Chronic Illness Therapy in Baltimore
Discover how therapy can help you navigate chronic illness symptoms, reclaim your sense of self, and feel truly understood- maybe for the first time. Provided in-person in Baltimore and virtually across Maryland, Colorado, South Carolina, and Vermont.
The emotional toll of chronic illness
Living with chronic illness or chronic pain often means navigating a world that doesn’t always see or understand what you’re carrying. Daily symptoms, unpredictable flares, and the emotional toll of managing a health condition can add layers of complexity to everyday life.
New or ongoing chronic health diagnoses may also bring up anxious thoughts, fear, and constant worrying- about the future, managing pain, and coming to terms with a new and every changing reality.
Living with invisible illness or disabilities means you may feel pressure to keep performing, even when your body is demanding rest. Slowing down might bring up guilt, fear, or a sense of losing your identity and sense of normalcy and consistency.
As a therapist specializing in chronic illness, I see this every day. Chronic illness can affect everyone differently, but is often accompanied by feelings of anxiety, depression, and even grief. You deserve care that honors these experiences—and helps you find ease, joy, and meaning along the way.
What other people don’t see….
The pain, fatigue, and symptom flares go beyond just the physical. Your mind and body are both trying to process all of it at once- and it can be completely overwhelming. You might be experiencing:
Worries about a future with chronic illness and chronic pain
Feeling disconnected from your sense of self, or the self you used to know
Grief surrounding the future you had hoped for in a healthy body
Feelings of isolation or loneliness- like no one truly understands what you’re going through
Emotional drain from always having to advocate for yourself at every turn
Fear from experiencing medical trauma and gaslighting
Strained relationships with friends and family
How therapy supports clients with chronic illness
Art Therapy for Chronic Illness
Art therapy can provide a relief and reprieve from the overwhelming sense of focus and fear that can accompany chronic illness and pain. Through incorporating art into therapy sessions, there is a space for creative expression, emotional and physical release, and even channeling a sense of grounding and calmness when things might not feel so stable or predictable in your body.
Art therapy can be a great way to process the emotions someone might be experiencing surrounding their illness or pain. Through creating art, clients can find a way to channel these emotions into visual representations, which may be easier to access and express than words, at times. Art therapy can also be a way to support clients in finding a sense of peace that may not often exist within their body through creating a sense of grounding and calmness through art. Art therapy can be the key to unlocking psychological healing- supporting you with the emotional component of a chronic condition. It allows your to go beyond words and explanation- something you’re probably so tired of doing all the time.
Art therapy may also be a way to temporarily minimize pain, as it can be a really helpful distraction through achieving a flow state (a mental state of complete absorption and energized focus in an activity, resulting in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment). When you’re in flow, you’re focused on the art practice, not as much the hypervigilance or anxiety about physical sensations or symptoms.
EMDR for Chronic Illness
EMDR is another modality that can support clients with emotional healing from experiences with chronic illness and chronic pain. It provides a path to processing past traumatic and stressful experiences including medical trauma such as hospitalizations, receiving a new diagnosis, gaslighting from medical professionals, and any other emotionally difficult moments. Utilizing EMDR allows the therapist to support the client through mind-body healing using bilateral stimulation or eye movement to fully process and release feelings of distress that might be tied to past memories and experiences. Moving forward, clients may feel decreased emotional triggers when thinking about these events or facing similar occurrences.
Similarly to art therapy, EMDR is a great tool for when talk therapy has felt insufficient or a client wishes to experience a modality that goes beyond surface level and provide deep, emotional healing.
When talk therapy feels like it’s not enough
Traditional talk therapy often falls short on meeting the deep, emotional needs of clients with chronic illness. It may have felt too surface-level or focused on cognitive processes over deep emotional acknowledgement and processing, or ignored the physical and somatic components of care. Really, it feels like something is truly missing.
As someone with chronic illness or pain, you body is part of the process and cannot be ignored. Anxiety and depression has shown up in physical ways, and overly focusing on cognitive systems can feel like minimization of pain and your relationship with your body. There can also be deep grief from changes in identity and roles, the future, and physical capacity and abilities. Talk therapy so often misses the bar and the physical ways that all of this manifests.
This is where art therapy and EMDR can really meet you where you’re at and fill the gap of what’s missing. Combining these approaches with a compassionate and relational approach to counseling, therapy can create a true emotional safe place to process the depth of the emotions you feel and the ways it impacts your relationship with your body.
