thinking about her future. Biani and her husband want to grow their family, and she knew early on that the choices she made now could shape what options were available to her later. She didn’t want to look back and wonder whether waiting — or defaulting to approaches that didn’t align with her long-term goals — had limited her choices.
Rather than hoping symptoms would resolve on their own, she began looking immediately for education and support — not because she expected a miracle, but because she wanted a plan. Something concrete. Something she could act on.
What helped Biani most wasn’t chasing a single solution. It was building a plan that aligned with both her body and her future — including her desire to become pregnant. For her, that meant focusing first on non-medication strategies she could commit to long term, knowing she wanted to keep as many options open as possible.
With the guidance of her coach, Brenda, Biani focused on approaches that felt supportive and sustainable for her right now: improving sleep quality, regulating her nervous system, pacing daily activities, and addressing non-fibromyalgia factors that were amplifying her symptoms.
Over time, those changes added up.
Biani’s FIQR score improved by nearly 60%, moving from the low 40s into the teens in just three months. Just as importantly, she learned how to respond to symptoms without panic — recognizing when something was a flare, when an external trigger was involved, and when her body simply needed more support.
For Biani, progress wasn’t about eliminating flares entirely.
It was about knowing what to do when they happened.
Having a plan changed the tone of daily life. Decisions felt clearer. Her home felt calmer. And instead of second-guessing every symptom, she learned to trust her ability to respond thoughtfully and adjust as needed — while keeping her bigger goals in mind.
Biani is now continuing into the Coach training program, with a clear desire to support others who are newly diagnosed, managing multiple chronic conditions, or navigating fibromyalgia while planning for pregnancy — people who, like her, don’t want to lose years before getting the help they need.
Her story carries an important reminder:
Sometimes feeling better starts not with certainty — but with the decision to begin.
Megan: When “As Good As It Gets” Isn’t the End
When Megan joined the Advisor program, she wasn’t starting from scratch.
By that point, she had already done a great deal on her own — listening to the Fibromyalgia Podcast®, reading my books, making significant changes, and working hard to understand her body. She had gone from being completely disabled by fibromyalgia to functioning again in a demanding job.
And she thought that was it.
Between genetics, other autoimmune conditions, and years of pushing through exhaustion, Megan believed she had reached the ceiling of what was possible. She assumed this was as good as it got — after all, you can’t change your genetics.
Megan Hill, Florida
But she was wrong.
During the program, what shifted for her wasn’t effort — it was perspective.
Through education and coaching, Megan learned that improvement doesn’t require fixing everything at once. In fact, trying to do too much had often backfired in the past. Instead, she learned how to sequence changes — making adjustments one at a time, in an order her nervous system could actually tolerate.
One phrase from her coach, Kim, became a turning point:
"Better is better."
That mindset shift helped Megan move away from all-or-nothing thinking. Progress didn’t have to be perfect or complete to be meaningful. Small improvements still mattered — and they added up.
Over the course of the program, Megan’s FIQR score improved by about 40%, even though she had started at an already-low baseline. That mattered, because it challenged a deeply held belief: that once you’re “doing okay,” there’s nothing left to work on.
Megan’s experience also highlighted the value of working with the right support at the right time. She worked with two different coaches — Kim and Gisèle — each bringing a different strength. First, she focused on foundational shifts like sleep, nutrition, and mindset with Kim. Later on, she worked with Gisèle on more complex decisions around supplements and her healthcare team.
For Megan, feeling better wasn’t about chasing a dramatic transformation.
It was about learning how to keep improving — thoughtfully, patiently, and without punishing her body in the process.
Her story is a reminder that fibromyalgia isn’t just about how bad things get.
It’s also about how much better things can still become — even when you think you’ve already tried everything.
The larger pattern these stories reveal
These four stories are different — but they share important common ground.
None of these graduates relied on a single tool.
None of them forced their way through recovery.
None of them waited passively for symptoms to improve.
Instead, they learned how to:
pace realistically
support their nervous systems
question long-held assumptions
address non-fibromyalgia contributors
advocate for appropriate care
and make changes that fit their bodies and lives
This is what structured, fibromyalgia-specific education and support makes possible.
If you want what they have — here’s how to begin
If you find yourself thinking, “I want what they have,” here are some suggestions on how to get started.
These graduates didn’t stumble into improvement.
They followed a path.
You have several ways to begin:
- Work one-on-one with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® who can help you apply these principles to your specific symptoms, lifestyle, and capacity.
- Enroll in one of our training programs, designed for people who want deep education, structure, and support for their own healing.
- Attend a virtual open house, where you can learn about program options, pacing, and decide what level of support makes sense for you.
Each of these pathways exists for one reason:
To help people with fibromyalgia take back control of their health and design lives they love.
Fibromyalgia is real.
And so is the possibility for meaningful improvement.
You don’t have to figure it out alone.
Curious about the graduates featured in this event?
Learn more about our Winter 2026 graduates, including their backgrounds, training, and what brought them to IFCI.
Photos courtesy of the graduates.
About Tami Stackelhouse
Tami Stackelhouse is an award-winning author, founder of the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute (IFCI), and one of the most influential voices in fibromyalgia today, having helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rethink what is possible with fibromyalgia. Through her signature Fibromyalgia Wellness Framework℠, Tami is helping transform the way fibromyalgia is understood, supported, and lived — moving people beyond symptom management and into a future they once believed was out of reach.
Photo by Emily Broadbent
