Christina Murphy brings a teacher’s imagination to tick prevention: superhero cards, a stuffed tick and children sent home with a new responsibility to teach their parents. In this interview for Morgellons Discussion, she explains how her experience with Lyme disease shaped that work, what it meant to find someone who listened, and why she keeps a clear boundary between supporting a patient and treating an illness.[1]
I spoke with Christina on October 16, 2026. She is the host of Frederick Tick Talks on Everything Frederick LIVE and the author of Embracing Healing: A Slow Down Thirty Day Practice. Our conversation moves from teaching children about ticks to the quieter work of helping someone explain what is still wrong after a difficult medical journey.
Teaching prevention children can use
Christina describes her earlier work with the LEAF Program through the tools she used in classrooms. One superhero reminds children to check for ticks. Another arrives prepared with repellent and protective clothing. A third introduces tick removal. The props give children something to remember and a role to play, rather than leaving them with an unfamiliar disease name and a warning.
The lesson continues at home. When she handed out activity bags at a school, she asked children to teach their parents what they had learned. That changes the direction of the conversation: a child becomes the person reminding the family to pay attention. Later in the interview, she argues for prevention education woven into school curricula, supported by library books and activities, rather than an isolated lesson that is quickly forgotten.
Her LEAF work is part of her past role. Christina says she stepped down on June 1, 2026, following another period of illness. She continues discussing prevention through her show and advocacy.
For families putting prevention into practice, the CDC’s tick-bite prevention guidance covers EPA-registered repellents used according to their labels, clothing and gear precautions, and checking people and pets after outdoor exposure. Its guidance includes showering soon after returning indoors and checking the body even after time in a backyard.[2]
A clarification about tick testing: The interview discusses saving ticks and sending them for testing. Identifying a tick and testing it for pathogens answer different questions. CDC advises against using tick-testing results to make treatment decisions: a positive tick does not establish that the person was infected, and a negative result can give false reassurance. Remove an attached tick promptly; do not wait for testing before seeking care if you become ill. The CDC page also explains removal with fine-tipped tweezers and steady, even pressure.[3]
What changed when someone gave her time
Asked about a medical encounter that moved her care forward, Christina returns to her time as a museum’s head gardener. She describes a severe episode in 2009, difficulty speaking, and a clinician who slowed the encounter down enough for her to respond. In her account, kindness was part of the experience of finally being heard.
She also describes years of lost function and the work of rebuilding abilities she had previously taken for granted. Those details explain the emotional weight of a consultation in which someone takes a history seriously. A patient who is struggling to find words may need time before the clinician can even understand the question being asked.
For readers living with Morgellons or other unresolved symptoms, that part of the conversation may be familiar. Respectful listening creates room to describe a problem accurately. Clinical conclusions still require appropriate examination and evidence. Christina’s diagnoses, treatments and reported remission are presented here as her account; the interview does not independently verify her medical findings or establish which treatment produced an improvement.
Our Clinical Visit Pack offers a way to organize a symptom history, previous investigations and the questions that need attention. For visible skin changes, the photography guide and illustrated glossary can help make that record more precise without requiring a patient to settle the diagnosis first.
The boundary she sets as an advocate
One of the clearest moments comes when we discuss recovery stories and expensive treatment claims. Christina describes listening for something a person keeps returning to: a symptom that remains troubling even as they say they are feeling better. Her approach is to acknowledge the improvement and help the person explain the unresolved concern to a qualified professional.
She recalls someone asking whether she could cure them. Her answer was direct: “I can’t cure you.” She could talk through what was upsetting them and encourage them to return to their doctor. That boundary matters because people looking for help can be especially receptive to someone who finally listens.
An attentive conversation can help a patient name a problem, prepare a question or regain confidence about seeking care. It does not establish that a proposed explanation is correct. The interview is most useful when it shows those different responsibilities: make space for the person’s experience, identify the question that remains open, and involve the professional able to evaluate it.
Slowing down when life will not stop
Christina’s book grew out of a practical constraint. She says she was trying to recover while working two part-time jobs and running a household. A routine requiring long stretches of quiet would have been difficult to sustain. She began with a few minutes of reflection and coloring.
Embracing Healing: A Slow Down Thirty Day Practice pairs daily reflections with mandalas to color. The publisher describes a thirty-day practice of slowing down and considering a short saying each day.[4] In the interview, Christina gives examples such as remembering something comforting or allowing someone else to take charge for a while.
She presents this as a practice she found helpful in living with illness. We are not presenting the book or coloring as a treatment for Lyme disease, Morgellons or another infection. Its place in the conversation is more personal: finding a manageable pause within a day that still contains work, responsibilities and uncertainty.
What she wants a larger platform to make possible
At the time of our conversation, Christina was taking part in the 2026 Top Host competition. Asked what additional support would make possible, her first answer was to support the production crew behind her program. She then described educational handouts, superhero cards, books, games and the possibility of providing tick kits for community settings.
That answer makes the work concrete. A program needs people to produce it, and a school visit needs materials someone can take home. Her broader aim is to make prevention education something families encounter repeatedly and can use in their own surroundings.
You can find her entry at the Christina Murphy Top Host profile. Check that page for the current competition status, voting options and rules; the interview records the opportunity as it was discussed on October 16, 2026.
Watch the sections that interest you
- 02:22 — LEAF, classroom activities and teaching families
- 08:09 — Medical encounters and being heard
- 16:35 — Assumptions and individual experiences
- 21:12 — Active listening and the limits of coaching
- 28:48 — Embracing Healing and finding five minutes
- 36:01 — Prevention education in schools
- 39:02 — Top Host and supporting community work
Follow Christina’s work
Frederick Tick Talks airs Mondays at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on Everything Frederick LIVE, according to the media information Christina supplied for this interview. Find the program through Everything Frederick LIVE, its YouTube channel, or Frederick Tick Talks on Facebook.
Her other public channels are Instagram and X. For program enquiries, she lists frederickticktalk@gmail.com.
For your next appointment, try writing down one issue that remains unresolved even if other symptoms have improved. What is happening, how is it affecting daily life, and what question would you like the clinician to help answer?
Sources and episode notes
1. Murphree J. Interview with Christina Murphy. Morgellons Discussion. Recorded October 16, 2026; video released October 17, 2026. This companion article was prepared from the edited interview transcript. Guest experiences are attributed rather than treated as independently verified clinical evidence.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing Tick Bites. Updated August 28, 2024; accessed October 17, 2026.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What to Do After a Tick Bite. Updated June 9, 2026; accessed October 17, 2026. Supports the removal and tick-testing clarification above.
4. Balboa Press. Embracing Healing: A Slow Down Thirty Day Practice, by Christina Murphy. Publisher’s description; accessed October 17, 2026. Used for the book’s format and subject, not as clinical evidence.
Guest show title, broadcast information and public contact links were checked against Christina Murphy’s supplied media information, dated 2026–2027. The Top Host link is supplied for readers to check current details; no live ranking or voting deadline is asserted here.