Is therapy appropriate if my condition is “physical”?

Yes. Therapy isn’t about saying symptoms are “all in your head.” It supports the emotional and psychological impact of living with a health condition, and it can improve coping, mood, and quality of life alongside medical care.

Can therapy help with pain and fatigue?

Therapy can help with the psychological and behavioural factors that affect pain and fatigue experience, such as stress physiology, pacing, sleep, self-criticism, and avoidance cycles. It can also help you build a sustainable way of living within your limits.

What if I feel anxious about symptoms and flare-ups?

That’s very common. Therapy helps reduce hypervigilance and rumination and builds steadier coping with uncertainty, alongside appropriate medical input.

What if I’m grieving the life I expected?

That grief is real. Therapy provides space to process loss, identity shifts, and meaning, without minimising what has changed.

Do you work alongside medical teams?

Therapy works alongside medical care rather than replacing it. Where relevant, we encourage appropriate communication and medical support through your GP or treating team.

Do you offer therapy for health conditions in London and online?

Yes. We offer therapy in London and online across the UK.

Therapy for Health Conditions

Living with a health condition can change far more than symptoms. It can change your sense of safety in your body, your confidence, your identity, your relationships, and the way you imagine the future. Even when medical care is good, the emotional and psychological impact can be heavy — and many people end up carrying it quietly.

You might be coping with diagnosis, treatment, flare-ups, uncertainty, pain, fatigue, or limitations that other people can’t see. You may find yourself feeling anxious about symptoms, grieving the life you expected, pushing through until you crash, or struggling with frustration and low mood.

At Hampstead Psychology, we offer evidence-based psychological therapy for people living with health conditions in London and online across the UK. Our work is thoughtful, practical, and tailored. We help you find steadier ways to cope, reduce emotional distress, and live more fully alongside what your body is dealing with.

This page is for information and does not replace a clinical assessment, diagnosis, or medical advice.

When living with a health condition starts to take over

You might recognise some of these experiences:

You feel anxious about symptoms, flare-ups, scans, or medical appointments.
You feel on edge in your body, as if you can’t trust what will happen next.
You feel low, flat, or hopeless about the future.
You feel angry, grief-stricken, or resentful about what’s changed.
Pain or fatigue affects your functioning and leaves you feeling isolated.
You push through, then crash, and struggle to find a sustainable pace.
You feel guilty about resting, cancelling plans, or needing support.
Your relationships feel strained, especially when others don’t fully understand.
You feel misunderstood by professionals, family, or friends, and it adds to stress.
You struggle with identity: “Who am I now?” and “What can my life be?”

If this fits, it doesn’t mean you’re not coping. It often means you’re coping with something genuinely difficult, and the psychological load deserves proper support too.

How psychological difficulties can show up alongside health conditions

Adjustment, identity, and grief

A health condition can bring real losses: loss of predictability, energy, independence, or a sense of self. Grief and adjustment reactions are common, even if you feel you “should be grateful” or “should be stronger.” Therapy helps you process what’s changed and rebuild meaning without pretending the loss didn’t matter.

Anxiety, uncertainty, and hypervigilance

Uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of many conditions. You might notice your mind scanning for symptoms, fearing the worst, or bracing for flare-ups. Therapy helps you reduce threat monitoring and build a steadier relationship with uncertainty.

Low mood, withdrawal, and burnout

When pain, fatigue, and limitations accumulate, it’s easy for life to shrink. People withdraw, reduce activity, and lose sources of meaning and connection, which can deepen low mood. Therapy supports you to rebuild movement and engagement in ways that are realistic for your body.

Pain, fatigue, and nervous system strain

Long-term symptoms can keep the nervous system activated. That activation can increase stress, affect sleep, and amplify how difficult symptoms feel to manage. Therapy can help with pacing, regulation, and reducing the secondary stress that makes coping harder.

Related difficulties we often see alongside health conditions

Many people living with health conditions experience anxiety, low mood, stress and burnout, insomnia, health anxiety, self-criticism, and relationship strain. Some people also develop avoidance patterns around movement, social life, work, or plans because uncertainty and symptoms feel too risky.

Therapy takes the whole picture into account while focusing on what will help you most.

Medical input alongside therapy

Therapy supports the psychological and emotional impact of health conditions, and it can be an important part of living well with illness. It does not replace medical care. Where physical or medical factors are contributing, we recommend appropriate medical input through your GP or treating team alongside therapy, so you’re supported safely and comprehensively.

What keeps the distress going?

The psychological distress that comes with health conditions is often maintained by understandable loops.

Symptoms or uncertainty trigger fear, frustration, or grief.
You respond by bracing, over-monitoring, pushing through, or avoiding.
That reduces anxiety in the short term or helps you get through the day.
But over time it can increase exhaustion, reduce confidence, and shrink your life.
The cycle continues, and the condition feels like it takes up more and more space.

Therapy helps you step out of these loops by building pacing, coping, communication, and a steadier internal relationship with your body and mind.

How therapy helps when you’re living with a health condition

At Hampstead Psychology, we use approaches that are widely used in evidence-based psychological practice. Depending on your needs, this may include CBT, ACT, compassion-focused work, and schema-informed therapy.

In practice, therapy often involves helping you make sense of the emotional impact of illness, reducing anxiety and rumination, and developing practical coping strategies. We work on pacing and boundaries so you can protect your energy, and we support you to reconnect with values and meaning so life doesn’t shrink to the condition alone.

We also work with self-criticism and guilt, which are common when people feel they are “letting others down” or “should be doing more.” Therapy helps you respond to your body with more wisdom and less punishment.

What to expect from sessions

We begin by understanding your health context: your diagnosis or symptoms, what your day-to-day looks like, what the biggest challenges are, and what you want support with. We also explore how anxiety, mood, sleep, relationships, and identity might be interacting with the condition.

From there, we develop a shared map and clear goals for therapy. Sessions are collaborative and paced. You’ll leave with insight that feels usable and practical steps to try between sessions, reviewed and refined over time. We take sustainability seriously, because you’re already carrying enough.

How long does therapy take?

This varies. Some people want focused support around adjustment to diagnosis, coping with uncertainty, or returning to work and life after treatment. Others benefit from longer-term support, particularly where symptoms are ongoing, fluctuating, or have reshaped identity and relationships over time.

We review progress together so therapy stays purposeful and aligned with what you need.

Therapy for health conditions in Hampstead and online

We offer therapy for people living with health conditions in person in London and online across the UK. Many people choose online sessions because they reduce travel load and make regular therapy easier to sustain.

Take the next step

If living with a health condition has been affecting your mood, confidence, relationships, or sense of safety in your body, you don’t have to carry it alone. With the right support, it’s possible to feel steadier, clearer, and more able to live alongside uncertainty.

Contact Hampstead Psychology to enquire about therapy for health conditions in London or online.

Useful links: Health Anxiety Therapy, Anxiety Therapy, Depression Therapy, Stress and Burnout, Insomnia and Sleep Problems, Fees, Meet the Team, Contact.

Urgent Help

If you are worried about immediate risk to your safety, call 999 or go to A&E. If you need urgent support but it isn’t an emergency, contact NHS 111 or your GP. You can also contact Samaritans on 116 123 (24/7).

Meet The Team

At Hampstead Psychology, all of our psychologists have extensive training to doctoral level and decades of experience in their field of expertise. You will be matched with a psychologist that has the knowledge and skill to help you understand and overcome your problem - not just in the short term but for good.