CBT for Health Conditions
Psychological and behavioural support for living with a chronic pain, fatigue, or long-term health condition — online, alongside your medical care
How Do I Manage My Health Condition?
You're managing a health condition, perhaps it's entirely new, perhaps you've been learning to cope for years. Health conditions can be incredibly overwhelming and have a large psychological impact. Upon one's mood, confidence, or how you approach everyday life.
Whilst CBT can't directly treat a health condition. It can help manage it's psychological impact, in addition to developing new approaches and behaviours to everyday life which ensure you are still able to live in a way which is meaningful and tied to your values.
My Experience
Alongside my private-practice. I work in an NHS Health Psychology Service supporting patients with chronic pain, fatigue, functional neurological disorder and cancer amongst other conditions. Much of my approach to this work comes directly from this experience, and the focus on evidence-based care (NICE-Guidance) in improving people's day to day experience of living with a health condition.
What is CBT for Health Conditions
CBT can provide psychological support for the impact of living with a diagnosed physical health condition. Not treatment of the condition itself which stays with your medical team. It combines an understanding of how your condition has impacted you mentally, practical behavioural changes including pacing and activity management and psychoeducation around how your particular condition works.
Does CBT treat my health condition?
No. CBT does not treat the underlying physical condition. It supports the psychological and behavioural side - mood, anxiety, coping, adjustment, social relationships. Whilst your medical team continue to support the condition itself.
What does a session actually involve?
Sessions combine talking through how the condition is affecting your thoughts and emotions. Identifying behavioural patterns (like overworking and avoidance) that make things harder, and building practical strategies for specific challenges.
The aim is to help you feel more equipped to manage your condition's psychological impact.
Signs CBT might help
Common signs include low mood or anxiety that has grown alongside physical symptoms, a boom-and-bust cycle of overdoing it followed by a crash, withdrawal from activity out of fear of triggering symptoms, a shifted sense of identity around the condition, and exhaustion from managing or explaining the condition on top of the condition itself.
Chronic health conditions are well-known to affect mental-health. Worry about flare-ups can increase physical tension, low-mood can impact your capacity to manage your symptoms and patterns of avoidance or all-or-nothing thinking make daily life more challenging. CBT works directly with these interactions.
FAQ's
Will CBT treat my health condition?
No. CBT supports the psychological and behavioural approaches alongside medical care. Not instead of it.
I'm based in Cumbria, can I still book?
Unfortunately, due to my role within an NHS Health Psychology Service, I'm unable to offer a private service to clients based in Cumbria.
What if I'm not sure this is the right fit?
Book the free discovery call, a low-pressure conversation to see whether this feels right for you, with no obligation to book anything further.
Key References
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2021) Chronic pain (primary and secondary) in over 16s: assessment of all chronic pain and management of chronic primary pain [NG193]. Available at: www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2009) Depression in adults with a chronic physical health problem: recognition and management [CG91]. Available at: www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg91
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2021) Myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome: diagnosis and management [NG206]. Available at: www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng206
Note: NG206 states CBT should only support symptom management and distress reduction (not treatment/cure), delivered by a practitioner with ME/CFS-specific CBT training and supervision. Confirm before naming ME/CFS on this page — see notes below.