Virtual Psychotherapy for Chronic Pain across Ontario

Your pain is real. And there is a path to healing. Sky Therapies offers compassionate, research-grounded psychotherapy for chronic pain, helping you retrain your nervous system and reclaim your life.

What Is Psychotherapy for Chronic Pain, and Can It Actually Help?

Chronic pain rarely travels alone. Whether you’re managing fibromyalgia, persistent back pain, nerve pain, or pain that began with an injury but never fully resolved, the experience of living with ongoing pain reshapes how you think, feel, and relate to your body. Psychotherapy for chronic pain is not about telling you the pain is “in your head.” It is about understanding how the nervous system, the brain, and emotional experience interact, and using that understanding to reduce pain, restore function, and reclaim your life.

At Sky Therapies, we offer virtual chronic pain therapy across Ontario, grounded in some of the most research-supported mind-body approaches available: Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), and somatic-based methods informed by decades of clinical research. Our therapists work with people experiencing pain conditions that standard medical treatment has not fully resolved. Not because those treatments failed, but because chronic pain often has neural and emotional dimensions that require a different kind of care.

How the Brain Maintains Chronic Pain, and What That Means for Treatment

Modern neuroscience has transformed how we understand persistent pain. Research published in JAMA Psychiatry demonstrates that in many chronic pain conditions, particularly those without clear structural damage, the nervous system has learned to produce pain as a protective response, even when the original tissue threat has passed. This is not a sign of weakness or imagination. It is the result of a sensitized nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do: protect you. The problem is that this protection persists long after it is needed.

This understanding, developed through the clinical and research work of Dr. Howard Schubiner, Dr. Alan Gordon, and the late Dr. John E. Sarno, forms the foundation of psychotherapy-based approaches to chronic pain. When the nervous system learns that it is safe, pain signals can diminish, sometimes dramatically. The goal of therapy is not to manage pain indefinitely but to change the neural pathways that are generating it.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT): Rewiring the Brain’s Pain Response

Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a structured, evidence-based approach specifically developed for chronic primary pain: pain that persists beyond tissue healing or that occurs without identifiable structural cause. PRT was the subject of a 2021 randomized controlled trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, in which two-thirds of participants were pain-free or nearly pain-free at one-year follow-up.

The core mechanism of PRT is helping the brain reinterpret pain signals as safe rather than threatening. This is not distraction or positive thinking. It is a neurological process called extinction learning, delivered through specific somatic tracking exercises, cognitive reappraisal techniques, and therapeutic conversations that help the nervous system update its threat assessment.

At Sky Therapies, PRT is delivered by trained therapists in a structured virtual format, accessible from anywhere in Ontario. Sessions are collaborative: we work with your specific pain history, your nervous system’s unique patterns, and the emotional context that shapes how your body responds.

Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET): Addressing the Emotional Roots of Pain

Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy was developed by Dr. Mark Lumley and colleagues to address the role of suppressed or unprocessed emotion in chronic pain and medically unexplained symptoms. Clinical trials of EAET have demonstrated significant pain reduction in fibromyalgia, headache disorders, and other chronic pain conditions, particularly for people whose pain is worsened by stress, relationship conflict, or trauma history.

EAET differs from traditional CBT in its focus: rather than changing how you think about pain, EAET works to bring awareness to the emotional experiences that the nervous system has learned to convert into physical symptoms. This includes unresolved grief, chronic stress, relationship patterns, and experiences of powerlessness or resentment that may have never been fully processed.

Many people find that EAET opens a door that other treatments could not. Not because they were broken, but because the emotional dimension of their pain had never been directly addressed.

What to Expect from Chronic Pain Therapy at Sky Therapies

Therapy for chronic pain at Sky Therapies begins with a thorough clinical assessment of your pain history, medical background, emotional and relational context, and previous treatment experience. This allows us to identify which approach, whether PRT, EAET, somatic methods, or a combination, is best suited to your specific presentation.

Sessions are conducted virtually via a secure video platform, making them accessible across Ontario without the added burden of travel when you are managing a pain condition. Most clients engage in weekly sessions over a period of three to six months, though this varies based on individual circumstances.

You do not need a referral to begin. You do need a willingness to approach your pain from a new angle, one that takes the full complexity of your nervous system, your history, and your emotional life into account.

Frequently Asked Questions about Chronic Pain Therapy

At Sky Therapies, healing begins when both body and mind are heard. This Ontario-wide online therapy practice offers specialized support for trauma, chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD, IBS, and other mind-body symptoms that often leave people feeling unheard or dismissed. Through evidence-based therapies including EMDR, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and somatic approaches, their warm and skilled team helps you regulate your nervous system, reduce persistent symptoms, and rediscover a sense of safety within yourself.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact the Canada Suicide Prevention Service at 988, or go to your nearest emergency room. Sky Therapies does not provide emergency or crisis services.