Therapy for College Aged Women with Endometriosis in New York
You are embarking on an exciting new chapter-beginning your college career-yet you are worried about how endometriosis may get in the way of your college experience. You are a high achieving young woman who is ready to tackle any challenge that stands in your way but chronic illness like endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain feel overwhelming and isolating. You need a team of experts who have your back and are ready to help you navigate life in college and thrive-all while living with endometriosis in New York.
What is Endometriosis and How Can It Impact Women in College Living in New York
Endometriosis is much more than “just a bad period”. The Endometriosis Foundation of America defines endometriosis as a “complex systemic disease associated with tissue similar to the endometrial lining of the uterus that can affect the whole body.” In fact, the EndoFound explains that many women with endometriosis will experience worsened symptoms in high school and college. This is such a challenging time in general for a young woman, made even more challenging with chronic pain and an inflammatory disease.
Navigating endometriosis in college may impact women in many ways, including:
Increasing anxiety about ability to attend classes during high symptom days
Increasing anxiety surrounding deadlines for assignments if unexpected pain flares occur
Feeling isolated due to lack of support or negative impact on friends and relationships
Feeling embarrassed to cancel plans due to pain flares
Increased feelings of depression surrounding future physical abilities in career
Increased anxiety surrounding financial stability due to diagnosis and treatment
Future anxiety surrounding fertility and ability to begin a family
Frustration surrounding negative impact on romantic relationships and dating
Medical trauma due to invasive procedures, treatments and surgeries
How Can Online Therapy Help You Thrive in College with Endometriosis
While there is no cure for endometriosis, there is hope and treatment available. Mental health counseling is one helpful part of an interdisciplinary approach to living with endometriosis. At New York Women’s CBT, our team of clinicians have lived experience with chronic illness and utilize evidence based realistic tools to help you find stability in your day to day.
We utilize Telehealth services throughout the state of New York and are able to provide therapy in the comfort of your own home without sacrificing clinical expertise or helpful techniques and tools. Online therapy is particularly helpful for women navigating chronic pain and chronic illness as we remove the barrier of a commute that can exacerbate symptoms and flares.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Managing Life with Endometriosis
Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT, can be helpful in bringing awareness to unhelpful thought patterns that may increase feelings of anxiety or depression and unhelpful behaviors that exacerbate these feelings. Using trauma informed language, we can validate the understandable feelings that you are experiencing while also finding evidence to challenge unhelpful thought patterns such as catastrophizing, all or nothing thinking and more.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Managing College with Endometriosis
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, falls under the umbrella of “Third Wave CBT” and is another helpful technique for managing distressing emotions and physical sensations. DBT tools include expanding your toolbox of distress tolerance techniques, such as yogic breathing, bilateral stimulation, mindfulness exercises and healthy distractions. We also value incorporating dialectical thoughts, which is another way of reframing unhelpful thoughts. Dialectical thought asserts that two opposite things can be true at the same time. For instance, it can be true that you are feeling anxious about navigating your classes at college while living with endometriosis and it is also true that you can advocate for reasonable accommodations to help set yourself up for success and additional support. Dialectical thought encourages us to focus on both the emotional mind and the rational mind, creating what we call “the wise mind”.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Living in Alignment with your Values with Endometriosis
Acceptance can feel like an abstract and frustrating goal. Some may think that acceptance of endometriosis means “life is just this way now and there’s nothing I can do” or “what is the point, there is no cure”. At New York Women’s CBT, we discuss what is considered acceptance in a therapeutic sense. Acceptance in the therapy room means we can be radically accepting of our reality (this does not mean we have to like it) while also taking inventory of committed actions we can take to create change. While endometriosis has no cure, there are many team members you can add to your treatment plan to help you live with less pain, more good days, more hope and more stability. Adding these team members are in your control and a huge part of your committed actions.
Other team members you may wish to include on your care team for managing endometriosis include:
Excision surgeon and specialist for endometriosis
Pelvic floor physical therapy
Fertility doctor for family planning and egg freezing
Acupuncture to help manage pain
Pilates instructor knowledgable in chronic pain management
Lymphatic massage to manage inflammation and pain
Nutritionist and GI specialist to discuss inflammatory foods
Group therapy to feel supported by other women navigating endometriosis
We are deeply committed to a multidisciplinary, integrative team approach when managing endometriosis. You are not alone and the clinicians at New York Women’s CBT want to be a part of your team.
Get the Support you Deserve as a Woman Navigating Endometriosis in College in New York
New York Women’s CBT offers both individual and group therapy for women living with chronic illness such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and chronic pelvic pain in New York. We are niched experts in working with chronic illness and chronic pain. Our clinicians aren’t just therapists-we are therapists with the day to day lived experience of chronic pain and complex chronic illness. We have been there and understand what you are going through. We offer an integrative, third wave approach utilizing techniques and tools Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help you build your toolbox and thrive in college. Reach out today for your free phone consultation and see why New York Women’s CBT is the right fit for you.