Chronic Illness Therapy in Ontario
From Therapists Who Understand
When your body won't cooperate and your mental health is suffering because of it. Therapy for people living with chronic illness, autoimmune conditions, MS, and chronic pain. Online across Ontario.
"I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was 15 years old. It really affected my mental health. I was depressed, anxious, and constantly comparing myself to my able-bodied friends. My therapist helped me through that — and now I want to do the same for others."
Free 15-minute consultation · No commitment
You might be here because…
Your chronic illness is affecting your mental health
You're living with MS, lupus, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or another condition that's unpredictable and exhausting. Your body doesn't work the way it used to. And the depression, anxiety, and grief are overwhelming.
You're comparing yourself to able-bodied people
You watch your friends live normal lives while you're in and out of hospitals, dealing with pain, fatigue, and uncertainty. You feel left behind. You feel like your body is betraying you. And no one around you really gets it.
People keep saying 'you'll be fine' but you're NOT fine
Your family tells you to pray it away, push through it, or 'think positive.' They don't understand that chronic illness isn't just physical — it affects your mental health, your identity, and your entire life. And you need someone who actually understands.
You're not being dramatic. Chronic illness IS hard. And therapy can help.
Work With Michayla
Michayla Tabet
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) · CRPO
Currently accepting new clients · Online across Ontario
Michayla brings a warm, compassionate, and down-to-earth approach to therapy. She supports clients navigating anxiety, stress, grief, burnout, family transitions, relationship challenges, and difficult seasons of life.
Living with chronic illness can affect many parts of a person's life beyond physical symptoms. Therapy can provide space to process the emotional impact, changes in identity and relationships, uncertainty about the future, grief over what has changed, and the exhaustion that can come from carrying something other people may not fully understand.
Michayla's approach is collaborative and client-centred. She takes time to understand each person's experiences, strengths, relationships, and goals rather than assuming that one approach works for everyone. Her goal is to create a space that feels safe, genuine, and practical while helping clients make sense of what they are experiencing and take meaningful steps forward.
Free 15-minute consultation · $140–165 per session
You Might Connect With Michayla If…
- ✓Chronic illness is affecting your mental health
- ✓You're experiencing anxiety or feeling overwhelmed
- ✓You're grieving changes in your health or lifestyle
- ✓You're struggling with burnout or exhaustion
- ✓Your relationships have been affected by what you're going through
- ✓You're navigating changes in identity, independence, or plans for the future
- ✓You want a supportive space to process a difficult season of life
- ✓You want therapy that sees you as a whole person, not just a diagnosis
You Can Also Work With Louise
Louise Tiwaah-Acheamfour
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) · CRPO
Master's in Counselling Psychology, Yorkville University
Specialization: Chronic Illness, MS, Trauma, Grief & Loss
Louise brings personal lived experience with chronic illness to her work. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at 15, and she understands from the inside how illness can reshape your mental health, your self-image, and your sense of identity.
She works with people whose chronic illness is affecting their mental health — whether that's MS, lupus, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, or another unpredictable and exhausting condition — and offers culturally responsive care and optional faith-integrated counselling.
Free 15-minute consultation · $120 per session · Online across Ontario
When Your Chronic Illness Is Affecting Your Mental Health
Living with chronic illness isn't just about managing symptoms. It's about navigating the mental and emotional toll of a body that won't cooperate. Here's what Louise wants you to know:
"I found myself in depression and sadness. I was always in and out of hospitals, finding out bad news. I was anxious. I had negative thinking. My self-image was really poor. I was constantly comparing myself to my able-bodied friends and family."
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Chronic illness affects every part of your life — your identity, your relationships, your mental health, your future. Therapy gives you a space to process all of it without judgment.
How Therapy Can Help When You're Living with Chronic Illness
Therapy for chronic illness isn't about "fixing" your body. It's about helping you navigate the mental and emotional challenges that come with it.
