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Chronic Pain & Chronic Illness Therapy
Your body is not separate from your mind.
And neither can be left out of healing.
Living with chronic pain or illness can change almost every aspect of life—your energy, abilities, work, relationships and sense of who you are.
At The Design Your Life Centre, we approach chronic pain and illness with an understanding that mind and body are not separate. Your brain, nervous system, emotions, behaviour and physical health are in constant communication.
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This means there are multiple ways to influence how you feel, function and heal.
Responding from the Inside Out
Chronic pain and illness typically require learning to notice your body's signals, regulate your nervous system and respond to what you need—rather than continually overriding it.
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Through the Inside-Out Way, we help you recognize the survival patterns connected to your experience of pain or illness. You may be accustomed to pushing through, taking care of others, ignoring your own needs, or measuring your worth by how much you accomplish. Your condition may be asking you to do something very different: to prioritize your own experience of your life from the inside out.
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For many people, this includes learning to pace activity more effectively. The cycle of doing very little when symptoms are high, then doing too much as soon as you feel better, can lead to repeated crashes. Learning to pace yourself effectively can interrupt this cycle, build endurance and expand capacity over time.
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This work isn't about accepting an increasingly smaller life. It's about listening to your body, recognizing what needs to change, and creating new patterns that support greater function, resilience and possibility.
Tools to Influence Pain, Symptoms & Function
Chronic pain is complex. Understanding how pain and the nervous system work gives us opportunities to influence the experience.
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Treatment may include:
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CBT for chronic pain and chronic illness
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Clinical hypnosis for pain and symptom management
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Nervous system regulation and relaxation skills
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Pacing and building activity tolerance
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Assertive communication and boundary-setting skills
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Stress and sleep management
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Return to meaningful activity, roles and work
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Sustainable health behaviour and lifestyle change
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Addressing mental health challenges that can accompany chronic pain and illness, including anxiety, depression, grief, trauma and PTSD
These approaches give you practical ways to work with your body, manage symptoms, improve function and reconnect with the parts of life that matter to you.
Making Health Behaviour Change Stick
Living with chronic illness can require meaningful changes in how you eat, move, sleep, work, manage stress and care for your health. Knowing what you "should" do is rarely enough to make those changes last.
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As experts in Clinical Health Psychology, we understand what helps people make meaningful changes—and what it takes to make them stick.
Conditions We Support
We work with people experiencing:
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Chronic pain and persistent pain
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Fibromyalgia
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Chronic fatigue
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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
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Multiple sclerosis (MS)
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Diabetes
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Cancer
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Cardiovascular conditions
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Persistent symptoms following injury or illness
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Other chronic or complex health conditions
Psychological treatment works alongside—not in place of—appropriate medical care.
Why Choose DYLC for Chronic Pain & Chronic Illness Therapy?
DYLC's founder, Dr. Stacy Thomas, is a recognized expert in chronic pain and Clinical Health Psychology. She previously served as lead psychologist at an interdisciplinary rehabilitation clinic at Saskatoon City Hospital, supporting people navigating complex trauma and physical injuries resulting from workplace and motor vehicle accidents.
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She also spent years consulting with an interdisciplinary rehabilitation clinic, providing direct psychological care, supervising mental health clinicians and helping other healthcare professionals tailor their treatment to each client's unique needs and abilities.
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Today, Dr. Thomas and DYLC clinicians with similar expertise bring this depth of experience to helping people living with chronic pain and illness improve functioning, build resilience and expand their capacity to participate in meaningful activities, including returning to work when appropriate.
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Through the Inside-Out Way, we integrate mind-body understanding, nervous system regulation and effective pacing with practical strategies for sustainable change.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. DYLC offers chronic pain and chronic illness therapy in Leslieville, Toronto, and online throughout Ontario.
Therapy offers practical tools to regulate the nervous system, influence pain, pace activity effectively and improve functioning. Through our Inside-Out Way, we also help you shift your focus from organizing life around pain to reconnecting with what gives your life meaning. As you build resilience and capacity, meaningful activities, relationships and participation in life can once again take centre stage.
No. The Design Your Life Centre does not provide assessments or treatment through WSIB or motor vehicle accident (MVA) insurance programs in Ontario.
