“When life is hard, you need to take a break before you break.” - Marisa Renee Lee

Some experiences in our lives don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Chronic illness is one of them. As clinicians, supporting our clients means more than managing symptoms or finding the right protocol. It’s about helping them to learn to live inside a body that no longer feels predictable, while still trying to hold onto identity, purpose, and connection.

What makes this kind of experience especially complex is that it doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s shaped by culture, by expectations around productivity and independence, and by the very real pressure to keep going even when your body is asking you to slow down. For high-achieving women who wear multiple hats, that tension can be profound. And when uncertainty stretches on for months or years, it often brings a kind of grief that isn’t always obvious, because nothing has technically ended and yet everything has changed.

In this episode, I’m joined by Marisa Renee Lee, author of Waiting for Dawn and Grief is Love, to explore life with chronic illness through the lens of grief and uncertainty. Marisa shares her journey with long COVID, the identity shifts that come with becoming disabled, how internalized beliefs around independence make it harder to ask for help, the loneliness of navigating unpredictable symptoms, and what it means to live well even while acknowledging your limitations.

Enjoy the episode, and let's innovate and integrate together!

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Learn more or watch the video version of this conversation at https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/navigating-grief-with-chronic-illness-with-marisa-renee-lee/.

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