Common Mental Health Challenges:
- •Depression from chronic illness
- •Anxiety about symptoms, flare-ups, or the future
- •Grief over lost abilities or the life you had before
- •Body image issues and feeling disconnected from your body
- •Comparing yourself to able-bodied people
What You Can Work On:
- ✓Processing the trauma of diagnosis and medical experiences
- ✓Managing anxiety about uncertainty and flare-ups
- ✓Rebuilding self-image and identity outside of illness
- ✓Setting boundaries with people who don't understand
- ✓Finding meaning and hope even when your body won't cooperate
Therapy won't cure your illness. But it can help you live with it without losing yourself.
When Your Family & Friends Don't Get It
One of the hardest parts of chronic illness is feeling misunderstood by the people closest to you. Louise knows what that's like:
"When you're telling people — especially people of color — about mental health, it's usually 'Oh, you'll be fine. It'll go away.' Or, 'It's not that much of a big deal.' Or, 'Just talk to your friends.' I didn't feel safe telling people I was struggling mentally AND physically."
Common things people say that don't help:
- •"You'll be fine, just think positive"
- •"Other people have it worse"
- •"You don't look sick"
- •"Have you tried [insert unsolicited advice]?"
- •"Maybe it's stress, you just need to relax"
What therapy gives you:
- ✓A space where you DON'T have to explain or justify your experience
- ✓Someone who believes you when you say "I'm not okay"
- ✓Tools to cope with the mental health impact of chronic illness
- ✓Support navigating relationships with people who don't understand
Therapy for Black & POC Clients Navigating Chronic Illness
If you're Black or a person of color, you might be navigating additional barriers: cultural stigma around mental health, medical racism, family pressure to "be strong," or feeling dismissed by doctors who don't take your pain seriously.
Louise understands these dynamics. As a Black therapist, she creates a space where you don't have to explain cultural context or justify why mental health matters.
What this means in practice:
- •She understands when you say "My family doesn't believe in therapy"
- •She knows what it's like to navigate medical systems that dismiss Black women's pain
- •She gets the pressure to be 'strong' even when you're struggling
- •She won't make you explain why your culture stigmatizes mental health — she already knows
You deserve support that honors both your cultural background AND your mental health needs.
Sessions & Pricing
Michayla Tabet
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
$140–165 per session
50-minute sessions · Online across Ontario
Louise Tiwaah-Acheamfour
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
$120 per session
50-minute sessions · Online across Ontario
- ✓ Direct billing available
- ✓ Most extended health plans accepted
- ✓ Sliding scale fees available
- ✓ PHIPA compliant · Secure & confidential
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Louise has personal experience with Multiple Sclerosis, and our therapists work with people living with any chronic illness or chronic pain condition — including lupus, fibromyalgia, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, endometriosis, and more.
If your chronic illness is affecting your mental health, we can help.
How Therapy Works
- •Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- •Trauma-Informed Care
- •Grief & Loss Therapy
- •Chronic Illness-Focused Therapy
- •Strength-Based Therapy
- •Culturally Responsive Care
- •Client-Centered Approach
- •Faith-Integrated Counselling (Optional)
Your therapist tailors the approach to your individual needs. If you'd like to integrate faith into therapy, that's an option. If not, that's okay too.
Faith-Integrated Counselling (Optional)
For clients who would like faith to be part of therapy, Michayla is comfortable creating space for Christian faith and spirituality while respecting each client's individual beliefs, values, and goals. Louise also offers faith-integrated counselling for clients who want it.
This is completely optional. Therapy can be faith-integrated or entirely secular — whichever you prefer. You're welcome here regardless of your faith background, and therapy remains grounded in psychotherapeutic care either way.
You Don't Have to Suffer Alone
Living with chronic illness is hard enough. You deserve support for the mental health side of it too.
Questions? Call (647) 325-3136 · info@thewaitingroom.ca