Therapy for Chronic Illness and Complex Medical Conditions

Living with a chronic illness affects far more than your physical health. The uncertainty of symptoms and health flares, ongoing medical appointments, treatment decisions, and the demands of managing complex care can affect your emotional well-being, relationships, work, identity, and daily life.

For many people, these challenges are compounded by experiences of medical trauma, dismissal, or not feeling heard or believed within the healthcare system. When an illness is invisible to others, it can also be difficult for friends, family members, and colleagues to understand what you are experiencing, contributing to loneliness, isolation, and changes in important relationships.

I specialize in working with individuals and families affected by acute, chronic, rare, and complex medical conditions. Therapy may address:

• Medical trauma and difficult healthcare experiences

• Health-related anxiety, depression, and emotional distress

• Grief, loss, and changes in identity

• Life transitions and adapting to changes in health

• Loneliness, isolation, and maintaining social connection

• Friendships, dating, and long-term relationships

• Communicating needs and setting boundaries

• Navigating relationships with healthcare providers

• Caregiving and changing family dynamics

• Managing the emotional demands of ongoing medical care

You didn't choose to be sick, but you can choose what to do with it.

Living with chronic illness can be isolating, but you do not have to navigate its emotional and relational impact alone. Therapy can provide a place to process what has happened, develop effective coping strategies, strengthen relationships, and find ways to build a meaningful life alongside illness.

Clinical Expertise Informed by Lived Experience

I have spent more than 18 years specializing in the psychological and relational impact of chronic illness and complex medical conditions, working with patients, care partners, couples, parents, siblings, and families.

My understanding of this work is both professional and personal. My own experience living with chronic illness has informed my understanding of the complexities patients and families can face. My clinical work, however, is grounded in nearly three decades of experience as a psychotherapist and in evidence-based approaches to mental health, trauma, relationships, and emotional regulation.

Individual, Couples, Family, and Group Therapy

Chronic illness does not occur in isolation. It affects relationships with partners, family members, friends, caregivers, and medical providers.

Therapy can help you better understand and communicate your needs, develop coping and emotional regulation strategies, navigate changing roles within relationships, establish boundaries, and strengthen the connections that provide meaningful support.

For individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, grief, or other mental health concerns alongside chronic illness, treatment can also address these concerns directly through evidence-based psychotherapy, psychoeducation, and practical coping strategies.

The goal is not to minimize the realities of illness or suggest that psychological treatment can eliminate them. It is to help you develop the emotional and relational tools to navigate those realities with greater clarity, flexibility, and support.

Consultation and Professional Education

I provide consultation, education, and professional resources for psychotherapists, psychiatrists, healthcare professionals, patient organizations, and others seeking a deeper understanding of the intersection between chronic illness, medical trauma, relationships, and mental health.

For more than 18 years, I have provided education within the chronic illness and rare disease communities. My work includes more than 40 professional and patient-focused presentations, national speaking engagements, podcasts, published writing, professional education, and research contributions.

I am also the author of More Than a Patient: Building Relationships and Creating a Meaningful Life When You Have a Chronic Illness, which focuses on the psychological and relational impact of chronic illness and provides practical strategies for navigating relationships with friends, partners, caregivers, family members, and healthcare providers.

Please contact me for speaking engagements, professional consultation, collaboration opportunities, or a copy of my CV.