Helping your brain and body rediscover safety
Facilitated by Dorota Hedzelek, PhD, Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC)
Location: Sensorium Health
PROGRAM FORMAT Overview:
- Individual Welcome & Orientation Session (Online) – No Charge
- Eight In-person Weekly Group Sessions
- Individual Integration Session (Optional)
Group Session Times: Saturdays 1:30-3:45
Group Session Dates: Oct 3, Oct 17, Oct 24, Oct 31, Nov 7, Nov 14, Nov 21, Nov 28
Total Program Cost: $880 ($110 per group session)
Eligible for reimbursement under Extended Health Benefits
An 8-Week Experiential Pain Reprocessing Group Therapy Program
Living with chronic pain often affects far more than the body. It can influence mood, relationships, identity, work, sleep, movement, and overall quality of life. Many people find themselves caught in cycles of pain, fear, frustration, and isolation despite receiving appropriate medical care.
Modern pain science offers a hopeful message: persistent pain is real, yet it is also influenced by the brain, nervous system, emotions, stress, beliefs, and past experiences. In many individuals, the nervous system becomes highly protective, continuing to generate pain long after tissues have healed or in the absence of ongoing injury. Because the brain and nervous system are capable of change throughout life (neuroplasticity), recovery is possible.
Safety in Me Group is an 8-week experiential pain reprocessing group therapy program designed to help people living with chronic pain develop a new relationship with pain, bodily sensations, emotions, and movement. Grounded in contemporary neuroscience and informed by Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) and Sensorimotor psychotherapy, this unique program combines education with direct embodied therapeutic experiences in the Sensorium dome.
Rather than asking, “How do I get rid of my pain?”, participants are invited to explore a more empowering question:
“How can I help my nervous system feel safe enough to reduce its need to protect me with pain?”
This shift forms the foundation of recovery.
Why Group Therapy for Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain can be deeply isolating and group therapy offers something individual treatment cannot fully replicate: the experience of being understood by others who genuinely know what it is like to live with persistent pain. In a small, professionally facilitated group, participants can learn from one another, normalize their experiences, reduce shame and isolation, and develop hope by witnessing others navigate similar challenges. Group psychotherapy also provides a safe environment to practice new ways of responding to pain, emotions, movement, and bodily sensations in real time, while receiving support, perspective, and encouragement from both the therapist and peers. Rather than facing pain alone, participants become part of a community where recovery is explored collectively, while still receiving individualized therapeutic attention within the group.
The Therapeutic Value of the Sensorium Dome
A distinctive feature of this program is the integration of Sensorium Health’s immersive therapeutic dome.
Each weekly session includes a carefully facilitated multisensory therapeutic experience that complements the psychotherapy process. The immersive environment is used to deepen mindfulness, enhance nervous system regulation, strengthen interoceptive awareness, support emotional processing, and reinforce new neural pathways associated with safety, calm, curiosity, and resilience.
The dome becomes an experiential extension of the therapeutic work occurring within the group, allowing participants to integrate new learning through direct embodied experience.
Who May Benefit
This psychotherapy group may be appropriate for adults experiencing persistent pain conditions, including:
- Chronic back or neck pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic musculoskeletal pain
- Persistent headaches and migraines
- Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
- Chronic pelvic pain
- Persistent post-surgical pain
- Other chronic pain conditions where appropriate medical assessment has been completed
Expected Outcomes
Over the course of the 8-week program, you will develop a deeper understanding of your pain and learn new ways of responding to pain sensations, emotions, and stress. The program is designed to support:
- Greater understanding of pain and the role of the brain, body, emotions, and nervous system in the experience of chronic pain.
- Reduced fear and threat associated with pain, helping you respond to sensations with greater safety, curiosity, and confidence.
- Greater confidence in movement and activity, with less fear-based avoidance and greater trust in your body’s capacity to move.
- Reduced pain-related distress and interference, so that pain has less impact on your daily life.
- Greater emotional awareness and expression, including increased ability to recognize, process, and express emotions connected to your pain experience.
- Greater capacity to regulate your responses to pain and stress, rather than automatically responding with fear, tension, or avoidance.
- More effective responses to pain flares, using skills that support safety, emotional processing, and nervous system regulation.
- Increased participation in meaningful life activities, including work, relationships, recreation, movement, and everyday activities.
- Greater self-efficacy, hope, and resilience, with a stronger sense of agency in your recovery.
- Improved quality of life, as pain becomes less central to how you live, move, connect, and experience yourself.
Recovery is not defined solely by how much pain you feel. It is also reflected in how you relate to pain, how safely and confidently you move, your ability to recognize and process emotions, your participation in meaningful activities, and your sense of agency in your life.
How to Join Safety in Me
1. Submit Your Interest
Complete the short online Registration Form below. We will contact you to book your individual online welcome session.
2. Individual Welcome & Orientation Session
You’ll meet individually with Dorota for an online 50-minute Welcome & Orientation Session. This is an opportunity to discuss your experience, goals, questions, and whether the group is a good fit for you.
3. Confirm Your Place
Following your Welcome Session, we’ll confirm whether Safety in Me is the right program for you and reserve your place in the upcoming group.
4. Complete Registration & Payment
Once your place is confirmed, you’ll complete the registration process and payment. You’ll receive everything you need to prepare for your first session, including the schedule, location information, and what to expect.
