Navigating life with multisystem diseases (including Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Dysautonomia, Autoimmune conditions, and more) can be exhausting, isolating, painful, and just plain hard.

You are not alone.

Living with multisystem diseases can create all kinds of stressors, including (but not limited to):

• Constant physical pain that does not respond to medication or treatment

• Being told there is "no reason" for your pain, or that it is "all in your head"

• Physical and psychological trauma resulting from mistreatment by medical system/professionals

• Isolation from peers due to immobility and pain

• Facing invasive, painful, and expensive medical tests/surgeries

• Difficulty attending work or school, and subsequent lost wages or falling behind

• Loss of ability to participate in physical activity, sports, exercise, and performing arts

• Working with medical professionals who are unfamiliar with your condition and/or invalidate your symptoms and experience

• Navigating rare and misunderstood complications from surgeries and medical procedures

• Feeling deformed or mutilated, moving in ways that are different from normative body structures, difficulty relating with post-surgical body and scarring, navigating need for durable medical equipment

• Navigating career changes due to physical ability

• Inability or difficulty caring for children/family/partners/pets

• Living with a disability that is invisible to, and invalidated by others

• Changes in libido, pain with sex, and other challenges in your sex life

These stressors can often lead to mental health symptoms, including:

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Low self-esteem

• Difficulty sleeping

• Panic Attacks

• Traumatic Stress Responses

• Relationship Difficulties

• Body image challenges, or body dyspmorphia

• Exhaustion

• Feelings of hopelessness or despair

• Feeling suicidal

I know, I’ve been there.

As a person who lives with hEDS, MCAS, Dysautonomia and hip dysplasia, I know how challenging life with multisystem diseases can be. As a somatic psychotherapist I have access to tools, skills, and resources that support day to day and long term physical, emotional, and mental health and functioning. These resources have supported me in navigating stress from living with these diagnoses, the physical and psychological toll of living in chronic pain, pre- and post-surgical anxiety through multiple major surgeries/recoveries, and the feelings of isolation and being “different” in ways most people cannot see. I am committed to supporting people living with multisystem diseases, and provide both in person and video /telemental health sessions to ensure counseling services are accessible - even on high symptom/flare days. Because these conditions are rare and it can be difficult to find understanding support, I offer video/telemental health sessions to people who live all over the world.