What Holistic Therapy for Chronic Pain, Chronic Illness, and Burnout Really Looks Like
Healing mind, body, and spirit together — with care, science, and soul.
Living with chronic pain or chronic illness often feels like being asked to split yourself into parts.
The medical system focuses on your body. Traditional therapy might focus on your thoughts. Meanwhile, your spirit — your sense of meaning, connection, and wholeness — is left waiting quietly in the wings.
If you’re here, maybe you’re longing for something different.
…not just pain management.
…not just “positive thinking.”But a way of healing that sees all of you — your body, your emotions, your history, your resilience — as deeply connected.
This kind of mind-body therapy isn’t about choosing between medical or emotional care — it’s about honoring the full, interconnected experience of being human.
At Alcove Mental Health, holistic therapy means more than simply blending mind and body work. It means integrating the best of multiple therapeutic approaches, tailoring care to fit you rather than forcing your rich, lived experience into any one model.
It means honoring both what’s happening in your nervous system and what’s happening in your soul. It means trusting that real change — meaningful, grounded change — happens when all parts of you are welcomed to the table.
Research shows that chronic emotional stress and experiences of trauma (whether recognized, labeled, or quietly held in the body over time) can contribute to both physical and emotional health challenges. Trauma isn't just something you "think about" — it lives in the nervous system, in the muscles, in the stories we tell ourselves – on purpose, or not.
As pioneers like Dr. Bessel van der Kolk shared in The Body Keeps the Score, healing must be integrative. The path to change isn't purely cognitive or purely physical — it weaves through the whole of who you are and is benefited by attention to nervous system regulation.
In this post…
I’ll walk you through what holistic, integrative therapy can look like when it's truly personalized, including:
How honoring the mind-body connection can support lasting relief and wholeness – without blame, pressure, or false promises.
What it looks like to shape a therapy process around you — your needs, your story, your pace
Why deep, meaningful healing is possible, even after seasons of surviving, coping, or feeling unseen.
If you’ve been searching for support that embraces your full humanity — you’re in the right place.
What Is Holistic, Integrative Therapy for Chronic Pain?
At its core, holistic therapy is an approach that acknowledges your whole being: mind, body, emotions, spirit, and story.
It’s not one specific technique or belief system. It’s an ethos — a way of seeing you as already whole, even when you’re hurting.
In my practice, holistic therapy is integrative.
That means weaving together the best of different evidence-based approaches — including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), clinical hypnosis, somatic awareness practices, and depth-oriented emotional work — to fit your needs, not the other way around. (You can get a closer look at the different therapy modalities I use here.)
You are not a template.
You are not a diagnosis.
You are a living, breathing, evolving human being
— and your deserve your therapy to meet you that way.
You are a living, breathing, evolving human being.
And your therapy should meet you with that same sense of vitality.
The Mind-Body Connection: Treating the Whole, Not Just the Parts
When you live with chronic pain, illness, or fatigue or other complex health challenges, the mind-body connection isn't just a concept — it's your everyday experience.
Signs of mind-body connection that you might notice:
Pain that flares up when stress rises.
Exhaustion that deepens after emotionally charged days.
Physical symptoms that shift alongside emotional states.
Noticing these patterns isn’t about blame – and it isn’t about willing yourself into healing through force or positive thinking. It’s about recognizing how deeply your body and emotions have always been in conversation.
Healing happens when we honor your entire system:
Supporting your nervous system
Tending to the emotions your body carries, and
Rebuilding resilience from the inside out.
Rather than isolating pieces of your experience — like, "this is physical," "this is mental," "this is emotional" — integrative therapy treats you as a whole.
What a Tailored Therapy Process Looks Like
One of the most common things my clients tell me is that in past experiences — with therapy, medical care, or both — they felt reduced to a checklist.
A list of symptoms.
A manual of coping strategies.
A single diagnosis or treatment plan that didn’t leave room for who they are.
In integrative holistic therapy, you are not a checklist. You are a full, layered human being – and your care should reflect that.
Instead of rigid protocols, we use conversation, curiosity, and collaboration. My role as an integrative clinician is to support you as a co-creator in your own care, giving you agency in your own healing process.
A tailored therapy process means:
Starting with where you are — not where someone else thinks you “should” be.
Collaborating on goals that matter to you, whether that's managing pain flares, exploring meaning and identity, or nurturing emotional recovery.
Flexibly weaving together approaches based on what supports you best — whether that’s building new skills, exploring deeper emotional patterns, or reimagining your relationship to your body and life.
And knowing that sometimes, the most important work is done by letting the plan go.
Sometimes, the next step in healing isn’t something you planned for—it’s something you’re (finally) giving yourself permission to feel.
Therapy tailored to you also means respecting the many ways you make meaning — emotional, spiritual, energetic, or otherwise.
If tools like tarot, astrology, or Human Design resonate with you, we can thoughtfully integrate them into your journey — as doorways for self-reflection, not prescriptions.
I also offer support through energetic and intuitive modalities, such as Reiki, which can help foster balance, clarity, and nervous system ease — especially when words aren't enough.
