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.
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
Registered Psychotherapist, MA, CRPO 13240
- Adults
- Couples
- Virtual Sessions across Ontario
- Daytime and Evenings only
- Anxiety
- Relationship Issues
- Life Transitions
- 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 Psychotherapist
- Adults
- Virtual Sessions Available
- Daytime, Evenings
- Trauma
- Inner Child
- Anxiety
- Childhood Abuse and Neglect
- Chronic Illness
- Women's Health
- Parenting
- Complex and Developmental Trauma
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!
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.
Brainspotting Therapy
Brainspotting Therapy™ is a gentle, body-based approach that uses specific eye positions, or “brainspots,” to help you access emotions and experiences that may be difficult to put into words. It can support deeper processing of trauma, stress, and other patterns held in the body and nervous system.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR Therapy can help when you know you want to move forward, but certain memories, triggers, or emotional reactions still have a strong hold on you. By helping your brain process difficult experiences in a new way, EMDR can make those experiences feel less overwhelming, so you may feel calmer, more grounded, and more able to respond to life from the present rather than from the past.
Emotions Focussed Couples Therapy
The EFT Couples Therapy Intensive is designed for couples who love each other but feel stuck in the same arguments, distance, or disconnection. Through focused, extended sessions, you can begin to understand what’s really happening underneath those patterns, feel more seen and understood by each other, and find a clearer path back to connection.
Expressive Art Therapy
Expressive Arts Therapy offers another way to explore what you’re feeling when words don’t quite capture it. Through creative expression, it can help you process difficult emotions, reconnect with yourself, build confidence, and rediscover a sense of playfulness, curiosity, and possibility.
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.
NARM Therapy
NARM Therapy can help you understand the patterns that formed when you were trying to feel safe, connected, or accepted—and gently begin to loosen their hold. Rather than reliving the past, NARM helps you reconnect with yourself in the present so you can feel more grounded, more authentic, and more free to choose how you move forward.
Nervous System RESET Therapy
Nervous System RESET Therapy helps you become more aware of how stress shows up in your body and learn gentle ways to help your system settle. Over time, you can feel more grounded, more resilient, and better able to move through life’s ups and downs with a greater sense of calm, safety, and ease.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy helps you notice and understand the ways stress and past experiences can show up in your body—through tension, numbness, restlessness, or feeling overwhelmed. By gently working with those body-based reactions, you can build a greater sense of safety, self-trust, and calm without having to relive everything that happened.
Somatic Psychotherapy
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.
SOULFUL THERAPY
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
Are you ready to start exploring your best self?
How To Get Started
Offering online therapy sessions to individuals across Ontario.