Specializing in Chronic Illness

I have specialized in the role of trauma as a risk factor for chronic illness for 25 years and how this suggests an important role for healing trauma as a tool that supports healing in chronic health conditions.

Healing trauma has been the primary tool for my own healing journey with chronic illness and multiple chronic conditions. I share the research here on my blog.

I’m a former family doctor and assistant professor who retrained as a master’s level somatic psychotherapist specializing in trauma.

I am now a consultant and no longer offer psychotherapy.

I offer 1:1 trauma consults about the connections between adversity and chronic illness. Consults are virtual and worldwide.

Together we look at the effects of trauma on the nervous system such as

• influences on biology, physiology, and physical symptoms
• the role of survival mechanisms such as fight, flight, freeze
• the cell danger response
• effect of adversity on symptoms, symptom evolution and expression
• polyvagal theory, dorsal vagal states and the “smart” vagus

Trauma Consults are for:

• Health Professionals (MD, Psychotherapist, Psychologist, Social Worker, …)
• SE students for credit up to and including advanced credit
• Adults living with chronic illness(es) or physical symptoms
• Somatic Experiencing (SE) professionals
• Other students not needing credit
• Person with chronic illness creating or refining your one-page medical history
• Researcher refining questions to explore in trauma and chronic illness studies
• Grant writers seeking references / examples to support your request and plans

5 Perspectives In Your Consult

I draw from 5 perspectives for your chronic illness and trauma consult:

1. A deep understanding of how to listen to the body, its messages that may come in symptoms, and how to work with the wisdom of the body. From training as a Master’s level Somatic Trauma Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) and Pre and Perinatal Professional (PPNP),
2. The role of stress and trauma in physical symptoms, chronic illness, flares and triggers. From the chronic illness model I’ve been developing for 25 years using foundations from research in related academic, medical and other fields.
3. Experience as a family doctor, assistant professor and in obstetrics.
4. Insights from living with and gradually improving from multiple chronic illnesses for 25 years.
5. Lessons from working with my health and symptoms from trauma and nervous system perspectives. See my bio and blog for more.

Not Psychotherapy, Medical Care or Supervision

After many years of offering psychotherapy and medical care, my practice is now devoted to working directly with you as your consultant for a single meeting or a short series of sessions. I do not diagnose conditions, treat symptoms, work in clinical settings, or supervise health professionals. Consults are not for long term support, which is better addressed with a therapist or other health professional. While I do not accept insurance you may be able to submit your invoice for some degree of reimbursement (please let me know if you need more information on your receipt such as if there are criteria I meet for insurance).

Benefits of a Consult

A one-time Consult or small number of Consults can be used to quickly deepen your understanding of the chronic illness and trauma connection in your life; assess whether trauma might even be playing a role in your health before going down this path; add nuance and context for making sense of symptoms, triggers and flares; help figure out first steps or next steps; and validate or clarify your hunches.

Consults can help with:

• Getting started, such as where to begin if you’re new to healing trauma
• Identifying options that are a good fit specifically for you
• Gaining insights for working with symptoms that might be “stuck”
• Adding context for events that trigger the onset of chronic illness
• Clarifying why addressing the triggering event is often not enough for healing
• Selecting tools to heal trauma when non-trauma approaches are insufficient
• Providing options for working with specific types of adversity (pre and perinatal, multigenerational, early relationships, etc),
• Adding data on how even primarily genetic diseases are influenced by adversity, with tips that may help slow and reduce symptoms and progression
• Supporting the path of healing trauma, such as the science of how gene function can shift epigenetically with adversity and shift back with healing

Frequency

Consults are a single session or short series of meetings designed for insights rather than for long-term support..

Sessions are customized to support healing and recovery for you with your own unique history and set of circumstances, or, if you are a health professional, for insights in working with symptoms and with clients or patients. 

Fee

My fee for all 60-minute consults is $300 in your currency, payable in US dollars, except for Somatic Experiencing (SE) Students seeking credit, for whom it is $150 and $100 if you are an SE Scholarship Student. If $300 USD is not within your financial means, or to pay a different amount based on international exchange rates, see my tiered fee structure.

Testimonials

Choose the Consult for Your Situation

If available times do not work for you contact me to see if we can figure out a different time or day.