SPECIALTY CARE
Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain & Medical Trauma
Compassionate care for the emotional impact of living with ongoing health challenges.
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Living with a chronic illness or chronic pain condition can be physically exhausting, emotionally overwhelming, and deeply isolating. Whether you've recently received a diagnosis, spent years navigating the healthcare system, or continue searching for answers, your experiences can affect every aspect of life—including your relationships, identity, work, and sense of hope.
Our approach
Care built on curiosity, respect, and hope
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At Palim Health, we understand that chronic health conditions involve far more than physical symptoms. Our team provides compassionate care to help individuals navigate the emotional, psychological, and relational challenges that often accompany chronic illness, chronic pain, and medical trauma. Our goal is not to minimize or "explain away" physical symptoms, but to support your overall well-being while helping you build a meaningful life alongside the realities of living with a medical condition.
We offer accessible care through telehealth, available from anywhere in California. While we have some in-person availability, you don’t need to add the stress of getting to and from another doctor’s appointment - you can join sessions from the comfort of your home.
Personal
Clinicians with lived experience who get it
Collaborative
You remain the expert on your own experience
Coordinated
Therapists and psychiatrists working together
Conditions & experiences
Our clinicians can offer psychological support for:
You do not need to have a specific diagnosis to benefit from therapy. Many individuals seek support while navigating unexplained symptoms, diagnostic uncertainty, or the emotional toll of living with ongoing health concerns.
Chronic pain
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)
Long COVID
Chronic fatigue
Medical trauma
Repeated hospitalizations or invasive medical procedures
Living with rare or difficult-to-diagnose conditions
Caregiver stress and family adjustment
The Emotional Impact of Chronic Illness
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Living with a chronic medical condition often means coping with much more than symptoms.
Alongside their illness, many individuals also experience:
Anxiety about health or the future
Grief related to changes in identity or abilities
Depression
Feelings of isolation or being misunderstood
Frustration with the healthcare system
Difficulty trusting their body
Changes in relationships or family roles
Burnout from ongoing medical appointments and treatments
Balancing acceptance with hope for improvement
These responses are understandable. Therapy provides a space to process these experiences while developing practical tools for navigating life with greater flexibility, resilience, and self-compassion.
A Whole Person Perspective
Living with chronic illness often means learning to navigate an ongoing relationship with your body. While we cannot always eliminate illness or pain, therapy can help change the way you experience and respond to these challenges.
Many of our clinicians integrate attachment-focused and body-oriented approaches, including Somatic Experiencing, to support nervous system regulation and help individuals reconnect with their bodies in ways that feel safer, more compassionate, and more sustainable. Treatment also explores how illness affects identity, relationships, self-worth, and daily life, recognizing that healing involves the whole person—not just symptoms.
Healing After Medical Trauma
For many people, the healthcare system itself becomes a source of trauma. Repeated procedures, emergency hospitalizations, frightening diagnoses, feeling dismissed by healthcare providers, or years of searching for answers can leave lasting emotional effects.
Medical trauma may contribute to anxiety before appointments, avoidance of medical care, hypervigilance to physical symptoms, panic, distrust, or feeling disconnected from your own body.
Our clinicians recognize that healing from medical trauma often requires addressing both the emotional and physiological impact of these experiences. We strive to create a therapeutic environment that emphasizes safety, collaboration, and respect while helping you rebuild a sense of trust—in your body, your healthcare relationships, and yourself.
Our services · 01
Individual Therapy
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Work collaboratively with a therapist to process the emotional impact of illness, develop effective coping strategies, navigate uncertainty, strengthen resilience, and reconnect with the life that matters most to you.
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Couples Therapy
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Chronic illness affects relationships as well as individuals. Couples therapy helps partners navigate changing roles, improve communication, strengthen intimacy, and work together as a team while balancing each person's needs.
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Family Therapy
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Families often struggle to understand the invisible challenges of chronic illness. Family therapy provides education, improves communication, and helps loved ones develop practical ways to support one another while reducing conflict and caregiver burnout.
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Group Therapy
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Many individuals find comfort and healing through connection with others facing similar challenges. Skills-based groups, including our DBT Skills Group, can strengthen emotion regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness while reducing feelings of isolation.
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Medication
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Living with chronic illness is often accompanied by anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, or sleep difficulties. Our psychiatrists provide thoughtful medication consultation and ongoing management while collaborating closely with your therapist to ensure your care is coordinated and personalized.
Treatment philosophy
You Don’t Have to Navigate It Alone—
Living with a chronic illness can sometimes feel like your life has been divided into "before" and "after." While your health condition may be part of your story, it does not have to define your future.
At Palim Health, we are committed to helping individuals navigate the emotional, relational, and psychological impact of chronic illness with compassion, curiosity, and evidence-based care. Whether you are adjusting to a new diagnosis, living with chronic pain, recovering from medical trauma, or seeking support after years of feeling unheard, we are here to help you move toward a life that feels connected, meaningful, and your own.
Ready to take the next step?
If you have questions or would like to schedule a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation, please reach out.