Aviva Psychology Services
Disability & Chronic Illness Clinic
Supporting those who experience the challenges of chronic illness and disability to live full, meaningful lives.
How can I live a fulfilling life with chronic illness or disability?
If you live with chronic illness or disability, you know these experiences involve unique, complex, and sometimes unpredictable challenges. It’s not only your health that changes, but often your abilities, your activities, your relationships, your identity, and your plans for the future. Learning to cope with a diagnosis, a lack of diagnosis, changed health status, or lifestyle changes can be a long, painful, and challenging process. But you don’t have to go through it alone.
Some difficulties experienced by those living with chronic illness or disability include:
- Intense, grief-like experiences such as waves of denial, anger, and depression
- Difficulty accepting diagnoses, unexplained symptoms, or lifestyle changes
- Painful experiences of stigma and ableism from other people or from your own judgements about chronic illness and disability
- Difficulty coping with painful, disruptive, or upsetting chronic health symptoms
- Challenges navigating healthcare systems, educational system, and/or workplace systems that are inaccessible or unaccommodating
- Feeling lonely or isolated due lack of accessible, supportive community
- Struggling to develop sustainable strategies for managing health challenges
- Believing it’s impossible to pursue a meaningful, rewarding life while experiencing pain, illness, disability or barriers to accessibility
At Aviva, our psychologists are trained to offer compassionate, trauma-informed, and anti-ableist care. We offer evidence-based treatments that prioritize safety, compassion, and intersectional disability justice. Whether you are recently diagnosed, recently disabled, or have been navigating health complexities for your entire life, we’re here to help empower you to build a life that honors your health needs, resonates with your values, and that feels meaningful and sustainable.
What are chronic illness and disability?
Chronic illness and disability are broad categories of experience that involve persistent difficulties related to health that make daily life challenging. Chronic illness involves a medical condition that persists for at least six months, doesn't have a simple cure, and requires those diagnosed to learn to manage symptoms. Disability involves a health condition that limits your ability to complete daily life tasks. While chronic illness and disability have significant overlap, with many people considering their experience of chronic illness to be disabling. However, not all disabled people have a chronic illness, and not all people with chronic illness experience significant changes in their abilities.
Experiences of chronic illness and disability have many things in common, including the potential to have a significant impact on mental health. These experiences commonly impact mood and can result in conditions like anxiety, depression, insomnia, posttraumatic conditions, and more. Chronic illness and disability can also raise complex existential questions about identity, purpose, choice, and our futures. There are also practical challenges, like learning new coping strategies, learning to manage symptoms, implementing lifestyle changes, and navigating the impact on relationships, goals, and future plans.
How can therapy help?
The goal of therapy for chronic illness and disability is not to “cure” either experience. Instead, the goal is to help you learn how to build a rewarding, meaningful life even while managing difficult experiences and symptoms. Chronic illness and disability are complex experiences that evolve over time, and as such, their management requires complex and evolving skills to manage.
These skills can be taught through evidence-based therapy approaches and will be customized to your specific needs. Whether you need skills to process grief related to health-related loss, to incorporate lifestyle changes, to effectively advocate for yourself as a chronically ill or disabled person, or to explore your identity and values, the team of psychologists at Aviva Psychology Services are ready to support and empower you.
Ready to get started?
Chronic health challenges can be overwhelming. We keep the therapy process simple and supportive. Here’s what to expect:
Request an Appointment
Once you complete the
form, we will reach out. If we have a fitting opening, we schedule a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation to assess fit further together.
Assessment and Planning
The first 2–4 sessions assess your concerns, history, and goals. You and your therapist will discuss fit and establish a treatment plan together.
Ongoing Weekly Sessions
Sessions are held at the same time each week and typically last 55 minutes to work towards your treatment goals.
A rewarding life is accessible to everyone.
It can feel like chronic illness and/or disability have robbed you of your chance at a good life. Perhaps you feel like your future is ruined, that you’ve lost your purpose or identity, or that you’ll never be able to enjoy life while illness or disability are present. While these feelings are common, they aren’t facts. The truth is that anyone can live a rich, meaningful life, even while experiencing health challenges or navigating challenges like ableism.
The team at Aviva Psychology Services is trained to help you connect with your values, build meaningful relationships, learn sustainable coping skills, and develop an identity and lifestyle in which you find purpose and joy.
Benefits of therapy for chronic illness and disability
Emotional relief
Talk through complex feelings, clarify your needs, and develop effective strategies to meet those needs.
Coping strategies
Build tools to manage anxiety, panic, and mood shifts.
Connect with your values
Move towards what matters to you. Step by step.
FAQs about perinatal therapy
What kinds of chronic illness or disability can therapy help with?
All kinds! Therapy provides support and coping skills that can improve mood, relationships, and quality of life regardless of your specific diagnosis, symptoms, or disability. Therapy is a great option whether your disability has been present since birth or is recently acquired, whether you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness or whether your diagnosis is still unclear, and even (or perhaps especially) if you live with multiple illnesses or disabilities. This is because therapy will not be treating your specific health conditions and will instead be focused on their impact in your life and how to build a life you enjoy even while experiencing chronic illness or disability.
How can therapy help with a physical problem like illness or disability?
Therapy offers multiple benefits for managing medical or physical difficulties. First, it provides a safe and supportive space to emotionally process these profoundly stressful experiences. Second, therapy can teach practical skills for improving quality of life in the presence of chronic illness, disability, and their many impacts on your life. Third, therapy supports building resilience and an empowered, values-consistent life that is protective against future stressors and challenges, which are common when managing chronic conditions.
What kinds of treatments are used in therapy for chronic illness or disability?
This depends entirely on the customized treatment plan developed by the client and therapist. This treatment plan is developed across the first 2-4 sessions and will reflect your particular symptoms, goals, preferences, abilities, and needs. Many psychologists at Aviva Psychology Services utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapies, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and relational approaches to therapy. You can learn more about the specific styles of therapy embraced by each psychologist at Aviva by visiting the Team page.
Can I do therapy for chronic illness or disability online at Aviva?
Yes. We recognize that telehealth sessions are often the most accessible option for those who are managing chronic illness, disability, or other health concerns. Therefore, we offer video-based sessions to clients who are physically located in Massachusetts at the time of the video session. We also offer in-person sessions in downtown Boston and Northampton, MA.
What if you didn’t have to face this alone?
You don’t have to stay silent. You don’t have to figure this out alone. We are here to support you through in this transition and everything it stirs up.
