Are you suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease?
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If your answer is yes, you may also be experiencing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. The physical symptoms are exhausting enough. The emotional and psychological impact, at times, can feel unbearable. You are not alone. Freedom and relief are possible.
You are not alone.
Freedom and relief are possible.
I provide counseling for adults, teens, and kids living with digestive illness. If you’re living with a digestive illness, you may be also living with a sense of isolation and hopelessness regarding your condition. Let’s be honest, talking about gas, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, urgency, accidents, constipation, stoma bags, colonoscopies (the list goes on…) is not a hot topic among most dinner conversations. However, it’s an ongoing conversation within the confines of your mind, and one that, I believe, you don’t have to experience alone.
There is increasingly more research demonstrating the inextricable link between our mind and our digestive system. Most of us experience this at some point in our lives through, for example, a “gut” feeling, or butterflies in our bellies. Some of us living with digestive illness notice symptoms either ease or increase under certain circumstances - flare ups might occur with specific people and situations, while periods of remission might coincide with being outdoors, dancing, practicing yoga, going on vacation, or doing anything in your life that brings you joy.
Our bellies and our brains are undoubtedly in constant conversation. Your digestive illness may just be one way your body is trying to communicate with you. Rather than making another futile attempt at changing the way your body is talking (i.e. controlling symptoms), we can help you slow down and listen to what it’s trying to say. Perhaps the answers you’ve been seeking are right inside of you. We can harness the power of your body’s intelligence to help you heal.
When we are living with an autoimmune disease, the body is literally fighting against itself, attacking organs or tissues as if they are harmful and foreign invaders in this land that is your body. By changing the argument into a conversation, by moving out of resistance and toward compassion, we’ll help build a radically different landscape inside of you. After all, it’s not the experience itself, but the way we’re relating to it that can make it feel so painful. Build a kind and compassionate relationship with your illness and the parts of your body that are suffering, and start setting the foundation for healing and life-altering change.