Dr. Gabriela Ilie is a Soillse Scientist in Prostate Cancer Quality of Life, a Psychology Professor, and a Certified Relationship Workshop Facilitator. Her research focuses on enhancing the quality of life for prostate cancer patients through interventions that address physical, psychological, and relational aspects of living. By improving patient education and empowerment programs, she aims to integrate holistic care into the current medical standard. Dr. Ilie has received national and international recognition for her work. She was twice nominated for TVO’s Best Lecturer Award while teaching over 25,000 students at the University of Toronto. In 2024, she was honored with the Research Nova Scotia Public Impact Award and has been interviewed globally for her impactful research. She is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Lead of three patient empowerment programs: pcpep.org, cancerpep.org, and pictoucountypep.org.
I just want to take a few minutes to tell you who we are and why we are so passionate about this work. Prior to meeting Rob, I had taught over 86 courses in Psychology and Neuroscience as a University Professor mostly at University of Toronto reaching over 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the span of 14 years. The course material included topics related to critical thinking and cognition, human development, aging, love and sexuality, health, group interactions and social psychology. I moved to Halifax from Toronto in 2016 and began conducting research on survivorship issues associated with various contemporary forms of prostate cancer treatments in an attempt to understand what were the needs of prostate cancer survivors before devising interventions to address them. At the time, Rob was running a charity in Halifax delivering support groups for cancer patients while also working as a Radiation Oncologist treating prostate, breast and paediatric cancers. When in 2017 preliminary results of my research revealed a silent epidemic of psychological distress among survivors of prostate cancer, we combined my knowledge of relationship training with Rob’s experience running cancer support groups and created a seminar designed specifically for prostate cancer survivors and their partners. Since then we offered over 300 free seminars and webinars to prostate cancer survivors throughout Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand. At first, our audiences were primarily cancer patients, cancer survivors and their partners, but soon they extended to health professionals, academics, and researchers, which we have presented primarily in group sessions in the context of seminars, week-end retreats, talks, and conference presentations.
The work I present addresses the issue of disconnect in intimate relationships, including our relationship with ourselves. However, because the tools we teach to strengthen these relationships really pertain to all relationships we have in our life, it was soon brought to our attention that they can easily be applied to relationships that we have with our kids, with our family, work relationships, and community relationships. As a result we developed workshops, week-end retreats, and conference presentations to work with individuals in different settings and empower them in the context of the relationships that are most important for them.
So why do I do what I do? I believe that the main purpose of human life is to love and connect. Helping break the cycle of disconnect and empower people with techniques and ways to remove the impediments to the awareness of love’s constant presence in our lives, and the awareness of just how connected and alike we all really are (beyond thinking that would have us perceived otherwise), has been my life’s purpose, and one of the greatest joy of my life. Having reflected upon this, and in retrospect, as I writ this I realize the consistency of this resonant message in my heart throughout my life. I recognized that most of human suffering comes from a feeing of disconnect and loneliness, and that there was an epidemic of loneliness in our society. Now science shows us that feeling alone, ranks up right there with smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. It negatively impacts our quality of life and prevents us for reaching our full potential. And while the epidemic of loneliness is increasingly recognized as a social issue, what is less recognized is that there is very little work undertaken to address this issue and minimize its negative impact on health. Yet, we know from scientific studies how loneliness and feeling isolated, can kill. Loneliness has been estimated by research to shorten a person’s life by 15 years; this is the equivalent to being obese or smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And it doesn’t stop here. Loneliness and social isolation increases cancer risk and cancer mortality risk, and leads to low responsiveness to cancer treatments. It decreases resistance to infections, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and has been shown to be a pre-clinical sign for Alzheimer’s disease. My education in psychology and neuroscience, research on quality of life and chronic diseases with over 60 peer reviewed publications, more than 2700 scientific citations, and training in facilitating relationship workshops puts me in a unique position to draw from all this knowledge and provide people access to simple proven skills and techniques to break the cycle of disconnect and help improve health and happiness. Rob’s compassion and goodness of heart donating his time and energy leading workshops that empower cancer patients for over 20 years has inspired me to do the same and so I signed up for a lifetime of giving back, with him, unconditionally, to the love that has been given us.
Another reason for my doing what I do and wanting to provide workshops and seminars on relationships teaching and forgiveness has to do with a book I came across in 2005, entitled A Course in Miracles (distributed by the Foundation for Inner Peace, in San Francisco). You will often hear me quote material from the Course in our workshops and you will see why I am so excited about its wisdom and the central idea it emphasizes with respect to the critical role of our mind in choosing forgiveness as the way of love, and its critical role in the purpose of enlightened relationships. These principles along with tools I learned from science and psychology about how to improve communication and key elements of successful relationships, made me realize that it is through relationships that we come to know ourselves and grow spiritually. Through relationships we become aware of our unchecked assumptions, expectations, ideas and beliefs. It is through questioning our thinking and choosing the lens of love, that we learn to become better partners, better parents, better sons and daughters, and that ultimately, we become awaken. Over the years teaching, I realized that at the center of my own distress and pain, whenever I experienced it throughout my life, there was always my perceiving mind, “looking at the world” from the outside (effect) in (cause) and thinking that the world was coming at me and not from me. And as I learned more and I reflected back on it, I realized that there was another way of looking at the world and a reversed pathway of cause and effect. I realized that I can have better communication with the people in my life, that I can live an authentic happy life and choose differently, that I can have a relationship based on trust, on mutual respect and appreciation, on true intimacy. I realized that I can share a passion and life, and grow together with another person, leading to truly developing a “team” mentality where we don’t see each other’s interest as apart from each other, but as one. And that really changed my perspective about life, and myself and it changed my perspective on what I have and live with Rob currently (see Rob’s bio link).
My journey with Rob marked a commitment to a consciously purpose driven enlightened relationship with the understanding that this means we are each committed to self-enlightenment first and foremost. That true union means that the “enlightenment” is not a quality outside of us but one that must be nurtured and chosen within. We do not come together to complete, or change one another, to “take” anything from one another, but rather we come together as two whole and complete people, willing and wanting to share a common path, while seeing each other’s interest as one’s own and helping each other remove the blocks to the awareness of love’s constant presence in our lives.
What We Offer
Our workshops and seminars focus on breaking cycles of disconnection and empowering individuals with proven tools to enhance their relationships. These programs are designed to help participants strengthen bonds with their partners, children, colleagues, and communities.Key topics include:
- Understanding roles, beliefs, and love languagesEffective communication strategiesForgiveness and relationship visionTools for rewiring beliefs and breaking harmful patternsThe science of love from biological, psychological, and spiritual perspectives
Through these workshops, participants gain practical techniques to foster trust, intimacy, and mutual respect in their relationships.
Our Philosophy
Our journey as facilitators began with a shared commitment to creating purpose-driven, enlightened relationships. For us, true connection comes from recognizing that love and growth start within. Relationships should not complete or change us, but rather bring two whole individuals together to share a path of mutual support and respect. We believe that through relationships, we gain self-awareness and grow spiritually. By learning to question our assumptions and see the world through the lens of love, we can become better partners, parents, and community members.Our work is grounded in wisdom from science, psychology, and A Course in Miracles, a book that deeply shaped our perspective on love, forgiveness, and the transformative power of relationships.
Join Us
Whether you’re seeking to strengthen your intimate relationships or improve connections in other areas of your life, our comprehensive programs offer the structure and tools you need to succeed. We hope you’ll feel as inspired by this work as we are and take the first step toward building healthier, happier relationships.