Elizabeth Allen is a Baltimore therapist specializing in chronic illness, trauma, and therapy for highly sensitive people. Offering virtual sessions across Maryland.
Therapy at Creative Pathways Counseling
As someone who lives with chronic illness myself, I understand the deep emotional impact these experiences can carry. I offer a space of true empathy and connection- where you don’t have to over-explain or minimize what you're going through.
Together, we can explore ways to process the emotional weight of chronic illness, reconnect with your body, and build a life that feels more aligned with your values and needs. Healing doesn’t mean fixing everything-it means finding peace and possibility within your experience.
You don’t have to go through this alone.
What to expect from therapy
A space to receive true support and finally feel understood and seen
Heal your relationship with yourself and your body even through pain and illness
Embrace your own self-compassion and care in your chronic illness
Improve confidence in your ability to advocate for yourself in your medical care
Strengthen your relationships that might be struggling under the weight of chronic illness needs
Feel empowered in your body and belief in yourself to get through hard things (including symptom flares)
Release emotional distress related to chronic illness and medical trauma
Decrease anxiety triggers surrounding your health and worries about the future
Feel rooted in your values and make decisions about your health that feel aligned with them
Does this sound like what you’ve been looking for?
Frequently Asked Questions about chronic illness therapy at Creative Pathways Counseling
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Art therapy is more than just making art (although that might be a big part of it). Art therapy allows you space and time for deeper emotional processing through creating art, and helps support you where talk therapy often misses. Working with a licensed art therapist provides a supportive and compassionate environment through the container of a relationship with the therapist.
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You can always show up authentically in the therapy space, no matter how low your “spoons” might be on any given day. As a therapist who specializes in chronic illness, I’ll meet you wherever you're at energetically and provide options on how we proceed. That might mean meeting virtually from a cozy space, quietly creating art together, only talking, not talking at all, meeting over the phone, shortening a session, or rescheduling. All options are on the table and can be decided based on your individual wants and needs.
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Working with a therapist can make all the difference, especially one who specializes in chronic illness. The impact of mental health on physical health is significant, and that’s what I’m here to support you with. Your doctors and medical providers might care about your mental health, but usually are not able to really slow down and spend time with you working through things. As your therapist, I’ll help you do just that, and give you uninterrupted time that is truly just for you. Additionally, I can help you zoom out and navigate the medical system, something I’m very familiar with.
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Yes! I have lived with various chronic illnesses since my teenage years. I have navigated the medical system (both as an employee and as a patient) and continue to do so now. My health goes up and down, just like yours.
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EMDR can help with so many things! Research shows it’s helpful with anxiety, depression, OCD, addictions, and trauma. But, it also work for things that don’t fall into any one category. That’s where medical trauma comes into the picture. EMDR for medical trauma can help work through any difficult memories or experiences that might be showing up. You may not even consider it “trauma” and that’s okay- we treat it just the same!
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Not at all. I offer virtual therapy to clients throughout Maryland, including Towson, Columbia, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, Annapolis, and beyond. If you're a Maryland resident, you're welcome to reach out regardless of where you're located. Additionally, I am also a licensed counselor in Colorado and registered to provide telehealth therapy in South Carolina and Vermont- so I can work with you virtually in any of those states!
Next Steps
If you’ve read this far, something probably resonated with you, so what’s next?
First, let’s get started with a free consultation call. This is a great time to ask any questions you have, learn more about my approach, and just get a sense for if we connect! There is no pressure at all to commit, you can take your time and let things sink in before you decide if you’d like to move forward.
I know how vulnerable starting therapy is, especially if you’ve tried before and felt disappointed in your experience or felt unsupported by the therapy process. That’s why I give you time and space to think things over and evaluate if we’re really the right fit.
For our first few sessions, we’ll slowly ease into the process and explore your hopes, expectations, and goals. We’ll spend time going over options for therapy modalities- including art therapy and EMDR- and decide what feels right for you. To ensure that therapy feels like the right fit, I will check in every so often to give you the space to consider how things are going. There’s no pressure to continue, but I typically find that the first 3-6 sessions are a good checkpoint.
You don't have to keep carrying this alone.
Book a free consultation call today.
Let’s get started.
elizabeth@findcreativepathways.com
301-359-1763
4800 Roland Ave, Baltimore, MD 21210