Q&A with Georgia Bondy

Georgia Bondy is the innovator behind Well Adapt, an online platform which aims to provide mental health and physical exercise resources to people with disabilities, chronic health conditions, learning and physical differences.

Georgia sat down with KtoA Magazine to share their experience with exercise and meditation, how this emboldened her to create Well Adapt, and the importance of accessibility.

Tell us about yourself

I’m Georgia (she/they), the founder of Well Adapt. The platform is all about helping people navigate life with chronic health conditions and disabilities. Most importantly, it’s built by people who have lived with chronic health conditions and intimately understand the challenges involved in building a life you love when you have difficult symptoms or new physical limitations.

For years before and after I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Ehlers Danlos syndromes, I had worsening physical and mental health that contributed to each other in horrible cycles. I was offered NHS talking therapies but with poor mobility and crushing fatigue, I regularly failed to attend my appointments. Doctors told me that physical exercise would help but couldn’t tell me how to do it without causing debilitating flare-ups.

Eventually, I found mindfulness meditation that I could do at home whenever I was feeling up to it. The skills I learned were invaluable but nevertheless, it was imperfect. Mindfulness apps asked things of me that my body couldn’t do, and it made me feel terribly alone. Exercise was also still out of reach; on a memorable Sunday, a single Pilates class left me bed bound for a week.

A few years after that disastrous Pilates class, I was creating my own mindfulness meditation practice and my improved mental health gave me the confidence to attend a pole class with an instructor that also had hypermobile joints. She taught me to exercise safely, and I have rarely been more grateful to a human being. I have been pole dancing ever since!

Disabled people like myself have been problem solving their way to better physical and mental wellbeing as long as disability has existed

What is Well Adapt?

Disabled people like myself have been problem solving their way to better physical and mental wellbeing as long as disability has existed. So much wellbeing knowledge exists in the disabled community, and I want to share it with as many people as I can. That is what Well Adapt is all about.

It’s a place where you can find courses and community support to answer questions like ‘How do I deal with the emotional impact of having my week turned upside down by unpredictable symptom flare-ups?’ or ‘How do I even approach exercising with chronic fatigue?’

Your resources are available online. Why is this important?

Having our resources available online is a game-changer. It means you can access our courses and community from the comfort of your home, at any time that suits you. This flexibility is crucial for people like me who might have unpredictable health days.

Being online also means we can put accessibility at the heart of what we do. Our website has screen reader compatibility for those with visual impairments. Our courses come in multiple formats, including video, transcripts, and audio, so everyone can engage with the content.

We also have a strong focus on user feedback to continually improve accessibility. For us, it’s not just a checkbox; it’s about making sure everyone feels welcome and included in our community.

So much wellbeing knowledge exists in the disabled community, and I want to share it with as many people as I can

Find out more and get involved

We’re looking for disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill people to beta test our mindfulness meditation resources.

Not only will you get a first look at them for free, it will also give you a chance to let us know what works and what doesn’t work for you. That way we can incorporate your experience into the launch. You can take part by visiting well-adapt.com.

There you can also find more information about the courses and keep up to date with news.

Well Adapt is award-winning

Georgia was a recipient of Innovate UK’s 20222023 Young Innovator Awards for her work with Well Adapt. Innovate UK support and celebrate young entrepreneurs with groundbreaking business ideas. The winners are tackling some of our most pressing environmental, economic, and societal challenges.

Well Adapt was also awarded a Silver in the 2022 AXA Startup Angel competition. Georgia told The Evening Standard, who provide mentoring and a digital advertising campaign as part of the prize, that it “comes at a really great time.”