Therapy for Serious & Chronic Illness and Medical Experiences in Washington, DC
Illness can change much more than your health.
A diagnosis, treatment, hospitalization, or ongoing medical condition can affect your sense of safety, your relationship with your body, your plans for the future, and the way you understand yourself. Even when treatment ends or things are medically stable, the emotional impact may not simply end with it.
I work with adults, children, and teens living with serious or chronic illness, people affected by difficult or traumatic medical experiences, and those supporting someone they love through illness.
In person in Northwest DC and virtual throughout DC
When illness becomes part of your life
Medical experiences can divide life into a before and an after.
There may be fear about what will happen next, exhaustion from treatment or ongoing symptoms, anger at what your body has been through, or grief for parts of life that have changed. Relationships can shift. Independence can change. Other people may not understand why things don't simply feel “normal” again.
For people living with chronic conditions, there may not be a clear endpoint at all. Instead, there can be the ongoing work of living with uncertainty, managing symptoms and medical care, and making room for a condition you did not choose.
Therapy can provide a place to attend to this part of the experience rather than treating it as secondary to the medical care itself.
Medical experiences can stay with us
Not every difficult medical experience is traumatic, but some can leave a lasting sense of fear, helplessness, or vulnerability.
Procedures, emergencies, hospitalizations, painful treatment, complications, frightening diagnoses, or experiences of having little control over what happened to your body can continue to affect you after the immediate event has passed.
You may notice anxiety before appointments or procedures, heightened attention to changes in your body, memories of what happened, difficulty trusting your body, or a sense that other people don't quite understand what you've been through.
We can make room for those experiences without assuming there is one particular way you should feel about them.
Grief, uncertainty, and a changed sense of self
Illness often involves losses that aren't always visible to other people.
You may be grieving health, independence, plans, work, fertility, physical abilities, a former relationship with your body, or a version of yourself and your future that once felt certain.
At the same time, life continues. There may still be relationships, work, parenting, school, creativity, pleasure, and ordinary concerns alongside illness.
Therapy can hold both. The goal isn't to make illness meaningful or find a positive side to it. It can be a place to understand what has changed, grieve what has been lost, and consider how you want to live with what is true now.
After treatment ends
Finishing treatment, receiving reassuring results, or reaching survivorship can be deeply wanted and still feel more complicated than expected.
During active treatment, life may have been organized around appointments, decisions, and getting through the next thing. When that structure recedes, feelings that had little room to emerge can become more noticeable.
There may also be fear of recurrence, uncertainty about the future, changes in the body, shifts in relationships, or pressure, from yourself or other people, to put the experience behind you.
There is no required timeline for feeling finished with something simply because the medical treatment is finished.
Living alongside chronic illness
Chronic illness can require repeated adaptation.
Symptoms may fluctuate. Your abilities or needs may change. Medical care can consume time and attention. It can be difficult to plan when you don't know how you'll feel, and frustrating when other people cannot see or understand what you're managing.
Therapy can offer a place to explore the emotional and relational effects of living with an ongoing condition without reducing every difficulty in your life to the illness.
When someone you love is ill
Serious or chronic illness can also profoundly affect the people around the person who is ill.
Supporting someone you love may bring fear, grief, uncertainty, changes in roles and relationships, and responsibilities you weren't prepared for. It can also be difficult to find room for your own experience when so much attention understandably belongs to the person who is sick.
Therapy can offer a place for your experience, too, including feelings that may be difficult to acknowledge elsewhere.
Art therapy and medical experiences
Some experiences involving illness and the body can be difficult to approach through words alone.
Art-making can offer another way to explore changes in the body, uncertainty, fear, grief, identity, and experiences that may be difficult to describe. For some people, working with images or materials also creates a little distance from experiences that feel overwhelming to discuss directly.
Art is always optional. Some clients use it regularly, others occasionally, and some prefer to talk.
Experience that informs this work
I spent nearly a decade working as an art therapist in a pediatric hospital with children, teens, young adults, and families navigating serious illness and medical treatment.
That experience continues to inform how I understand the emotional and relational effects of illness, including uncertainty, grief and loss, changes in the body and sense of self, and the ways illness can affect an entire family.
Practical information
In person
Sessions are available in Northwest Washington, DC, near Tenleytown.
Virtual
Telehealth is available for clients located in Washington, DC.
Sessions
Individual sessions are 45 minutes.
Fee
The fee for individual sessions is $225.
Insurance
Aligned Art Therapy is an out-of-network practice. I can provide documentation for clients who wish to seek reimbursement through their insurance plan. Coverage and reimbursement vary by plan and provider eligibility.
Fees & FAQ →
Considering therapy?
You don't need to know whether what you're experiencing is grief, trauma, anxiety, or something else before reaching out.
You can request a brief consultation to tell me a little about what you've been through, what you're looking for, and whether working together might be a good fit.
