When Rest Becomes Radical: Lessons from Therapists Living with Chronic Illness with Lindsay Boudreau, LISW

There’s a quiet kind of rebellion in deciding that your body gets to lead your schedule.

For many of us in this field, that sentence alone feels uncomfortable, selfish even!

But what if listening to our bodies wasn’t indulgent at all? What if it was the most responsible, ethical thing we could do?

That question has been sitting with me since my conversation with Lindsay Boudreau, a trauma therapist, group practice owner, and founder of The Cozy Couch Crew — a community created for therapists living with chronic illness and disability.

To watch the full interview, be sure to head over to our YouTube Channel!.

The Unseen Reality for Therapists with Chronic Conditions

Most of us were trained inside a culture that equates stamina with competence. Lindsay’s story exposes how harmful that message can be.

The short version is that, after years of navigating serious infections that led to hospitalization and even amputation, she found herself rebuilding both her life and her practice — not as a comeback story, but as a recalibration.

Pro-tip - make sure to watch her full interview to hear her story!

Instead of waiting for burnout or another medical crisis, Lindsay began designing her work around her body’s needs.

That meant her schedule, caseload, and leadership style became extensions of self-care and no longer proof that she could “push through.”

Redefining “Enough”

In our conversation, Lindsay told me “I had to redefine and reorganize my work.” And sure, that sentence could easily sound tidy, but in reality, it’s radical.

The therapy field still runs on the unspoken rule that more is better: more clients, more hours, more emotional labor.

For therapists managing chronic illness, that mindset is impossible to sustain, straight up toxic, and devastating to challenge.

Lindsay’s radical approach invites all of us to ask:

• What if “enough” meant working at the pace our nervous system can actually hold?

• What if rest was considered part of competence, not evidence of weakness?

Her process of energy mapping, adjusting supervision loads, and naming capacity out loud reframes boundaries as data, not guilt. And it applies to you whether you live with chronic health conditions or not!

Building a Practice That Works with Your Body, Not Against It

Through her group practice, Elemental Intuition, and now her online community membership, The Cozy Couch Crew, Lindsay has built spaces that normalize flexibility.

• Clinicians choose schedules that match their energy patterns

• They take flare days without shame

• Instead of chasing productivity, they track sustainability

That level of freedom doesn’t just benefit disabled therapists; it benefits all therapists.

When the environment adapts to real bodies, everyone breathes easier.

It’s the same truth that guides my own work with BRAVE: sustainable practice is collective care in action.

What Disabled Therapists Teach Us About Collective Care

Disabled and chronically ill therapists have been modeling a truth the rest of our field is only beginning to grasp: community is a form of regulation.

When Lindsay describes the Cozy Couch Crew, she talks about shared grounding, co-working sessions, and collective rest.

It’s not another “self-care” checklist, it’s an ecosystem.

Members talk openly about energy, pain, shame, and paperwork and they celebrate rescheduling as self-respect.

That kind of environment makes sustainability possible because it replaces isolation with belonging.

For Therapists Who Are Tired of Pushing Through

Maybe you’re reading this between sessions, wondering if you can keep doing the work you love at the pace you’ve been keeping.

Maybe you’re not living with chronic illness, but your body is still telling you that it’s had enough.

You don’t have to wait for collapse to make a change.

You can start now by noticing what your body already knows and by surrounding yourself with people who won’t call that weakness.

Join the Movement to Rest and Rebuild Together

If your work depends on your body, and your body is asking for a different pace, you’re not alone.

The Cozy Couch Crew is a community for therapists living with chronic illness or disability who are ready to build practices that honor capacity, flexibility, and care.

👉 Learn more and join at on their website

And be sure to follow Lindsay and The CCC on Instagram! @thecozycouchcrew