Therapy for chronic illness & long-term health conditions
Living with a chronic illness or long-term health condition can be challenging in ways that go far beyond physical symptoms. A biomedical approach to medicine often focuses on diagnosis and treatment, leaving many people feeling unsupported, overwhelmed and uncertain about how to manage the ongoing burden of their condition.
​
Over time, this can lead to emotional distress, isolation, and a sense of loss - particularly as chronic illness can affect identity, roles and plans for the future. Therapy with Dr Sula and her associates provides a space to explore these experiences in a supportive but evidence-based way. Therapy is collaborative and tailored to you, applying appropriates therapeutic approaches, and aims to help you with recognising the close relationship between mind, body and lived experience.
Dr Sula and the team at Mind Body Blossom Clinical Health Psychology Practice offer trauma-informed support for people experiencing persistent physical symptoms and chronic illness. They specialise in providing biopsychosocial psychotherapy to support people experiencing difficulties related to health.
Who is therapy for?
Dr Sula Windgassen PhD and her associates at Mind Body Blossom Clinic Health Psychology Practice work with a number of clients covering a range of health-realted concerns, with a particular specialism in the following:
Persistent physical symptoms and long-term health conditions
Pelvic, bladder & urogynae health conditions such as chronic/recurrent UTIs, IC, vulvodynia and pelvic pain
Gut disorders such as IBS, IBD, functional dyspepsia
Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), overwhelm and perfectionism
How therapy works
Dr Sula Windgassen and her team use a range of psychotherapeutic approaches to work with you, depending on your goals for therapy. If you are new to therapy, you can expect the following process.
Start with an assessment
Therapy will always start with an assessment. Here you will be asked a series of questions to get a broad and detailed idea of what has been going on for you and what your difficulties look like.
Identify the key areas
My aim for all therapy is to provide you with a better understanding of what is contributing to difficulties. After the assessment, we will identify some hypotheses about things that may be contributing to & interacting with your difficulties.
Begin working on the key areas
The key areas identified will be worked through using a range of scientific and therapeutic approaches, with each session being informed by your preferences.
Therapeutic approaches
If you are not familiar with any of the therapeutic approaches that are used within the Mind Body Blossom practice, you can read about them below.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
CBT focuses on understanding how thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviours interact. When we’re under stress or dealing with ongoing health issues, unhelpful thinking patterns and coping behaviours can become stuck, maintaining symptoms over time.
Your therapist will work collaboratively with you to choose the most appropriate approach - or combination of approaches - based your experience, goals, needs and preferences.
1:1 Therapy with Dr Sula
Dr Sula Windgassen PhD is a qualified Health Psychologist with a particular specialism in women's gut health, gynae and the bladder in terms of chronic pain and seemingly untreatable symptoms. Sula helps women to reclaim their wellness from the chronic stress, illness & trauma via evidence-based bio-psychosocial support, aimed at connecting your mind and your body.
​
Working 1:1 with Dr Sula offers a highly specialised, structured form of therapy for people experiencing complex, persistent physical symptoms, trauma or long-standing patterns of stress and overwhelm.
​
Sula works using a range of therapeutic modalities and treatment approaches. Therapy with Dr Sula begins with a thorough assessment to build a shared understanding of what is happening for you - psychologically, physically and emotionally - and how these elements have been interacting over time. Together, you’ll develop clear goals and a tailored treatment plan grounded in evidence-based approaches.
​
Sessions are collaborative, focused, and practical. Alongside in-session work, therapy often includes between-session practices, resources, and reflections designed to support real-world change and build confidence in managing symptoms. Progress is reviewed regularly to ensure the work remains relevant, effective, and aligned with your priorities.​
Pricing & Payment
Paced programme
-
2 sessions a month with Dr Sula Windgassen (usually fortnightly)
-
Clinical assessment, with validated questionnaires
-
Therapeutic goal setting and monitoring
-
Mapped out treatment plan developed collaboratively
-
Tailored informational handouts, worksheets and recorded practices
​
Monthly price: £450
Minimum suggested length: 3 months
Intensive programme
-
4 sessions a month with Dr Sula Windgassen (usually weekly)
-
Clinical assessment, with validated questionnaires
-
Therapeutic goal setting and monitoring
-
Mapped out treatment plan developed collaboratively
-
Tailored informational handouts, worksheets and recorded practices
​
Monthly price: £750
Minimum suggested length: 2 months with the option to switch to the paced programme after 1 month
When working with Sula payment is made ahead of the month, with payments due 27th of the month prior and covering sessions within the period 27th of the month to the 27th of the next month. Payment plans are available. The price is prorated based on where in the month you are starting sessions. Refunds cannot be given for non-attended sessions at any point. We will endeavour to rearrange sessions where you are unable to attend scheduled sessions. It is important to complete sessions arranged by your therapist to achieve the best results. The no-refund policy applies to the unlikely event of individuals deciding the end sessions early.
Therapy with Mind Body Blossom Associates
Mind Body Blossom Clinical Health Psychology Practice associates offer trauma-informed support for people experiencing persistent physical symptoms and chronic illness. They specialise in providing biopsychosocial psychotherapy to support people experiencing difficulties related to health.
Dr Sula works with a limited number of associates who work she has first-hand observed and supervised. Her associates have training in the protocols she uses in her own work and extensive knowledge of a biopsychosocial psychotherapeutic approach.
​
Sessions with Dr Sula's associates are pay as you go, priced at £150 per session (55 minutes), and can be weekly or fortnightly.
