Here’s a brief outline of plans for the Chronic Living Therapy project. Some of the plans are concrete steps, others are ‘early stage aspirations’.
The aim is initially for a directory which UK-registered therapists can pay an annual to be listed on. This will cover some costs including:
- hosting
- licenses for software that allows me to build the directory, keep the site secure, etc
- some vital tech support
- advertising (to patient groups, for example)
- and a little of my time
Therapists will need to be registered with a UK regulatory body to ensure they are suitably qualified (see below for international plans…).
Soft Launch
The site was launched in a basic state – get in touch, sign up for news and view useful resources. While a basic site was in place I worked directory itself but also sending out email newsletters (sign up if interested!) to gauge interest in different aspects of the project and to make sure there are enough therapists who want to sign up ahead of the full launch.
Developing a ‘statement of principles’
This phase involved inviting therapists and other interested parties, including newsletter subscribers, to assist with drawing up a statement of principles about their approach to supporting clients with chronic illness. This statement is designed to give potential clients reassurance that the therapists featured are not supportive of discredited ‘treatments’ such as Graded Exercise Therapy (eg: for patients with ME/CFS or with Long Covid alongside post exertional malaise) or the Lightning Process or similar approaches using other names.
Bug testing
I asked some newsletter subscribers to volunteer so I could check how the directory sign up process works for people who weren’t involved in the building of it. Together we checked:
- Does it make sense to someone who comes to it fresh?
- Does it work for people who have some brain fog?
- Does the payment method work easily?
- Do the emails that get sent out automatically confirming registration etc work well?
- Can therapists easily edit their profiles if they want to?
- Do the checks for whether the therapist is registered with a professional body work okay?
Directory goes live
The directory went live in June 2026 so that potential clients can see the profiles of therapists and contact them to make initial appointments. We will support the work of the featured therapists, and meet the needs of the wider community of chronically ill people who may wish to access their services, by publicising the directory. Get in touch if you’d like to do interview about the project – I’m happy to talk!
Training
In due course I aim to create webinars and I have received a generous donation towards this plan. Longer term, I plan to create an online training module for therapists which can be taken as part of their continuing professional development and be accredited by relevant training or regulatory bodies.
International
The misdiagnosis and gaslighting of patients with long term health conditions is not just a UK phenomenon, sadly. Within two days of opening up the mailing list to subscribers we had readers from the USA, Canada, Spain, Australia, Germany and Ireland as well as the UK. We expect more from other countries as the project develops. Working one country at a time, the project will hopefully expand to serve therapists and chronically ill people outside the UK. This will start with countries that have established regulatory bodies in place, and likely also English-speaking countries as it will be faster to develop sites in the same language as the original one.
Supporting existing networks of ‘good therapists’
If you’re a chronically ill therapist, or an ally therapist who works with clients who have a long term health condition, you may welcome the chance to build a network with others. If you can think of anything this project can do to support you please get in touch! No promises, but I’m open to ideas and suggestions and will take action where energy permits. If nothing else, I can put you in touch with each other.
Transforming the psychotherapy and counselling professions
It’s wrong that many people can’t access genuine, well-informed support and are instead further gaslit and traumatised by victim blaming attitudes and harmful assumptions, even amongst some therapists.
I would like to see training for properly supporting chronically ill patients go mainstream and make changes to attitudes across the professions tasked with the emotional support of chronically ill people.
Thank you to photographer Richard Lewis for permission to use the banner image at the top of this page.
