Health Psychology in Toronto Psychological Support for Serious and Chronic Illness

Psychological support for serious and chronic illness at Laksman Doell Psychology is delivered by our team of doctoral-level registered health psychologists, both in person at our office in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto and virtually across Ontario.

What Health Psychology Looks Like

“Our minds and bodies are in constant conversation. When something disrupts that, people deserve a psychologist who understands both sides of it.”

At Laksman Doell Psychology, our health psychologists specialize in the emotional and psychological territory that comes with medical challenges. Getting a serious diagnosis. Watching someone you love struggle with a chronic or debilitating illness. Sitting in yet another waiting room, wondering what comes next, and is this my life now?

These moments change everything. And they are exactly when you need support the most.

Facing an illness is not just a medical experience. It’s the sleepless nights of wondering “what if…”. It’s feeling like a stranger in your own body. It’s finishing treatment and realizing that getting better doesn’t mean going back to who you were before.

Our minds and bodies are in constant conversation. When something disrupts that conversation, the impact is rarely confined to one place. The fear shows up as insomnia. The grief shows up as numbness. The uncertainty shows up as a quiet breakdown of the routines that used to hold your life together.

While your family doctor and treatment team take care of your physical symptoms, health psychologists specialize in the social, emotional and psychological factors that influence and impact our physical health and illness. The stuff that doesn’t fit on a chart. The stuff that happens in between appointments.

In most of Ontario, access to this kind of care happens only inside of specialized hospital programs, and the support is often short-term. We believe that you shouldn’t have to wait. And you shouldn’t have to do this alone.

If You Are Reading This

You may not be sure what you need, but something brought you here…

You received a diagnosis that you didn't see coming, and were sent home to figure out what it means for your life. The medical team handles your body. No one is helping you with the rest of it.
You're caring for someone that you love through an illness. Everyone asks how the patient is. No one asks how you are. You haven't let yourself answer that question honestly in months.
You finished treatment. People expect you to celebrate. But you don't recognize yourself yet, and you don't know how to say that out loud to the people who watched you go through it and who need to believe that the worst is over.

This is what has brought you here. And you are in the right place.

Health Psychology in Toronto

The presentations of serious and chronic illness that we treat:

At Laksman Doell Psychology, we provide psychological treatment to individuals and caregivers who are navigating the complex terrain of serious and chronic illness. For some of us, that might mean reaching out soon after a new diagnosis, whereas for others it might be much later in the journey and only after medical treatments have been completed.

Our doctoral-level health psychologists have specific knowledge and have received extensive training in providing psychological treatment for individuals and caregivers at various stages along their journey, including:

New or Progressing Diagnoses

Cancer, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, diabetes, and other serious illnesses all come with a particular kind of weight that doesn’t lift between medical appointments. We help people to find ways to live fully, even when the future feels unclear.

Life After Treatment

Finishing treatment should feel like a celebration, right? But sometimes it brings new fears about recurrence, changes to the body, or the pressure to get back to normal when normal doesn’t exist anymore. That disorientation is real, and it deserves real support.

Changes to the Body and to Identity

Treatments and medications can change both how the body looks and feels. These shifts can affect self-worth, intimacy, and your relationship with yourself. There are proven psychological approaches to help with this, and we use them.

Intimacy and Connection

The stress of illness, changes in partner roles, and changes in how the body feels and functions can affect both emotional and physical intimacy in ways that are hard to talk about. These conversations matter, and they deserve a safe space.

Navigating Your Healthcare Team

When you’re living with illness, your relationship with your care team becomes central to your life, and yet communicating your needs during periods of uncertainty and when navigating power imbalances can feel like an added burden. We can help you to understand your needs more clearly and to communicate them more effectively, so that you’re not leaving appointments feeling unheard.

Caregiver Support

If you’re supporting someone through illness, you may be running on empty while everyone around you asks about the patient. Caregivers carry an exhaustion that has its own particular shape: the depletion of being constantly needed, the grief that runs alongside the love, the loneliness of being the one who is supposed to hold it together. We treat caregiver support as its own clinical priority, not as an afterthought to the patient’s care.

