The reality of chronic illness
Symptoms decide what you can and can't do, not you. Some days your body cooperates. Some days it doesn't.
Underneath it is the quiet feeling of a growing distance from who you are outside of the illness.
You've tried enough to know there's no magic bullet, even though you wish there was.
You want to feel better. But somewhere along the way, you may have stopped believing you could.
Illness takes so much more of you than you imagined: your energy, your clarity, your freedom, maybe even your career or your home.
You're doing everything, appointments, protocols, research, some days it's a job just managing it.
What 1:1 coaching with Heidi is
I'm not here to hand you answers.
I'm here to help you find your own.
Because once you can see things clearly, you can make choices you didn't realize you had.
I help you see what illness took, and the choices that are still yours: whether you feel joy now or have to wait until you're better, whether you notice what's good or only what's missing, and choosing what you want to believe about your future or letting your illness forecast it for you.
What shifts
FROM
Waiting for the next treatment to work.
Identifying as "the sick person".
Believing there's nothing more you can do.
Explaining yourself to people who don't get it.
Feeling like healing is happening to you, or not.
TO
Taking small, intentional steps toward healing.
Being a whole person who also has an illness.
Believing feeling better is still possible.
Having someone who already gets it on your team.
Stepping into the role you have in your own healing.
I walk the path with you.
I've been stuck, lost, and hard on myself too, in a body that stopped cooperating.
In 28 years as an Occupational Therapist, I sat across from thousands of people, listening to their whole situation, not just their symptoms, before ever building a plan. My own decade with chronic illness and loss taught me the rest: I stopped waiting for a magic bullet and started taking small, intentional steps of my own, grieving who I was, and building who I am now.
I'm not a doctor and I'm not here to treat your illness. I'm someone who's been where you are.
I'll help you notice what you might be missing, ask the questions you don't know to ask yourself, and you find the part of you beneath the illness that still has a say in how your life goes.
You'll get clarity faster with someone in your corner who sees what you can't yet see.
How It Works
We slow things down enough for you to actually see what’s going on and do something with it.
1
I listen and ask questions.
You tell me where you are: your symptoms, what you've already tried, what your life looks like right now. No judgment, no having to perform "doing fine."
2
I find the patterns and beliefs under them.
What else may be influencing how you feel and what areas do you still have agency and choice?
3
We build a plan and start today.
A clear, honest read on the things that your can work with, and 2-3 concrete things you can start today, sized to fit the body and energy you actually have.
When things feel overwhelming or hard to face, we don’t push through blindly.
We work with what’s happening - mentally and emotionally in real time - so you can actually move through it.
This might include tools and support to help you regulate, feel a sense of safety, and make things feel workable again.
This is not for everyone.
This is one visit to start, not a quick fix. If you're looking for someone to hand you the answers, or a treatment plan for your illness, this isn't it. If it's a fit, we build from here.
Discovery Session
60 MINUTES, 1:1 COACHING
$200
In this session, we:
➡️ Have a safe space to say where you're really at - no judgment.
➡️ Find the choices that are still yours, even while illness is making so many others.
➡️ Learn a technique or two to help your body find safety, even in the middle of symptoms.
➡️ Walk away with one or two concrete next steps, sized to the body and energy you actually have.