Hello, I’m Dr. Lilia Graue
Welcome to this space—a space of healing, of reweaving ease, of returning home to yourself.
I have walked beside countless human beings through pain, through fear, through the ache of disconnection. Along the way, I’ve witnessed profound grace and quiet courage, and the bodymind’s wondrous wisdom and resilience. I believe—fiercely, tenderly—in the possibility of wholeness and freedom, even in the midst of illness.
As a physician, psychotherapist, and mentor, I don’t offer prescriptive paths or one-size-fits-all answers. I offer presence, depth, and a collaborative space that integrates a holistic lens with a grounded, science-based perspective to support you in reclaiming the joy and freedom that already live inside you.
This is the work of my life: to hold space for others as they heal, and to support fellow healers in providing radical care that is both sustainable and deeply fulfilling.
Freedom from pain is possible.
And healing looks different for everyone.
If you’re living with life-disrupting pain, fatigue, a chronic condition, or symptoms no one seems to understand, I want you to know, you’re not alone, and recovery is possible.
Whether you’ve been searching for relief for years or are just beginning to make sense of your symptoms, your experience is real, and it matters. I’m here to support you in finding your own way forward — with nuanced care that sees all of you.
And if you’re someone who supports others on their healing journeys, your work is vital.
You have a unique and valuable voice to contribute to the growing field of mindbody medicine. Your particular skills, strengths, and lived experience are needed. And you deserve space for reflection, connection, and support for your ongoing healing and growth, as you care for others and develop your body of work.
There is no one right way to heal —
or run a healing practice.
One in four people suffers from chronic pain, fatigue, or other difficult-to-pin-down conditions.
One in ten finds that their symptoms have a disabling impact on their daily life, self-care, socializing, and work.
Emerging neuroscience offers a powerful new lens for understanding these symptoms — and a hopeful path toward recovery.
It’s not “all in our heads.” Mind and body are deeply connected. They don't function in isolation, nor do they exist apart from our environment, culture, personal history, or the social contexts we live in.
That’s why I take a dynamic, whole-person approach to mindbody medicine. Our bodyminds have infinite capacity for healing, and there are as many ways to engage in the work as there are people on this planet.
I will help you find yours.
“Dr. Lilia Graue has an unparalleled grasp of how to heal from mindbody illness through her broad training in medicine, psychotherapy, and coaching.
As my mentor, she would respond to my concerns with precision, warmth, and insight, often drawing from several domains to bring a new perspective.
She’s creative, thoughtful, and despite all her expertise, she keeps a sense of humility, always listening carefully and not leaping to conclusions.
I would highly recommend her to people looking to find healing and support as they help others heal.”
– Kent Basett, Mindbody Insight Coaching, Radical Mindfulness for Healing & Co-Director, This Might Hurt film
Ways to Work Together
Reclaim your life
From pain, fatigue & unexplained symptoms
Find your path to lasting healing, and start doing what brings you meaning & joy
RECLAIM MY LIFE
Replenish your practice
For pain recovery clinicians, coaches & healers
Provide deep, impactful care without sacrificing your health, joy, or stability
REPLENISH MY PRACTICE
Here, you never have to feel
like you’re doing healing “wrong”
Perhaps like me, you are someone who has tried everything to heal your symptoms. Perhaps like I was, you’ve been told the best you can hope for is to learn to manage. Or perhaps, like many of the people I work with, you cannot find any explanation for what’s going on with you, and you’ve grown tired of hearing specialist after specialist dismiss your lived experience.
There is so much hope through Mindbody Medicine, though I know how hard it can be to believe…
For ten years, Mainstream Medicine
had me convinced I would never be pain free
After a back injury in 2011, my life got smaller and smaller as the constant effort of managing and mitigating my pain took up more and more space. With complications from surgery, I found myself in a cycle of scary invasive procedures, elaborate routines, and expensive treatments that offered only partial relief.
Before long, I was avoiding most forms of exercise, and any social situation that required sitting for long periods. I was also obsessively planning — and dreading — every trip, bringing my special pillow everywhere.
Then in 2020, I discovered a neural repatterning approach that led me back to what I had long given up on:
My freedom.
I am now exercising as much as I want, as often as I want, and actually enjoying it again.
I can sit in any chair for as long as I like, enjoying long conversations once again.
I have traveled without fear of airplane seats, with the confidence that I can sleep on any mattress. (I get to leave my pillow at home.)
And in my clinical and mentorship practice, I have had the privilege of witnessing dozens and dozens of recoveries from chronic pain and fatigue syndromes, post-COVID symptoms, fibromyalgia, CRPS, POTS, anxiety and depression, IBS and other gastric disorders, pelvic pain, and other life-limiting symptoms once thought to be untreatable.
IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE: My story is just one story.
You can read about my recovery in greater detail here.
