Therapy for Women with Endometriosis in New York: How Third Wave CBT Helps High Achievers with Chronic Illness
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New York City is a fast paced, intense and exciting place to live. Known for attracting high achievers in every field, women that are climbing to the top of their careers find themselves thriving here. When your life plans feel derailed by a diagnosis of endometriosis, you may fear that your high achieving dreams will not be reached. If you are feeling isolated and overwhelmed navigating chronic pain due to endometriosis, you don’t have to walk this journey alone. You need a multidisciplinary team of experts behind you, including mental health therapy, to help you find a new normal, stability and the ability to keep chasing your dreams.
How does endometriosis impact women’s mental health?
Endometriosis is a painful condition with no cure that can create pelvic pain, painful period and infertility. As a chronic pain condition, endometriosis can increase symptoms of depression and anxiety. Understandably, managing pain daily takes its toll on mental health.
For young adults headed to college, there may be increased anxiety around living on their own, finding new doctors that are near their university, or their ability to keep up with academics and socializing. Our clients experience grief and loss regarding the loss of their “normal” or “old” life. They also feel fear about their ability to get pregnant or feel overwhelmed making decisions about their fertility. In addition to individual therapy, group therapy can provide invaluable support from other women in similar stages of life who “just get it” and understand the day to day impact of endometriosis.
Although there is not a cure for endometriosis, there is hope. Having a team of medical professionals behind you can help you manage your day to day symptoms, family plan, gain support and tools to improve your mental health and find a new normal. Therapists at New York Women’s CBT have lived experience with chronic illness and understand the emotional toll firsthand.
What is third wave Cognitive Behavior Therapy and how can it help me manage life with endometriosis?
Third wave cognitive behavior therapy integrates the helpful reframing tools found in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) with valuable grounding, mindfulness and down regulation tools to calm the nervous system found in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Third wave CBT also incorporates valuable skills like dialectical thinking and distress tolerance skills, which can be very helpful during pain flares.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy Helps Women Manage Anxiety and Depression Associated with Endometriosis
Cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT, is one tool we can utilize to help decrease anxiety and feelings of depression. We value a trauma informed approach and identify “unhelpful thoughts” or “stuck points”, challenge those thoughts with evidence, identify cognitive distortions that may be coming up and create a more helpful thought. We can affirm the emotions and anxiety that you are feeling while also developing a healthy thought reframe. Creating more helpful, flexible thought patterns is like taking your brain to the gym-we are able to establish new neural networks with practice!
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Help Women with Endometriosis Manage Pain Flares and Distressing Feelings
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is another helpful approach we can integrate into your treatment plan. DBT can help us reframe thoughts by using our “wise mind”. The wise mind allows us to acknowledge both our emotional mind and our rational mind. Dialectics assert that two opposite things can both be true-this understanding can help us hold both challenging emotions and logic. For instance, we can feel anxious about an upcoming endometriosis excision surgery AND our rational mind identifies we are taking the next best step to find stability in our health.
DBT also helps us create distress tolerance strategies to ride the wave of pain flares and overwhelming emotions. Distress tolerance techniques may include grounding exercises, meditation and mindfulness activities as well as healthy distraction tools such as watching your favorite TV show, taking a nap or reading a book.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Helps Women Live in Alignment with their Values While Navigating Endometriosis
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, is rooted in mindfulness practices, radical acceptance and values exploration. When we are not living in alignment with our values, this creates intense distress. Chronic illnesses like endometriosis can disrupt our lives, routines and make it challenging to live your “old” life. When we take inventory of your values, we can find ways to adapt to your new normal while living in alignment with the things you value most.
Acceptance is a challenging part of living with chronic illness and part of the grieving process. Acceptance of endometriosis does not mean that “I like this” or “Nothing will change so I am giving up”. Radical acceptance is radically accepting the reality of your health while also taking inventory of committed actions you can take that are in your control to improve your life and find stability. While endometriosis does not go away, we know that things in our control such as expert excision surgery, pelvic floor physical therapy, low inflammatory foods, acupuncture and mental health support can help us find a new normal and continue to chase our dreams.
Can endometriosis cause medical trauma?
Medical trauma is caused by repeated pain, invasive procedures and life threatening injuries or experiences. The repeated pain and treatments for endometriosis can cause symptoms of medical trauma. These may look like racing thoughts, heightened anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and increased fear surrounding doctors appointments and your health. Third wave CBT tools can help you manage these symptoms of medical trauma and regulate your nervous system. You aren’t alone, there are tools to cope and a team at New York Women’s CBT that wants to help.
What medical providers should I add to my care team to help me thrive with endometriosis?
At New York Women’s CBT, we believe that the key to stability with endometriosis is a multidiscplinary care team who can support you. We routinely collaborate care with:
Excision endometriosis surgeons
Pelvic floor physical therapists
Pain management physicians
Acupuncturists
Pilates instructors
Online Therapy for High Achieving Women with Endometriosis in New York City
A warm, compassionate and integrative therapeutic approach is what we pride ourselves on at our practice. At our New York City office with a team of skilled therapists, we Follow the steps below to get started on your journey to healing.
Learn more about our team here.
Fill out our convenient online mental health services contact form.
Start your journey to healing.
Mental Health Services Offered by New York Women’s CBT
New York Women’s CBT has compassionate, niched experts ready to help you continue to chase your dreams while living with endometriosis. We offer both individual and group therapy for women living with chronic illness and chronic pain. Gain tools using an integrative therapeutic approach, blending CBT, DBT and ACT techniques. Meet our New York City based team and check out our blogs and vlogs for more helpful information. Reach out for your free phone consultation and get support to keep achieving your dreams.