Blog Post 2: Meet Kore and Anna
Kore’s Story
Hi, I’m Kore Nissenson Glied, a clinical psychologist from New York City. I am thrilled to be starting this journey with Anna. We hope to create a community for sharing information and bringing awareness to these issues that we will discuss, with the goal of helping other women. I worked for over 15 years in hospitals helping people with both mental health and serious physical illness. I spent seven years working with individuals with HIV. Much of this work focused on helping people manage chronic pain and fatigue. I have seen individuals privately since 2010. Over the years, in my practice, I have worked with people struggling with insomnia, stomach distress, headaches and other physical ailments.
I am a working mom juggling personal and professional goals which can be challenging and guilt-inducing. Since the beginning of my career, I have wanted to provide clients with evidenced-based care. I use cognitive behavioral techniques (CBT) to help individuals become aware of the thoughts and behaviors that are creating problems and work on decreasing avoidance and engaging more fully in their lives. For the past five to six years, I have focused on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which is a newer form of CBT. I have found ACT both personally and professionally helpful to notice “rules” and “shoulds” that keep negative emotions around longer and work on being more present and acting in ways that are more in line with values and what is important.
Anna’s Story
Hello everyone, my name is Anna White and welcome to our new blog! Kore and I are passionate about helping Type C people with their health, and I hope that my story of burnout and hitting a health bottom can be of help. It took a while to admit it, but my Type C traits were a significant contributor to my issues.
In 2009, after the birth of my second child, I experienced severe burnout which turned into a chronic illness that has lingered to this day. I worked for a small private equity firm; I had not been there long when I became pregnant, and felt tremendous guilt that I’d be leaving on maternity leave. So, I tried to be a hero and offered to “help out” during my leave. This turned into working more than any new mother should - starting the day after I gave birth! And in the ensuing years, I never really gave my body the recovery time it needed. This is typical Type C in action - though admittedly on the more extreme end.
Here’s what burnout and chronic illness looked like for me:
Unrefreshing sleep - no matter how many hours I was in the bed, I woke up feeling like I’d been run over by a bus
Chronic insomnia - waking up around 3am every night and staying awake for 2 hours or so
Cognitive difficulties - memory problems, executive functioning problems, brain fogginess
Fatigue - exhaustion all day, every day
Arthritis, skin rashes, frequent sore throats and sinus infections
Fast forward to 2022, and I’ve made significant progress - I’m almost back to normal. There have been many, many things that have helped me, but addressing my Type C traits is top of the list. I have learned how to prioritize my health, become more assertive, recognize and process emotions, and let go of guilt. This is all easier said than done. Kore and I are committed to sharing stories and putting strategies out there - all in the hopes that people can learn and benefit from our, and other people’s, experiences.