Counselling for Chronic Illness & Disability
A space where you don't have to prove how much you're struggling.
Living with chronic illness or disability can affect so much more than your physical health. It can shape your relationship with yourself, your body, other people and the world around you.
Perhaps you're navigating pain, fatigue, brain fog or symptoms that fluctuate unpredictably. Maybe you've had to adjust your expectations of yourself or grieve aspects of a life you thought you would have. You might feel frustrated by your changing capacity, guilty about needing support or exhausted from having to explain your limitations to other people.
Perhaps you've experienced feeling dismissed or disbelieved by healthcare professionals, or found yourself having to repeatedly justify how much you're struggling.
I offer a warm, human and understanding space to explore the emotional impact of living with chronic illness or disability. I recognise that your health is part of your experience, but it isn't all of who you are. You deserve somewhere you can bring the difficult, complicated and sometimes contradictory feelings that come with navigating life with a body or mind that doesn't always cooperate.
What might bring you to counselling?
Living with chronic illness can bring a range of emotional and psychological challenges. You might recognise some of the following:
Grief and changing identity: Processing changes to your health, abilities, independence or sense of self. Perhaps you're grieving aspects of your life that have changed, or finding it difficult to recognise yourself in circumstances you didn't choose.
Fluctuating capacity and uncertainty: Navigating unpredictable symptoms, changing energy levels and the frustration of not knowing what you'll be able to manage from one day to the next.
Guilt and self-worth: Feeling guilty about cancelling plans, needing help, resting or not being able to meet your own or other people's expectations. Perhaps you've internalised the idea that your worth is connected to how much you can do.
Relationships and feeling misunderstood: Managing changes in relationships, feeling like a burden, struggling to communicate your needs or experiencing frustration when other people don't understand your limitations.
Medical experiences and feeling dismissed: Processing experiences of medical trauma, being disbelieved, having to advocate for yourself or feeling that your symptoms and concerns haven't been taken seriously.
Anxiety and uncertainty about the future: Living with unpredictability, worrying about changes in your health or struggling with the uncertainty that can accompany chronic conditions.
Self-acceptance and body image: Developing a different relationship with your body, making space for difficult feelings and exploring what acceptance might look like without feeling pressured to be positive about your circumstances.
You don't need to identify with all of these experiences, and you don't need to be struggling with a particular aspect of your illness to seek support. We can start with whatever feels most important to you.
Understanding the Emotional Impact of Chronic Illness
I recognise that living with chronic illness can involve a complicated relationship with your body, your identity and your sense of control.
Perhaps you've spent years pushing yourself to keep up with expectations, ignoring your needs or trying to function as though nothing has changed. Maybe you've become accustomed to minimising your experiences because you worry about being seen as difficult, unreliable or overly focused on your health.
You might find yourself caught between wanting to accept your limitations and feeling angry or frustrated that those limitations exist in the first place.
I don't believe acceptance means giving up, being grateful for your illness or pretending that everything is okay. It doesn't mean you have to find a positive meaning in what has happened to you.
Instead, we can explore what it means to acknowledge your experiences honestly, make space for difficult emotions and develop a relationship with yourself that isn't based on what you can or cannot do.
You are more than your diagnosis, your symptoms or your productivity. You deserve care and compassion regardless of what your body allows you to do.
My Therapeutic Approach
I offer an integrative and relational approach to counselling, recognising that everyone's experiences of chronic illness and disability are different.
I believe therapy should offer space for exploration and understanding, alongside practical ways of navigating difficult emotions and circumstances.
We might explore how illness has affected your identity, relationships and expectations of yourself, or look at patterns of guilt, self-criticism and pushing beyond your capacity.
Drawing on approaches including DBT, mindfulness and other therapeutic frameworks, we can explore ways of managing emotional overwhelm, navigating uncertainty and responding to yourself with greater compassion, communicating your needs and finding ways to make decisions that take account of your changing capacity.
I'll work collaboratively with you, recognising that what feels helpful one week might not feel possible the next. We can adapt our work to reflect what you have available to you, rather than expecting you to work within a rigid framework.
Neurodivergence, Chronic Illness & Identity
I recognise that chronic illness and neurodivergence can intersect in ways that aren't always understood or accommodated.
Perhaps you're navigating autism or ADHD alongside a chronic health condition, or find that brain fog, fatigue, sensory needs and emotional overwhelm interact with one another.
You might have spent much of your life adapting to other people's expectations, masking your needs or feeling that you're somehow not managing life as well as you should.
My practice is neuro-affirming and LGBTQIA+ centred. I recognise that our identities, health, social circumstances and experiences of the world are interconnected, and that these intersections can shape how we experience illness, disability and emotional wellbeing.
You don't need to separate these different parts of yourself when we work together. All of your experiences are welcome.
A Personal Understanding
I also bring my own lived experience of being queer and living with an autoimmune condition. While I recognise that everyone's experiences are different, this informs my understanding of some of the complexities of living with fluctuating health, navigating a world that doesn't always accommodate our needs and developing a relationship with ourselves that allows for change and uncertainty.
I won't assume that I know exactly what your experience is like, but I will meet it with curiosity, respect and compassion.
Accessibility & Flexibility
I recognise that accessing therapy can itself be challenging when you're living with chronic illness or disability. Energy levels, pain, fatigue and other symptoms can fluctuate, and what feels manageable one week might not feel possible the next.
I want to make counselling as accessible and responsive as possible. I can offer flexibility around session length and frequency where possible, and we can adapt the pace and structure of our work to take account of your needs.
My in-person space has lower lighting and fidget toys available. I also offer online counselling via video call, which may be a more accessible option if travelling or leaving home is difficult.
You don't need to apologise if you're having a difficult health day, need more time to process something or don't have the energy to engage in the way you might usually. We can work with what you have available.
I don't believe counselling should ask you to fit into a rigid framework. It should work with who you are and the circumstances you're living with.
Getting in Touch
Finding a therapist who understands the emotional complexities of chronic illness and disability can feel difficult, particularly if you've previously experienced feeling dismissed or misunderstood.
You don't need to know exactly what you want to work on, or have the right words to explain how you're feeling. We can start wherever you are.
If something you've read here resonates with you, I'd be glad to hear from you. You're welcome to get in touch with any questions or to find out a little more about working together before making any decisions.