Psychotherapy
Chronic medical symptoms have a powerful ripple effect, impacting every single part of your life.
Dealing with relentless or severe chronic symptoms significantly affects psychological wellbeing. You could say that chronic illness comes with “side effects” in the form of depression; anxiety; panic; disordered eating; grief & loss; feelings of uncertainty, fear, & hopelessness; as well as traumatic stress responses.
A 2020 report from Mental Health America found that 79% of people with chronic pain also scored moderate to severe for a secondary mental health condition, and at least 10% of all suicide cases in America involve someone with chronic pain. We see similar findings as well as very low quality of life in chronic fatigue.
(https://www.mhanational.org/mental-health-america-reports-strong-connection-between-chronic-pain-and-untreated-mental-health; https://uspainfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Chronic-pain-facts-infographic.pdf; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26147503/; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21619607/)
Chronic pain & illness are often defined by uncertainty, a lack of information, and loss of control. Chronic medical conditions can make it hard to work, maintain relationships, and care for family members. Symptoms impact your self-esteem when they leave you unable to accomplish as much as you used to or want to be able to. And there’s a significant mental and financial toll that comes with seeking medical support, advocating for yourself with doctors, and making decisions on which treatments to try. We all know the hope-despair rollercoaster when, yet again, another treatment doesn’t work.
All of this can wear on you over time and cause a lot of stress.
All this stress can overwhelm your system.
Overwhelm & stress put your nervous system on high alert mode, which only makes pain, fatigue, & illness symptoms worse.
Psychotherapy can help release the stress accumulating in your nervous system. In our sessions, we can explore topics such as:
What it’s like to live day-in day-out with each of your unique symptoms
Feelings of loneliness, isolation, and being misunderstood
Living with invisible medical conditions or disabilities that are invisible to or judged by others
Experiences of invalidation, ignorance, mistreatment, or discrimination by medical professionals
Complex grief around losing abilities, career, relationships, and sense of previous identity
The relationship between you and your body; the degree to which you feel like you can or cannot rely on your body
Your relationship with your diagnoses and how medical language can positively or negatively affect you
Mission: To be present besides those in darkness
At times, walking the path of serious chronic illness can feel like being in a dark tunnel, with such little light that you can barely see three steps in front of you, much less the horizon ahead. And the trauma and isolation that often accompany this journey can block access to our body’s core wisdom and clarity.
I believe that you already have the clear sight, internal knowing, and resilience you need to navigate life’s most challenging experiences of illness, pain, and disability. I am here to help you access, deepen, and utilize those resources.
