This psychoeducational webinar explores practical third wave cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) tools that can help women navigate and thrive while living with complex chronic illness and chronic pain. Drawing from approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), the session will introduce strategies for nervous system regulation, including down-regulation and somatic exercises that support vagus nerve activation and help restore the body’s “window of tolerance.” Participants will also learn distress tolerance and dialectical thinking skills for managing pain flares, along with radical acceptance and self-compassion practices that clarify what true acceptance is and is not. The webinar will also highlight the importance of multidisciplinary, collaborative care, emphasizing how an interdisciplinary support team can help individuals find greater stability and improved quality of life while living with complex chronic pain.
Meet the Speakers
Kelsey Bates attended The George Washington University located in Washington, D.C. earning her master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling with a concentration in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. This expertise and niched degree allows Kelsey to meet clients where they are in their chronic illness and disability journey with therapeutic warmth & practical tools. In particular, Kelsey loves working with women with endometriosis, adenomyosis, chronic pelvic pain, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome/Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, Dysautonomia and MCAS.
Kelsey’s therapeutic approach blends an integrative use of evidenced based practices including Third Wave CBT approaches, Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Kelsey utilizes an individual and holistic lens when working with clients and emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary care team.
Kelsey founded New York Women’s CBT and expanded to group private practice with the goal of providing niched, expert care for more women in New York. Complex chronic illness and health issues are a part of your story-they do not have to be all of your story.
Ariel Katz is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor at New York Women's CBT niched in working with women living with chronic illness and chronic pain. She loves working with adult women living with chronic conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, autoimmune conditions, chronic pelvic pain and more. At New York Women's CBT they utilize a trauma informed third wave approach, using CBT, DBT and ACT tools to thrive.
Ariel became a therapist because she gets it. This calling became deeply personal when she began experiencing chronic illness symptoms in college. She strives to create a safe, empathetic, and collaborative space for clients to navigate the complexities of living with chronic illness, help clients learn therapeutic tools to nurture a sense of safety and connection, and empower clients to move towards living a meaningful life.
Erika L. Kelley, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology- Division of Behavioral Medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, and an Associate Professor of Reproductive Biology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine. She is also an Asst. Professor of Urology and Psychiatry at CWRU. She completed her PhD in clinical psychology at Ohio University and her post-doctoral fellowship in Women’s Health & Aging and PTSD at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Kelley is an Associate Editor for Sexual Medicine Reviews, and on the editorial boards for the journals, Menopause and Psychology of Violence [for which she was the 2024 recipient of the Editor of the Year award]. She is the current chair of the Social Media Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Mental Health Professionals Group (MHPG). She is also Director-at-Large for the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH). She has also served on the ISSWSH Fall Course faculty and on the Education and Scientific Program Committees. Her clinical interests and program of research focuses on perinatal mental health, reproductive trauma and traumatic childbirth, female sexual dysfunction, and improving health access and outcomes in gender-expansive individuals.