Chronic Pain
Living with chronic pain is a deeply personal and often invisible experience, one that affects far more than just the body. As a therapist who has lived with chronic pain myself, I understand firsthand how it weaves into every part of life: energy, mood, relationships, work, and identity. Psychotherapy can offer a compassionate and empowering space to explore not only how pain affects your life, but how you might live more fully within it.
Chronic pain isn’t just a physical issue. It also impacts the nervous system, emotions, thoughts, and sense of self. It can lead to feelings of frustration, hopelessness, grief, isolation, and even shame. Many clients I work with have heard things like “it’s all in your head” or “you just need to push through it,” which can leave them feeling dismissed or misunderstood. In therapy, those experiences are honored, not minimized. This is a space to be believed, validated, and supported.
From my own lived experience, I know how exhausting it is to navigate daily tasks when pain is a constant background noise, or sometimes a deafening roar. Together, we explore the emotional toll of pain: the anger, fear, anxiety, and sadness that often ride alongside it. We also explore the identity shifts that come with chronic illness: how to grieve what’s been lost, reframe what’s possible, and build a new kind of life that feels meaningful and aligned.
Therapy doesn’t erase pain, but it can offer tools and perspectives that make it easier to carry. This might include pacing strategies, nervous system regulation, boundary work, mindfulness, pain reprocessing, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Sometimes, it’s just having a space where you don’t have to pretend you’re okay, where your experience is not only accepted but understood.
As someone who has walked this path, I don’t offer quick fixes or false promises. What I offer is presence, perspective, and a shared understanding of how challenging and courageous it is to live with chronic pain. Therapy can help you reconnect with what matters, manage the emotional impact of pain, and reclaim agency over your life, not by denying your pain, but by learning to live alongside it with greater ease, compassion, and resilience.