Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

Of all the emotional issues that come with chronic illness, the most painful and most damaging is shame.

While guilt is about something we have done, shame is about who we are and all of the ways we feel that we are bad, wrong, weak, lacking or 'less than' that make us so very different to everyone else.

Especially when we compare ourselves to others who have our illness and who seem to be doing so much better than us. 

In this episode I go through the typical kinds of statements and beliefs that you can feel when living with chronic illness, address some of the driving factors that create these feelings and explain why they leave you feeling so full of shame. 

Things like: 

I feel ashamed because I feel like I am failing to get better.

I feel ashamed because I am ruining my families lives.

I feel ashamed and embarrassed because I look so different than I did before.

If you live with chronic illness and struggle with feelings of shame, then this episode is for you and will help you understand why you feel the way you feel. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

I asked my email and social media communities a while back to ask me anything about the experience of chronic illness that they were struggling with to see if I could help and in this episode, I am back with part 2. 

I was planning to answer three questions this time but unfortunately, I was running out of energy towards the end of recording and had to leave the last one for now. 

I will circle back to it another time as I think that topic deserves it's own podcast and I plan on getting tips and strategies from more seasoned travellers than myself. 

In this episode I speak to:

How do you deal with a sleepless night or nights?

and

I'm not doing fun things, like creative stuff because I'm always stuck in the rip tide and just trying to keep my head above water. It's exhausting and depressing. 

Have a listen and please share this if it can help your friends or your chronic illness communities. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

By far, the biggest and most upsetting issue for those of us living with chronic illness is not being believed. 

From Doctors, family, friends and even total strangers on the internet, there are so many people full of scepticism, unsolicited advice and downright disbelief. 

But how do you deal with the questions and comments like:

• It's all in your head.
• Why are you still so sick?
• There must be some Doctor who can fix you.
• You just need to think more positive.
• But you look so well.
• You need to stop letting the illness define you.

In this episode I take a deep dive into the basis of other peoples disbelief, how to deal with the comments and judgements and more importantly, what you can do to empower yourself. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

The emotional and psychological impacts of becoming chronically ill so often go unrecognised, misunderstood belittled or simply ignored.

Which means that when it happens to you, you have no idea if the grief, fear, overwhelm and exhaustion that you feel are normal or that maybe, it is all in your head after all. 

A big part of my work is to normalise and validate the often complex emotions that come with becoming chronically ill because people need to understand that all of the emotions are real, appropriate and completely understandable. 

In this episode, I share perhaps the most challenging emotional issue of living with chronic illness that leads so many of us feeling hopeless, powerless and completely overwhelmed. 

And more importantly, I give you some practical solutions for what you can do when you feel this way because you deserve to feel understood, supported and believed. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

Most of my new clients with chronic illness are starting from a place of complete overwhelm and feeling like they are sitting in the wreckage of their lives and wondering, 'where do I even start to deal with this?'

So let's talk about overcoming that overwhelm and finding ways to help yourself take back some sense of direction and control. 

In this episode which will be a series, I start breaking down the first steps you need to take to start adapting to living your new life with chronic illness. 

This includes: 

• Processing all the emotions
• How to get the information you need
• First steps to working out what you can do to help yourself
• What your priorities need to be
• How to manage the disbelief. 

If you are feeling totally overwhelmed and need some direction and validation, then this podcast is for you. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

Chronic illness changes every aspect of your life and a large part of that is figuring out ways to best manage your symptoms and protect your energy. 

The biggest problem is though that other people can get in the way of that. 

Whether it's Doctors not supporting the treatment options you want, friends or family criticising or judging the changes you are making or having to deal with others fear, concern or disapproval, it adds another big challenge to an already overwhelming situation. 

When chronic illness already leaves you feeling isolated, criticised and struggling, how do you cope when others don't support how you choose to manage your illness? 

Find out how in this episode of the Emotional Autoimmunity podcast. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

After a while, most people who live with chronic illness give up trying to talk about what it's like and how it feels, because people don't seem to understand. 

Especially as time goes on and those around you don't see you 'getting better' and can't seem to grasp what 'chronic' actually means. 

Often, when you do try to explain and seek support, you end up feeling judged, shamed and disbelieved, even by the very professionals who are supposed to be there to help you. 

You can be told to stop being so negative, not let the illness define you or offered unsolicited advice that seems to completely ignore the complex reality of your illness.

So at a time in your life when you are most in need of empathy, compassion and understanding, you can end up feeling more alone than you have ever felt before. 

In this episode, I go through all of the key reasons why we don't talk about chronic illness.

Why it happens, where peoples beliefs and judgements come from and more importantly, what you can do to help yourself when sharing leaves you feeling guilty, judged, blamed and alone. 

If you have tried talking about the impacts of chronic illness on your life and no one seems to understand, then this episode is for you.

Chronic illness is very real and you deserve to be believed and supported.

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

In this episode I answer questions from my chronic illness community including:

Can you speak to the cost of the unique stressors in chronic illness including not being able to trust the guidance of doctors, trying to resolve health problems alone and how do you cope when taking expert advice goes badly for you?

How do you revise your story of self, worth and identity when illness has stripped it away?

and

Are your Discovery Sessions or services some kind of scam?

You asked, I answered so lets get into all the complexities, challenges and potential solutions together.

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

Today (June 19th, 2024) marks 4 years since my Type 1 diabetes diagnosis which makes this the perfect time to talk about how my chronic illnesses affect my everyday life. 

In this podcast I open up about each of my 4 different autoimmune diseases, the impact they have on me, what's changed  what ongoing issues I still have and how I deal with them.

This includes how it's affected my sleep, diet, social life, friendships, relationships and the many ways in which it has changed my life. 

I also share a peek into my daily chronic illness management, my health goals, typical medical administration and what life is generally like for me. 

As always, I am not a medical doctor and the way in which I choose to manage my illness is what works best for me. There is no "one" way to manage chronic illness and we all need to find our way and what works best for us. 

The audio recording cut out at the end but all you are missing is my usual "bye for now."

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Enjoyed this episode? Send Kerry a text

One of the big, missing pieces in supporting people with chronic illness is that there is so little acknowledgment that becoming chronically ill changes peoples lives and that this creates complex emotional issues that are in fact, completely normal. 

The typical experience is that you get your diagnosis (or not) and leave the doctors office with no idea what to do next and how to even start to cope with how much your life and self have changed and no recognition of just how lost, confused, afraid and overwhelmed you are feeling. 

The one thing I see consistently with every single client is a mistaken belief that this is a 'me' thing and not an 'everybody' thing. 

That there is something lacking in me whether it's that I am not strong enough, determined enough or resilient enough to cope with this or that I am too weak, too needy, too confused or just too much to deal with. 

All of this is reinforced because most people don't understand the normal emotional reactions to becoming chronically ill and judge, criticise and blame, which leaves you feeling even worse about yourself.

So if you have ever worried that this is a 'you' thing and that everyone else is coping much better with chronic illness than you, this will help you understand why you feel that way and how to change it. 

Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes.

Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.

Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.

Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.