Cancellation Policy
When working with an associate, payment is required ahead of sessions and there is a 48 hour cancellation policy and appointments will still be payable if we receive a cancellation with less than 48 hours notice. Please note that weekends are not considered as the clinic is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. If you have an appointment on a Monday which you wish to cancel, you must let us know by the previous Thursday at the latest.
Thinking about therapy, but not ready?
You're not alone. Therapy can feel like a big step. A big investment. A big journey to begin.
​
Far be it from me to persuade you that now is the right time. It's actually really important that you come when you are ready to make that step. To help you work that out, you may need time to reflect. But beware of the "out of sight, out of mind" phenomena. Where a decision feels to big and scary to think about, that we happily think about anything else.
​
If you would like the opportunity to reflect on whether now is the right time and whether I'm the right person to support you, you may like to sign up to my newsletter to receive therapeutic insights, resources and tips, just sign up to my newsletter using the form here.
One-To-One Therapy
As a health psychologist, I have a specialism in working with health conditions. I am also an accredited CBT Therapist with 3 years of experience working in the NHS with people with anxiety and depression. I offer therapy sessions and also the option of shorter, guided self-help sessions, facilitated by my team.
​
On this page, you will find the following (click to navigate to)
​
My approach
I use a range of psychotherapeutic approaches to work with you, depending on your goals for therapy. These include:
-
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
-
Mindfulness
-
Acceptance & commitment therapy (ACT)
-
Compassion-focussed therapy (CFT)
-
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
​
Therapy will always start with an assessment. Here I ask a lot of questions to get a broad and detailed idea of what has been going on for you and what your difficulties look like. My aim for all therapy is to provide you with a better understanding of what is contributing to difficulties and importantly how to make changes and interrupt unhelpful cycles. After the assessment, we will therefore generate some hypotheses about the sorts of things that might be contributing to and interacting with your difficulties. This will form a basis for where we will start experimenting with changes.
​
To best empower you, I like to use a scientific practitioner approach, where we collect data on changes made to see how that informs our hypotheses. In this way, we can work towards the therapeutic goals you have and periodically check in on them. Each session is informed by your preferences and we work out together what will be the most beneficial use of time.
​
Sessions are 55 minutes long and usually, there is an agreed home practice for you to work on in between sessions.
​
Guided self-help
Guided self-help sessions are shorter than therapy sessions and less explorative. They are intended to provide you with information and techniques you can use to help with your presenting problems. Currently, we are offering guided self-help for irritable bowel syndrome, using the evidence-based protocol assessed in the large randomised control trial I was involved in.
​
This will usually involve 6-12 sessions with one of my colleagues. Dr Alicia Huges is a health psychologist and Amina Saadi is an assistant health psychologist and trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner. Guided self-help will not be suitable for everyone.
​
Price & payment
Paced programme
-
2 sessions a month with Dr Sula Windgassen (usually fortnightly)
-
Clinical assessment, with validated questionnaires
-
Therapeutic goal setting and monitoring
-
Mapped out treatment plan developed collaboratively
-
Tailored informational handouts, worksheets and recorded practices
Monthly price: £450
Minimum suggested length: 3 months
​
Intensive programme
-
4 sessions a month with Dr Sula Windgassen (usually weekly)
-
Clinical assessment, with validated questionnaires
-
Therapeutic goal setting and monitoring
-
Mapped out treatment plan developed collaboratively
-
Tailored informational handouts, worksheets and recorded practices
Monthly price: £750
Minimum suggested length: 2 months with the option to switch to the paced programme after 1 month
​
Payment for packages are required ahead of each month. Payment plans are available (payment split in half and taken at the 27th and 15th of each month).
​
​
Areas of expertise
​
Long Term Health Conditions
The biomedical approach to medicine tends to leave people with chronic illness/long term conditions with insufficient support and uncertain about how best to manage the burden of their condition. This can lead to overwhelm, distress, isolation as well as poorer health outcomes. Chronic illnesses can also impact your sense of identity, with many experiencing a sense of loss.
The goals of therapy vary from client to client. Therapy may involve:
-
Exploring the impact on identity and creating value-based goals
-
Increasing understanding of health and symptoms
-
Managing the emotional impact
-
Finding ways to manage symptoms and symptom burden
I work wth all long term conditions and persistent physical symptoms. My particular clinical and research interests include bowel, bladder and pelvic conditions.
​
Trauma & Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Working in a busy NHS service, with a high prevalence of PTSD and trauma, I am well-experienced in working with trauma presentations. I am trained in trauma-focussed CBT and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Both approaches are evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD. Increasing EMDR is used for trauma presentations beyond PTSD.
EMDR uses what is called "bilateral stimulation" to help the brain process emotionally charged memories. The International Association of EMDR describes this process:
​
"Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help.
Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.” EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories, and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved."
I am working towards my advanced EMDR accreditation with an experienced EMDR Consultant, receiving regular supervision
​
Stress, Overwhelm and Perfectionism
Perfectionism does not mean doing things perfectly. It does mean having a lot of "should" thoughts and unrelenting expectations it feels hard to achieve. This can lead to procrastination, pushing yourself really hard and/or self-criticism.
I use CBT, ACT and compassion focussed approaches with clients to explore what is at the heart of these expectations and experiment with trying alternative approaches in relating to yourself
We are rarely explicitly taught how to manage stress and overwhelming emotions. We generally make our own way through trial and error, which can be really effective until it no longer is. I work with clients to help unpick present and past stressors contributing to overwhelm.
​
​
​
​