Request a consultation# Therapy for Serious & Chronic Illness and Medical Experiences in Washington, DC
Illness can change much more than your health.
A diagnosis, treatment, hospitalization, or ongoing medical condition can affect your sense of safety, your relationship with your body, your plans for the future, and the way you understand yourself. Even when treatment ends or things are medically stable, the emotional impact may not simply end with it.
I work with adults, children, and teens living with serious or chronic illness, people affected by difficult or traumatic medical experiences, and those supporting someone they love through illness.
In person in Northwest DC and virtual throughout DC
When illness becomes part of your life
Medical experiences can divide life into a before and an after.
There may be fear about what will happen next, exhaustion from treatment or ongoing symptoms, anger at what your body has been through, or grief for parts of life that have changed. Relationships can shift. Independence can change. Other people may not understand why things don't simply feel “normal” again.
For people living with chronic conditions, there may not be a clear endpoint at all. Instead, there can be the ongoing work of living with uncertainty, managing symptoms and medical care, and making room for a condition you did not choose.
Therapy can provide a place to attend to this part of the experience rather than treating it as secondary to the medical care itself.
Medical experiences can stay with us
Not every difficult medical experience is traumatic, but some can leave a lasting sense of fear, helplessness, or vulnerability.
Procedures, emergencies, hospitalizations, painful treatment, complications, frightening diagnoses, or experiences of having little control over what happened to your body can continue to affect you after the immediate event has passed.
You may notice anxiety before appointments or procedures, heightened attention to changes in your body, memories of what happened, difficulty trusting your body, or a sense that other people don't quite understand what you've been through.
We can make room for those experiences without assuming there is one particular way you should feel about them.
Grief, uncertainty, and a changed sense of self
Illness often involves losses that aren't always visible to other people.
You may be grieving health, independence, plans, work, fertility, physical abilities, a former relationship with your body, or a version of yourself and your future that once felt certain.
At the same time, life continues. There may still be relationships, work, parenting, school, creativity, pleasure, and ordinary concerns alongside illness.
Therapy can hold both. The goal isn't to make illness meaningful or find a positive side to it. It can be a place to understand what has changed, grieve what has been lost, and consider how you want to live with what is true now.
After treatment ends
Finishing treatment, receiving reassuring results, or reaching survivorship can be deeply wanted and still feel more complicated than expected.
During active treatment, life may have been organized around appointments, decisions, and getting through the next thing. When that structure recedes, feelings that had little room to emerge can become more noticeable.
There may also be fear of recurrence, uncertainty about the future, changes in the body, shifts in relationships, or pressure, from yourself or other people, to put the experience behind you.
There is no required timeline for feeling finished with something simply because the medical treatment is finished.
Living alongside chronic illness
Chronic illness can require repeated adaptation.
Symptoms may fluctuate. Your abilities or needs may change. Medical care can consume time and attention. It can be difficult to plan when you don't know how you'll feel, and frustrating when other people cannot see or understand what you're managing.
Therapy can offer a place to explore the emotional and relational effects of living with an ongoing condition without reducing every difficulty in your life to the illness.
When someone you love is ill
Serious or chronic illness can also profoundly affect the people around the person who is ill.
Supporting someone you love may bring fear, grief, uncertainty, changes in roles and relationships, and responsibilities you weren't prepared for. It can also be difficult to find room for your own experience when so much attention understandably belongs to the person who is sick.
Therapy can offer a place for your experience, too, including feelings that may be difficult to acknowledge elsewhere.
Art therapy and medical experiences
Some experiences involving illness and the body can be difficult to approach through words alone.
Art-making can offer another way to explore changes in the body, uncertainty, fear, grief, identity, and experiences that may be difficult to describe. For some people, working with images or materials also creates a little distance from experiences that feel overwhelming to discuss directly.
Art is always optional. Some clients use it regularly, others occasionally, and some prefer to talk.
Experience that informs this work
I spent nearly a decade working as an art therapist in a pediatric hospital with children, teens, young adults, and families navigating serious illness and medical treatment.
That experience continues to inform how I understand the emotional and relational effects of illness, including uncertainty, grief and loss, changes in the body and sense of self, and the ways illness can affect an entire family.
Practical information
In person
Sessions are available in Northwest Washington, DC, near Tenleytown.
Virtual
Telehealth is available for clients located in Washington, DC.
Sessions
Individual sessions are 45 minutes.
Fee
The fee for individual sessions is $225.
Insurance
Aligned Art Therapy is an out-of-network practice. I can provide documentation for clients who wish to seek reimbursement through their insurance plan. Coverage and reimbursement vary by plan and provider eligibility.
Fees & FAQ →
Considering therapy?
You don't need to know whether what you're experiencing is grief, trauma, anxiety, or something else before reaching out.
You can request a brief consultation to tell me a little about what you've been through, what you're looking for, and whether working together might be a good fit.