Alison Tedford Seaweed spent years suffering from a condition that dislocated her joints, and after enduring that journey she's helping others in her book, “Chronic Pain: building my business while managing persistant pain,” published in 2021.

“I figured if I was struggling with it, other people were too,” said Seaweed, a Nakwaxdaʼxw woman from Kwakiutl First Nation who lives in Abbotsford, BC about 70 km southeast of Vancouver.

The book offers advice to other business owners dealing with chronic pain to build business solutions and self care toolkits that tackle obstacles they may face.

Seaweed suffers from joint hypermobility syndrome (Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) a rare condition that affects just 1 in 3,100 people. She wasn’t sure exactly what was happening to her at first and it caused self doubt and insecurities until a diagnosis about three or four years ago cleared things up.

“I had a long laundry list of stuff that wasn’t quite right… I worried I’d be perceived as a hypochondriac or people would think maybe this is all in her head,” said Seaweed.

“It was definitely challenging learning to advocate for myself.”

Now, with enough grace and patience for herself she’s built out her career as a consultant, writer and storyteller. Seaweed has authored a couple books, is featured in several magazine articles and guest wrote in a few books too.

She spent time as a storyteller around Indigenous data for the Government of Canada and works to ensure more businesses are inclusive, welcome and accessible for people with disabilities and for Indigenous people.

One of her feature books is “The Canadian Business Owner's Guide to Reconciliation: Best Practices for Indigenous Inclusion,” and sets out how businesses can tackle their role in reconciliation efforts with Indigenous people.

She said it came about because of her networking skills and someone she knew connected her to the right publisher.

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“It’s a really great opportunity to get this book out into the world,” said Seaweed.

Seaweed said her path to education was an accelerated one and she finished her final three years of high school in two years because her family practically moved every year.

She would go on to try some post secondary schooling but didn't get a formal degree. Instead she had a lot of on the job learning which instilled a growth mindset.

“I really trusted the process and knew there would be new and different things,” said Seaweed.

Now, as she's raising her son, she can tell her entrepreneurial skills are rubbing off on him. She also hopes to keep building out her clientele which she learns a lot from also.

Seaweed said she's still building out content creation and marketing while seeing what barriers she can tackle in the future.

“I’m really inspired by the people in my community and the things that they’re doing,” said Seaweed.

Thanks to Oscar Baker III for authoring this article.