Making My Pain Easier for Others to Carry

RSVPing on Meetup doesn’t reserve your spot for this session!

To join, please sign up through our site.

All sessions are free, and signing up on the site helps us create a smoother experience for everyone.

Feel free to message me with any questions or concerns!

This session is for the ones who've been managing both their pain and everyone else's reactions to it.

Living with pain means carrying the weight of your body — and the weight of how it makes other people feel. You learn to soften the truth, downplay your needs, and make your illness easier to digest. You offer partial disclosures, make jokes to lighten the moment, and carefully shape your reality to keep people from leaving, worrying, or turning away. You translate what’s confusing, and cushion the impact so no one else has to sit in it. And sometimes, you lose parts of yourself in the process.

This Space is about that tension:
💬 What it costs to be fully seen
🧠 The mental math of disclosure, protection, and self-erasure
💔 The grief of losing relationships to illness
🧷 The hope that maybe, somewhere, we don’t have to edit so much

Together, we’ll explore:

• The toll of being honest, and the toll of not being honest
• The quiet grief of shrinking your needs in order to stay connected
• The versions of ourselves we perform to avoid being “too much”
• The emotional gymnastics of disclosure and guilt

In this Space, your reality doesn't need a filter.

Tell a Spoonie. See ya'll soon!

Who Am I?
Claire (she/her) is a passionate advocate for refugees, immigrants, survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and queer communities. Originally from West Michigan and now living in Texas, she brings a trauma-informed lens to community building and believes deeply in the power of dignity, lived experience, and connection.

Living with chronic illness, she proudly claims her place in the “spoonie” world and values spaces where people can show up exactly as they are. She lives with her partner, their unimpressed cat, and a dog who runs the household.

She holds a B.S. in Psychology from Grand Valley State University and is here for the messy, deeply human work.

How Does it Work?
This is an open, guided discussion led by your Keeper, Claire. Each participant will have the opportunity to listen to and share experiences on well-being, emotions, and whatever else comes up during the session.

When and How Do We Meet?
We meet digitally to make participation easy for those with demanding schedules. Cameras are optional, and you’re welcome to join from wherever you are, even between shifts. We only ask that you find a private place to join or use headphones to help maintain the security of everyone present.