Coping with Thyroid Disease and Chronic Illness:

Mind-Body Advice from Dr. Jan Nicholson

By Mary Shomon, About.com Guide

Updated November 07, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

Coping with Thyroid Disease and Chronic Illness:

Jan Nicholson, EdD is a Virginia-based therapist with a mind-body approach to chronic illness

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If a spouse is thinking their partner is malingering, they need to talk about it with each other. Like any couple, both need to initiate communication if they are feeling misunderstood. The person who is ill needs to be as clear as possible with the spouse about when they are feeling up to doing more and when they are not, not expecting the spouse to be a mind reader about when they need help and emotional support. Seeing a therapist for couples counseling might be beneficial if communication has gotten bogged down, and if resentment is building for either partner.

Integrative clinical psychologist Jan Nicholson, EdD is a 1983 graduate of Harvard University's Counseling and Consulting Psychology program, completing her predoctoral internship at Children's Hospital in Boston. Additionally, she completed a two-year training program in Gestalt Psychology at the Washington Center for Consciousness Studies, and a semester in International Trauma Studies at NYU. Her passion has been to explore mind-body medicine throughout her career and to integrate such approaches into her therapeutic work, including meditative awareness, guided imagery, clinical hypnosis, coreSomatics, SomatoEmotional Release, Reconnective Healing^TM, Reiki, and EMDR. She has a private practice with offices in both Alexandria and Falls Church, Virginia. You can read more about her work at her web site .