Therapy for Serious & Chronic Illness and Medical Experiences in Washington, 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. Symptoms, abilities, and needs may change over time, while medical care itself can consume enormous amounts of attention and energy.

Therapy can make room for the emotional and relational parts of living with illness without reducing everything in your life to the illness.

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, 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 around appointments or procedures, heightened attention to changes in your body, memories of what happened, or difficulty trusting your body again.

Grief, uncertainty, and life after treatment

Illness can involve losses that aren't always visible to other people. You may be grieving health, independence, fertility, physical abilities, a former relationship with your body, or the future you expected to have.

Finishing treatment or receiving reassuring results can also be more complicated than expected. Feelings that had little room to emerge during active treatment may become more noticeable afterward, alongside fear of recurrence or pressure to put the experience behind you.

There is no required timeline for feeling finished with something simply because the medical treatment is finished.

Therapy 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.

When someone you love is ill

Supporting someone through serious or chronic illness can bring fear, grief, uncertainty, changing roles, 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 ill. Therapy can make room for that experience too.

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.

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, medical treatment, grief, and loss.

That experience continues to inform how I understand the emotional and relational effects of illness, including uncertainty, changes in the body and sense of self, and the ways illness can affect an entire family.

Practical information

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 and see whether working together might be a good fit.