Online therapy across multiple states

Disability & Chronic Illness Therapy

Therapy that takes disability, access, fatigue, and survival seriously.

Living with disability or chronic illness can reshape nearly every part of life. Many people spend years being dismissed, disbelieved, over-medicalized, or treated as problems to manage rather than people deserving care.

Energy Relationships Work Safety Housing Medical systems Trust in your body

Online therapy across multiple states. Availability varies by clinician and location.

Get matched with a therapist

The conditions around you matter

Disability takes shape within a world.

  • Ableism
  • Economic precarity
  • Inaccessible environments
  • Racism and environmental harm
  • Medical neglect
  • Anti-fatness
  • Transphobia
  • Immigration systems
  • Chronic stress and survival

Disability and chronic illness are shaped by more than a diagnosis. Access to housing, income, rest, healthcare, community, and safety can change what is possible on any given day.

We work with disabled and chronically ill clients from a perspective that takes access, interdependence, body realities, and the emotional cost of navigating systems seriously.

There is room here for limitation, grief, adaptation, rest, anger, uncertainty, and survival.

What we support

Care for the parts of life illness can touch.

Therapy can hold what changes in the body and what those changes mean for work, family, intimacy, identity, autonomy, safety, and the future you expected to have.

01

Chronic illness, pain, and fatigue

02

Disability identity and changing capacity

03

Medical trauma and healthcare harm

04

Grief, isolation, and relationship strain

05

Neurodivergence and sensory overwhelm

06

Queer and trans experiences in medical systems

Many disabled and chronically ill people have learned to defend the reality of their needs. Therapy can be a place where your reality is met with care rather than debate.

What we support

There are many ways this can touch a life.

Our therapists work with people navigating disability, chronic illness, changing bodies, access barriers, and the relationships and systems around them.

01

Body, pain, and capacity
  • Chronic illness
  • Chronic pain
  • Autoimmune conditions
  • Long COVID
  • Fatigue and fluctuating energy
  • Mobility changes
  • Invisible or episodic disability
  • Sensory overwhelm
02

Diagnosis, healthcare, and uncertainty
  • A new diagnosis or ongoing uncertainty
  • Delayed or missed diagnosis
  • Medical trauma
  • Healthcare anxiety
  • Burnout after years of pushing through
  • Asking for accommodations
  • Navigating healthcare systems
  • Financial and employment stress
03

Identity, language, and belonging
  • Disability identity
  • Neurodivergence
  • Changes in sexuality or body image
  • Shame around dependence or receiving help
  • Queer and trans healthcare experiences
  • Racism, anti-fatness, and transphobia in medical care
  • Feeling unseen in family, work, or school
04

Relationships, grief, and daily life
  • Grief related to changes in body or capacity
  • Caregiver and family stress
  • Isolation and relationship strain
  • Housing or transportation barriers
  • Fear about the future
  • Rebuilding a relationship with your body
  • Anxiety, depression, or trauma alongside physical symptoms

You may use the word disabled. You may prefer chronically ill, neurodivergent, medically complex, or no label at all. You are still welcome here.

Our approach

Therapy that works with your life as it is.

We do not ask you to perform wellness, explain away your needs, or become more productive before you are worthy of care.

01 Worth beyond output

Your body is not a productivity project.

Progress is not measured by how quickly you return to work, exercise more, keep up with the household, or appear unaffected. Therapy can help you build a life that holds your needs now.

02 Changing capacity

Fluctuating capacity is real.

What is possible one day may be inaccessible the next. We work with the body and capacity that are present, rather than treating an unpredictable symptom day as a moral failure.

03 Grief and joy

Grief can live alongside joy.

There may be grief for a former routine, relationship, career, or imagined future. There may also be pride, relief, disabled community, adaptation, anger, and joy. These experiences can exist together.

04 Care and connection

Interdependence is part of being human.

Everyone relies on people, infrastructure, knowledge, labor, and community. Therapy can make room to talk honestly about receiving support and building care arrangements that work for you.

05 Healthcare harm

Medical trauma belongs in the room.

Being dismissed, misdiagnosed, pressured, denied pain relief, misgendered, or repeatedly asked to prove your condition can affect trust, memory, appointments, sleep, and the body’s response to care.

06 The whole person

Disability is never the whole story.

Disabled and chronically ill people may also be queer, trans, neurodivergent, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, immigrant, fat, poor, working class, or caregivers. Therapy should have room for that full reality.

You will not be pressured to trust a system that has not yet earned that trust.

Our commitments

Care that holds power, access, and context.

Ideas about health, productivity, independence, and worth are shaped by the systems around us. Disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, fat, queer, trans, and racialized people are often asked to become more compliant, legible, or productive in order to receive care and dignity.

We do not reduce people to diagnoses, compliance, or output. Our work makes room for the body realities, access needs, relationships, and histories that shape a person’s life.

