Are you facing cancer or other medical conditions and seeking:
Purpose
Empowerment
Acceptance
Resilience?
Welcome to PEAR Health Psychology, PLLC, led by Dr. Elizabeth Kacel, a clinical health psychology practice based in Chicago, IL.
Whether you…
· Have never seen a therapist
· Aren’t sure how therapy can help
· Have a little experience with therapy
· Are very familiar with therapy
… all are welcome. Together, we can figure out how to move forward with your health and psychological wellbeing even while living with cancer or other medical conditions. Together, we can explore the complexities of being human and normalize the emotional ups and downs of life as we know it.
Areas of Specialization
Coping with Cancer Diagnosis & Treatment
Understanding how to navigate uncertainty, manage anxiety, improve mood, reduce sleep difficulties, and make complex medical decisions closely aligned with your personal beliefs and values.
Cancer Survivorship
Exploring life after active treatment, managing physical, emotional, and relationship challenges, exploring body image, sexual health concerns, and intimacy; reintegrating into routine life, planning for the future; increasing your capacity for self-compassion.
Chronic Illness (e.g., lupus, MS, heart failure, transplant, diabetes)
Learning strategies for coping with physical and emotional challenges in daily life, social communication about boundaries to protect your wellbeing, how to find joy even on high-symptoms days.
Lifestyle change to prevent disease or manage medical conditions
Uncovering emotionally-driven habits and barriers to the changes you want and need to make for your health; learning specific tools and strategies to achieve sustainable healthy change.
Advanced illness or end-of-life
Cultivating a sense of clarity, meaning, and purpose; examining the role of acceptance, reflecting on existential concerns; support with memory-making and legacy planning
… and more. Our work together will be a partnership in which we collaboratively explore ways in which medical, psychological, and social factors impact your experience of health and illness. Our goal: using scientifically-supported psychotherapeutic strategies to help you cultivate a sense of purpose, empowerment, acceptance, and resilience to live life in ways that are meaningful to you.
“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”
-Susan Sontag
Questions about getting started?
Send us a message and we’ll connect by phone for a free 15-minute consultation in order to determine whether clinical health psychology services with Dr. Kacel are the right fit for the support you need at this time.
All messages will receive a response within 2 business days.