Support for Chronic Pain & Illness

Mind-body therapy for the pain your story carries.

Julie specializes in mind-body approaches for chronic pain, including Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), EMDR, Mindfulness, CBT, and ACT for Chronic Pain, to help clients retrain the brain’s response to pain signals and rebuild trust in their bodies. Chronic pain is not just physical—it affects emotions, relationships, identity, and agency. Julie works with individuals experiencing conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic migraines, TMJ, pelvic pain, and other forms of persistent or medically unexplained pain. Her approach helps clients understand how chronic pain is processed in the nervous system and how neuroplastic change is possible through evidence-based, compassionate care.

Julie Sliga, LPC is a trauma-informed therapist in Portland, Oregon offering evidence-based, mind-body therapy for chronic pain, chronic illness, trauma, anxiety, and work stress and burnout. Her approach integrates EMDR, Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), CBT, and somatic and polyvagal-informed practices. Julie also incorporates attachment-focused therapy and parts work rooted in relational neuroscience and attachment-based care. She provides in-person sessions on Fridays and telehealth across Oregon. Julie provides trauma-informed career counseling through a trauma-informed lens, supporting clients facing burnout, work stress, neurodivergence, and complex relationships with productivity and identity. Julie is in-network with PacificSource and CareOregon (OHP/Medicaid), and offers a limited number of sliding-scale therapy sessions based on availability.

Your body tells a story. Not just through pain, but through protection, wisdom, and the echoes of lived experience. We offer compassionate, evidence-based care for people living with chronic pain, illness and trauma.

Pain Speaks. Therapy Listens.

When we listen to pain differently, the body can begin to soften.

Pain is never just physical—and your story is more than a diagnosis.

Your experience with pain is deeply personal. Through compassionate, evidence-based care, We’ll work together to shift the narrative to invite a felt sense of safety and ease in your body.

Sometimes pain isn’t about new injury or damage. It can arise from a nervous system that’s been holding on, protecting you for a long time—especially after stress, trauma, or chronic activation. This kind of pain is real. And sometimes it’s treatable!

Over time, pain can become less about the original injury and more about the patterns of protection your body has learned to hold. When the nervous system stays on high alert, even well after the danger has passed, pain can linger—real and persistent.

But the nervous system can change.

With curiosity, compassion, and the right support, your body can begin to relearn what it’s like to feel safe again. This is where healing begins.

I offer weekly, trauma-informed therapy for people living with chronic or complex pain. My approach is grounded in current neuroscience and honors both the medical and emotional realities of your experience.

Together, we’ll explore how your brain and body might begin to soften, shift, and settle—moving out of protection and into relief.

Therapeutic Modalities

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) • Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) • Mindfulness-Based Interventions • Motivational Interviewing (MI) • Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) • Somatic Experiencing (SE)

What I’ve Learned From Listening

I’ve spent decades supporting people navigating life after diagnosis—through systems like vocational rehab, Social Security, and long-term disability. I’ve listened to stories full of fatigue, resilience, grief, and reinvention. I’ve learned that healing doesn’t always mean resolution; it often begins with simply being believed. And sometimes, it means finding new ways to live with what’s here right now.

Sessions are Curently Offered by Telehealth.

Begin the Inquiry Process.

We Often Talk About:

Agency • Anxiety • Being Disbelieved • Boundaries • Depression • Ednometriosis • Fatigue • Fear • Ease • Flare-Ups • Grief • Guilt About Not Doing Enough • Healing Expectations • IBS Anxiety • Identity Loss • Isolation • Medical Trauma • Meaning-Making • Navigating Appointments • Pacing • Pain and the Nervous System • Pleasure • Reclaiming Movement • Relationships and Caregiving • Self-Advocacy • Self-Compassion • Sleep Disturbances • The Stress-Pain Cycle • Tiny Joys • Uncertainty • Values

My Philosophy of Care

Everybody—and every body—holds wisdom, deserves care, and is worthy of respect.

My approach to mind-body therapy for chronic pain and chronic illness is rooted in bearing witness to harm within systems—the medical system, insurance and disability systems, and workplace structures—that often ask people to override their bodies in the name of productivity or recovery.

Most people I work with have felt dismissed, overlooked, or misunderstood by these systems at some point in their healing journey. This isn’t a criticism of individual providers—many are doing their best within limited models of care. But too often, imaging or test results end up telling your story. That’s not my approach.

I hold space for the parts of your story that don’t show up on a scan.

Pain is real, complex, and shaped by far more than just the physical body—it’s shaped by lived experience, by the nervous system, and by how we’ve been responded to over time.

Your body has its own language. I’m here to help you listen to it with care and compassion.