Disability justice Interdependence Bodily autonomy Consent and collaboration Community care Sustainability over productivity

You deserve care even when your body is not moving at a pace the world rewards.

Your whole context belongs

Disability is one part of a whole life.

Many disabled and chronically ill people are also navigating several realities at once. Therapy should have room for those overlaps, without asking you to separate them neatly.

01 Queerness and trans identity
02 Neurodivergence and sensory needs
03 Racialized stress and medical bias
04 Migration, displacement, and belonging
05 Faith, religious harm, and community
06 Poverty, work, housing, and caregiving

Identity, survival, health, and systems do not always separate cleanly. Our care does not ask them to.

Access is part of therapy

Starting therapy should not require pushing through barriers alone.

The usual expectations of therapy can create their own barriers. We want to talk openly about what would make care more workable for you.

Depending on your therapist, service, and needs, you can ask about:

  • Attending from bed or another comfortable position
  • Movement, stimming, or breaks during sessions
  • More processing time or a clearer session structure
  • Written, visual, or nonverbal communication
  • Camera-use preferences during telehealth
  • Support remembering or organizing what you want to discuss
  • Flexibility when pain, fatigue, or overwhelm increase
  • Coordination with other providers, when appropriate and consented to

Not every request can be met by every clinician or platform. We would rather discuss access directly than make you guess what is possible.

Relationships and care

Chronic illness can change relationships, too.

Illness and disability can change how household labor, money, care, sex, transportation, plans, and social life are handled. Those changes deserve room for honesty, grief, boundaries, and negotiation.

Therapy can make space for:

Relying on someone does not make you a burden. It can also bring up difficult questions about autonomy, privacy, expectations, and what support feels safe.

  • Communicating fluctuating capacity
  • Asking for practical help
  • Setting limits around advice
  • Grief as relationships change
  • Caregiver and family conflict
  • Unequal or unsustainable care arrangements
  • Changes in sex and intimacy
  • Protecting bodily autonomy and privacy
  • Building chosen family and community
  • Receiving care without surrendering decision-making

Needing support does not give another person entitlement to your body, medical information, time, or choices.

You Deserve Care That Understands Survival

Living with disability or chronic illness can be exhausting in ways that are not always visible.
You should not have to prove your pain, justify your limits, or perform productivity in order to deserve support.
We aim to provide therapy that makes room for your body, your reality, and the systems surrounding your life.

Therapists Who Support Disability & Chronic Illness Communities

Many disabled and chronically ill clients are also navigating neurodivergence, medical trauma, queerness, burnout, caregiving, systemic oppression, or long-term survival stress.

These therapists approach care from trauma-informed, disability-aware, anti-oppressive, and liberation-oriented perspectives.

  • A smiling woman with black hair and red earrings standing outdoors with autumn trees in the background.

    Natashia Bobbit

    THERAPIST FOR BLACK, QUEER & NEURODIVERGENT COMMUNITIES NAVIGATING IDENTITY, TRAUMA & SYSTEMIC HARM

    Natashia supports clients navigating chronic stress, ADHD, neurodivergence, caregiving strain, trauma, grief, identity-based harm, and systemic oppression. Her work blends somatic, narrative, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed approaches with deep attention to lived experience, relational safety, and nervous system awareness.

    Areas of Focus:

    • ADHD & neurodivergence

    • trauma & systemic oppression

    • caregiving stress & burnout

    • cultural identity & intergenerational harm

    • somatic and narrative approaches

    • grief, survival stress & emotional overwhelm

    View Natashia's Profile
  • Close-up of a woman with long brown hair smiling, wearing a red shirt, in front of a wooden background.

    Beni Choiniere

    QUEER, NEURODIVERGENT & DISABILITY-INFORMED THERAPIST

    Beni works with clients navigating chronic illness, disability, medical trauma, burnout, masking, identity shifts, neurodivergence, grief, and long-term survival patterns. Their approach is grounded in narrative, relational, trauma-informed, and liberation-oriented care that recognises how systems, culture, and lived experience shape emotional wellbeing. fileciteturn6file2

    Areas of Focus:

    • chronic illness & disability

    • medical trauma

    • autism & ADHD

    • burnout & masking

    • gender identity & life transitions

    • trauma, grief & dissociation

    • narrative and relational therapy

    View Beni's Profile
  • A man with a shaved head and a septum piercing smiling in a guess restaurant with a patterned wall in the background.

    Eben

    GENDER-AFFIRMING THERAPIST FOR QUEER, TRANS & DISABLED COMMUNITIES

    Eben supports queer, trans, chronically ill, and neurodivergent clients navigating trauma, emotional overwhelm, life transitions, substance use, identity exploration, and complex survival stress. His approach integrates harm reduction, trauma-informed care, feminist therapy, and collaborative practical support.