(And if these approaches don’t feel like a fit, that's absolutely okay. Our work will always be shaped by what feels most authentic to you.)
Beyond Coping: Therapy That Supports Deep, Meaningful Change
Managing symptoms is important.
But for many of us, there comes a time when managing alone isn't enough.
You want more than coping strategies.
You want real, deep, meaningful change — shaped by your values, your needs, and your hopes for a full and authentic life.
Maybe that means grieving who you used to be—
…while still showing grace and care to the parts that protected you.
Maybe it means reconnecting with parts of yourself you thought were lost—
…while releasing patterns that no longer serve who you’re becoming now.
Maybe it means discovering new ways of living that feel authentic and sustainable—
…while making peace with the knowing that not every relationship or routine can come with you.
In integrative holistic therapy, we make space for:
🌿 Identity exploration — because chronic pain, illness, and emotional burnout don't just impact your body; they can shift how you see yourself, your worth, and your place in the world. Therapy can become a place to gently ask: Who am I now? Who do I want to become?
🌿 Grieving — both the obvious and the invisible losses.
The loss of ease. The loss of old dreams. The loss of being able to move through life the way you once did. Grief doesn't have to be rushed, minimized, or "fixed" here — it can be witnessed, honored, and held, before moving through it at your own pace.🌿 Spiritual reflection — however it shows up for you.
Whether it’s questioning old beliefs, reconnecting with a deeper sense of meaning, or simply nurturing a greater sense of belonging to yourself and the world around you, therapy can be a place where your spiritual life is welcomed, not pathologized.
Hopefully by now, you’re getting a sense that healing isn’t about reaching a fixed destination.
At Alcove Mental Health, we believe therapy should be designed to support you in creating — and embracing — a way of being that feels aligned with who you truly are.
🍂 Not forcing change.
🌿 Not striving for someone else’s version of “better.”
✨ But building a life that feels more authentic, sustainable, and you.
Why the Therapeutic Relationship Matters More Than You Might Think
When you've lived with pain, fatigue, or chronic stress, you know that feeling "safe" in your body and mind can be complicated. That’s why the relationship we build together isn’t just a backdrop to therapy — it is part of the healing itself.
A strong therapeutic relationship offers:
🌱 A place for realness, not perfection.
In therapy, you don’t have to “perform” wellness, prove your insight, or hold it all together. It should be one of the few places where you get to just be — messy, curious, exhausted, hopeful — and still met with care.🌱 Co-regulation through connection.
When chronic stress, trauma, or invalidating systems have shaped your experience, it’s natural for your nervous system to stay on guard. In a steady therapeutic relationship, we create the conditions for your body to begin softening — to slowly remember what it’s like to feel safe, seen, and supported through connection. After all, humans are social creatures and we learn through relationship.🌱 Gentle repair of what’s been harmed.
Whether through medical gaslighting, relational betrayal, or systems that never saw your full humanity, many people carry invisible wounds. Therapy offers a space where those relational patterns can be named, held, and slowly rewritten — with tenderness and consent at every step.🌱 A shared container for growth.
The therapeutic space becomes a kind of sacred rehearsal room — a place to try new ways of relating, feeling, expressing, and asking. Not for evaluation, but for exploration. We’re not just talking about change. We’re practicing it, together.
You deserve a space where you're not just treated—you're met.
Where your wisdom is respected and honored.
And where change is nurtured with care, collaboration, and trust.
Is Holistic, Integrative Therapy Right for You?
If you’re navigating the layered impact of chronic pain, illness, or burnout, a holistic, integrative approach to therapy might offer the depth and flexibility you’ve been looking for. You might resonate with this approach if you’re:
Longing for a therapy space that honors your mind-body connection.
Wanting to be seen for your whole self — not just your symptoms.
Tired of surface-level advice that doesn’t address your lived experience or the root cause of what you’re carrying.
Curious about integrating practical tools and deeper emotional or spiritual healing.
Craving a space where your values, pace, and preferences shape the therapeutic process.
Open to collaborative care, holistic therapy, and a whole-person approach.
Ready to explore meaningful change that feels aligned, empowered, and true to you.
You don’t need the perfect timing—
Just a sense that something is ready to shift.
How to Begin: Working Together at Alcove Mental Health
I offer virtual therapy for chronic pain, chronic illness, fatigue, burnout, and the emotional toll of complex healing journeys. My work is grounded in holistic, integrative approaches — always tailored to your needs, your story, and the way healing wants to unfold for you.
If this resonates, I’d love to support you. Sessions are available for adults in Nevada and 40+ PSYPACT states. Learn more about the locations I serve here.
You’re welcome to schedule a free consultation to chat and see if this might be your right next step. There’s no pressure to have it all figured out or know exactly what you need — just a chance to explore whether this kind of care feels aligned, and to trust what you notice along the way.
I also invite you to take a look around and get a better feel for how we do things 🪴
Whether you’re burned out from trying “everything” or just starting to explore what’s possible — I’m glad you landed here.
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