Virtual therapy across Ontario
Chronic illness, health trauma, and grief therapy in Ontario.
Some losses have names, rituals, and witnesses. Others arrive as fatigue, a diagnosis, a body that changed, care that failed you, or the quiet disappearance of a future you expected to have.
I’m Kai DeMaeyer, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) offering grounded, trauma-informed therapy for adults living with chronic illness, pain, fatigue, disability, medical dismissal, health trauma, caregiving, death grief, and non-death loss. There is no requirement to make this inspiring.
- Adults
- Virtual across Ontario
- $140 per 50 minutes
- Capacity-aware pacing
- Free 15-minute consultation
Three areas of support
Different experiences can live in the same body.
Chronic illness
Therapy for pain, fatigue, disability, diagnosis, flare-ups, unpredictability, capacity changes, body grief, isolation, and the constant work of adapting.
Health trauma
Support after being dismissed, disbelieved, misdiagnosed, rushed, objectified, ignored, or harmed in medical settings and systems that were supposed to help.
Grief after death and other losses
Space for death loss, ambiguous loss, changed health, identity, relationships, fertility, work, independence, community, or the future you thought you were moving toward.
When the body changes the terms
Life may need to be organized around a different capacity.
Chronic illness can change time, work, identity, relationships, independence, desire, routines, finances, plans, and how much energy it takes to keep being understood.
- Changing capacity, pacing, uncertainty, and flare-ups
- Pain, fatigue, disability, symptoms, and body trust
- Work, productivity, dependence, and financial pressure
- Relationships, caregiving, resentment, and asking for help
- Sex, intimacy, body image, and changing desire
When trust and the future change
Loss can alter how safe the world feels.
Medical harm and grief can affect trust in providers, other people, your own perception, your body, and the future. Therapy gives anger, fear, numbness, uncertainty, and grief somewhere to land.
- Medical dismissal, misdiagnosis, and appointment fear
- Anger, distrust, shame, isolation, and self-advocacy fatigue
- Death, bereavement, and relationships with those who died
- Ambiguous loss, lost futures, and identity changes
- Caregiving, family roles, burnout, and complicated feelings
The clinical stance
Pain does not need a moral.
Therapy can make room for what happened without forcing gratitude, resilience, closure, forgiveness, acceptance, or a tidy account of what your suffering was supposed to teach you.
Your pain starts as valid.
Therapy is not an investigation into whether your symptoms, grief, limits, anger, or medical experiences are severe enough to count.
Medical harm is relational harm.
Dismissal and disbelief can change how safe it feels to ask for help, trust your perception, attend appointments, make decisions, or let another person hold care.
Grief has no hierarchy.
Death grief and non-death loss take different forms. Both can alter identity, attachment, meaning, time, relationships, and the future.
Pacing follows capacity.
My approach integrates Narrative Therapy, parts work, relational and psychodynamic attention, somatic awareness, and trauma-informed care. We can slow down, titrate difficult material, and respect fatigue.
You do not need to be ready to make meaning.
Book Your Free ConsultWhat to expect
A place to set some of the weight down.
Start with a free consult
We briefly discuss what brings you in, scheduling, access needs, and whether my approach feels like a useful fit.
Begin where the weight sits
That may be a symptom, appointment, death, changed relationship, fear, anger, exhaustion, uncertainty, or something without a clean name.
Work at the pace available
Sessions can include pauses, pacing, grounding, direct conversation, reflection, and attention to what your body can manage that day.
Build support around reality
We can strengthen self-trust, communication, boundaries, grief practices, advocacy, relationships, and ways of living with what is here.
Common questions
Before you reach out.
Is grief therapy only for death loss?
No. Grief can follow death, and it can also follow illness, diagnosis, disability, medical trauma, body changes, infertility, relationship changes, caregiving, reduced work capacity, lost independence, or the loss of an expected future.
Can therapy help with health trauma or medical dismissal?
Yes. Therapy can support the emotional and relational impact of being dismissed, disbelieved, misdiagnosed, rushed, ignored, objectified, or harmed in medical settings. We can work with fear, anger, distrust, shame, grief, appointment stress, and self-trust.
Do you work with chronic illness and chronic pain?
Yes. Therapy can include illness, pain, fatigue, disability, uncertainty, health anxiety, isolation, body changes, pacing, relationships, grief, and the pressure to keep functioning.
Does therapy replace medical care?
No. Psychotherapy supports the emotional, relational, traumatic, and meaning-related parts of illness and care. Diagnosis, medication, physical treatment, and medical decision-making remain within the appropriate healthcare provider’s scope.
Can we discuss sex, intimacy, caregiving, or relationships?
Yes. Illness and grief can affect desire, intimacy, body image, communication, dependence, closeness, caregiving roles, resentment, boundaries, and how partners or families understand each other.
Is therapy virtual?
Yes. Sessions are offered virtually to adults across Ontario who can meet from a private space.
Start where the experience is
Bring what changed, what was lost, and what still has no name.
The free 15-minute consultation is a low-pressure place to meet me, ask questions, and see whether this feels like the right kind of support for what you are carrying.
Book Your Free ConsultContact for more information:
