Chronic Illness Support
Counselling for the whole experience
of living with chronic illness.
Supporting the Unseen
If you’ve found yourself here, there’s a good chance that chronic illness has affected your life in ways that extend far beyond your physical health. While others may understand the diagnosis or know about your symptoms, they often don’t see the emotional impact of living with ongoing pain, fatigue, uncertainty or the constant need to adapt.
Living with a chronic illness can bring feelings of grief, guilt, shame and loneliness. You may worry about being a burden, feel frustrated by what your body can no longer do, or find yourself putting on a brave face because it’s easier than trying to explain what life is really like. Over time, that can become exhausting.
If this sounds familiar, you don’t have to carry it on your own. Counselling offers a place where you don’t have to minimise your experience or pretend you’re okay. It can be a space to process what’s happening, make sense of the emotions that come with it, and find ways to navigate life alongside your illness with greater self-compassion and support.
Sometimes, simply having one hour where you don’t have to be the strong one can make all the difference.
Who do I work with?
You might notice you won’t find a long list of chronic illnesses here, and that’s intentional.
While every chronic illness comes with its own unique symptoms, treatments and challenges, my role isn’t to treat your illness or become an expert in your diagnosis. My role is to understand you and the impact your illness has had on your life.
Although the diagnosis may be different, I’ve found that the emotional impact is often remarkably similar. Many people are grieving the life they expected, feeling frustrated with a body they can no longer rely on, carrying guilt about the people they love, feeling isolated, or simply feeling exhausted from constantly having to adapt.
Even if I listed your diagnosis here, it still wouldn’t tell me what your experience has been like. Two people can live with the very same condition and have completely different stories, different losses and different ways of coping.
I’d much rather spend our time getting to know you. To understand your story, your struggles, your strengths and what living with your illness has been like for you.
If you’re living with a chronic illness that is affecting your emotional wellbeing, you’re warmly welcome here, whether your diagnosis is common, rare or you’re still searching for answers.
While counselling can’t change your diagnosis, it can change the way you experience living with it. It can help ease some of the emotional weight that often comes with chronic illness, so you’re not carrying it all on your own.
What can counselling actually help with?
Processing the grief of the life you expected.
Making sense of a new diagnosis or ongoing uncertainty.
Managing anxiety about symptoms, flare-ups or the future.
Learning to live with pain and fatigue without feeling defined by them.
Working through guilt, shame or feeling like a burden.
Navigating changes in identity, work and relationships.
Coping with medical trauma or feeling dismissed by healthcare professionals.
Setting healthy boundaries and asking for support without guilt.
Reconnecting with the parts of yourself beyond your illness.
Finding joy, purpose and meaning again, even if life looks different than you expected.
Why work with me?
One of the reasons I feel so passionate about supporting people living with chronic illness is because I live with a few myself.
I know what it’s like to grieve the life you thought you were going to have. To feel frustrated with your own body. To spend hours researching, sitting in waiting rooms, hoping this appointment might finally bring some answers. I know what it’s like to cancel plans, to push through when you probably shouldn’t, and to wonder if anyone really understands just how much energy it takes just to get through an ordinary day. (Feel free to see the Lipoedema Page and listen to the interview in the Podcast about one of my illnesses)
That doesn’t mean I’ll ever assume your story is the same as mine. Every person’s experience is different, and I’m always curious about what your chronic illness has been like for you.
What it does mean is that you won’t have to convince me that what you’re going through is real. You won’t have to explain why you’re exhausted after something that looks simple, why you’re grieving, or why it can all feel so incredibly lonely at times.
My hope is that when you come into our sessions, you can let your shoulders drop a little. That for one hour, you don’t have to put on a brave face, minimise what you’re carrying or pretend you’re okay. You can simply come as you are.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Living with a chronic illness can be incredibly isolating, but you don’t have to carry it on your own.
Whether you’ve been living with your illness for years, you’ve recently been diagnosed, or you’re still searching for answers, you deserve a space where you feel heard, understood and supported.
If you’re ready to take that first step, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.