Therapy for Women Living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
You don't have to explain your illness to me.
I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease over twenty years ago, and in that time I have lived through so many of the challenges that come with it.
I remember the feeling of being newly diagnosed and slowly letting the reality sink in that this was going to be a lifelong illness. I know how relentless IBD can be. I know how frightening the medications can feel. I know the exhaustion of debilitating fatigue. I know that living with an invisible illness can be incredibly lonely. And yes... I also know that IBD is not the same as IBS, and how frustrating it is when people continue to confuse the two.
Of course, your experience is your own. No two people experience IBD in exactly the same way. Your story has been shaped by your body, your life, your relationships and your circumstances.
I'm a qualified Psychotherapist and Counsellor, and I feel so drawn to supporting women living with IBD because I know just how far its impact reaches.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease has a way of touching almost every part of life.
It can be aggravated by stress, while also being a constant source of stress itself. It can affect fertility, pregnancy, birth and motherhood. It can change how you parent when you're living with fatigue, pain or uncertainty. It can bring profound grief for the healthy body you once had, for lost opportunities, interrupted careers, relationships that have changed, holidays cancelled, or simply the life you imagined. It can leave the imprint of medical trauma after years of investigations, hospital admissions, surgeries or frightening flares.
IBD can create shame, anxiety and a complicated relationship with your body. It can affect intimacy, sexuality and confidence. It can leave you exhausted from navigating specialists, medications, diets, supplements and well-meaning advice from every direction.
Perhaps one of the hardest things about IBD is how invisible it is. So much of the struggle happens behind closed doors. You keep living your life while carrying an illness that few people truly understand. In our work together, you won't have to convince me that it's hard. I will see you, hear you and witness your experience.
Whether you've been newly diagnosed, are living through a flare, adjusting to life after surgery, navigating fertility or pregnancy, or simply feeling worn down by years of living with IBD, you're welcome here.
The therapy space I offer is gentle, compassionate and deeply understanding.
Come exactly as you are. In your comfiest clothes. Wrapped in a blanket. From your bed if we're meeting online. There is no need to pretend you're coping better than you are.
You can be completely honest about your symptoms, your fears, your exhaustion or the emotional toll of living with IBD, knowing you're speaking with someone who genuinely understands the ongoing nature of this illness.
Sometimes our work will focus on practical ways to support your nervous system and help you move through each day with a little more ease. Sometimes we'll make space for grief. Sometimes we'll gently explore the experiences that have shaped your relationship with stress, safety and your body.
And sometimes there is nothing to fix. Sometimes you simply need someone to sit beside you in the pain of it all.
A therapy space where you can exhale
Therapy for women with IBD isn’t only about processing the challenges of IBD.
It is also a space to work through all the other messy, complicated parts of life. I know that life continues after an IBD diagnosis, but I also know that it becomes harder. Work stress can feel a thousand times heavier when you're also living with the invisible symptoms of IBD. Grief can overwhelm the nervous system and, for many people, contribute to a flare. Motherhood can feel incredibly demanding when you're exhausted, in pain, or constantly searching for the nearest bathroom. Relationships and intimacy can be tested when discomfort, shame, fatigue, or fear lead to withdrawal. Or perhaps you find yourself wondering whether healing some of your old emotional wounds might also have an impact on your physical symptoms.
This is a space to explore all of you and your whole story—not just the parts related to IBD, unless that's where you want to begin. You don't have to separate your illness from the rest of your life.
Beyond the Physical Symptoms… IBD affects so much more than your gut.
The role of stress
Living with a chronic inflammatory illness places an enormous load on the nervous system. Stress doesn't cause IBD, but the relationship between stress and inflammatory bowel disease is well recognised. Stress can worsen symptoms, increase the emotional burden of illness and leave your nervous system feeling like it's constantly on high alert.
My approach to therapy is grounded in nervous system-informed psychotherapy. Drawing on approaches including Polyvagal Theory, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and attachment-based therapy, I help clients better understand how their nervous system responds to stress and develop practical, compassionate ways of finding greater regulation and resilience. The goal isn't to "think positively" or eliminate stress altogether. It's to help your body find moments of safety, steadiness and restoration, even while living with a chronic illness.
The grief that comes with chronic illness
Grief isn't only about losing someone we love. Living with IBD can involve grieving the loss of health, certainty, energy, freedom, fertility, spontaneity, confidence or the future you imagined. These losses often go unseen by others, yet they are deeply real. Alongside my psychotherapy training, I have specialist training in grief therapy. Together we can make space for the many layers of grief that often accompany chronic illness without rushing to move on or find a silver lining.
Trauma and IBD
Many women living with IBD carry experiences that feel traumatic. For some, this may include frightening flares, emergency surgery, invasive medical procedures, repeated hospital admissions or feeling unheard within the healthcare system. These experiences can leave the nervous system feeling persistently unsafe long after the event itself has passed. Some people also notice that significant stress or trauma earlier in life has shaped the way their nervous system responds to challenge. While trauma does not cause IBD, understanding your history can help make sense of how your body has learned to cope with stress. I am trained in the Rewind Technique, a gentle, evidence-informed approach for working with trauma that can help reduce the emotional intensity of distressing memories without requiring you to repeatedly relive them.
Where appropriate, we can integrate this into our work together as part of a broader, compassionate approach to healing.
Contact Me
The first step can feel big. Please call for an informal chat where we can figure out together if my way of working is the right fit for you.
Call 040 640 7731
“It is astonishing how elements which seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens.”