Missy Bunch Page

Check it…

You are NOT missing skills.

You ARE missing the lens that helps you see why one client gets better with the usual plan, while another one does every exercise, every stretch, every “right” thing, and STILL walks in saying, “Yep. Still hurts.”

That is the work we’re doing here!

Not collecting more drills or pretending every client needs a brand-new diagnosis. It’s about learning how to look at the nervous system so you can make better decisions with the actual person in front of you.

So, are you ready? Ready to get NERDY?

Get Nerdy with the Nervous System is a 90-minute online workshop for movement pros like you who are ready to stop guessing, help more of their “mystery” clients, and build a practice people want to tell their friends about.

Comment NERDY, and I’ll send you the deets!

The eyes are not just “looking.”

They are constantly changing focus, tracking targets, and helping your brain make sense of where you are in space.

But most of us spend hours staring at one distance:

🖥 screen
📱 Phone
📖 Book
👀 Client
💻 Laptop
📺 TV

…repeat. Literally within 2 feet of our face.

Try this: pick one target close to you and one across the room. Keep your head still and shift your focus between them 5 times (near far training).

Notice anything? Does one distance feel easier? Does it take a second for the far target to clear?

PSA: This is not a diagnosis. It’s just information. 👀

Comment “NEAR” or “FAR”: which one feels easier for you today?

A client walks in with pain, a weird history, normal imaging, five things they have already tried, and a goal that matters to them.

Cool.

Where do you start?

❌ Not with every test you know.

❌ Not with a 14-exercise home program.

❌ Not by chasing the place that hurts the most.

You start by slowing down long enough to find a useful clue!

The Neuro Starting Point Cheat Sheet is for the practitioner who understands the science, has the assessments, and still occasionally looks at a complex client and thinks: “Okay…but what do I do first?”

This cheat sheet will give you a simple framework to organize the information, choose one meaningful input, and reassess before you pile on more variables.

DM me the word START to get started!

When a client gets sloppy as the task gets faster, harder, or more unpredictable, the answer is not automatically to push through it.

Sometimes they do not need more load YET, but rather, they need a version of the movement their system can ORGANIZE WELL enough to learn from.

Make the target bigger and slow the rep down.
Take one variable out, and give them a few clean wins.

THEN, build it back up.
"Messy” is not a character flaw. It is information. 🧠

What is the first variable you usually change: speed, load, range, or complexity? I would love to hear how you modify below! ⬇️

Drop the word START and let's figure this out, together!

You do not need to “trust your gut” harder.

"Ok, Missy, what DO I need?" 🙄

You need a better way to ask:
“Okay…what is this person’s body actually telling me?”

Because the client with the weird story and the normal tests, the one with the old injury and the symptom that changes every Tuesday...aannnddd the one with the 19 things they already tried?

That is not the time to panic and hand them your entire exercise library. 😅

My free Neuro Starting Point Cheat Sheet helps you find a first clue, pick one thing to test, and stop guessing your way through complex cases.

Recurring sprains?

✔️ Dorsiflexion is fine
✔️ Calf strength is solid
✔️ Rehab covered the basics

But it still keepsss rolling🙄 Because ankle stability is not only about strength (but you know that). In real life, the foot has to react fast when the ground, speed, or direction changes.

The peroneals help resist a roll. But after a sprain, reaction time and balance control can still be off, even when strength tests look good.

So WWMD what would Missy do? (Yes, sometimes I refer to myself in the third person 🤣)

I would change the information the brain is working with: eyes open or closed, head still or moving, eyes tracking while balancing.

I am NOT trying to diagnose one “broken” system. I AM watching for the conditions that change balance, confidence, symptoms, or control.

Then we train for the situations where the ankle actually gives way. Save this!!! recurrent ankle sprains are rarely only a strength problem.

Here's something I wish somebody had told me sooner.

You are not missing intelligence. You're just missing one piece of information at a time.

Applied neuro feels intimidating because it gets presented like a wall. Twelve cranial nerves, a vestibular system, a cerebellum… and a bunch of people nodding like they were born knowing it.

They weren't. I promise you they weren't!!

🤫 But also…📣 I STILL look things up! I still get corrected. That's not a bug in the process, that IS the process.

So if you've been circling this material for a year waiting to feel ready, you won't. You'll feel ready about 6 clients in, retroactively, when you notice you stopped panicking. 😅

Start with 1 nerve. Pick the 1 that scares you least.

Now tell me in the comments which one scares you least, and I will tell you where to start. 👇

Everybody and their mother is talking about the vagus nerve right now, from humming to cold plunges to gargling.

Here’s the part that usually gets left out, though.

The vagus nerve has a huge footprint. It sends branches to the throat, heart, lungs, and much of the digestive tract. But most of its organ-facing branches are deep inside the body, which is not something you can reach with your hands.

One notable exception is the outer ear.

A small vagal branch, called the auricular branch, carries sensation from specific parts of the outer ear and ear canal. The outer ear is generally described as the vagus nerve’s only skin territory.

It is also why some people cough when they clean their ears. If you want to explore this clinically, keep it simple: choose one low-risk baseline you already use, add 30 seconds of gentle outer-ear contact, and then retest.

If something changes, treat it as an observation, not a diagnosis. It may be useful information about how that person responds to touch, attention, or breathing. BUT, it does not prove you “stimulated the vagus nerve.” If nothing changes, that is neutral information too. 🤷‍♀️

Save this for the next client who tells you they have already "
tried" everything for their nervous system and let me know if this coughing thing has ever happened to you! ⬇️