I share it as an example of how healing can unfold, not as an ideal to follow.
Possibility is not a single thread, but a tapestry to be woven together.
We each arrive at this work with different skills, resources, and support, as well as our own experiences of trauma, adversity, and grief. All of these factors play into our healing process. As our bodyminds adapt to protect us from stress, harm, and hardship, that’s often how pain, fatigue, and other symptoms begin.
We are not broken.
Our protective responses are a sign that our bodyminds are working to keep us safe, and with compassionate practice, those responses can shift as we harness neuroplasticity.
A Compassionate, Whole-Person Approach
to Reweaving Neural Pathways
Recovering from my back pain gave me a new understanding of everything I thought I knew.
I could now see how other symptoms I’d experienced — migraines, reflux, fatigue, depression, anxiety — were nociplastic. Meaning, they arose from a sensitized nervous system rather than ongoing tissue damage. At the same time, I found myself grappling with my history of trauma, adversity, and the challenge of navigating a neuronorm world as a neurodivergent woman. All of it had an impact on my nervous system, and all of it was connected to my pain.
I had spent my entire career as a physician and psychotherapist learning and integrating various approaches for bodymind-spirit wellbeing, and now, there was an emerging science to help me bring it all together.
I was passionately called to learn more.
In 2021, I took a semi-sabbatical to further my studies in the neuroscience of pain, psychoneuroimmunology, and mindbody medicine so I could support others more effectively.
After 25 years of clinical practice —
integrating the latest scientific evidence, holistic approaches, and lived experience…
Here’s what I’ve learned — and what now informs the work we do together:
Persistent symptoms like pain, fatigue, IBS, interstitial cystitis, CRPS, long COVID, and anxiety almost always arise from sensitized neural pathways — not ongoing tissue damage or disease.
This is called nociplastic pain, and it’s very real. You’re not “imagining it,” it’s a protective pattern or adaptive response woven into your nervous system. Decades of neuroscience research show that with intentional practice, these patterns can be rewoven so you may feel fully at ease in your body again.
↳ Your symptoms are real. Your experience is valid. Full recovery is possible. Healing looks different for everyone.
A brain-first approach does not reflect the whole truth of how symptoms arise and are healed.
Tools like Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) are powerful, but for many of us, they’re not enough on their own. We also need trauma-integrative body-based practices, relational safety, emotional tending, and ways to work with the social, spiritual, and environmental contexts that shape our health. That’s why I’ve found it essential to integrate mindfulness and compassion practice, somatic practices, and critical contextual awareness — pieces often missing from traditional clinical training.
↳ You won’t be expected to “think your way out” of pain. Bodily relearning is a core component of recovery, and we’ll work together in a way that honors your body, your story, and the world you live in.
Suffering, and healing, happens in the context of your whole story and our whole world.
My perspective is shaped by a critical understanding of how systemic forces — including gender conditioning, racism, ableism, fatphobia, and other supremacy narratives and structures — impact our experience of pain, health, and embodiment. So does witnessing injustice and strife near and far. We are exposed to so much suffering and ecological devastation, and it overwhelms our nervous systems — not because we’re weak, but because we care.
↳ You will never be gaslit, dismissed, or pathologized, whether for your own experience, or for your response to what’s happening in the world.
Over the years, I’ve collected a
vast body of knowledge to
support your healing and learning journey.
I integrate studies across medicine, psychotherapy, the neuroscience of pain, somatics, mindfulness, and many other healing modalities to find what works best for you.
Here’s a closer look at some of the training and experience I bring to our collaboration:
Training and Credentials:
Physician Surgeon (MD, UNAM)
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
Postgraduate studies in:
Medical Family Therapy
Mindbody Medicine
Neuroscience of Pain
Sciences of Complexity
Feminist Approaches to Health
Eating Disorders
Neuroscience, Chronic Pain, and Mindbody Medicine Training:
Mind Body Medicine (Benson-Henry Institute)
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) — Mastery Level
OvidDx Neural Repatterning Approach Certified
Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET)
Psychophysiologic Disorders and Neural Circuit Conditions (ATNS)
Freedom from Chronic Pain
Somatic Interventions for Chronic Pain and Related Syndromes
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) for Functional Somatic Disorders
Explain Pain and other contemporary pain neuroscience education frameworks
Mentorship, Education, and Clinical Supervision Experience:
20+ years experience in higher education:
Lecturer in psychopharmacology
Lecturer in Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy and Master’s in Population and Health
Problem Based Learning tutor for medical students
Tutoring for vulnerable medical students
Continuing education and curricular design for medical school
15+ years providing clinical supervision for psychotherapists
4 years as clinical advisor and mentor for coaches and healthcare professionals in mindbody medicine and chronic pain recovery
Additional Training and Experience:
Higher education coursework completed at UNAM, University of New Mexico, Harvard University, University of California San Diego, University of Rochester, and Oxford University
Certified Therapeutic and Restorative Yoga Teacher
Mindfulness, Compassion, and Mindful Eating Instructor (MBSR, MBCT, ME-CL, MB-EAT)
Death Doula and Bereavement Counselor
Healthy Boundaries for Kind People® Coach and Facilitator
Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Practitioner
Weight Inclusive Care (Body Trust®, Health at Every Size®, Well Now)
Eating Disorders Specialist and Clinical Supervisor
Medical Advisor for The Better Mind Center
Former Clinical Advisor for Lin Health
Teacher with Movement+ and Terapia Reversión del Dolor
I am deeply comfortable with the full range of human experience —
from health to debilitating illness, from uncertain prognosis to end of life, and from deep challenge and dis-ease to thriving through connection, creativity, and purpose.
