Scoliosis Dialogues: An SRS Podcast
Jun 10, 2026 · 22 min · 8 segments
Send us Fan Mail Join our host, **Grant Hogue, MD**, as he sits down with **Lauren Higginson**, founder of Higgy Bears, and **Marissa Muccio, PT**…
Marissa MuccioGuest
Lauren HigginsonGuest
Grant HogueHost
this is going to be aware- uh, uh, raising awareness during Scoliosis Awareness Month.
This is going to roll out during kind of that SRS communications for the month, and so if there was one thing that you want the general public to know about patients who are living just a daily life, whether it's in a brace or post-operative care, like, what is the one thing that you would pass on to us to let us know?
There's a quote of me saying this before I even, like, the very first year I started taking braces, and I still believe it to this day, um, and I think everybody's coming around to it, but my message is that scoliosis, especially for kids and teens, is 95, 99% emotional and social, and the physical aspect, like, you gotta make sure the brace fits and it's not hurting and things like that, but kids, that's the biggest area we need to focus on, you know, teaching them how to tell friends at school, how to deal with bullies, um, just how to stay motivated to wear the brace, how to, how to live with the brace.
That's, and with surgery, of course, but I think that's the most important thing.
My message is just that a lot of people focus on the physical, but it's, it's so much more emotional than it is physical.
I mean, h- how much of our time, and Marissa, I'm sure you can speak to this as well, um, is spent taking care of medical problems while also counseling and being an emotional support and trying to let people know that they're not alone in this, whether it's that they have a team surrounding them or there are also a lot of other young people that are dealing with this simultaneously?
Um, each of the disciplines, I think, when you come together as a team can play a role in supporting that mental health.
But I also think mental health as a discipline has been frequently overlooked, and the same passion and pursuit of, you know, "I want a second or a third opinion from the top surgeon," or, "I saw on Instagram, I want the best brace," or, you know, uh, one of the Schroth therapist who's now an instructor.
Like, that all is great, and I think it's really easy for professionals to forget to discuss mental health as a field and a profession, to find those resources and collaboration the same way we do for bracing and physical therapy and surgeon or pediatricians.
Bring them in, highlight the ones that specialize in chronic medical conditions that cross sensitive developmental timeframes, that cross longer time periods than you might think, um, and do a better job I- um, of making that component of a person's care as important as the other ones.
this is going to be aware- uh, uh, raising awareness during Scoliosis Awareness Month.
This is going to roll out during kind of that SRS communications for the month, and so if there was one thing that you want the general public to know about patients who are living just a daily life, whether it's in a brace or post-operative care, like, what is the one thing that you would pass on to us to let us know?
There's a quote of me saying this before I even, like, the very first year I started taking braces, and I still believe it to this day, um, and I think everybody's coming around to it, but my message is that scoliosis, especially for kids and teens, is 95, 99% emotional and social, and the physical aspect, like, you gotta make sure the brace fits and it's not hurting and things like that, but kids, that's the biggest area we need to focus on, you know, teaching them how to tell friends at school, how to deal with bullies, um, just how to stay motivated to wear the brace, how to, how to live with the brace.
That's, and with surgery, of course, but I think that's the most important thing.
My message is just that a lot of people focus on the physical, but it's, it's so much more emotional than it is physical.
I mean, h- how much of our time, and Marissa, I'm sure you can speak to this as well, um, is spent taking care of medical problems while also counseling and being an emotional support and trying to let people know that they're not alone in this, whether it's that they have a team surrounding them or there are also a lot of other young people that are dealing with this simultaneously?
Um, each of the disciplines, I think, when you come together as a team can play a role in supporting that mental health.
But I also think mental health as a discipline has been frequently overlooked, and the same passion and pursuit of, you know, "I want a second or a third opinion from the top surgeon," or, "I saw on Instagram, I want the best brace," or, you know, uh, one of the Schroth therapist who's now an instructor.
Like, that all is great, and I think it's really easy for professionals to forget to discuss mental health as a field and a profession, to find those resources and collaboration the same way we do for bracing and physical therapy and surgeon or pediatricians.
Bring them in, highlight the ones that specialize in chronic medical conditions that cross sensitive developmental timeframes, that cross longer time periods than you might think, um, and do a better job I- um, of making that component of a person's care as important as the other ones.
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