    Areas of Focus:

    • chronic illness & survival stress

    • trauma & emotional overwhelm

    • harm reduction

    • trans & queer identity

    • substance use & recovery

    • practical support for complex mental health experiences

    • collaborative and person-centered therapy

    View Eben's Profile
  • A person with a short, dark hairstyle with streaks of white, smiling, wearing orange hoop earrings, a blue and white patterned shirt with a floral design, and sporting facial piercings including earrings, a septum ring, and a Monroe piercing, against a plain gray wall.

    Orion Block

    DISABILITY JUSTICE & LIBERATION-ORIENTED THERAPIST

    Orion works with disabled, chronically ill, queer, trans, polyamorous, and neurodivergent clients navigating trauma, abandonment, emotional overwhelm, self-harm, identity-based harm, and long-term survival stress. Hir work is grounded in disability justice, self-determination, strengths-based support, and liberation-oriented care. fileciteturn6file5

    Areas of Focus:

    • disability justice

    • chronic pain & chronic illness

    • queer & trans identity

    • trauma, abandonment & grief

    • emotional overwhelm & suicidality

    • self-trust, agency & self-determination

    • relationship structures outside dominant norms

    View Orion's Profile

Online therapy by location

Find therapy in your state.

Your therapist must be licensed or authorized to practice in the state where you are physically located during your session.

Rhode Island

Online therapy throughout Rhode Island

Our Rhode Island team supports people navigating chronic pain, medical trauma, disability, ADHD, autism, grief, caregiving, queer and trans identity, and systemic harm.

View Rhode Island therapists

Virginia

Online therapy throughout Virginia

Find support for disability, chronic illness, trauma, identity, neurodivergence, relationships, and the practical strain of navigating care.

View Virginia therapists

Massachusetts

Online therapy throughout Massachusetts

Connect with therapists supporting disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, queer, trans, immigrant, and trauma-affected clients across Massachusetts.

View Massachusetts therapists

Colorado

Online therapy throughout Colorado

Find support for chronic illness, pain, trauma, anxiety, relationships, identity, burnout, and the emotional effects of changing capacity.

View Colorado therapists

Michigan

Online therapy throughout Michigan

Explore our Michigan therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Michigan therapists

Mississippi

Online therapy throughout Mississippi

Explore our Mississippi therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Mississippi therapists

California

Online therapy throughout California

Explore our California therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View California therapists

Pennsylvania

Online therapy throughout Pennsylvania

Explore our Pennsylvania therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Pennsylvania therapists

Washington

Online therapy throughout Washington

Explore our Washington therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Washington therapists

Georgia

Online therapy throughout Georgia

Explore our Georgia therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Georgia therapists

Oregon

Online therapy throughout Oregon

Explore our Oregon therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Oregon therapists

Florida

Online therapy throughout Florida

Explore our Florida therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Florida therapists

Nevada

Online therapy throughout Nevada

Explore our Nevada therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Nevada therapists

Texas

Online therapy throughout Texas

Explore our Texas therapists and learn about their approaches, specialties, and availability. Find a clinician whose care fits your needs and experiences.

View Texas therapists

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Live somewhere else?

Some Phoenix Rising clinicians may be licensed in additional states. Complete the matching form and we will confirm whether a provider is currently able to work with you where you live.

Check availability in my state

Questions, answered

Frequently asked questions

You do not need to have the right language, a diagnosis, or a fully formed plan before beginning.

Do I need a formal diagnosis?

No. You can seek therapy while living with symptoms, fatigue, pain, medical uncertainty, suspected neurodivergence, or barriers to assessment. You do not need a diagnostic code for your experience to matter in therapy.

Can therapy cure chronic illness or chronic pain?

Therapy does not cure physical illness, and seeking therapy does not mean your symptoms are psychological. It can support the emotional, relational, and nervous-system effects of pain, illness, disability, medical trauma, uncertainty, and changing capacity.

Can therapy help with medical trauma?

Yes. Therapy can help you process dismissal, coercion, misdiagnosis, invasive treatment, discrimination, medical emergencies, or other harm within healthcare settings.

Is telehealth available if leaving home is difficult?

Yes. Phoenix Rising provides online therapy across its service states. Telehealth may be more accessible for people navigating fatigue, pain, transportation barriers, sensory needs, mobility limitations, caregiving, or immune-safety concerns.

Can I attend from bed or with my camera off?

Discuss this with your therapist before beginning care. Many access needs can be considered collaboratively, though options depend on the platform, service, clinical situation, and therapist.

Do you work with neurodivergent clients?

Yes. Phoenix Rising has therapists who work with ADHD, autism, AuDHD, sensory needs, masking, executive functioning, and burnout. The matching team can help you find someone licensed in your state with relevant experience.

Have another question or need help with the form? Email our support team.

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If you are looking for disability-informed, chronic illness-informed,
liberation-oriented therapy, we would be glad to connect.

Contact Us