Some more detail...

In a situation of chronic illness, it’s likely inevitable to find yourself shaking your fist at heaven. Why you? Why is it that others are healthy and free to pursue whatever dream they choose - running up mountains or dancing the night away…while you’re forced to pay endless attention to the limits your health places on you? Its inevitable for anyone in this situation to feel like a victim at times. And maybe too - to feel anger at the world that imposed these limitations. A fully health person might have difficulty understanding these feelings. Here’s the place where you can express them without being judged or told to cheer up.

Of course, chronic illness can hit like a nuclear bomb - taking away so much of what was once our lives. It can be crushing. A stage of hopelessness and confusion is almost inevitable. But eventually…we set about the work of shaping and re-shaping a life worth living. With respect to the realities of the body…what will give life meaning now? What can role and contribution could you step into? Our sessions are a place to expore these questions.

Health Issues force us to redirect our energies. One way many people redirect them is inward. So - we explore that possibility. Spirituality can be a great resource in finding some kind of acceptance of the physical surprises life has presented us with. It can also be a gateway into a life lived with a different depth and meaning. If mountain climbing and dancing are taken away from us - even temporarily - a different kind of joy and satisfaction can be found in leaning into sacred: into poetry, art, stillness, and simplicity.

Tenderness provides a key for feeling better, even when the body might feel terrible. Its natural and maybe inevitable to want to fight the circumstances of not feeling well. And this can extend to a feeling of hating one’s own body - the organism that seems so much to be letting you down. But staying in this mindset can perpetuate and deepen your suffering. We notice eventually that our body - its immune system, its muscles and organs and emotions - are all doing their best. And we notice the stark reality of grief: the natural response to losing - even temporarily - some part of the life we once lived. That grief…if we let it…elicits a great tenderness…a great sense of love and warmth for the body and the being that live in that body. Emotional healing and some kind of peace and acceptance can start from here…even as you might search for medical solutions to change the situation. With less resistance and more warmth, the overall situation of suffering can transform.