Working with Chronic Illness Including Long Covid
Date: 13th June 2026
In this course, we will explore the most effective ways that we can support someone with chronic illness, as therapists, and what we should know in order to work safely with illness.
Live via Zoom – 10am – 4pm
Discounted rate for members of the GHR, NCH and BIH – £150 (standard price £170)
If you have any questions, please call Margaret on 07960 788093 or email: info@goldleaftraining.com
We live in a chronic illness epidemic. Studies indicate that around 30% of the UK population has one chronic illness; many more live with multiple conditions.
In this course, we will explore some of the potential underlying causes for this chronic illness situation, and how we can, as therapists, support people with illness.
We will look at a holistic framework for supporting people with illness, and understand the neuropsychiatric manifestations of some illnesses, and how they might show up in your clients as ‘mental health’ issues.
We will look at what support someone with chronic illness needs, and how we can safely and effectively provide that, and also what we need to be aware of in order to work safely with clients who are ill.
On the Workshop you will learn:
- Causes of chronic illness, inflammation, and the neuropsychiatric manifestations of physical illness
- Red flags, contraindications, and when and how to refer
- A holistic framework to healing from chronic illness
- Nervous System regulation in chronic illness
- Safety in chronic illness
- Validation and advocacy in chronic illness
- Trauma and chronic illness
- Stress and inflammation
- Therapy tools for working with chronic illness
- How to avoid unintentional harm to those with chronic illness
- Issues you may encounter, and how to overcome them – troubleshooting when working with chronic illness
About your Tutor: Deborah Bircham DipCNM, UKIHCA-RHC, Dip.Hyp, mNCIP, mANP.
Deborah is the founder of Live Well with Chronic Illness, and specialises in holistic support for people living with long-term illness.
She is a Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness Teacher, Naturopathic Wellness Coach, and Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT) Practitioner, and she combines health coaching with mindfulness and psychotherapy to support her clients to be as well as they can in mind and body.
She works in ways that are neurodiversity and trauma-informed and has a particular interest in environmentally-acquired illness, and also in how we can support our physical wellbeing through self-care practices. She lives with chronic pain, MCAS, Dysautonomia and Lyme Disease, and uses her own lived experience of long-term illness to inform her work.
She is living proof that chronic illness needn’t prevent you from being able to lead a happy and meaningful life, and she supports people to connect with their inner wisdom to explore what that looks like for them. You can find out more about Deborah on here website, here.
Testimonials
Workshop with Deborah was honestly so eye-opening and deeply needed. With so many people quietly fighting long-term conditions, having a space to really understand what they are going through from a therapeutic perspective felt vital.
Deborah brought such rare insights to the table, beautifully balancing her professional expertise with her own lived experience of complex illnesses. The most impactful takeaway was learning how to spot the subtle signs of chronic illness and Long Covid in our clients.
She shed light on how physical inflammation can actively drive neuropsychiatric symptoms, completely changing how we might view sudden anxiety, mood shifts, or intense brain fog -it felt like we had a mini crash course of health coaching too.
I left with a much clearer understanding of the clinical red flags to watch out for to ensure we always practice safely, alongside gentle, trauma-informed tools to help regulate an exhausted nervous system.