Working with Chronic Health Issues
What are chronic health issues/chronic illness?
Chronic health issues/chronic illness is a bit of what it sounds like. I think of it as health difficulties and conditions that are not acute or fully resolvable (like a broken ankle, a shoulder replacement, etc) and that tend to present people with challenges throughout their lifetime. Examples include Chron’s Disease, Diabetes, POTs, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Fibromyalgia. Dealing with a chronic illness(es) can take up so much of a person’s time and energy, between feeling the impacts of the illness(es) itself, scheduling and going to doctor’s appointments, researching your mystery symptoms, advocating for support and a diagnosis, rescheduling plans and missing work, etc.
Why is this an important area of focus in therapy?
Navigating chronic health conditions can be exhausting, disheartening, frustrating, confusing, disappointing. There needs to be therapy spaces that truly understand what it’s like to live with a chronic health issue. To feel seen, understood, not questioned or invalidated can be life changing. There’s so much room for growing self-compassion, confidence in oneself to adapt over time, focusing on tangible changes to life that might be helpful, navigating relationships with chronic illness, processing grief and what life might have looked like before, and more.
Who do you often work with?
Chronic illness can include so many different conditions, so there isn’t really an exclusion here. With that being said, there is growing awareness and curiosity around the overlap between neurodivergence, such as ADHD and Autism, and some chronic health conditions such as POTs, EDS/HSD, MCAS. While I am not a medical provider and encourage clients to have a team of providers to support (such as primary care doctors, physical therapists, neurologists, etc), I do have understanding of these experiences. Some folks I see also experience PCOS.
Where do I start if this might be me?
I encourage reaching out to medical providers if you don’t have comprehensive care already, and am happy to support from a therapy standpoint if you’re interested! I also can support with referrals for a number of providers in the Chicago area and can point folks to different provider directories. Feel free to schedule a free 15 minute consultation call on my calendly here or send an email to get in touch!