Autoimmune &
Chronic Illness
A chronic diagnosis changes your schedule, your body and often your relationships. It does not have to change who you are.
What a diagnosis brings
In autoimmune and chronic conditions — rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, diabetes and others — the psychological weight does not come only from the symptoms. It comes from unpredictability: not knowing how you will wake up tomorrow.
To this are usually added two things nobody warns you about. The first is grief for the life you had planned. The second is invisibility: many of these conditions do not show, so the people around you question it — "but you look fine" — and the need to justify yourself is added on top.
Where psychological support helps
- Around the diagnosis: shock, denial, searching for a cause, guilt.
- Managing flare-ups: the fear of the next one and the shrinking of life "just in case".
- Chronic pain and fatigue: regulation techniques, energy management, addressing insomnia.
- Treatment adherence: why people stop taking medication, and what is needed so they do not.
- Relationships: how you talk about it at work, with a partner, with children; how you ask for help without feeling like a burden.
- Identity: keeping the illness from becoming the first thing that defines you.
- Carers: the strain, the guilt and the grief of those who care — see also the article on anxiety and the body.
The illness is not in your head
Let us be clear, because many patients have heard this in the worst possible way: psychological support does not imply that the illness is psychogenic, or that it will resolve with positive thinking. These conditions are organic and their treatment is medical.
What can demonstrably change is your relationship with the illness: the level of stress that worsens symptoms, the quality of sleep, consistency with treatment, functioning and quality of life. That is not a small list.
At a glance
- ForAdults with chronic illness and those who care for them
- Duration50 minutes per session
- SettingAt the practice in central Thessaloniki, or online
- ApproachCognitive behavioural (CBT) with EFT elements
- AppointmentsBy phone or through the contact form
- FrameworkAlongside medical care — never instead of it
Frequently asked questions
Stress can worsen or trigger flare-ups in many chronic conditions — that is well evidenced. It does not mean the illness is "in your head" or that it will resolve if you calm down. We work on stress because it improves the course, not because we consider it the cause.
No diagnosis is needed for support to be worthwhile. Living with chronic illness makes daily management demands — of energy, boundaries, communication — that are exhausting regardless of mood. Many people come for exactly that.
Yes, and it often helps a great deal. Chronic illness reorganises a relationship: roles shift, care enters where there was equality, guilt appears on both sides. We can work either as a couple or individually with the carer.
Yes, and here it matters particularly: during a flare-up or a period of heavy fatigue, travelling may be impossible. Online sessions ensure the work is not interrupted exactly when it is needed most.