Our Approach

Treatment that starts with understanding you.

We’re not here to tell you simply to stay positive or to think good thoughts. We’re here to be honest about how hard this is, while helping you to discover what you’re actually capable of.

We are here for the conversations that feel too difficult to have with almost anyone else. The conversations about fear and hope, about mortality and meaning, about altered dreams and unexpected strength, and about finding yourself and finding joy even in the midst of uncertainty.

We draw on approaches that have a solid evidence-base behind them for people who are navigating medical challenges: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and mindfulness-based interventions. But the foundation is always the same. We listen. We believe you when you say that this is difficult. And we help you to figure out what resilience actually looks like for you – not the version of it that other people need you to perform.

Resilience doesn’t mean pretending that everything is fine. It means learning to hold both the difficulty and the meaning, the fear and the love, the uncertainty and the hope, all at the same time. Health psychologists both understand the importance of resilience and have tools to help build your capacity for resilience when it is feeling shaky.

Our difference

Specialist training.
Private practice access.

Health psychology is one of the founding clinical pillars at Laksman Doell Psychology. Multiple clinicians on our team hold specialist training in health psychology, psycho-oncology, and women’s health. Our team has trained at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto General, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the Nova Scotia Health Authority, Alberta Health Services, North York General, Cleveland Clinic Canada, and the University of Toronto.

The continuity of care that we offer across the entire illness trajectory, from diagnosis through to active treatment, remission, recurrence, survivorship, and end of life, is unusual to find in private practice in Canada.

Every clinician is a doctoral-level psychologist, who is registered with, or working toward registration with, the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO). Sessions are delivered in person at 27 Prince Arthur Avenue in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, or virtually across Ontario via PHIPA-compliant video. No referral required.

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Life can be complicated, finding support shouldn’t be. At Laksman Doell, we take that seriously.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a health psychologist and how are they different from a regular psychologist?

A health psychologist specializes in the relationship between physical health and psychological wellbeing, and the application of psychological knowledge to the promotion and maintenance of health and the prevention and treatment of illness. We work with people navigating illness, medical procedures, chronic conditions, and the emotional aftermath of diagnosis. It is a distinct specialization, requiring specific knowledge and supervised training, it more than just psychotherapy applied to medical situations.

My treatment is finished. Why do I not feel relieved?

Finishing treatment often does not mean returning to ‘normal’. Many people feel more anxious after treatment ends, not less. The structure of appointments is gone. The sense of actively doing something is gone. That transition is its own adjustment, and it is more common than most people realize.

Can therapy actually help with physical symptoms?

Yes. The mind-body connection is not a metaphor. Psychological factors directly affect pain perception, fatigue, immune function, and recovery. Evidence-based approaches including CBT have demonstrated real outcomes for chronic pain, cancer-related fatigue, IBS, and cardiovascular recovery.

Do I need to be in active treatment to work with a health psychologist in Toronto?

No. Health psychologists can play a meaningful role at any point in the illness experience. Whether this begins at diagnosis, during treatment, in survivorship, or in supporting a caregiver. If you’re reading this and thinking this might be what you need, trust that instinct.

Do you work with caregivers as well as patients?

Yes. We treat caregiver support as its own clinical priority, not as an afterthought. Caregivers carry a particular kind of exhaustion and deserve real support in their own right.

Is this covered by OHIP?

Services are not covered by OHIP. Coverage may be available through extended health benefits, as many plans cover the services of a registered psychologist. We recommend confirming with your provider before commencing treatment.

Can I be seen virtually?

Yes. All services are available virtually via PHIPA-compliant video for any Ontario resident.

What if I need a clinician with a specific specialty that I don't see listed?

We will tell you honestly if we don’t have a psychologist who feels like the right fit, and we will help you to find a psychologist who does. That’s part of what we do. If you are looking to work with a psychologist who has supported individuals living with a particular illness, then we will do our best to find you an option within our trusted referral network if we don’t have someone here at Laksman Doell.

Life is complicated. We give you clarity.

The first step is a brief consultation to help understand what you are looking for. No referral required. Email us at [email protected] or complete our contact form online.