Overview
Do you often feel anxious and depressed?
Are you prescribed antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, but do you somehow instinctively know that something is not being addressed?
In some people, a serious infection or autoimmune disease can be the cause of depression and anxiety.
Today there are nearly 100 recognized autoimmune diseases, and more than 40 disease processes have an autoimmune component. When people get an official autoimmunity diagnosis, the immune system has already destroied a substantial amount of tissue (the brain or the nervous system). In the early stages of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjögren’s syndrome, arteritis, sarcoidosis, scleroderma, Hashimoto thyroiditis, and myasthenia gravis, a misdiagnosis often occurs as a ‘psychiatric disorder’ . Research has shown that depression and anxiety is more common in patients with autoimmune diseases than chronic degenerative diseases. Researchers suspect this is due to the direct action of inflammatory cytokines on the central nervous system.
Dr. Anna Huysse looks at autoimmune diseases as an adaptation issue, in which neural, endocrine, immunological and behavioral processes play a role. The latest scientific insights show that the consciousness and emotions are states of the body, in particular, the immune system.
Dr. Anna Huysse developed a protocol for people with autoimmune diseases, which focuses on the cause instead of fighting the symptoms. Compassion in general and CFT in particular play an important role in this protocol. As an autoimmune patient herself, based on her own experience and working with people with autoimmune diseases in the last 10 years, she is determined to support fellow sufferers. In addition, she is involved in the development of scientific knowledge in this area.
Therapist information
Dutch, English, Bulgarian, Russion
PhD
NVPA
Individuals, Couples
Since 2013 Dr. Anna Huysse has been trained in CFT both in UK and in the Netherlands: Developing Compassionate Mind, London, 2013 Introduction to CFT, Lentis, the Netherlands, 2015 Clinical skills/Advanced training CFT, Lentis, the Netherlands, 2016 3rd International Conference on CFT, Birmingham, 2014 'CFT in groups' workshop, Birmingham, 2014