What We Might Explore
I approach therapy as a collaborative process, so we’ll follow what feels relevant and useful to you, at a pace that feels manageable.
Some sessions might involve talking through something that's been weighing on you. Others might involve exploring patterns, unpacking past experiences, or developing practical strategies to support you in your day-to-day life.
The exact things we explore will depend on you, and we can always adapt our work as your needs change.
Depending on what you're looking for, our work could include:
-
Working with the Nervous System — exploring how stress shows up in your body and developing strategies to help you feel more grounded and regulated.
-
Holding Space for Emotions — learning to recognize, understand, express, and make room for difficult emotions rather than judging or pushing them away.
-
Self-Acceptance & Self-Compassion — developing a kinder relationship with yourself and working with shame, perfectionism, self-criticism, or self-doubt.
-
Understanding Parts of Self — exploring the different parts of yourself and their needs, fears, and protective roles.
-
Inner-Child Work — gently exploring earlier experiences and how they may continue to shape your emotions, beliefs, relationships, and needs today.
-
Mindfulness & Embodiment — developing greater awareness of your thoughts, emotions, and bodily experiences, and learning to connect with yourself in the present moment.
-
Self Care & Sustainable Routines — finding realistic ways to care for yourself and meet your needs without turning self-care into another source of pressure or perfectionsim.
-
Unmasking & Self-Expression — exploring the ways you may have learned to hide, suppress, or adapt parts of yourself in order to fit in, and discovering what feels more authentic to you.
-
Boundaries & Relationships — exploring patterns, communication, people-pleasing, boundaries, and your needs within relationships.
-
Executive Functioning — exploring strategies and supports for organization, motivation, planning, overwhelm, and getting things done in ways that work for your brain.
-
Values & Meaning — clarifying what matters to you and exploring how you want to live in alignment with your values.
My Approach
Integrative & Eclectic
My work is Trauma-Informed, Neurodivergent-Informed and Affirming, LGBTQIA+ Affirming, and Culturally-Sensitive and Responsive.
With that, I have foundational knowledge across a range of therapeutic modalities and thoughtfully integrate elements of these approaches into our work depending on your needs, preferences, and goals. Rather than following one model or protocol, I draw from different approaches to create a therapeutic process that is tailored to you.
The therapeutic approaches I draw from include:
-
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
-
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
-
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
-
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
-
Somatic Approaches
-
Mindfulness-Based Practices
-
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
-
Emotion-Focused Therapy
-
Attachment-Based Therapy
-
Narrative Therapy
-
Gestalt Therapy
-
Existential Therapy
-
Transpersonal Psychology
-
Strength-Based Approaches
-
Solution-Focused Approaches
-
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
The approaches listed above reflect areas in which I have completed training and continuing education courses and developed foundational knowledge. I am not formally certified in each approach, and I do not necessarily practice each as a standalone, manualized treatment.
My Philosophy
The beliefs and values that guide my approach.
Person-Centred
This is your journey, you are the expert of your life, so you are in the driver's seat. You get to choose where we go, how we get there, and the pace at which we move. With me in the passenger seat, I am there to offer options, support, and guidance.
Holistic & Contextual
I view mental health and wellbeing within the contexts we live in. I believe mental health is not only deeply interconnected with our physical body, but also with the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental world we live in.
Relational
I believe therapy works best when there is a genuine therapeutic relationship built on trust and respect. My hope is that therapy can feel like a space where you feel comfortable to show up as you are, unapologetically.
My Background
Before I pursued my Masters in Counselling Psychology, I completed a Bachelor's degree in Social Work. This background helps inform my understanding of mental health through not only a psychological lens, but also a social one. I believe strongly in social justice and anti-oppressive practices, and I recognize the ways that our environments, relationships, communities, and broader social systems can shape our mental health and well-being.
Before beginning my career as a psychotherapist, I worked as a helping professional for over ten years, supporting a wide variety of people and communities. This included children and youth, older adults and seniors, members of the deaf and blind communities, and people with various cognitive, developmental, and physical disabilities.
These experiences have shaped not only my approach to this work, but also my approach to life. Working with people across such different stages and circumstances reminded me just how much we have in common. Beneath all of our differences, we share many fundamental needs: to feel seen, heard, understood, respected, valued, and accepted as we are.