Therapy for Chronic Illness
You’ve been managing your health for a long time. You deserve support, too.
Some days you can function. Other days, symptoms decide how you sleep, whether you can work, and how much you have left for the people you love. Add the appointments, tests, and treatments that haven’t fully helped, and it’s easy to feel worn down.
Your symptoms are real. Living with a long-term illness affects your nervous system, sleep, mood, relationships, and how you see yourself, and stress can make symptoms harder to manage.
Therapy helps you calm the stress response, work through what this illness has cost you, and build a life that has room for more than managing symptoms. It works alongside your medical care, not instead of it.
Telehealth for NY, FL, MI residents
“Why do I still feel this sick when my tests keep coming back normal?”
Because chronic illness affects your whole system, and not all of it shows up on a test.
It might look like:
Symptoms that flare, shift, or never fully go away
Going months or years without clear answers
Feeling dismissed or disbelieved by doctors, family, or even yourself
Dreading appointments after past experiences with providers
Grieving the life, body, or plans you had before
Exhaustion, pain, and a nervous system that won’t settle
Your body isn’t failing you. It’s been carrying a lot.
Chronic illness rarely affects the body alone. It often brings anxiety, low mood, isolation, and burnout with it, and that’s part of what we work on together.
WITH OR WITHOUT A DIAGNOSIS
Not having answers can become its own kind of stress.
Many people with chronic illness spend years searching for answers: seeing specialist after specialist, hearing that their results are normal, or being told it’s “just stress.” Being dismissed by the people you turned to for help can be traumatic in its own right. It can leave you doubting your own body, putting off care, or bracing before every appointment.
You don’t need a diagnosis to deserve support. Whether you have one diagnosis, several, or none yet, therapy can help with the stress of not knowing, the medical trauma that can come with it, and how to advocate for yourself in future care.
Your experience counts, with or without a label.
Telehealth for NY, FL, MI residents
TRAUMA & CHRONIC ILLNESS
What your body has lived through, it remembers.
Many people living with chronic illness also carry a history of trauma. Sometimes it’s one overwhelming event. Sometimes it’s years of stress, instability, or not feeling safe growing up. Research links adverse childhood experiences and long-term stress with higher rates of chronic illness, and a nervous system shaped by threat can make symptoms harder to manage.
This doesn’t mean your illness is “in your head.” It means healing your history and calming your nervous system can be part of caring for your body.
HOW WE'LL WORK TOGETHER
Steady your system. Work through what this has cost you. Reclaim your life.
Therapy for chronic illness doesn’t replace your doctors, specialists, or other care. It works alongside them, focusing on the parts of illness that live in the nervous system and in daily life: the stress response, grief and fear, medical trauma, and the ways illness has narrowed your world.
PHASE 1
Calming the System
We build grounding and body-awareness skills, plus practical tools for flares, pain, sleep, and pacing your energy, so you have more steadiness from the start.
PHASE 2
Working Through the Hard Parts
We work with the grief, fear, medical trauma, and old stress or trauma that keep your system on alert, using approaches like somatic therapy, EMDR, and mindfulness-based CBT.
PHASE 3
Reclaiming Your Life
Step by step, we rebuild routines, relationships, and a sense of self that make room for more than your illness, including feeling more confident advocating for yourself in medical care.
Approaches that may help: Somatic Therapy · Mindfulness-Based CBT · EMDR Therapy · Energy Psychology
Living with an autoimmune diagnosis? Learn about therapy for autoimmune conditions →
Telehealth for NY, FL, MI residents
AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
Whole-person care, every step of the way.
One method may guide our work, but it’s never the only one. Your past lives in your mind, body, and relationships. I combine evidence-based and mind-body approaches to help you work through the past and move forward with more support, clarity and confidence.
WHAT A SESSION FEELS LIKE
We work with your body, not against it.
Sessions take place by secure telehealth, so you can join from wherever you’re most comfortable and sit, lie down, or shift positions whenever you need to. Some sessions we talk things through, some we slow down and notice what’s happening in your body, and some we practice skills you can use during a flare. On low-energy days, we adjust. You’ll never be asked to push past your limits to participate.
You set the pace. Your body has a say.
WHAT CHANGES AS THE WORK UNFOLDS
Illness takes up less of your life.
Less fear and dread around flares and appointments
Feeling calmer when symptoms spike, with tools that actually help
Pacing your energy in a way that feels sustainable
Trusting your own experience, with or without a diagnosis
Feeling more confident advocating for yourself with providers
A life that’s bigger than your illness
Telehealth for NY, FL, MI residents
MEET YOUR THERAPIST
Lisa Kent, LCSW
CCTP-II · EMDR-C
I work with people whose symptoms persist even with good medical care, including those still searching for a diagnosis. Together we look at how stress, past experiences, and medical trauma affect your nervous system, and we use somatic, EMDR, and mind-body approaches to help your system settle and help you feel more like yourself. This work complements your medical treatment rather than replacing it.
QUESTIONS, ANSWERED
Chronic illness therapy FAQs
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No. Your symptoms are real, and so is your illness. Stress and the nervous system can affect how symptoms feel and how often they flare, but that doesn’t mean your illness is caused by your thoughts or that you could fix it with a better attitude. Therapy works alongside your medical care to support the parts of you that are carrying this.
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No. Many people come to therapy while they’re still searching for answers, sometimes after years of normal test results or being told it’s “just stress.” You don’t need a diagnosis for your experience to count. We can work on the stress of not knowing, the medical trauma that can come from being dismissed, and how to advocate for yourself in future appointments.
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I work with adults and young adults living with a wide range of long-term conditions, including fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, long COVID, POTS and dysautonomia, IBS and other digestive conditions, migraines, endometriosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, and chronic pain. I also work with people whose symptoms don’t have a name yet.
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Yes. Fluctuating energy is common with chronic illness, and it’s okay. Sessions are by telehealth, so you can join from wherever you’re comfortable, and we adjust each session to the energy you have that day. Some sessions may be gentler or more skills-focused. Your capacity is part of the work, not a barrier to it.
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Research has found that people with histories of trauma, especially in childhood, have higher rates of many chronic illnesses. Long-term stress affects the nervous system, immune system, and hormones, which can influence symptoms and flares. Working with your trauma history won’t replace medical treatment, but it can help your body spend less time in survival mode.
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Many people come to therapy after years of appointments, tests, and treatments that haven’t fully helped. Therapy isn’t another thing you have to get right. It’s a place to process what you’ve been through, calm your nervous system, and find ways to live more fully, alongside the medical care you choose.
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It’s a free, no-pressure 15-minute video call. We’ll talk briefly about what’s bringing you to therapy and what you’re hoping for, I’ll answer your questions about how I work, fees, and out-of-network reimbursement, and together we’ll decide whether we’re a good fit. You don’t need to prepare anything, and there’s no obligation to book.
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Sessions are $200 per hour of work together. I am in-network with BCBS and BCN plans for Michigan residents. For New York and Florida residents, I partner with Mentaya to help you use your out-of-network benefits. Depending on your plan, up to 80% of your session cost can be reimbursed, and all of your claims are handled for you. You can check your benefits here (opens in a new window), or we can review them together during your free consultation.
HEALING THROUGH RECONNECTION
You’ve been carrying this for a long time. You don’t have to carry it alone.
Living with chronic illness can make your world feel smaller. Healing reaches every part of you: your mind, your body, your relationships, and your sense of meaning. You deserve care that sees all of it.
Telehealth for NY, FL, MI residents
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Read more from Ouro House
Essays on the link between trauma, the nervous system, and chronic illness.
