Converge 2026: Navigating the Healthcare System for Complex Care

Brain Fog Note: If reading feels like heavy lifting today, just scan the bold text and bullet points. You can save the rest for a day when your head feels clearer.

• Author's Disclaimer

  The following series translations reframe the clinical data from the Australian POTS Foundation Converge 2026 conference through a neuroaffirming, trauma-informed lens. As a psychologist, I do not provide medical advice or prescribe treatments; instead, my goal is to help you bridge the gap between complex physiological findings, somatic regulation practices, and systemic well-being.

  Critical Note for Readers: The information presented below is for educational and supportive purposes only. For any medical adjustments, targeted diagnostics, or medication plans, please consult a qualified healthcare provider.

Welcome back to our ongoing series where we are sharing key clinical takeaways, research updates, and practical insights from the Australian POTS Foundation Converge Conference.

Finding validating, knowledgeable healthcare when you live with a multi-system conditions (like POTS, hEDS, MCAS, or ME/CFS) can be an exhausting, vulnerable process. Too many people enter a doctor’s office only to face long wait times, limited local expertise, or the painful experience of having real physical symptoms written off as just stress or anxiety.

The clinical care panels at Converge addressed this dynamic head-on, offering an empowering framework to help you protect your peace while advocating for your body’s needs.

The Reality of Symptom Overlap: Why Complex Care Feels Chaotic

In complex care, symptoms rarely exist in a tidy, isolated box. Conditions like POTS, hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) frequently co-occur because they share underlying vascular, neurological, and immune pathways.

When a healthcare provider evaluates your body through a single medical specialty (like looking only at the heart or only at the gut), they often miss the big picture.

Seeing multiple specialists for different body parts can make you feel like you are managing five separate illnesses. In reality, your body is experiencing a single, interconnected multi-system response. Recognising this overlap is the first step toward finding care that treats your whole system rather than chasing individual symptoms.

How to Practically Communicate Symptom Overlap to Your Doctor

Standard medical appointments are often restricted to 15 short minutes. To help your provider see how your symptoms interact without getting overwhelmed, consider these structured strategies:

• Group Symptoms by System Impact: Rather than listing twenty disconnected symptoms, group them into thematic clusters (e.g., Vascular/Upright Symptoms, Immune/Reactivity Symptoms, and Gut Motility Symptoms).

• Focus on 2 to 3 Priority Overlaps: Select the two or three most disruptive overlapping symptoms to focus on during that specific visit, rather than trying to cover your entire medical history at once.

• Functional Capacity Impacts: Describe how your symptoms impact your every-day activities. Some helpful domains to consider include: mobility, communication, social interaction, learning, self-care and self-management.

• Highlight Cause-and-Effect Relationships: Explain how one system directly triggers another. For example: "When my heart rate spikes from standing, my gut motility slows down, which triggers severe bloating." This helps the clinician see the autonomic-gastrointestinal bridge.

• Bring Objective Data: Concrete records (such as home heart rate tracking logs, active stand test data, or symptom flare diaries) are much harder for a provider to dismiss as "anxiety." We have been recommending the Visible app (free, evidenced based) as a steady symptom tracker that is useful for both guiding pacing and to bring to medical appointments. Read more here.

Final tip (and this will be a tough one): when preparing for your appointments, reflect on how your health issues impacts you on your worst days, this helps to consolidate your baseline functioning and separates it out from the supports you are currently putting in place.

The Somatic Connection: Scaffolding Before and After Appointments

As somatic practitioners, we at Northground recognise that going to a medical appointment with a complex condition is not a remotely easy task.

Reciting a painful medical history, managing cognitive strain, and actively bracing against the fear of medical gaslighting requires an immense amount of energy. This emotional, physical, and cognitive strain is very real. It can also frequently trigger an autonomic flare or post-exertional crash afterwards.

To protect your nervous system, we recommend building deliberate scaffolding around your medical visits:

• Before the Appointment (Pre-Grounded Support): Write your notes down in advance so you don't have to rely on working memory while under stress. Practice gentle, grounding breathwork in the waiting room, or bring a trusted support person to take notes and stand in your corner.

• After the Appointment (Decompression & Recovery): Schedule non-negotiable, zero-demand rest immediately following your appointment. Plan to lie flat to restore cerebral blood flow, reduce sensory stimulation, and allow your nervous system to return to baseline.

Need practical tools for energy protection? Explore our Burnout Support Plan for step-by-step strategies on how to support and restore your nervous system before and after high-demand clinical appointments.

Where to Find Support & Informed Clinicians

If you are looking for directories to connect with dysautonomia-informed healthcare providers:

• Australian POTS Foundation Directory: Find local doctors, cardiologists, and allied health professionals via the Australian POTS Foundation Clinician Directory.

• Dysautonomia International Network: Search for global and regional dysautonomia specialists using Dysautonomia International's Physician Directory.

A personal note…

It is deeply, fundamentally unfair that the burden falls on you to convince medical professionals that your chronic, complex illness is real.

I am so sorry for this. I am sorry that you are forced to lean into courage far more than you ever should have to, and that you frequently have to borrow energy against your future self just to be heard in a medical office.

I get it. And if this is where you currently find yourself on your health journey, please know that you don't have to carry it all alone. I am willing and able to shoulder that burden with you, providing both the practical clinical advocacy and the nervous system scaffolding you need to feel safe and supported.

• Explore Our Resources: Visit our POTS and Somatic Resource Hub to download printable medical appointment prep guides, symptom logs, and pacing templates.

• Work With Us: If you are looking for a trauma-informed, body-first practitioner to partner with you on your autonomic health journey, you can get in touch with us today.