Established in Orange County | Online across Ca, NC, & PSYPACT States
CHRONIC ILLNESS THERAPY
Reclaim peace, presence, and meaning — even in a life you didn’t get to choose.
You’ve endured medical appointments, tests, treatments – but you still don’t feel ok.
You would do almost anything to feel like yourself, again. You had plans, goals, an idea of who you were and where you were going. But chronic illness has a way of derailing everything and replacing it with constant uncertainty. On bad days, your medical condition makes hard things even harder. You want to trust your body and plan ahead—but unpredictability keeps pulling you back into survival mode, and you don’t know how to find the relief you’ve been waiting for.
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Not a day goes by that you don’t spend mental and physical energy just on maintaining your health or withstanding your symptoms. If you do try to ignore it and push through today, you know you’ll pay for it in exhaustion or flare-ups tomorrow. It’s an extra full-time job keeping the kind of vigilance your body needs to meet basic life goals – not to mention the logistical fatigue of staying on top of your prescriptions, communicating with your medical team, and time spent advocating for yourself at home, school, or work. It feels so unsustainable, and you don’t know how to find your confidence around managing it all.
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Don’t get me wrong — you feel grateful for the family and friends who love and support you. But if one more person tells you “Look on the bright side, it’s not as bad as (insert other disease here)” OR “I just had the flu last week and it was terrible, so I get it,” OR “Have you tried cutting out (insert food or additive here)?” — you feel like you might scream. You just want to feel seen, heard, and validated by someone who gets it – to tell your story and process what’s happening to you. But when you do open up, you risk feeling shut down or having to do even more emotional labor to explain your condition and experience. You would feel so much relief if you could confide in a person who just hears you and gets it — but you don’t know where to find them and don’t have the energy to keep looking.
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You have worked so hard to bounce back from your condition, but the images or sensations of past traumatic memories keep getting in your way. Your fight or flight kicks on when you see, hear, or feel something that reminds you of the event – and it can make it hard to take care of your ongoing health needs. Maybe you feel perpetually “on” and hyper-aware, or you avoid triggers and stuff feelings down. Either way, you long for a feeling of true wellness and presence– of the emotional relief and release your body and mind truly need.
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You’ve done everything you can to follow your instincts, advice you’ve read online, and your doctor’s recommendations – but your child is still struggling with challenging behaviors or stalling in their developmental milestones. Maybe you also have your own painful memories of medical events or guilt — and it’s hard to balance your own wellness goals with all your children’s needs, too. You just want to do right by your family and see them thrive, but you can’t seem to find the right answers that consider their unique medical situation while also supporting you as a parent.
Maybe you’re struggling with…
how i can help
Feel confident investing your time and energy in therapy designed to replenish you.
The Spoon Theory is a metaphor that explains how living with chronic illness means starting each day with a limited supply of energy (or spoons). Every decision, task, or interaction costs more than people realize—so choices are about survival and sustainability, not motivation or effort.
The choice to go to therapy, on top of managing a medical condition, takes precious energy and effort – and trust. By the time you’re here, you’ve already tried everything you know how to try. You’re not looking for a generalist who has “seen a few clients with medical issues.” You’re looking for a specialist who understands the realities of your chronic illness, the medical system, and the invisible work you do every day — and who can help you make real progress towards specific goals that are tied in some way to your health.
I specialize in chronic illness and medical psychology, and for the past 15 years I’ve helped people like you make the changes they’re hoping for. I honor your trust and spoons by using evidence-based approaches, careful progress tracking, and treatment plans that are adapted to your specific medical needs, life circumstances, and goals. Just as importantly, I focus on creating a space where you feel genuinely seen and understood. You shouldn’t have to spend your limited energy explaining your illness to yet another person who’s supposed to be helping.
Your spoons are safe with me.
Because I’ve trained and worked alongside physicians, nurses, and been a part of multidisciplinary medical teams, we can often start with a shared language and a deeper understanding from the very first session. My clinical work has included both inpatient and outpatient medical settings, supporting individuals and families in specialty areas such as endocrinology, solid organ transplant, pulmonology, nephrology, oncology, gastroenterology, developmental pediatrics, and complex medical care. That experience allows us to focus less on catching me up — and more on helping you feel steadier, more supported, and better able to hit the ground running on making real change in your life.
