A Specialized Registered Clinical Counselor (RCC)
Therapy For Medical Trauma And Chronic Illness
Medical trauma doesn’t always look like a single terrifying event. More often it’s cumulative — years of being told your symptoms are in your head, doctors who ran out of ideas, tests that came back “normal” while you got sicker, or a diagnosis that took a decade to land. If you flinch at the thought of another appointment, that’s a trauma response, not a character flaw.
About Me
I am Elysia Bronson, RCC. I serve on the Board of the Canadian Pain Society and co-chair the Interprofessional Special Interest Group. I am certified in Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Trauma-Focused CBT, and the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP). Chronic pain, chronic illness, and the trauma that comes with them are my sole clinical focus, not a sideline. I also live with chronic illness myself. I understand what it means to be dismissed by a doctor, to fight for a diagnosis, and to grieve the life you expected to have.
What We Work On Together
Diagnostic delay, and the toll of not being believed
Medical gaslighting and its lingering effects on self-trust
Anticipatory anxiety before appointments, tests, or procedures
Grief for the health and the life you expected to have
Hypervigilance around your body and its signals
Rebuilding a working relationship with a healthcare system you still need to use
How Therapy Helps With Medical Trauma
Medical trauma therapy isn’t about reliving the worst appointment on repeat. It’s about helping your nervous system stop bracing for the next dismissal, rebuilding enough trust in your own perception that you can advocate for yourself again, and processing the grief and anger that come with years of not being believed. We work with what actually happened to you, not a generic trauma protocol that assumes trauma always comes from one clear event.
Therapy Approaches I Use
I draw on Trauma-Focused CBT to work directly with the thoughts and memories tied to medical trauma, the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to calm a nervous system that’s been on high alert for years, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) when trauma and chronic pain are feeding each other, which they often are. None of these treat your pain or your trauma as imaginary. They treat your nervous system as something that can be worked with. For many people recovering from medical trauma, clinical settings themselves are triggering: waiting rooms, intake forms, even the smell of a clinic. Online therapy means you do this work from a space you control, without walking back into the kind of environment that hurt you in the first place.
Who I Work With
I see clients across British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. I am registered with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC). I currently cannot see clients from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or PEI due to provincial registration requirements.
Getting Started
Individual counselling: $150 CAD per 50-minute session. SSP-integrated session: $180 CAD per 50-minute session. Free 20-minute consultation: no cost, no pressure. Insurance: most extended health plans cover RCC services. ICBC and WorkSafe BC accepted. Sessions: Monday through Friday, online via secure video.
There are multiple ways to adapt therapy to fit your life — you can do self-guided SSP for vagus nerve stimulation, take a self-guided course with video walkthroughs on how to manage life with a new diagnosis, or we can meet 1:1 online for weekly support.
If years of being dismissed, tested, and second-guessed have left a mark, that’s worth addressing directly — not just pushing through. Book a free 20-minute consultation. No referral needed. No pressure. Just a conversation about whether this is the right fit.
Contact: elysiabronson@thewoodscounselling.com | +1 (604) 302-2193