Navigating Life with Chronic Illness: Embracing Boundaries and Shifting Identities with Karen Lill
One common experience many Modern Path clients have is living with chronic illness and chronic pain. This has led to many of our therapists learning how to navigate complex medical experiences and work through internalized ableism in ways that allow us to better support our clients. It’s another one of those times where we frequently “get it,” because chronic illness and physical limitations are things many of us also experience.
When local therapist, Destiny Winters, met with me for an interview for her podcast, The Chronic Illness Therapist, it was challenging to decide what I should cover. There are so many elements of chronic illness that need to be talked about and addressed. I chose to focus my time on the importance of setting boundaries, the grief process related to shifts in identity, and ways to reduce isolation that are especially important within the lives of chronically ill people.
My hope is for listeners to realize they aren’t alone in their experiences, and that living with chronic illness is hard in more ways than just the pain or the recurrent symptoms. It includes discussion of those shared experiences like more frequent isolation, feeling not heard by your support system and medical team, and how different life can be compared to someone with more abilities, more energy, and more “normalcy” to their life.
Take a listen and if it resonates with you, share with anyone you want to better understand your experiences.