**I am not a physician or medical professional, and I do not prescribe medication or offer medical advice. When needed, I feel comfortable connecting with your medical team and advocating by amplifying your voice.
Specialized support for every chapter of your story with a chronic illness.
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Whether you were born with your condition or were diagnosed later in life, coping with your medical needs or disability can be a challenge at any point in your journey. I help people and families adapt to new diagnoses, feel more confident about changes in appearance or looking different, cope with changes in routines and identity, and find new meaning after a life-changing medical event.
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Chronic illness affects the whole family system, and healing should target them, too. Together we can find the right parenting strategies for your children in the context of medical needs, ensure siblings have a voice and a developmentally appropriate role, balance family needs with health demands, and find new purpose and meaning in parenthood after a diagnosis.
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While living with a medical condition is emotionally challenging, the actual logistics of receiving medical care can be just as harrowing. I have specialized training and experience in helping resolve blood or injection phobias, improve pill swallowing, create coping plans for invasive procedures or dressing changes, improve comfort through mask desensitization for CPAP, and treat fear of medical settings or professionals.
Sometimes it’s the day-to-day grind of keeping on top of all the tasks that is hard to manage. Together, we can create a customized plan that helps you take medication regularly, tolerate vests or nebulizers, improve consistency in your medical diet or exercise plan, remember medical tasks and appointments, and find motivation to keep going.
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It can feel lonely and daunting to experience a major medical event. Having a specialist trained in these rare situations can make all the difference. I offer support for preparing for or recovering from solid organ transplant, stem-cell transplant, chemotherapy, radiation, major surgeries, dialysis, medical device placement (VAD, ICD, etc.), amputation, resection, etc. I also provide pre-transplant and pre-surgical evaluations.
Sometimes a major medical event is a change in diagnosis, functioning, or prognosis. Together we can process the diagnosis of a life-threatening or life-limiting condition, cope with survivor guilt, prepare for end of life, grieve loss, and consider how to leave a legacy for yourself or a loved one.
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If you have experienced or witnessed a frightening medical event, help is here. Together we can help you heal from the trauma of unexpected health events or outcomes, loss of functioning or changes to your body, a scary hospitalization, or witnessing medical trauma.
Learn more about child trauma therapy here.
imagine a life where…
You feel confident, safe in your body, and hopeful for the future.
You trust in your own instincts and self-awareness about your needs and your health. You’ve learned your own mind-body patterns, and know when it’s time to flex versus when to hold a boundary and self-advocate. You do so with confidence, less second-guessing, and less mental noise. You still have a chronic illness, but pain without suffering is so much more manageable. After all, “life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” And as you find more joy and meaning despite your condition, you find yourself starting to look forward with openness, curiosity, and hope.
There is space for all parts of you — your hopes, your dreams, and your health.
You know what you need, and you prioritize your life accordingly. You feel comfortable knowing when to set boundaries for your health, and you no longer feel guilty or shameful about letting others down by doing so. You move through day-to-day tasks strategically to leave room for yourself and to deal with unexpected symptoms. You feel steady, taking on enough to satisfy your goals and dreams, but keeping your self-expectations realistic. With more balance and bandwidth, you feel your mind and body release tension, think more flexibly, and find creative ideas and solutions more easily.
You and your family are thriving — you’ve found the balance you all need to grow, together.
You notice it’s easier to breathe at home, as you feel peaceful in that sanctuary again. Your relationships with your children, your family, your loved ones feels more safe and predictable now that you’ve found clarity on what was driving the challenging cycles. With new strategies and positive feedback loops, you notice yourself and others you love growing individually, and together as a unit. Chronic illness is still a part of the picture, but it’s not front and center — your family is.
Your relationship with your body is one of kindness, patience, and care.
Where there once was resentment, now you talk to yourself with care, patience, and understanding. You and your body have reached a place of acceptance, co-regulation, and cooperation. Your relationship with your health is stronger, and you’re more tolerant of the inevitable ups and downs. With a more solid self-knowledge, and a trust in yourself to prioritize your health, you find you’re also better able to self-advocate clearly and calmly in medical, school, and work settings. Others are noticing, too, that you seem more at centered, present, and at peace than ever.
I want you to know
A life that feels like yours again is right around the corner. Let’s find it together.
BOOK FREE CONSULT
BOOK FREE CONSULT
Established in orange county with online therapy available across california, north carolina, and Psypact states.