Support for Chronic Pain & Illness

Mind-body therapy for the pain your story carries.

Therapy for Chronic Illness and Pain | Pain Reprocessing Therapy in Portland, OR | Julie Sliga, LPC

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

YOUR STORY, REWRITTEN

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 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. 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 healing.

THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES I USE

My work is integrative. While I often use Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) for clients with neuroplastic pain, I also draw from a range of evidence-based modalities depending on your needs and readiness. These may include:

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)

  • Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET)

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

  • Mindfulness-based practices

  • Motivational Interviewing (MI)

  • Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRTT)

WE OFTEN TALK ABOUT:

Medical Trauma · Fatigue · Self-Compassion · Flare-Ups · Pacing · Pleasure · Grief · Identity Loss · Being Disbelieved · Tiny Joys · Navigating Appointments · Agency · Fear of Movement · Isolation · Listening to the Body · Guilt About Not Doing Enough · Meaning-Making · Self-Advocacy · Uncertainty · Boundaries with Providers · The Stress-Pain Cycle · Reclaiming Movement · Healing Expectations · Relationships and Caregiving · Finding Moments of Ease · Pain and the Nervous System

Sessions are Curently Offered by Telehealth.

Begin the Inquiry Process.

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.