Long Covid, Mental Health, and Finding a Therapist Who Gets It: A Conversation with Olivia Belknap

Welcome back to A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! I have wanted to have Olivia Belknap on this podcast for a long time, and I'm so glad we finally made it happen! Even though I was terribly late and embarrassed lol - Olivia was so kind and gracious!

Olivia is a marriage and family therapist in California working with neurodivergent, chronically ill, COVID-conscious, and queer folks...basically all our favorite people. She's also a long hauler herself, which means this conversation is honest, specific, and zero percent "have you tried going outside more?"

We talk about what it actually means to find a therapist who understands long COVID and chronic illness, and what it costs your nervous system just to get through a single day. We talk about why the therapeutic relationship matters more than any modality, more than EMDR, more than IFS, and why compartmentalizing your COVID consciousness in a session that's supposed to feel safe defeats the whole purpose.

We also get into the messier stuff: the overlap of neurodivergence and chronic illness, interoception and why so many of us are simultaneously dissociated and hyperaware, the boom and bust burnout cycle, complex pandemic trauma, and the very specific exhaustion of being a chronically ill therapist who conducts sessions from the couch during a POTS flare while helping other people regulate their nervous systems.

Olivia is also doing really important work to educate other clinicians because she doesn't think you should have to spend your session time teaching your therapist what long COVID is. That is not what you're there for.

Topics covered:

• COVID-informed and COVID-conscious therapy
• Long COVID and mental health
• Finding a therapist who understands chronic illness and disability
• The overlap of neurodivergence and long COVID
• Interoception, alexithymia, and body disconnection
• Complex pandemic trauma and ongoing relational trauma
• Pacing, burnout, and nervous system regulation for chronically ill people
• Dynamic disability and how symptoms present in therapy
• Barriers to accessing therapy as a chronically ill person
• EMDR, IFS, and trauma-informed care for long haulers
• The COVID-conscious therapist directory
• POTS, MCAS, ME/CFS, and neurodivergent-affirming care

Mentioned in this episode:

• Olivia Belknap: @oliviabelknaptherapy on Instagram | oliviabelknaptherapy.com
• Beyond Fatigue and Brain Fog: Help for Today's Cognitive and Health Issues: presentation through the Chicago School of Psychology with Olivia Belknap, Erin Batali, and Kate McNulty
• The COVID-Conscious Therapist Directory
• Disability Visibility by Alice Wong
• Internal Family Systems (IFS) | EMDR

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