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Supporting Clients with Diagnostic Uncertainty in Complex Chronic Illness
5 Lessons
Supporting Clients with Diagnostic Uncertainty in Complex Chronic Illness:
A Therapist’s Guide to Diagnostic Uncertainty, Agency, and Shame
Course Summary
When symptoms do not follow predictable patterns and a clear diagnosis is delayed or never arrives, clients may live in a prolonged state of uncertainty. Many report being disbelieved, second-guessing their own experiences, and struggling to maintain trust in their bodies, providers, and support systems. Over time, the diagnostic process itself can become a source of trauma that affects identity, relationships, and the nervous system's expectation of threat.
Diagnostic uncertainty is not neutral.
Repeated evaluation, dismissal, and shifting explanations can erode trust in providers and confidence in one's own body.
Across chronic pain, fibromyalgia, hypermobility-related disorders, long COVID, and other complex presentations, people describe disbelief, minimization, psychosomatic labeling, and barriers to care as central stressors. Healthcare stigma can increase shame, self-doubt, trauma responses, and disengagement from care, particularly when symptoms fluctuate or lack clear biomedical markers. This training equips clinicians to support clients navigating complex, multi-system, and often misunderstood conditions, including fibromyalgia, Lyme-related illness, long COVID, and overlapping syndromes such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and other forms of dysautonomia, and mast cell activation syndrome. The focus is not on differential diagnosis or symptom elimination. Instead, the course strengthens clinical skills for working ethically and relationally when medical certainty is limited.
Participants will learn practical, adaptable tools and language for restoring agency, reducing shame, addressing layered grief related to changes in functioning and future expectations, and supporting sustainable coping and meaning-making as symptoms fluctuate. The training emphasizes an approach that does not bypass, minimize, or offer false reassurance when the medical system has fragmented, minimized, or failed to adequately respond to the client's experience.
Course Curriculum
Kanjana Hartshorne
Hi! I am Kanjana, LCSW, C IAYT yoga therapist, Reiki Master, and creator of Wanderhome. I create embodied, ND affirming spaces where therapists and healers can learn, rest, play, be themselves, and find their people through somatic and creative practices, yoga therapy, energy work, spiritual and ancestral practices, social events, unique CEs, retreats, and a therapist community that feels like home. I'm so glad you're here and hope you join us!
"Presenter's personal experiences and related commentary were very helpful particularly because she is also a clinician. (also likely what makes her an excellent clinician) Her honesty and critique of the medical system and how it can impact the psyche of clients in diagnosis limbo is really important! Great presentation!"
Additional Course Details
Date and Time: This is a one hour self-study course you can take at your pace, at any time. Your course is accessible both via computer and mobile. Download the Zenler app to watch your content on the go.
Schedule: 1.5 Clinical hour CE including PowerPoint lecture and handout.
ACE statement: Wanderhome Retreats, 2794, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 6/26/26-6/26/27. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 clinical continuing education credit.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:
1. Describe how prolonged diagnostic uncertainty and symptom invalidation contribute to medical trauma, shame, grief, and changes in self-trust, bodily trust, and identity.
2. Identify common clinical patterns in complex, multi-system presentations, including fluctuating symptoms, inconsistent or contradictory care, heightened threat responses, and certainty-seeking loops, and explain how these patterns affect treatment engagement and the therapeutic relationship.
3. Apply practical, adaptable interventions to support stabilization, pacing, values-based coping, functional appreciation, and meaning-making when symptoms shift and medical answers are incomplete, without bypassing, minimizing, or offering false reassurance.
Delivery Method: This course is a format of asynchronous recorded learning. You are registered with the name you provide at check out. Please use your full legal name and work email if that is what you want on your CEs. You can update your profile with this later. Any updates must be made by the course date.
Target Audience: Therapists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Social Workers, Caregivers, Nurses, PTs, OTs, MDs, Healthcare professionals working with clients with diagnostic uncertainty
Content Level: Master's level clinician, beginner
Instructor Bio:
Kanjana Hartshorne, LCSW, C-IAYT, Reiki Master, CCFP is a licensed clinical social worker, certified yoga therapist, certified compassion fatigue professional, and Reiki Master with specialized training in trauma-informed, body-based, and relational approaches to care. Her work focuses on supporting individuals navigating challenges in their relationship with their bodies, including chronic illness, medical trauma, and prolonged diagnostic uncertainty. Kanjana brings an ethically grounded perspective informed by clinical practice and lived experience, with particular attention to shame, grief, systemic invalidation, and the psychological impact of bodies that do not follow linear or predictable medical narratives.
Fees, Registration Deadline, Refund, Cancellation Policy, Accomodations:
Fees: This course is $25 for those not needing CEs and $45 for those needing CEs.
Registration Deadline is by 8/19/2031.
Refund Policy: As this course includes downloadable content, we cannot offer refunds at this time.
Cancellation Policy: In the unlikely event this course is canceled, you will be given the option for a full refund or a reschedule for a new date.
Instructions for Requesting Accessibility Accommodations: Please email Kanjana@healingheartswellness.com with any requests.
Course Completion Requirements and Evaluation:
Course must be completed in full. This means watching the entirety of the content, completing a quiz and passing with an 80% or higher score, and completing a CE evaluation.
When/How CE Certificate is Issued: When the above requirements are met, certificates will be sent automatically through the Zenler portal. Participants can also email Kanjana@healingheartswellness.com or info@healingheartswellnes.com should they have any questions.
When/How to Register: Scroll up and pick your payment option whenever you are ready.
Contact Information for Questions & Grievances: Please email Kanjana@healingheartswellness.com
Course Interactivity: This is an interactive course.
