Mental Health Support During Serious or Chronic Illness

A serious diagnosis changes more than your body. It can bring fear, grief, exhaustion, strain at home, and questions about who you are now. Those reactions are understandable, and they deserve care of their own.

Several clinicians at Mind Body Seven bring medical experience to this work, including years in pediatric oncology and in HIV and cancer-related mental health.

Who we support

• Teens and young adults living with a diagnosis, or adjusting after treatment ends
• Brothers, sisters and parents of a child who is ill
• Adults managing a chronic condition alongside anxiety, depression or trauma
• Families adjusting to new routines, roles and uncertainty

Our clinicians

• Katie Tallon, PMHNP Intern spent more than 20 years as a nurse, most of them at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in pediatric hematology/oncology and bone marrow transplant. She works with children, adolescents, young adults and their families, including adjustment to medical or life challenges, under the supervision of Dr. Beata Lewis, MD, and Kathleen Fentress Tripp, PMHNP-BC.
• Natasha Felton, NP is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who treats mental health concerns related to chronic medical conditions, including HIV and cancer, combining medication management with psychotherapy for patients ages 15 and older.
• Peggy Kaplin Zaloga is a psychotherapist who works with adolescents and adults coping with complex medical conditions, and with the family stress that often comes with them.

What care can look like

Care is shaped around your treatment, your energy and your goals. Depending on your needs, it may include:

• Individual therapy for anxiety, low mood, grief or medical trauma
• Medication management, coordinated with your medical team where you give permission
• Family sessions to help everyone talk about what is happening
• Practical tools for sleep, stress and pacing, informed by integrative psychiatry

When to reach out

Consider reaching out if worry, sadness or irritability is affecting sleep, school, work or relationships; if a teen is withdrawing or refusing to talk about their illness; or if the period after treatment feels harder than expected. You do not need to wait for things to get worse.

Frequently asked questions

Will you talk to my or my child's medical team?

With your written permission, our clinicians can coordinate with your other providers, so mental health care fits around medical treatment.

Is this only for cancer?

No. Our clinicians support people with many serious and chronic conditions. Tell our intake team about your situation and we will match you with the right person.

Can sessions be online?

Ask our intake team about telehealth when you request an appointment; it can help on days when travel is hard.