Growing up, it often felt like your needs and limits didn’t matter. You learned to push through discomfort, ignore your body’s signals, and prioritize others’ expectations over your own well-being—sometimes at the cost of your health.
As children, many of us were unable to recognize or understand what our bodies were trying to tell us. Pain, fatigue, or other physical signals often went unnoticed, dismissed, or punished, leaving us disconnected from our own needs. We learned to push through discomfort and meet others’ expectations, often feeling guilty for slowing down, asking for help, or acknowledging that something was wrong. Over time, this disconnection and the internalized guilt can create patterns of doubting our own experience of our bodies.
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Living with a chronic illness now can bring these old messages back to the surface. Flare-ups, fatigue, or pain may trigger the same guilt, shame, or self-criticism you learned as a child. You might feel pressure to “do it all” anyway, push past your limits, or worry about being seen as weak or burdensome. Anxiety, frustration, and exhaustion can follow, not just from your symptoms but from the internalized belief that your needs are less important than everyone else’s.
And now, you feel deeply drained, limited, and disconnected from the life you hoped to have.
It's left you....
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Struggling to keep up with daily responsibilities or activities you once enjoyed.
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Feeling isolated or misunderstood by others who don’t see your challenges.
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Experiencing frustration or grief over lost energy, independence, or opportunities.
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Battling guilt for needing rest or accommodations that others don’t require.
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Questioning your own worth or feeling “less than” because of your limitations.
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Feeling anxious about flare-ups, pain, or unpredictable symptoms.
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Wondering how to balance your health needs with relationships, work, or family.
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Carrying emotional exhaustion from managing both your illness and the expectations of others.
As adults living with chronic illness, these early patterns can make it especially challenging to honor our limits, trust our body’s signals, or set boundaries without feeling selfish, guilty, or undeserving of care.
We may push ourselves past our energy reserves, ignore pain or fatigue, or feel shame for asking for support—behaviors that were learned in childhood as survival strategies. These patterns can create a cycle of overexertion, guilt, and frustration, making it difficult to prioritize our own health and well-being.
Every part of your experience—the fatigue, the flare-ups, the moments of frustration or guilt—is seen and valued here.
The fatigue that makes even small tasks feel overwhelming, the flare-ups that disrupt your plans and your sense of control, the emotional weight of frustration, disappointment, or guilt—is seen, acknowledged, and valued here. Every ache, every exhausted moment, and every internal conflict carries meaning and deserves compassion.
This space honors not just the visible challenges of your illness, but also the invisible ones—the mental, emotional, and relational impact of living with a body that doesn’t always cooperate. Here, your experiences are valid, your struggles are recognized, and your need for care, rest, and understanding is respected without judgment.
All parts of you are allowed.
The part that is fatigued.
The part that struggles through flare-ups.
The part that feels frustrated, guilty, or overwhelmed by limitations.
The part that longs for rest, support, and understanding.
The part that celebrates even small victories.
Living with chronic illness doesn’t just affect your body—it shapes how you think, feel, manage your energy, and navigate your life. When your body taught you limits you couldn’t always understand, or when early patterns encouraged you to push through pain, ignore fatigue, or prioritize others’ expectations over your own needs, your nervous system and mind adapted in the only ways they knew how. Those adaptations were intelligent. Protective. Necessary. But now, they may be keeping you stuck in habits and patterns that no longer support the life or well-being you want to build.
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In our work together, we gently explore those long-held patterns with curiosity rather than judgment. We look at the parts of you that are fatigued, frustrated, or overwhelmed by limitations, and the parts that keep pushing, striving, or trying to manage it all. Healing from chronic illness isn’t about “fixing” your body or forcing change—it’s about creating a compassionate relationship with yourself, honoring your limits, trusting your body’s signals, and learning how to care for yourself in ways that truly support your health and well-being.
Every part of your experience—your fatigue, your flare-ups, your struggles—is valid. None of it means you are broken.
Therapy for your chronic illness can....
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Give you a clearer understanding of your body and mind so you can stop feeling confused, overwhelmed, or ashamed of your symptoms and reactions.
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Help you recognize which responses are your body’s way of protecting you, which patterns are rooted in past experiences, and which parts of you are longing for rest, support, and relief.
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Teach you why your body and mind react the way they do—why fatigue, flare-ups, anxiety, frustration, or avoidance appear—and how these responses are connected to both your illness and your coping history.
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Encourage you to cultivate self-compassion, internal clarity, and a sense of safety so your body and mind can work with you, rather than against you.
Therapy might be for you if...
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You’re constantly tired or worn out, and it feels like your body is holding you back.
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You push yourself too hard and then feel guilty for needing to rest.
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Flare-ups, pain, or fatigue leave you stressed, frustrated, or anxious.
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You feel like no one really gets what it’s like to live with your illness.
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You want help figuring out how to care for yourself without shame or judgment.
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You want tools to make daily life a little easier and your body a little kinder to yourself.
See my blog post here to learn more about the connection between chronic illnesses and CPTSD
You deserve a space where every part of your experience—your fatigue, flare-ups, frustration, and resilience—is acknowledged, honored, and supported.
Here, you can begin to untangle old patterns of pushing past your limits, feeling guilty for resting, or ignoring your body’s signals, all without judgment. You can rebuild trust in your body, cultivate a sense of safety within yourself, and feel supported in your relationships with others.
Healing while living with chronic illness isn’t about rushing or forcing your body to do what it can’t; it’s about gently discovering the strength, wisdom, and resilience that have always been inside you, even on the hardest days.