Life After Impact: The Concussion Recovery Podcast

Can attachment theory influence concussion recovery, chronic pain, dysautonomia, and the success of rehabilitation? In Part 2 of this conversation, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with psychologist, somatic therapist, and Chinese medicine practitioner Dr. Matthew Tolstoy to explore how unconscious nervous system patterns shape the therapeutic relationship, why The Body Keeps the Score is often misunderstood, and how psychotherapy, EMDR, so...

A concussion can turn normal life into a maze overnight and the hardest part is realizing nobody can hand you a perfect map out.

I share why I wrote The Art Of Concussion Recovery: Following The Thread after first writing a more science-focused guide. The clinical side helps you understand what’s happening inside the brain, but the lived experience raises different questions about identity, language, acceptance, and h...

Can early childhood experiences influence concussion recovery, dysautonomia, anxiety, and the autonomic nervous system? 

In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with integrative therapist Dr. Matthew Tolstoy to explore the fascinating connection between attachment theory, autonomic regulation, post-concussion syndrome, and brain injury recovery.

They examine how our earliest relationships help shape the bra...

Brain fog. Poor concentration. Anxiety. Memory problems. Why do some people recover quickly after a concussion while others continue to struggle with persistent symptoms months—or even years—after a traumatic brain injury (TBI)?

In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with neuroscientist, psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and NeuroMatrix founder Dr. Sanjay Manchanda to explore the latest science ...

How do you calm a brain that feels stuck in survival mode?

For many people recovering from a concussion, the injury isn't just about headaches or dizziness. It's the feeling that your nervous system is constantly "on"—poor sleep, brain fog, anxiety, sensory overload, and the inability to truly relax.

In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with Dr. Patrick Porter, founder of BrainTap, to explore the scienc...

Persistent dizziness, headaches, and dysautonomia after a concussion may be coming from your neck — not just your brain. Dr. Ayla Wolf and Dr. John McClaren explore how deep neck muscle dysfunction, breathing mechanics, and the vagus nerve drive stubborn post-concussion symptoms. 

Together, they explore why so many people experience dizziness when bending over, standing up, or looking overhead—and why these seemingl...

Waking up exhausted after a concussion can feel like betrayal: you “slept,” but the brain fog, head pressure, and headaches show up anyway. I sit down with physical therapist and nasal release technique instructor Cynthia Stein to explore a different lens on post-concussion syndrome, one that connects airway restriction, cranial sutures, and eye movement limitations to the symptoms that refuse to budge. 

We ...

In Part 2 of my conversation with Jordan J. Adams, founder of the United Fight Alliance and longtime combat sports commentator, we move beyond the problem of concussion and into the search for solutions.

After experiencing multiple concussions, a family history of Alzheimer's disease, and growing concerns about his own cognitive health, Jordan began what he describes as a mission to "save his brain." Over the past decade, he has exp...

Combat sports make brain injury impossible to ignore, but the most dangerous part might be what happens after everyone goes home. We’re joined by Jordan J. Adams, founder and CEO of United Fight Alliance and an Emmy Award-winning combat sports commentator, to talk about concussions, post-concussion syndrome and the real gaps he still sees in concussion protocols across athletics. 

We dig into the difference betwee...

For decades, patients with persistent post-concussion symptoms have been told that their imaging is normal, their brain has healed, and there is nothing more that can be done. But what if we've been asking the wrong questions?

In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with functional neurologist Dr. Matt Antonucci to discuss his groundbreaking new paper published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, introducing ...

What if healing isn’t just physical?

In this deeply thought-provoking episode, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with somatic practitioner and Inner Space Technique regression therapist Bre Hibbs to explore the fascinating relationship between trauma, the nervous system, body memory, and healing beyond the physical body.

Together, they discuss the idea that our bodies may store not only physical trauma, but also emotional experiences, su...

Brain fog, mood swings, dizziness, sleep problems, carb cravings, that awful midday crash. If you’ve lived through concussion recovery or post-concussion syndrome, you know how quickly symptoms can become a full-time job. We sit down with Dr. Ashkan Jalili to make a different kind of case: many stubborn concussion symptoms track back to a metabolic dysfunction, especially dysregulated glucose delivery in the brain, and until ...

Your autonomic nervous system isn’t “just stressed,” and dysautonomia isn’t a single, one-size-fits-all box. We zoom out from symptom labels and zoom in on mechanisms: how the brain senses the body, builds an internal map, and then uses that map to regulate heart rate, blood flow, digestion, sweating, temperature, and even hormone feedback loops.

We talk neurocardiology in plain language, including wh...

What if the missing piece in concussion recovery isn’t just the brain—but blood flow to the brain?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nate Keiser to explore how real-time measurement of brain blood flow is changing the way we understand persistent post-concussion symptoms, dysautonomia, and neurological recovery. Using advanced tools like transcranial Doppler ultrasound and CO₂ monitoring, we break down how the brain r...

In this episode of Life After Impact: The Concussion Recovery Podcast, I sit down with trauma surgeon and researcher Dr. Vishal Bansal to explore what may become the first-ever FDA-approved pharmaceutical treatment for concussion.

Despite how common concussions are, there is currently no approved medical treatment—leaving patients with rest, symptom management, and uncertainty. But what if that’s about to change?

Dr. Bans...

A “mild” hearing loss sounds harmless until you hear the data: it can raise the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by 200%. I sit down with Dr. Keith Darrow PhD, CCC-A, neuroscientist and clinical audiologist, to connect the dots between hearing loss and brain health and to explain why treating hearing loss shows up again and again as a top modifiable dementia risk factor in major research reviews.

We also ge...

Pain isn’t a simple “damage equals symptoms” equation. Sometimes your nervous system turns the volume down so far you barely notice serious wear and tear, and other times it turns the volume up until every small sensation feels like an alarm. That difference matters if you’re living with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, or persistent symptoms after a concussion, because the right treatment depends on how your bra...

A concussion can change your life in a second, but what happens when the people around you treat it like an excuse? Sarah Wuebbolt joins us to share what it’s really like navigating multiple concussions as a teenager while trying to keep up with school, sports, friendships, and the pressure to “be fine” on a timeline that doesn’t match reality.

We talk about the first concussion that came with old-sch...

A childhood head-on collision. A life shaped by traumatic brain injury. A moment of waking up after a suicide attempt and deciding, with total clarity, to choose life. Cameron Scott joins me for a raw, grounded conversation about what concussion recovery can really look like when the symptoms are not just physical, but emotional, relational, and spiritual too. (This conversation includes reference to suicide. Listener discretion is...