Ep154: Chronic Illness, Ethical Care, And Realistic Boundaries with Destiny Davis and Dr Victoria Rodriguez

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What if the best way to serve clients starts with taking care of the therapist’s body in the room? We sit down with Destiny Davis and Dr. Victoria Rodriguez to challenge one of the field’s quiet myths: that clinician comfort is a distraction. Through lived experience and clinical expertise, they lay out a clearer path where water breaks, seating, pacing, and boundaries aren’t extras—they’re the foundation for sharper attunement, cleaner thinking, and more ethical care.

We dig into the messy middle of practice: how to self-disclose without shifting focus, what to do when a client shares your diagnosis, and why “failed” disclosures can still be gold for treatment. You’ll hear practical strategies for building resilience into your schedule—telehealth setups, three-hour intensives with breaks, tapering from weekly to biweekly to monthly, and batching medical appointments. We also examine continuity of care with fresh eyes: if a client cannot stabilize without weekly sessions, is private outpatient the right level? It’s a tough question that protects both safety and sustainability.

Community is the throughline. High-quality consultation groups, especially with other chronically ill providers, turn isolation into problem-solving. Cross-disciplinary collaboration—bringing PTs, OTs, and RDs into the conversation—helps you navigate the loop between symptoms, function, and mood. Along the way, we surface hidden biases about disability, replace them with a disability justice lens, and offer a humane template for therapists to model self-care that clients can actually use. If you’ve ever powered through pain, ignored a full bladder, or felt guilty canceling for a flare, this conversation hands you language, tools, and permission to practice differently.

Subscribe for more grounded, clinician-centered conversations, share this episode with a colleague who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your body matters here—and so does your work.

To register for the conference, sign up here: https://www.chronicillnesstherapists.com/

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