Living Well 2026: A 'dream-team' guide to self-managing Symptomatic Hypermobility

The Hypermobility Syndromes Association is kicking off 2026 with an up-to-date Living Well With webinar series exclusively for our members (to join, see links at the end of this blog), and this year, the team are bringing even more connection, insight, and practical support to the table. It's a fabulous opportunity to meet some of the team and connect with other members, bonding over shared challenges and experiences.

Whether you’re newly/not diagnosed or have been navigating symptomatic hypermobility for years, this five-week series offers a unique solution-focused blend of lived experience, clinical expertise, and actionable advice. Each Saturday evening session is designed to help you better understand your body, your brain, and your options, all in a supportive, accessible format.

All the necessary links and info are below, just scroll down past this image... (if you want to be kept informed about what else we're up to, at the bottom of the page you can enter your email address in the box and subscribe to our e-newsletter).

What’s New This Year?

🧠 Alongside our expert-led sessions, we’re introducing a safe online forum where attendees can connect between sessions, share experiences, and support one another for the duration of the series. It’s a space to ask questions, swap tips, and build community, because living well isn’t just about information, it’s about connection.

Meet Your Hosts

✨ Kim Clayden, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist, brings a refreshingly clear yet gentle approach to brain chemistry, pain management, and mental health. Her neuroscience insights help demystify why we feel the way we do (the brain is incredible), and she comes armed with practical ways to shift those feelings, using real science-backed strategies.

✨ Jo Southall, Independent Occupational Therapist's monthly Ask the OT/Experts' Q&As have become a staple for many in our community and are wildly popular. Her sessions are packed with real-world tips for making everyday tasks more manageable, and she’s always ready to answer your questions with warmth and clarity, or provide devastatingly polite, responses to medical personnel, rude members of the public and so on.

Both Kim and Jo are expert patients themselves, blending their professional knowledge with genuine lived experience, which makes their advice not just informative but deeply relatable. Together, they're easily our most popular tag-team, and these sessions are always far more fun than you'd expect as their no-nonsense, irreverent approach is really easy to enjoy!

What to Expect

Each 90-minute Zoom session includes both Occupational Therapy and Psychotherapeutic input. You’ll come away with:

• Practical tools for managing symptoms

• A better understanding of how your brain and body interact

• Tips for boosting feel-good chemicals when you need them most

• Validation and insight into your current strategies, plus some new ones to try

As one past attendee put it:

“It confirmed that how I already manage the condition was in the most part a good way of managing it, but gave me the whys behind it.”

Session Schedule

🗓️ Saturdays, 7–8.30pm GMT

• Week 1 – Jan 10: Anxiety & Mental Health

• Week 2 – Jan 17: Pain Management

• Week 3 – Jan 24: Sleep Management

• Week 4 – Jan 31: Weight Management (not about diets)

• Week 5 – Feb 7: Ask Us Anything Q&A

  
  

💌 The Zoom link for the first session will be emailed upon registration. Links for the remaining sessions will be sent to all registered members each week. If you're not available to watch the sessions live, register anyway, we'll send a link to the catch-up video as soon as it is available. :)

How to Join the HMSA

Visit Hypermobility.org/events for full details and to register. Don’t miss this chance to laugh and learn, connect and experience the validation of peer support, all from the comfort of your own home. If you're not a member yet, it's easy to join at hypermobility.org/become-a-member HMSA individual membership not only gives you access to this course, but also our members-only videos, including replays of previous members' and ticketed events. In addition, you can read our publications in the members' area (even if they're out-of-stock). You can register for future patient information events free of charge, get a 70% discount code for the HMSA 'Information pack', access Kim's popular weekly #MellowMonday members-only Relaxation sessions, and if you're in the UK you can attend support group meetings and opt to receive a hard copy of our HMSA Journal (this is optional as some members prefer to read it in the members' area saving both trees and the postman's knees). The option of one-year membership is available, or you can subscribe to an ongoing membership so you needn't worry about remembering to renew. If you're going to require more than one ticket for patient events, a family membership may be more appropriate - you can compare them here.

So, will we see you on the tenth? :D