Fialkora MyndruUkrainian Clinical & Rehabilitation Psychologist
Rehabilitation psychology · chronic illness · multiple sclerosis

Chronic Illness, Adaptation & Rehabilitation

Long-term professional work on psychological adaptation after diagnosis, identity, uncertainty, coping, resources, changing roles and meaningful life participation, with a major focus on multiple sclerosis.

Living With Multiple Sclerosis book coverPsychological adaptation pathway from disruption to functional participation
Core perspective

Adaptation is more than coping

Chronic illness can alter daily rhythm, professional and family roles, identity, the sense of manageability and the way a person imagines the future. Psychological adaptation is therefore treated as a rehabilitation task, not only as a set of coping techniques.

The goal is not necessarily to return to the state before illness. A more realistic rehabilitation direction is to rebuild a workable life while preserving agency, values and participation.

Adaptation is not a return to before: pathway through identity, resources, agency and participation
Four recurring domains

What psychological rehabilitation has to hold together

Identity

Integrating a life-changing diagnosis without reducing the whole self to the diagnosis.

Uncertainty

Learning to act with a partly open future rather than waiting for complete predictability.

Resources & manageability

Clarifying what can be influenced, where support is available and how load can be adjusted.

Functional participation

Staying connected to meaningful roles, relationships, self-management, work or study and future planning.

Selected professional trajectory

Research, education and writing around MS and chronic illness

This branch brings together long-standing work in coping and rehabilitation psychology, public and professional education, and newer writing that extends the focus from coping toward reconstruction of life perspective and functional participation.

2015+
Multiple sclerosis as a sustained clinical and rehabilitation focus

Long-term work on adaptation to diagnosis, uncertainty, coping, identity, fatigue and fluctuating functioning, relationships and meaningful participation.

2019
Master's research and conference publications on coping in multiple sclerosis

Academic work at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv examined coping strategies, psychological resources, well-being and socio-psychological adaptation in people living with MS.

2019–2020
Coping, stress resilience and psychological resources

The academic line expanded from coping strategies toward stress resilience, social relationships, psychological well-being and adaptation.

2021
Clinic-based training and psychoeducation

Training work in a clinical setting, alongside regular online educational broadcasts and public psychoeducation about living with MS, stress, adaptation and self-support.

2025
Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft · “MS und Psyche”

Invited professional contribution on multiple sclerosis, psychological adaptation, stress and self-regulation.

2026
Psychological Coping and Stress Resilience in Individuals Living with Multiple Sclerosis

A conference poster revisiting and extending the academic research line into current rehabilitation psychology language.

2026
Living With Multiple Sclerosis: Finding Yourself Again After Diagnosis

English-language book on living after diagnosis, adaptation, identity, resilience and rebuilding a workable relationship with everyday life.

2026
Psychological Adaptation in Chronic Illness: From Reconstruction of Life Perspective to Restoration of Functional Participation

Current scholarly work extends the focus beyond coping toward meaning-making, life perspective, agency, environmental fit and functional participation.

Living With Multiple Sclerosis: Finding Yourself Again After Diagnosis
Book · 2026

Living With Multiple Sclerosis:
Finding Yourself Again After Diagnosis

A practical and reflective book about adaptation after diagnosis, living with uncertainty, identity, support, self-understanding and rebuilding a life that remains yours.

Clinical and rehabilitation implications

A life can be reorganized without being reduced to illness

Psychological support can look beyond anxiety or distress and ask what changed in daily organization, which roles became harder to access, which goals need revision, what resources can be strengthened, and how the environment can better fit current capacity.

Functional participation is not identical to returning to a previous level of productivity. It means preserving real involvement in what matters under current conditions.

Adaptation is not a one-time acceptance. It is the capacity to keep rebuilding ways of living as conditions change.

Chronic illness adaptation perspective
Professional collaboration

Rehabilitation psychology, MS and chronic illness

For professional education, writing, research discussion or collaboration related to psychological adaptation and rehabilitation in chronic illness, contact Fialkora Myndru.

Related framework

Adaptive Bridge

Chronic illness and rehabilitation work is part of the longer professional trajectory informing questions of adaptation, access, agency and participation. It is not presented as an Adaptive Bridge program unless specifically developed as one.

Adaptive Bridge →