Specialty
Chronic Illness & Health Changes Therapy
When your health changes and everything else changes with it
A diagnosis can divide a life into before and after. Whether it arrived suddenly or after a long search for answers, living with a chronic illness or a major health change asks you to adjust to a new body, a new set of limitations and a future that suddenly feels uncertain. That is a profound psychological task, and no one should have to do it alone. *
Maybe you are living with an autoimmune or neurological condition, navigating cancer treatment or survivorship, managing chronic fatigue, or adapting to changes in mobility or how your body functions. Alongside the medical reality, there is often grief for the life and the body you had before, anger at the unfairness of it, and fear about what comes next. *
Many people also carry a quieter pain, the experience of being misunderstood. When you look fine on the outside, others may underestimate what you are managing, and you may end up performing wellness while struggling privately. Even well-meaning encouragement can feel isolating. *
Therapy cannot change your diagnosis, and it will never minimize the physical reality of your condition. What it can do is help you carry it differently, grieve honestly, live meaningfully within real limits, and rebuild a relationship with a body that has changed. People do find their footing again. *
Signs chronic illness & health changes may be affecting your life
- A new or life-changing diagnosis you are still absorbing
- Grief for the body, energy or life you had before
- Fear and uncertainty about how your condition will progress
- Exhaustion from managing symptoms, treatments and appointments
- Feeling misunderstood because you "look fine" to others
- Guilt about needing help or canceling on people
- Anger or resentment that surfaces at unexpected moments
- Withdrawing from friends who do not seem to get it
- Anxiety spikes around scans, results or symptom changes
- Struggling to recognize yourself in your changed body or routine
- Feeling pressure to stay positive when you do not feel positive
Our approach to chronic illness & health changes
Adjusting to illness is not a failure of attitude, and it does not happen on a schedule. Our starting point is honoring what you have actually lost and what you are actually facing, without rushing you toward acceptance or silver linings. From there, therapy is individualized to where you are, whether that is the shock of a new diagnosis, the long middle of chronic management, or the strange terrain of survivorship. *
We draw on an integrative set of evidence-based approaches. Somatic and experiential therapy helps you relate to a changed body with less fear and more care. Clinical hypnosis can support symptom-related distress, stress regulation and the physical tension that accompanies constant coping. When medical events themselves were frightening, EMDR may be incorporated, and our dedicated medical trauma work is available where that is the center of the struggle. Throughout, therapy complements your medical treatment and works in respect of your medical team, never in place of them. *
The focus is a life that is genuinely yours again, in the body you have now. That includes the practical, like communicating your needs and pacing your energy, and the profound, like grief, identity and what meaning looks like on the other side of a diagnosis. *
Clinician who specializes in chronic illness & health changes
ACT · EMDR · Hypnosis
Dr. Laura Faiwiszewski brings her health-focused, mind-body practice to the experience of chronic illness and major health changes. Her background in health anxiety, chronic pain, medical fears and medical trauma shapes how she supports people adjusting to a changed body and an uncertain medical road. She offers a place where the physical reality is taken seriously and the emotional weight finally gets room. *
Full profile →Modalities
Therapy approaches that may help
We integrate these techniques, custom-tailored to you, in the order your nervous system can use first.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- My illness is physical. Why would I see a psychologist?
- Because living with a physical illness is also an emotional and psychological experience. Grief, fear, identity changes and relationship strain are normal responses to real medical events, not signs that anything is imagined. Therapy addresses that side of the experience while your medical team addresses the condition itself. *
- Will therapy help with my physical symptoms too?
- Therapy does not treat the underlying medical condition, and we will never suggest it can. That said, stress, poor sleep and constant bracing can worsen how symptoms feel, and mind-body approaches often reduce that added burden. Many people find symptoms easier to live with even when the condition itself is unchanged. *
- Is it normal to grieve even though I am still here and functioning?
- Yes. Grieving the body, plans or ease you had before is one of the most universal parts of chronic illness, and it does not require anyone to see it from the outside. Naming it as grief, rather than weakness or negativity, is often where real adjustment begins. *
- I feel guilty struggling when others have it worse. Is that a reason to wait?
- No. Comparison is a very human reflex, but suffering does not need to win a ranking to deserve care. If your health situation is affecting your mood, relationships or sense of self, that is reason enough to get support now rather than later. *
- Do you coordinate with my doctors?
- Our work is designed to complement your medical care, and with your permission we can communicate with your treatment team when it is useful. We encourage appropriate medical evaluation and follow-up throughout, and therapy never replaces it. *
- What if the hardest part is what happened during my treatment?
- Frightening procedures, hospitalizations and medical emergencies can leave a traumatic imprint of their own. When that is the center of your struggle, our dedicated medical trauma work, including EMDR, may be the right starting point, and your clinician will help you find the right door in. *
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