Disability Justice Therapy

Chronic illness is a pain in the ass.

Living with a chronic illness sucks. It’s depressing and makes it difficult just to get daily life tasks done.

Your doctors don’t understand (if you’ve even found doctors you can put up with), and people tell you yoga/herbs/nutrition/exercise will make you better.

It’s driving you crazy, and on top of this, you’re so damn tired from just trying to exist…

You don’t even feel like the same person.

Instead of simply being, you’re constantly worried because it feels like parts of you are slipping away. Your brain becomes unreliable, and you have to fight with your own body.

Relationships that you could once rely on suddenly might not be stable anymore.

Since becoming disabled, you’ve lost things that feel like a core part of who you are, such as creative outlets, plans for the future, and physical capacity for activities that bring you joy.

There’s a heavy emotional toll.

You experience wild swings from hope to hopelessness as you get the next test or try the next treatment… and the next.

Sometimes, you end up shutting down and dissociating just to get through the day.

There’s a particular kind of grief that comes with loss that never ends. It’s confusing, hard to understand or explain, and easy for people to overlook.

No one understands.

Your friends and family smile and nod, but you can tell they don’t get it.

Too many therapists have tried to sell you on CBT or EMDR, or some other psychotherapy that doesn’t actually treat physical illness.

They might not have said the words, “It’s all in your head,” but you know at least some of them were thinking it.

Affirming therapy does exist – no, really.

As an invisibly disabled therapist, I know how hard it can be to adapt to living in a body and mind you can’t rely on. I’m not just a sympathetic ear. I won’t just smile and nod; I will grieve, rage, and laugh with you.

I can’t fix your disability because I’m not some kind of miracle doctor (tell me if you find one!).

But I can help you with the distress it causes. Of course, you’re anxious and depressed. Of course, you want to just give up sometimes.

However, there’s a way to be less consumed by those feelings.

Resisting the ableist narrative.

We have been conditioned to believe our value is tied to our productivity, so when we can no longer produce, we struggle with feelings of worthlessness.

Disability justice calls on us to appreciate our nonconforming bodies and minds. To reject the capitalist notion that our productivity defines our worth and acknowledge that disability is an intersectional issue.

I call myself a disability justice therapist because these ideas are core to who I am and how I practice. I still struggle with capitalist ideas and ableism, just like you do.

But resisting those narratives is part of how we hold onto some joy and find a new kind of identity as disabled people.

It’s time to find joy in the life you have now.

I promise, it’s possible. You can create a life that isn’t centered on capitalist value but on inherent worth and dignity.

Joy can exist alongside grief, anger, and sadness. Joy is part of how we resist ableism. More than that, it helps us survive.

Send me a message now for a free consultation with a therapist who understands your struggles.