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Melvin Moya
Published on
It’s a new association in La Réole (Gironde) which plans to move forward step by step… like a turtle. This is good, its name is inspired by the famous tetrapod vertebrate. “Les Tortues”, association chaired by Cédric Berthe and coordinated by Sophie Monchany et Sophie Jolivet Galy has taken up residence in the thousand-year-old city, with premises Place des Jacobins.
“She had been wandering around medically for a while”
Its goal: to help people with fibromyalgiaan illness which affects the two women personally, and more generally those suffering from invisible disorders.
“These can be disorders linked to chronic illnesses, but also illnesses linked to mental health. There are quite a few slowdowns in people’s lives also through psychological aspects, depression, bipolarity” explains Sophie Monchany, trained therapist. It was she who detected the same disease
She had just sold me a house. When I saw how she looked, I understood that she had fibro. She had been wandering around medically for a while, and no one had said anything about her problems.
Today diagnosed in nearly two million French people — and formerly referred to in the countryside as “the disease of people who hurt everywhere” —, fibromyalgia manifests itself in particular by disturbances of the nervous and digestive systems, as well as significant muscular fatigability. “What’s very hard is that you get used to the pain. Sometimes we can no longer feel it,” says Sophie Jolivet Galy.
A range of workshops to better cope with illness
Faced with this observation, the members of the Turtles intend to position themselves as a benchmark for those concerned. “We want to give the basics. Being able to experience this in a slightly more joyful way,” summarize the two coordinators. The association therefore offers several paid workshops, focused on themes that are as varied as they are complementary.
Among them, we find learning moments on anti-inflammatory cooking or even on cosmeticsan element that may seem surprising, but is indeed important. “When you suffer from chronic pain, you have toxins and there is no point adding them with the products you use. There are simple ways to make bases for creams, anything that can be used on the skin, in fact. In a healthy way, with local products »
Tailor-made for members
Other moments of discussion will address emotional regulation under the leadership of Sophie Monchany. “Depending on the workshops, the idea is that we can also do tailor-made work depending on the situation” specify the representatives of the association.
Finally, “Les Tortues” will offer free information meetings or even discussion groups (“a space where people can share”), always with the aim of bringing positivity to patients in their not necessarily easy lives.
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