SOULFUL THERAPY
Therapy for Chronic Illness
Feel steadier when symptoms fluctuate
Reduce emotional overwhelm and anxiety
Strengthen resilience without forcing positivity
Understanding Chronic Illness Somatically
Chronic illness impacts more than your physical health. It can affect your mood, your relationships, your sense of identity, and your nervous system. You may feel anxious about flare-ups, frustrated by limitations, or discouraged by how much energy it takes just to function.
Therapy provides a space to process what you’re carrying and build emotional steadiness alongside your medical care.
“The body always tells the truth. Chronic illness is often the language of the unspoken emotional experiences we carry.”
- Laura Farberman, Soulful Therapy
SOULFUL THERAPY
What is Chronic Illness in the
Context of Therapy?
When your body feels unpredictable, your nervous system often stays on alert. Over time, this can create anxiety, irritability, emotional shutdown, or exhaustion.
Many adults living with chronic illness feel pressure to “stay strong” or “push through.” But constantly managing symptoms, appointments, and uncertainty can quietly take a toll.
Therapy helps you regulate stress responses, process grief and frustration, and feel more grounded in your body and your life — even when your condition remains.
If you are experiencing:
- Emotional exhaustion from managing your illness
- Anxiety about symptom changes or the future
- Feeling misunderstood by others
- Grief for the life you imagined
- Irritability or low mood that feels hard to shift
- Disconnection from your body
- Pressure to function despite depletion
- Feeling alone in what you’re carrying
Soulful Therapy can help you feel supported, understood, and less alone in this experience.
SOULFUL THERAPY
How Can Therapy For Chronic Illness Help?
At Soulful Therapy, we use a trauma-informed, somatic approach that supports both emotional regulation and resilience.
Emotional Regulation
Learn tools to calm your nervous system when stress or symptoms escalate.
Grief & Identity Support
Process the losses and changes connected to your diagnosis.
Self-Compassion & Boundaries
Reduce self-criticism and communicate your needs more clearly.
Resilience Building
Strengthen your internal capacity so you feel less reactive and more steady.
Mind-Body Awareness
Develop a safer relationship with your body without minimizing your condition.
We work at a pace that respects your energy. This is not about forcing positivity. It’s about building emotional stability in a realistic, sustainable way.
SOULFUL THERAPY
At Soulful Therapy, we facilitate healing using the following approaches:
Compassionate Inquiry
Compassionate Inquiry is a sacred journey in healing, integration, and personal growth. It invites you to explore your emotions, beliefs, and past experiences with curiosity and empathy, free from judgment. We help you identify the root of your challenges, guiding you toward self-discovery, self-acceptance, and a deeper understanding of your true self.
Inner Child Integration
Inner Child Integration is a powerful way to reconnect with and reparent the parts of you that are often triggered. This method gently guides you to feel your childhood emotions and experiences with all of your adult capacities. By doing this, you can integrate the earliest times when your needs went unmet, which continue to impact your current-day reactions, behaviours, and patterns. We offer a kind and safe place for you to accept yourself with compassion, and a peaceful way to attend to your inner child when you are triggered.
Inner Critic Healing
Inner Critic Healing is a nurturing process that helps you understand and calm the critical voice inside your head. This inner critic often stems from past experiences, societal pressures, or early caregivers’ influence. In this approach, we help you listen to this voice with kindness and understand where it comes from, usually from old fears or past experiences. By recognizing that this critical voice is trying to protect you in its own way, you can start to change how you respond to it.
Family of Origin Therapy
Somatic Pscyhotherapy
Somatic psychotherapy honours the deep connection between your mind and body and acknowledges that traumatic experiences can be held in the body, not just in thoughts or emotions. As you become more aware of these sensations in the body, you can attend to the needs that they are expressing and heal the physical and emotional impacts of your experiences. Through breathwork, body scanning, movement, focusing, and mindfulness, we integrate your bodily experiences with your emotional and mental processing, allowing you to release tension and gain profound insights, restoring balance and overall well-being.
