Evidence-based CBT and ACT approaches to help you cope with chronic pain, reduce its impact on daily life, and reconnect with the things that matter to you.
Free 15-minute consultation · In person in Hamilton · Virtual across Ontario
CBT Solutions offers chronic pain therapy in Hamilton in person and virtually across Ontario, using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Therapy does not replace medical care. It gives you practical tools for living with pain.
Chronic pain rarely stays in one part of your life. It can affect your mood, your sleep, your relationships, your work, and how active you feel able to be.
Our therapists use CBT and ACT to help you build skills for responding to pain differently, and to work toward a life that feels meaningful, even when pain is part of it.
Chronic pain is pain that persists or recurs for longer than three months. This is the ICD-11 definition used by the Canadian Pain Task Force. The same report estimates that one in five Canadians lives with chronic pain.
Pain may continue after an injury or illness has healed. It may also appear without a clear medical cause. Either way, your pain is real.
Pain is shaped by biological, psychological, and social factors. Your body’s signals matter, and so do your stress levels, your sleep, your thoughts about pain, and the support around you. This is why many people find that treating the body alone does not tell the whole story.
Psychotherapy is one part of a broader treatment plan. It works best alongside medical care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and exercise.
Chronic pain and mental health are closely linked, and many people notice changes such as:
The Canadian Pain Task Force notes that living with unmanaged pain can lead to sleeplessness, hopelessness, depression, and anxiety.
Over time, strategies meant to protect us can begin to shrink our lives. Therapy can help you respond differently.
The chronic pain cycle often begins with a sensible response. Resting, cancelling plans, or monitoring your body closely can help in the short term. Pushing through on a good day and paying for it afterward can feed the same pattern.
Over time, pain becomes linked with fear, stress, poor sleep, reduced activity, and isolation. Researchers describe this pattern in the fear-avoidance model of chronic pain.
The goal isn’t to convince you that your pain isn’t real. It is to understand how pain, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours influence one another. Therapy can help us intervene at several points in this cycle.
CBT for chronic pain applies Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to the way thoughts, emotions, and behaviours shape your experience of pain. It helps you notice patterns that keep you stuck and practise new ways of responding.
Pain often brings thoughts like these:
“This will never get better.”
“If I move, I’ll make it worse.”
“I’m a burden to the people around me.”
“I can’t do anything anymore.”
CBT does not ask you to “think positively.” It helps you test whether these thoughts are accurate and useful, and to find responses that feel more balanced and realistic.
In CBT for chronic pain, you and your therapist may work on:
The research is encouraging but modest. A 2020 Cochrane review found that CBT gives small benefits for pain, disability, and distress. The aim is not to remove your pain. It is to reduce how much pain controls your life.
ACT for chronic pain uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to change your relationship with pain rather than wage a constant battle against it. Acceptance and commitment therapy for chronic pain asks a different question: “If pain is here today, how can I still move toward the life that matters to me?”
Acceptance does not mean liking your pain, giving up on treatment, or deciding that nothing can improve. It means making room for what you cannot control right now, so your energy can go toward what you can.
ACT builds psychological flexibility: the ability to stay present, open up to difficult experiences, and act in line with your values. In therapy, you may practise:
You don’t necessarily have to wait for a pain-free day to begin reconnecting with your life.
Psychotherapy for chronic pain can support you in six key areas.
Learn practical ways to respond to pain and flare-ups so they feel less overwhelming.
Gradually rebuild trust in your body and move back toward activities you have been avoiding.
Address the worry, frustration, and sadness that so often come with ongoing pain.
Find ways to take part in work, relationships, and hobbies that matter to you.
Make space for the loss of abilities, plans, or roles, and for who you are now. See also our grief and loss support.
Build a daily life that feels fuller, even when pain is still part of it.
There is no one-size-fits-all plan for chronic pain. We adapt treatment to each person, and the stages below show how therapy often unfolds.
We start by listening to your story: your pain, your daily life, and what you most want to change. Together we map the patterns that keep pain in control.
You learn practical CBT and ACT skills, such as pacing, mindfulness, and working with unhelpful thoughts.
We test the skills in real life, from small activity goals to handling flare-ups, and adjust what is not working.
We consolidate your progress and plan for setbacks, so you leave with a clear way to keep going on your own.
Individual sessions with a Registered Social Worker/Psychotherapist are $135 per 50 minutes, in person in Hamilton or virtually. Most workplace insurance plans cover sessions with a Registered Social Worker. See our session fees for details.
Our therapists are regulated Registered Social Workers and Psychotherapists who use CBT and ACT to support people living with chronic pain.
Registered Social Worker/Psychotherapist (MSW, RSW)
Looking for chronic pain counselling in Hamilton? Our Registered Social Workers and Psychotherapists meet you in person at our Hamilton office, or through secure virtual therapy if you live elsewhere in Ontario or find travel difficult. Virtual therapy in Ontario is often a good fit when pain makes getting out of the house hard.
Meet your therapist at our Hamilton office. In-person therapy
Secure virtual therapy if you live elsewhere in Ontario or find travel difficult. Online therapy
Book a free consultation or full assessment session with our resident chronic pain expert, Liz Curran.
No. Your pain is real. Therapy looks at how pain affects your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and how those in turn affect pain. It works alongside medical care, not instead of it.
Usually not. A 2020 Cochrane review found that CBT gives small benefits for pain, disability, and distress. The goal is to reduce how much pain disrupts your life.
Acceptance means making room for pain and difficult feelings instead of fighting them. It does not mean liking pain or giving up on treatment.
Yes. Therapy focuses on how you cope with pain and its effects, not on finding its cause. Keep working with your doctor as well.
Yes. Ongoing pain can lead to anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. Treating these can make pain easier to live with.
It depends on your goals and how pain affects your life. We talk through a plan with you at the start and review your progress regularly.
Sessions are $135 per 50 minutes. Most workplace insurance plans cover sessions with a Registered Social Worker. Check your plan, and see our session fees.
Yes. We offer secure virtual therapy across Ontario, as well as in-person sessions in Hamilton.
Our team of therapists is here to help you develop and feel better.
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