About Isobel
May 2023 – Isobel is donating 10% for her book sales to the #EDS Society for #EDS Awareness month
https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/sponsored-resources/
Isobel Knight (born 1974)- originally comes from Oxford and is an established international author, having now published five books, ‘The Body Nobody Believed’ being her sixth. Knight began her publishing career with a poetry book called ‘The Skin Collection’ published in 2009. It is full of dark poetry, much of it on the theme of self-harm and depression. Knight is very passionate about promoting awareness of mental health.
Although initially having a BA Hons Ed, a primary teaching degree, Knight never went into teaching but instead pursued a career initially in arts administration and volunteer management before she then trained as a complementary health practitioner and learned Bowen Technique, an Australian soft-tissue therapy. Knight had a successful private practice spanning 15 years, until she medically retired in 2017. Between 2008-9, Knight did an MSc in Dance Science at Trinity Laban and later worked there as a member of staff and a practising Bowen Practitioner.
It was during her MSc that her interest began in hypermobility and the conditions then known as Hypermobility Syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (type III) – Hypermobility type, this is because so many dancers are very flexible, which is what hypermobile means – but there is so much more to the condition that can be desirable if the person is asymptomatic and can then span to be a somewhat devastating condition. Knight noticed that there were few published books on the topic, and her first edition book was accepted straight away by the international publishing house ‘Singing Dragon Press’. ‘A Guide to Living with Hypermobility Syndrome’ (2011) was turned into a 2nd Edition in 2015, only three years after the first edition, due to its popularity and because of updates to medical terminology. It is thought that a third edition of the same book, ‘A Guide to Living with Ehlers-Danlos (Hypermobility Type)’, might be considered in the near future. In the meantime, Knight also published another book on the topic of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which was intended more for medical professionals than patients, and this came out in 2013. After this, Knight was asked to write a book about The Bowen Technique, which, in the end, she chose to co-author with John Wilks and in 2014, ‘Using the Bowen Technique’ came out. After Isobel retired as a Bowen Practitioner she worked on two books simultaneously one is called, ‘The Body Nobody Believed’ and is a medical memoir, where she uses the techniques of Narrative Medicine to tell her story through each bodily system. This book is published with Amazon and came out in December 2022. Her next book, ‘The Patient Experience’ will also be published with Amazon and will come out in 2023. The book explores all aspects of being a patient including full details of hospital stays, surgery and a range of additional patient experiences.
Following her recent literary successes, Knight has not remained idle but was asked to concentrate on writing academic journal articles as Knight continues to work towards a PhD in Published Works in the Public Domain.
Published Books
- The Skin Collection (2009) with Mental Health publishers ‘Chipmunka Press’
- A Guide to Living with Hypermobility Syndrome – Bending without Breaking (2011). Singing Dragon Press
- A Multidisiciplinary Approach to Manging Ehlers-Danlos (Type III) – working with the chronic, complex patient (2013). Singing Dragon Press
- Using The Bowen Technique (2014). Knight co-authored a book with John Wilks to address complex and common conditions’. Singing Dragon Press.
- The Body Nobody Believed (2022) with Amazon Prohub
- The Patient Experience (2023 – in press) with Amazon Prohub – due out in autumn 2023
To Follow/Future Commissions
- A Guide to Living with Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome – eta (2025) with Singing Dragon Press
- A Practical Management book (title in progress) c(2025) with Singing Dragon Press
Knight has also written a number of papers on the Hypermobility Syndromes (now known as Spectrum Disorders) that can be found on Academia .edu