Laura Farberman
Clinic Owner & Founder | RSW, MSW
ABOUT SOULFUL THERAPY
Why Work With Soulful Therapy
MIND-BODY CONNECTION ARE NOT JUST WORDS – THEY ARE THE SOLUTION TO HEALING
Our Unique Approach Offers:
Safe
At Soulful Therapy, we want you to feel safe to explore your authentic self, be able to set boundaries that ensure your needs are met, and nurture the connection between your mind, body, and heart.
Present
Through cultivating a sense of presence, we are able to help you take what you have learned in the session outside and use it in your day-to-day life with a mindful spirit.
Soulful
Compassionate Inquiry gently helps you gain an acceptance of past experiences and foster a sense of self compassion. We encourage you to share and feel your true emotions at a deeper level, so you can live more joyfully.
Soulful Therapy Is Built On:
- AUTHENTICITY
- WARMTH
- COMPASSION
- EMPATHY
- RELATIONSHIP
OUR APPROACH
How Our Somatic Chronic Illness Therapy Works
Working at a pace that is comfortable for you, each session is a gentle cycle of grounding, exploring, and fostering change that supports your journey.
1
Grounding &
Intention Setting
We begin by letting go of distractions and focusing on the parts of you that need attention. Together, we clarify your intention for our time together.
2
Exploration &
Understanding
We explore your feelings, thoughts, triggers, tension, and patterns with curiosity to identify and understand your core beliefs and their impacts on your body and life. This often reveals the origins of your anxiety and the triggers your body remembers.
3
Progress &
Lasting Change
We practice tools to calm your nervous system, allowing you to relate to your emotions and tensions more compassionately. You will move towards healing, inner freedom, and authenticity.
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How Healing Can Look With Somatic Chronic Illness Therapy
Your healing journey is unique and happens at your own pace. Changes come as different parts of you are ready for healing. Over time, you’ll develop a kinder relationship with yourself, experiencing growth and self-compassion. While we can’t predict exact outcomes or timelines, each session aims to provide something meaningful for you.
- Navigate chronic illness with a deep sense of inner strength and resilience.
- Develop a deeper understanding of your inner self.
- Foster heartfelt connections with those around you.
- Cultivate self-love and acceptance that reflects your true self.
- Develop coping strategies that encompass your mind, body, and soul.
- Discover inner freedom and thrive with joy and love.
Discover inner freedom and thrive with joy and love
Meet Our Team
Meet the somatic chronic illness therapists at Soulful Therapy.
Virtual appointments available across Ontario.
Breanne Benson
Registered psychotherapist (Qualifying)
PhD Doctoral Student, Transpersonal Psychology
- Trauma
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Laura Farberman
MSW, RSW
Clinic Founder, Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist
- Adults
- Virtual Sessions Available
- Daytime
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma Therapy
- Yoga Therapy
- And More!
Isabel Moriche
MSW
Registered Social Worker
- Complex Trauma
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Cognitive Change
- Grief
- Migration Stress
- Housing Insecurity
- Aging
- Crisis
- English / Spanish Speaking
Shane Pokroy
MA, RP
Registered Psychotherapist
- Adults
- Virtual and Phone Sessions Available
- Daytime, Evenings, and Weekends
- Relationships
- Emotional Regulation
- Mindfulness
- And More!
Mariya Garnet
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
- Adults
- Virtual Sessions Available
- Trauma
- Daytime, Evenings & Weekends
- Developmental/pre-verbal trauma
- Emotional Neglect
- Emotional disconnect
- And More!
Chantelle McEwen
Registered Psychologist
- Adults
- Virtual Sessions Available
- Daytime, Evenings & Weekends
- Trauma
- Inner Child
- Anxiety
- Chronic Stress
- Chronic Illness
- Women's Health
- Parenting
Lisa Cipparone
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), Somatic Therapist, Brainspotting Therapist
- Adults 18+
- Virtual Sessions Available
- Days, Evenings and Weekends
- Soul Work
- Spiritual Journey
- Chronic Illness
- Inner Child Work
- And More!
Are you ready to start exploring your best self?
How To Get Started
Offering online therapy sessions to individuals across Ontario.