A flyer for a virtual event on addressing medical invalidation and trauma features a distressed woman in the foreground and a smiling woman in the background, with event details below.

Soul Friends, Inc

LXCL:3 CEU's pending. On-line zoom will be sent

General Admission

Medical trauma among women with long COVID, ME/CFS, and children with PANDAS is frequently intensified not only by the severity of their physical symptoms but also by the systemic invalidation that accompanies their attempts to seek care. These populations experience high multisystem symptom burdens&mdash;autonomic instability, pain, fatigue, neurocognitive disruption, and immune dysregulation&mdash;yet their reports are often reframed as anxiety, somatization, or caregiver overinvolvement. Women and medically complex patients are &ldquo;traumatized by not being believed, not being listened to, and not being treated as reliable narrators of their own bodies,&rdquo; a pattern that constitutes epistemic injustice and institutional betrayal. This dynamic is especially pronounced in conditions that disproportionately affect women or remain poorly understood, where clinicians may prematurely psychologize symptoms, minimize suffering, or default to functional or psychiatric explanations before adequate medical evaluation has occurred. For children with PANDAS, caregivers&rsquo; observations of complex psychobiological changes are sometimes misinterpreted through the lens of pediatric condition falsification, creating profound family-wide fear and trauma. The cumulative effect of dismissal, misdiagnosis, and fragmented care contributes to moral injury, dissociation, and erosion of trust in healthcare systems. Patients and caregivers often develop hypervigilance, guardedness, or withdrawal from care&mdash;not as pathology, but as adaptive responses to repeated invalidation. Social workers hold a critical ethical role in interrupting these cycles. Their training in trauma, systems, and narrative humility positions them to validate embodied knowledge, provide psychoeducation about medical trauma and nervous system responses, and advocate within healthcare settings to prevent further harm. By centering epistemic dignity, supporting regulation, and challenging dismissive or biased clinical practices, social workers help restore safety, voice, and agency for individuals and families navigating complex illness and systemic invalidation.

Hi <span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 196); overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, Thank you for registering for our event and supporting our cause. Your registration greatly helps our mission. 🚀 If you would like to contribute further, contact us to become a volunteer, or talk to your friends about our cause! Kate Nicollkate@soulfriendsct.org

Medical trauma among women with long COVID, ME/CFS, and children with PANDAS is frequently intensified not only by the severity of their physical symptoms but also by the systemic invalidation that accompanies their attempts to seek care. These populations experience high multisystem symptom burdens—autonomic instability, pain, fatigue, neurocognitive disruption, and immune dysregulation—yet their reports are often reframed as anxiety, somatization, or caregiver overinvolvement. Women and medically complex patients are “traumatized by not being believed, not being listened to, and not being treated as reliable narrators of their own bodies,” a pattern that constitutes epistemic injustice and institutional betrayal. This dynamic is especially pronounced in conditions that disproportionately affect women or remain poorly understood, where clinicians may prematurely psychologize symptoms, minimize suffering, or default to functional or psychiatric explanations before adequate medical evaluation has occurred. For children with PANDAS, caregivers’ observations of complex psychobiological changes are sometimes misinterpreted through the lens of pediatric condition falsification, creating profound family-wide fear and trauma. The cumulative effect of dismissal, misdiagnosis, and fragmented care contributes to moral injury, dissociation, and erosion of trust in healthcare systems. Patients and caregivers often develop hypervigilance, guardedness, or withdrawal from care—not as pathology, but as adaptive responses to repeated invalidation. Social workers hold a critical ethical role in interrupting these cycles. Their training in trauma, systems, and narrative humility positions them to validate embodied knowledge, provide psychoeducation about medical trauma and nervous system responses, and advocate within healthcare settings to prevent further harm. By centering epistemic dignity, supporting regulation, and challenging dismissive or biased clinical practices, social workers help restore safety, voice, and agency for individuals and families navigating complex illness and systemic invalidation.

Soul Friends, Inc

A Clinical Model for Addressing Medical Invalidation and Trauma

online

General Admission

$65

Add a donation