Client Focus: Individuals 18+
Types of Therapy: Main–Person-centered and psychodynamic; Informed/infused by: Existential, attachment theory, polyvagal theory, CBT, DBT, narrative theory, strengths-focused, ITATM (for deep processing work), and somatics
How I support navigating your needs:
Trauma: The main villain of trauma is less about the actual event/act/situation that imposed it, but rather our perception of it and how it altered our relationship with ourselves and the world, commonly manifested in our beliefs (e.g., I am unlovable).
Solution: Working with trauma is as deeply individual as all other types of self-work we do. I strive to understand what each individual means when they say “I want to process”. For some processing may mean sharing their stories with someone objective and impartial. The act of being seen and voicing how you think and feel in response is the intervention. To others it may mean a more intensive process like the use of breathwork, drawing, somatic scanning, cognitive restructuring, and more. My practice includes both styles of approach. For a structured approach to processing, I use the Integrative Trauma and Attachment Treatment Model. For a more humanistic, relational approach, I strive to understand how your trauma shifted your view of yourself and the world, and in turn how to bring in more self-compassion, self-acceptance, and rewire these protective beliefs keeping you stuck. Work in this area may also involve developing regulation strategies and skills to support management of arousal, avoidance, and re-experiencing of past traumas.
Depression and Anxiety: Like all symptoms, depression and anxiety are examples of extreme, protective responses to acute or chronic stressors. Anxiety tries to protect you by coping ahead (i.e., coming up with all the possible ways X could go wrong so you are prepared. It’s a deeply methodical warning system). Depression is a sign of longing and severe disconnection–mostly from the self, but also to others.
Solution: With anxiety we will work on validating the fears and avoidance, introduce regulation and coping strategies, while also shifting to focusing on items within our control. Working with anxiety will often need to include gradually “leaning into the chaos” (that is, allowing your nervous system to experience what we fear in order to encode that what we prepare for often never happens or is not as intense as we imagined it would be). As depression and anxiety are two sides of the same coin, working with these low or shut down states will involve regulation, work on developing flexible thinking, supporting baseline functioning (i.e., taking care of our cores–sleep, nutrition, movement) as well as introducing self-compassion, gradually working towards external connection.
Grief/Loss: Grief transcends what society typically classifies it–the loss of someone. Grief can be found in losing someone or a pet. It can be found in leaving or losing a job. Grief is in discovering new parts of the self and leaving behind old ones. Grief is in the process of wanting to change. Grief can be found in almost anything we do and encounter in this life, because grief is the experience of coping with perceived loss.
Solution: This may differ depending on the context of grief, but my main responsibility in supporting you with grief is bearing witness to said loss. Grief often feels overwhelming because we feel we have to bear it alone or that we can only be sad for the 3 business days we get off from work. Grief does not have a timeline and neither should you. Let’s chat about the loss, what feels unsaid, how it affected you intrapersonally, the way life changes because of it, and more. We move through grief by being with it.
Self-Discovery/Identity: We are all composed of several parts of our Self. Maybe you’re an athlete and an artist. Maybe you tend to be methodical. Or you have a small social battery. Our Self is not distinctly one thing. And because of our colourful natures, we have values and morals, schemas–some we are born with, some we adopt along the way. Sometimes when we experience conflict in our lives, whether with work, school, others, or even ourselves, it is because we feel disconnected from who we are–these values we hold. Or maybe they’re changing and we feel stuck between what was and what will be.
Solution: I take a very existential, humanistic approach to self-discovery work. I think it is one of the most fascinating parts of the human experience and encourage all my clients to dip deep here. This can look like exploring and discussing personal and relational values, hobbies, interests, and more. If it fits, I find promoting reflective journaling to be helpful in exploring these topics.
Overall, I strive to help you find clarity about what your feelings, thoughts, symptoms, and behaviour are trying to tell you. My work is deeply person-centered and relational, meaning I do not bring an agenda* to session and lean into the collaborative process of discussing and unpacking what you bring to session. This means my work is client-led. My job is not to fix you, because you are not broken. Nor do I give advice or tell you what to do as I don’t believe that to be the inherit function of therapy. I believe we are all the experts of our stories–our lives–and my main job is to bear witness to that story and to stand alongside you as you put the puzzle pieces together.
*Exceptions may apply on an individual basis or when utilizing the ITATM model.
Experience:
I am a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO and a Certified Trauma Integration Clinician with ATTCH Academy. I have obtained a BSc., in Psychology and Biochemistry from Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as my MA. in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville.
I have been working in the community mental health and social services field for nearly a decade. I worked for several years in emergency and transitional housing programs, as well as in community addictions counselling and case management prior to transitioning to private psychotherapy.
Like many psychotherapists, I work from a lens of lived experience, not only of my own personal experiences, but from my family’s. These insights include severe mental health and suicide, complex trauma, addictions, grief and traumatic grief, anxiety, and in navigating the challenges associated with supporting children and adolescents born with genetic conditions resulting in cognitive and physical disabilities.
More than just my work:
There are so many quotes that have inspired my work, as well as supported my own healing journey. A few include:
“Healing isn’t about erasing the past. It’s about changing how the past lives within you so that it no longer controls your present.” Unknown.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Carl Jung.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” Carl Rogers.
