ABSTRACT
This article will chronicle Judy R. Lerner’s experiences with a serious injury and the exacerbation of a chronic illness, ensuing disability and the difficulty she had accessing disability and health care benefits through her employer’s managed care plan. It will demonstrate how therapy affected her ability to deal with adversity and to mold a new life for herself. In particular, it will reveal the importance of her relationship with her therapist, which was based on relational theory, and the influence that the therapist’s disclosure of her own chronic illness had on the course of the therapy.
