Depth Psychotherapy for Women with Chronic Illness
There’s a kind of loneliness that doesn’t come from being alone.
It comes from being unseen.
From navigating doctor’s visits where your symptoms are minimized.
From hearing, “You don’t look sick.”
From living in a body that limits you—and a world that demands you keep performing.
This kind of loneliness isn’t just emotional. It’s existential.
It lives in your muscles, your gut, your breath.
It’s the quiet ache of being misheard, misunderstood, and mis-seen.
As a Jungian and depth psychotherapist, I work with many women who live with chronic illness—women who are exhausted not just by pain, but by the invisibility of their experience.
The Emotional Weight of Chronic Illness
When you live with a chronic condition—whether it’s autoimmune, neurological, structural, hormonal, or something undiagnosed—your body becomes a battleground. But so does your inner life.
You may carry:
Physical pain that’s hard to articulate
Fatigue that others mistake for laziness
Fear of not being believed
Shame for needing rest
Rage at being dismissed
And if you’re a woman, the burden often runs deeper.
You’re still expected to care for others, show up at work, be emotionally available, stay “positive,” and keep it together.
You might be praised for your strength while privately falling apart.
This is the emotional terrain that many women with chronic illness navigate every day—and it’s exhausting.
When the Wound Is Older Than the Illness
Depth psychotherapy recognizes that our present struggles are often connected to earlier experiences.
Many women with chronic illness learned early on to disconnect from their bodies.
We were taught to:
Be helpful instead of honest
Smile instead of speak
Push through instead of pause
Suppress needs to avoid being a burden
If you were sensitive, intuitive, or emotionally expressive as a child, you may have been told you were “too much.”
You learned to override your instincts.
To be palatable. To disappear in plain sight.
These patterns—formed in childhood—can show up again in how we relate to illness.
We might ignore symptoms, invalidate our own pain, or feel guilty for needing care.
Depth psychotherapy helps bring these patterns into consciousness.
Not to blame—but to heal.
What It Means to Be Seen
In my work as a therapist for women with chronic illness, I often hear the same longing:
“I just want someone to really see me.”
To be seen is not to be fixed.
It is to be met—with presence, attunement, and care.
It’s someone saying:
“I believe you.”
“Your pain makes sense.”
“You don’t have to prove anything here.”
It’s not about being reduced to a diagnosis—or being told to think positive.
It’s about being understood as a whole person: your grief, your fire, your fatigue, your resilience.
Depth Psychotherapy for Chronic Illness
Unlike symptom-focused therapy, depth psychotherapy looks beneath the surface.
We explore your inner world, your personal story, your dreams, and the unconscious meaning of illness.
Together, we might explore:
The emotional and psychological roots of your suffering
The grief of what’s been lost—energy, identity, relationships
The survival strategies that no longer serve you
The soul’s longing for rest, truth, and wholeness
This kind of therapy is not quick or transactional. It’s spacious, relational, and sacred.
And it can be profoundly healing for women who have felt unseen for far too long.
You Are Not a Burden
You may have internalized the belief that your needs are too much.
That your body is unreliable. That your emotions are inconvenient.
Let me offer this:
You are not broken. You are not a burden. You are not too late.
You are allowed to need care.
To stop performing.
To rest.
To tell the truth about your pain.
And you deserve therapy that honors the complexity of your story—not just the symptoms you carry.
An Invitation
If you’re a woman living with chronic illness and longing to feel seen—
not just by a provider, but by a compassionate witness to your inner life—
I invite you to reach out.
I offer depth psychotherapy for women with chronic illness in Oakland and throughout California via secure online sessions.
Here, your body’s story matters.
Your grief has a place.
And you don’t have to disappear to be loved.
I see you.
And I’d be honored to walk with you.