Long-term Health Conditions
- Chronic fatigue conditions
- Cancer
- Cardiac conditions
- Diabetes
- Respiratory conditions
- Gastrointestinal conditions
- Autoimmune conditions
Living well with long-term health conditions: How psychological therapy can help
There are many ways in which a therapist can be useful:
- Working with you to reduce anxiety or low mood related to your condition.
- Exploring difficulties in adjusting to a diagnosis.
- Helping you to better understand why you are feeling the way you are about
living with a health condition. - Actively treating trauma and related distress experienced as a result of
medical procedures you’ve had to go through. - Finding ways to live a meaningful and fulfilling life alongside the physical
symptoms. - Coping with the unpredictability or limitations that illness can bring.
- Identifying patterns in how you’re responding to symptoms.
- Exploring how your condition is affecting your identity or relationships.
- Talking about the challenges of navigating healthcare systems or making
decisions about treatment. Working towards you feeling more in control of
your situation and feeling clearer about how you would like to be treated.
Working towards an understanding of what living with a long-term health condition means to you can in turn help you live a meaningful and purposeful life.
Tailored psychological approaches with an expert in the field
At Psychological Perspective we have psychologists who have taken a specialist
interest in working with people who are experiencing chronic conditions. They often
use an integrative approach meaning they combine therapy approaches in a way
that best suits your needs. These approaches include:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Exploring how your thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact and how these can be adjusted to improve wellbeing.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Helping you to make space for difficult experiences while focusing on what matters most to you.
- Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT): Supporting you in cultivating self-
kindness and reducing self-criticism, especially in the face of suffering. - Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR): Particularly helpful for processing trauma, including treatment-related trauma.
- Mindfulness-based approaches: Enhancing your ability to stay present and
reduce emotional overwhelm.
You don’t have to do this alone
When diagnosed with a long-term condition it is very normal to feel overwhelmed,
angry, scared or uncertain. These are natural responses to a very real challenge.
Therapy can help you return to steadier ground – to understand yourself better, to
manage distressing thoughts or emotions and to reconnect with the things that give
your life meaning. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or have been living with a condition for many years, psychological support can offer a safe space to understand, accept, and adapt.
If you’d like to discuss how psychological therapy might support you, please get in
touch.
