Janne’s Story

When I review the past 50+ years of nursing, I know there have been many changes in how I have been able
to administer to and assist clients with their pain management. In the 70’s and 80’s, my way of helping
clients was to give pain medications (principally opioids and anti-nausea agents), and encourage deep
breathing, change in position, relaxation, and possibly apply heat or ice. These were relatively effective for
acute pain, but not very effective for chronic pain.

Then, during the 90’s, I began to learn about, implement, and teach new pain management tools, such as
Interactive Guided Imagery, Healing Touch, Therapeutic Touch, and Reiki, to help clients find better ways
to augment the mainstream methods of dealing with and effectively managing their pain. Since then, I have
had the privilege of working with many clients, in many different areas of nursing (such as hospice, labor and
delivery, post-operative recovery, and the ambulatory clinic setting), whereby I have assisted clients to
explore and manage their pain more effectively, and thereby, find greater comfort, sleep, joy, and interaction
with their friends and family. Seeing others succeed and feel empowered in their healing process brings me
so much joy and gratitude.

And, then, I also know what it is like to live with chronic pain. From 2010 to 2015, I experienced a series of
injuries, surgeries, complications and two near-death experiences, challenging me to employ many of the
self-help tools I have used and taught others, to successfully and effectively manage my own chronic pain!
It is that freedom from intense pain, the ability to function well and enjoy life fully, and the reality that I can
and do help others achieve the same, is what keeps me passionate and committed to do this work!

Currently, there is the major concern with opioid addiction, toxicity, overdosing, and ineffectiveness in the
use of opioids for chronic pain. Health care providers are therefore being pressured to get their clients off
opioids, leaving clients feeling abandoned and/or even disenchanted with their provider’s decisions. This is
where the use of many integrative pain and healing modalities and approaches comes into major play! I am
so excited to be able to share my integrative methods and approach of pain management, and to also share
that I am continuing to learn about newer, dynamic, and more promising approaches to enhance my work
and my own personal management of chronic pain! Methods, such as positive neuroplasticity, resilience,
resonance, trauma-informed somatic sensing, and emotional freedom techniques appear to be effectively                    changing the body’s chemicals, the cellular DNA, and one’s brain and body functioning, thereby providing 
greater successes to pain management and quality of living.

About Janne Gibbs FNP/RN-BC MSN, AHN-BC, HWNC-BC, PMGT-BC, CHTP, IGI-C

Certified Advanced Holistic Family Nurse Practitioner, Integral Health & Wellness Nurse Coach, Pain Management Nurse, & Nurse Healer

Janne has been a nurse for over 50 years, a family nurse practitioner for over 25 years, a nurse educator at College of the Redwoods for over 35 years. She also worked part-time as an FNP at North Country Clinic for 11 years, and served as an officer and military nurse in the Army Nurse Corp during the Vietnam Era. She has experience in many nursing arenas: intensive/cardiac care, medical-surgical care, maternal-child (obstetrical) nursing, hospice, cardiac rehab, pain management, and outpatient clinical nursing. In addition, Janne has presented at various national, regional, state, and local nursing conferences over the past twenty-five years; has served as an Attitudinal Healing facilitator; and served as President at the Eureka Woman’s Club, an organization that raises money to serve the needs of children and women. She also has presented at the Imagery International Conferences and received the II Imagery Person of the Year 2022 Award. She has spent many years studying and gaining greater knowledge and skills in the field of holistic, integral nursing practice, in neurobiology, trauma, somatics, family legacies & constellation processes, and continues to embrace the practice of learning!

Janne believes that each person has his/her own best wisdom, answers, and personal strengths for solving problems and healing, but may be challenged at times in accessing and/or trusting in them. She believes in the importance of human connection, caritas (love as basis for caring), and in holding the meaningful space for personal exploration and inner healing. And, she utilizes an empathetic, resonant, trauma-informed, embodied approach with her client interactions.