Therapy for Chronic Illness & Pain in Portland & Milwaukie | Online Across OR
Helping you find balance and relief amid ongoing health struggles.
Living in a Body That Keeps Changing the Rules
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes with chronic illness and chronic pain. It isn't just physical, though it is deeply, relentlessly physical. It's the exhaustion of navigating a medical system that doesn't always believe you. Of explaining yourself over and over to people who can't see what you're carrying. Of grieving a version of your life, or your body, or your future, that you didn't get to keep. Of trying to stay present and functional and connected when your body is making all of that profoundly difficult. It's the exhaustion of being sick and having to manage everyone else's feelings about it at the same time. If any of that feels familiar, you're in the right place.
WHAT WE OFFER
For those who are tired of being told it's all in their head, and tired of having to prove otherwise.
People come to us carrying a wide range of experiences related to chronic illness and chronic pain, including:
Medical trauma and the lasting impact of being dismissed, misdiagnosed, or disbelieved
The emotional weight of an unpredictable body and an uncertain future
Identity shifts like navigating who you are now, separate from who you were before illness
Relationships strained by the realities of chronic illness, including caregiver dynamics, intimacy, and the loneliness of feeling like a burden
Anxiety and depression connected to nervous system dysregulation and, cycles of pain, and symptom flares
Grief, including anticipatory grief, ambiguous loss, and the ongoing grief of a life that looks different than you planned
Burnout from managing illness alongside the rest of life's demands
Learning to rest, receive support, and build a life that actually accommodates your body, without shame
OUR APPROACH
Healing from, or more accurately, alongside, chronic illness rarely happens in a straight line, and our approach reflects that.
We work holistically, meaning we don't treat your symptoms, your emotions, your nervous system, and your sense of self as separate things to be addressed one at a time. They're interconnected, and the work honors that.
In practice, that means we might spend one session tending to the body, learning to recognize and work with nervous system responses that pain and uncertainty have shaped over time. Another might move into the grief of what illness has taken, or the complicated inner landscape of parts that have learned to cope in ways that once served you and now cost you something. Another might use creativity, imagery, or sensory exploration to reach something that words haven't been able to touch. We follow your lead, your energy, and your nervous system.
We are not here to suggest that a positive attitude will fix what medicine hasn't, or that therapy is a substitute for medical care.
It isn't, and we would never frame it that way.
What we do know, and what the research supports, is that the emotional, relational, and psychological dimensions of living with chronic illness are real, significant, and genuinely underserved. The grief is real. The distress is real. The toll that years of pain, uncertainty, and medical gaslighting takes on a person's sense of self, their relationships, and their nervous system is real.
Therapy doesn't cure chronic illness. But it can offer something that the medical system rarely does. A space to be fully human about it.
FAQ
We know that starting therapy can feel like a big step, and it’s normal to have questions about how it all works. Here, you’ll find answers to some of the most common questions we hear from new clients.
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We work with a wide range of chronic health experiences, including autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue and ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, hEDS and hypermobility disorders, POTS and dysautonomia, chronic migraine, endometriosis and pelvic pain, IBS and digestive conditions, multiple sclerosis, Long COVID and post-viral syndromes, chronic insomnia, cancer diagnosis and survivorship, PMDD and hormonal conditions, chronic pain of unknown origin, and more.
Don't see your condition listed? We’d still love to hear from you!
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Yes! And this is something we feel strongly about. Therapy for chronic illness is not primarily about getting better in the medical sense. It's about building a life that has meaning, connection, and moments of genuine ease within the reality of what you're living with. It's about processing the grief of what illness has taken, understanding the ways it has changed you, and finding a relationship with your body and your story that has more compassion and less war in it. Healing and curing are not the same thing, and we never conflate them.
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We understand — and we've built our practice with that reality in mind. Flares happen. Fatigue is real. Some weeks getting through the day is the only goal, and that deserves to be honored rather than pathologized. We offer telehealth sessions for clients who are unable to attend in person, and we work collaboratively to find a session structure and frequency that is sustainable for your actual life and body. If you need to reschedule, we will not make you feel guilty about it. Flexibility is not an accommodation we offer reluctantly — it is part of how we work.
GET IN TOUCH
You Are More Than Your Diagnosis
Chronic illness can become all-consuming. Therapy can offer you a space where you are more than just a patient. Where you can be a full, complex human being whose story is about so much more than your symptoms. You deserve care that sees all of that. Not just the illness, but the person living with it. The dreams you're still holding, the identity you're still building, the life you're still, in whatever form it takes, trying to live.