you are more than your symptoms.
Therapy for Chronic Illness, Autoimmune Conditions, and Chronic Pain
Serving Wayne, PA, the Main Line, across Pennsylvania, New York, and all PsyPact states.
Living with a chronic illness isn’t just about managing symptoms — it’s about mourning the life you thought you’d have.
When illness or symptoms become your full-time job, everything else starts to blur.
The appointments. The side effects. The plans that keep falling through.
You grieve the version of your life you thought you’d have—your career, your independence, your energy.
You feel guilty for being “the one who’s always sick” or the partner who’s never fully present.
You push through discomfort because it’s easier than fielding another “But you don’t look sick.”
And the loneliness? It’s real, even when people say they’re “here for you.”
Over time, your identity starts to shrink around your symptoms.
You’re not just tired—you’re unsure who you are outside of this.
You're here because you want to find her again.
Reclaiming your identity, one session at a time.
Even if your symptoms persist, your suffering doesn’t have to.
Therapy won’t cure your condition — but it can change your relationship to it. You can learn to separate who you are from what you’re going through. To soften your inner voice. To build a life that includes your limitations… but isn’t ruled by them.
It’s a space where you don’t have to explain, minimize, or pretend to be okay.
Together we’ll work toward:
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There’s so much you’ve had to let go of — who you were, how others saw you, what you thought life would look like. Therapy gives that grief a place to land, so it doesn’t swallow you whole.
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You are not your to-do list. You’ll learn to recognize the internalized pressure to “push through” and start treating yourself with the same compassion you offer everyone else.
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Symptoms, scans, flare-ups, uncertainty — they keep your system on edge. We’ll work on tools to calm the body and quiet the spiral when your mind starts racing.
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If you've ever felt gaslit, dismissed, or blamed by providers, you're not imagining it. Therapy helps you process those experiences and rebuild trust in your own body and instincts.
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You’ll develop rhythms that actually fit your energy levels — with rest, pacing, and flexibility built in. Not another “optimized morning routine.” A real one that works for your body.
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With providers. With your partner. With your kids. And maybe most importantly — with that inner voice that tells you to suck it up. We’ll practice boundary-setting, asking for help, and speaking up without guilt.
As a result, you’ll notice:
More calm and less panic when symptoms flare
Stronger boundaries with loved ones who don’t always understand
Relief from guilt, resentment, or shame about how much you’re carrying
Moments of joy or presence that don’t revolve around your diagnosis
A new self-narrative — one that includes pain, but also strength and worth
More control over your emotional responses, even when your physical symptoms feel out of control
You don’t have to keep pushing through, pretending you’re fine.
Therapy gives you a space to be honest, to feel seen, and to learn how to care for yourself in ways that go beyond symptom management.
This isn’t about "fixing" you.
It’s about helping you build a life that still feels like yours.
Therapy for chronic illness, autoimmune conditions, and chronic pain can help you...
Understand the emotional impact of your symptoms so you can stop blaming yourself and start making space for what’s hard.
Rebuild your identity beyond illness, roles, or productivity.
Prioritize rest and pacing without feeling lazy or ashamed.
Create rituals and routines that actually fit your capacity — not your ideal.
Unhook from guilt, resentment, or grief that keep you stuck in cycles of overfunctioning and collapse.
Recognize and respond to flare triggers without spiraling into fear or self-doubt.
Reconnect with your partner, kids, or support system without hiding what you’re really feeling.
Self-advocate clearly and confidently with providers who don’t always get it.
Build nervous system regulation tools that help you feel safer in your body — even when symptoms don’t go away.
Develop a compassionate relationship with yourself, one that doesn’t require “doing everything right” to feel worthy of care.
Chronic illness doesn’t just affect the body—it reshapes identity, relationships, and daily life. I work with clients facing a wide range of diagnoses, symptoms, and medical experiences, with a focus on the emotional impact of:
Autoimmune disease (e.g., lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimotos’s, multiple sclerosis)
Chronic pain conditions (fibromyalgia, migraine, pelvic pain, back/neck pain)
Post-viral illness & Long COVID
Cancer — including diagnosis, treatment, recurrence fears, and life after
Cardiac conditions (e.g., arrhythmias, heart failure, congenital heart disease, recovery after cardiac events)
Neurological issues (FND, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, post-concussive symptoms)
EDS, POTS, MCAS, and complex multi-system diagnoses
GI-related illness (IBS, IBD, gastroparesis, oral allergy syndrome)
Severe food allergies and anaphylaxis-related trauma
Medically traumatic experiences or diagnostic uncertainty
Health-related PTSD, health anxiety, and grief around function loss
Methods
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ACT helps you step out of the mental tug-of-war with your symptoms. You’ll learn how to unhook from the thoughts that fuel shame, guilt, and fear, and take meaningful steps toward the life you want—even when symptoms are still present.
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This structured, evidence-based approach gives you tools for pacing, flare recovery, and reducing the patterns that keep pain stuck on repeat. You’ll learn to work with your body, not against it.
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If health “what-ifs” and body-checking keep your mind on high alert, we’ll use targeted CBT strategies to calm spirals, reduce reassurance-seeking, and rebuild trust in your body’s ability to recover.
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When illness, pain, or stress disrupts your nights, CBT-I gives you a clear, evidence-based plan to reset your sleep patterns—so you can fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake feeling more rested.
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PRT retrains your brain’s interpretation of pain signals so your body can feel safer—and symptoms can dial down. For many people, this means moving with less fear and more trust in your body’s resilience.
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Whether you’ve experienced medical gaslighting, medical trauma, a difficult diagnosis, or a health crisis, we’ll move at your pace. Every step will be grounded in your window of tolerance, with strategies to regulate your nervous system so you can feel safer in your body again.
Frequently asked questions about chronic illness, autoimmune conditions, and chronic pain therapy
FAQs
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Yes—though not in the “your symptoms are all in your head” way. Therapy can help you navigate the emotional, cognitive, and identity-level impact of illness. That includes managing flare-related stress, breaking out of boom-bust cycles, reclaiming agency, and making space for grief and change. This work isn’t about “thinking more positively”—it’s about building a sustainable life with the body you have now. Learn more.
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Absolutely. This space is yours. Some clients want to unpack the full medical timeline, while others prefer to focus on what’s happening now. We’ll go at your pace, and you don’t have to prove your pain or educate me on what it means to live with an “invisible” condition. Learn more.
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That’s expected—and you won’t be judged for it. We’ll build in flexibility when needed and talk openly about how to make therapy work for your actual life and energy levels. Showing up for yourself in a way that honors your body is part of the process. Learn more.
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Yes. I see many clients navigating complex or hard-to-diagnose conditions—autoimmune illness, chronic infections, nervous system dysregulation, or post-viral syndromes. You don’t need a perfect label to be taken seriously here. If your health is affecting your emotional wellbeing, we can work together. Learn more.
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Yes. If you’ve felt dismissed, gaslit, or traumatized by your healthcare experiences, that matters here. My approach integrates trauma-informed care with strategies to help you feel safe again—in your body, in relationships, and even in medical settings. Learn more.
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That’s more common than you think. When you’ve spent so much time in survival mode—pushing through appointments, advocating for yourself, trying to stay functional—it can feel unfamiliar (or even unsafe) to slow down and notice how you’re doing emotionally. You don’t need the perfect words to start. We’ll figure it out together. Learn more.