Receiving an HIV diagnosis can be life-changing in ways that affect every part of someone’s life. Coming to terms with any long-term condition, including HIV, can have a profound effect on the way you see yourself and the way you feel able to be in the world.
An HIV diagnosis can still feel loaded. It can feel shameful. It can make you feel that you have done something wrong. There continues to be fear around judgement. The assumptions people will make, the ways others may perceive you. Many people feel it is inescapable, that this is something they will have to explain or justify, in a way they never had to before.
The emotional range that follows is wide: anger, shame, loneliness, frustration, anxiety.
The work offers a space to think through what this diagnosis means to you, what you want it to mean, and how to move toward acceptance, tolerance, and kindness around it. We think about what you want to disclose, how, and with whom. We work on the meanings you carry and on building a relationship with HIV that lets you stay connected to your strengths, your values, and the directions that matter.
We start from the view that everyone’s journey with HIV is different. The disclosure decisions, the internal relationship with the condition, the way it sits in someone’s life. All of these vary. Our aim is to reduce distress and allow you to live and flourish in your life in the ways you choose, alongside the experience of a long-term health condition.
People come out of this work able to thrive in the lives they choose.
Come in and tell us how you feel right now. Tell us what experiences you have had. From there, we work out the path forward.