Health Anxiety and Medical Trauma

When the Body Holds the Story

Unexplained symptoms, chronic pain, dizziness, fatigue, or flare-ups that have no clear medical explanation can leave you feeling trapped in your own body. Add to that the lingering impact of frightening procedures, dismissive providers, or outright medical gaslighting, and it’s no wonder many people develop medical PTSD alongside health anxiety. These experiences are not “all in your head”—they live in your nervous system, in your memory, and in your body’s daily signals. Often, the body carries what the mind cannot say outright: unprocessed fear, unresolved conflicts, or the residue of family dynamics. Symptoms can be the body’s way of asking for attention, signaling what has been unspoken. In our work together, we’ll treat these symptoms as real, meaningful, and worthy of care - whether they stem from trauma, anxiety, or the body’s mysterious ways of speaking.

Health Anxiety & Hypochondria

Health anxiety is more than ordinary worry - it’s an exhausting cycle of scanning your body, researching symptoms, and bracing for the worst. It can erode sleep, connection, and your ability to feel safe. For many, this anxiety is reinforced by medical experiences where concerns were minimized or ignored. I help clients interrupt this cycle through a blend of somatic practices and therapeutic strategies designed to calm the spiral of catastrophic thinking while rebuilding trust in the body’s cues.

Medical PTSD

Medical trauma is often overlooked, yet its impact runs deep. A diagnosis, surgery, invasive exam, or even years of subtle invalidation can leave the nervous system locked in vigilance. Medical PTSD may show up as panic before appointments, flashbacks in medical settings, or avoidance of care entirely. Sometimes it blends with health anxiety, making every ache or sensation a trigger for both fear and memory. Our work focuses on restoring safety, untangling fear from past experience, and building skills to approach future care with more steadiness and choice.

My Approach

Healing in this territory requires more than talk. I integrate somatic practices that help us listen for what the body is expressing, even when words fall short. We’ll attend to the layers of meaning behind symptoms, exploring how they connect to memory, emotion, and history. By learning to distinguish between old alarms and present cues, you’ll begin to rebuild trust in your own signals. This process is collaborative, paced with care, and designed to help you reclaim both safety and agency in your body.