I’ve sat with people of all ages in moments of all-consuming fear and grief, physical vulnerability, emotional complexity, trauma responses, and profound transition — as well as moments of expansive joy, deep love, and the vibrant aliveness that can emerge even in the midst of loss and difficulty.
This has deepened my ability to stay present, attuned, and steady even in experiences that may feel especially intense, unsettling, triggering, or overwhelming.
You don’t have to go through those moments alone. I will meet whatever unfolds with radical presence, curiosity, clarity, and compassion.
A bit more about me personally…
I consider it my privilege, purpose, and deep source of fulfillment to be able to witness and support others in their own healing and learning path.
I am a (cis, hetero) woman. I was born and raised in Mexico City, where I’ve lived for most of my life. I currently live in London with my husband and our two beloved rescue cats, Ziggy and Lupito.
I am mostly able bodied and I live in a small fat body. I am neurodivergent (2e: “highly gifted” Aspie). I am a feminist, irreverent, critical thinker. My sense of humor is a bit (or perhaps a lot) acid.
I am an asphalt flower and nature lover, I love quiet and at the same time find it really hard to stay still. I am endlessly curious, if you want to see me squirm just tell me you have “something” to tell me and leave me hanging.
I smile a lot and I’m warm in close interaction, but if we don’t know each other or we meet in a crowded space you’ll probably think I’m serious and aloof (this is one of the ways in which my introversion and neurodivergence show up).
I love deep conversations and completely lack the ability for small talk. I find it difficult to know when someone is teasing and when they’re being serious (my mom, sister, partner, and a couple of friends find this endlessly amusing).
Almost every night, I have vivid and bizarre dreams that I can recall with great detail. I often wake up with a song stuck in my head — an “ear worm” as described by Oliver Sacks in Musicophilia. It could be anything from Beethoven to Juan Gabriel to Melodie Gardot to A-Ha, love it or hate it.
I am a super taster and enjoy new and complex flavors, tisanes, and home baked bread. I am nourished by baking sourdough and getting involved in culinary experiments, particularly desserts - the kitchen is where I have developed patience and creativity.
I love swimming, I think I must have been a mermaid in another life. I adore visiting new places and reading all kinds of stories, especially while lying down in a hammock and with a bit of sun.
I want peace, justice, and body liberation, and I know that the work starts with me and at the same time with us-in-relationship-and-interconnection.
For the past 28 years (over half my life), I have found refuge in the teachings of Buddhism and I’ve practiced meditation and yoga. This practice has literally saved my life and has shaped my way of being present in the world.
My own life experiences with developmental and complex trauma, depression, anxiety, neurodivergence, and chronic pain, together with a healing journey that has involved psychotherapy and mind-body practices, have shaped the way I approach my suffering and that of others.
“Dr. Lilia Graue brings a unique, kind, gentle perspective with incredible lived experience and wide-reaching knowledge. She invites the learner to look inward. Her multicultural perspective is incredibly valuable.”
– Karin Lee Hughes, MD
My Lineage
Throughout my life, I’ve found belonging in a lineage of rebels within academia and the healing professions. While I can’t name everyone who has shaped my path or supported my own healing, I want to acknowledge those whose influence feels most present for me right now. It matters to me that you know who I’ve learned from—and that I name and thank those who’ve been a gift in my life. Citing them here isn’t an endorsement of their full body of work, but a way to honor the threads that have informed my own.
To every patient, student, and client—thank you for the privilege of walking beside you, and for all that I’ve learned with you and from you.
Ready to work together?
Reclaim your life
From pain, fatigue & unexplained symptoms
Find your path to lasting healing, and start doing what brings you meaning & joy
RECLAIM MY LIFE
Replenish your practice
For pain recovery clinicians, coaches & healers
Provide deep, impactful care without sacrificing your health, joy, or stability
REPLENISH MY PRACTICE
Wondering if you can benefit
from a mindbody approach?
Click below for more information about
diagnosed and undiagnosed symptoms that
can be successfully treated through this work.