You are not alone
Perhaps, you’ve heard yourself say or wondered to yourself:
I’ve struggled with anxiety all my life.
I’m tired of over-thinking. I can’t shut my mind off at night.
I struggle with chronic pain, and I'm so tired of it.
I feel so overwhelmed in social settings.
I have so much built up anger and resentment; I’m having gut issues all the time.
I’m so scatter brained, I’m all over the place.
I find myself shut down or easily triggered by my child’s behaviours.
I can see myself reacting the exact same way my parents did to me, and I want to break the cycle.
I don’t want to die, but I sometimes have intrusive thoughts that scare me.
I coast through life feeling disengaged and disconnected. I want to start living again.
I have painful memories from the past, and I want to start living my life freer.
I don’t know who I am anymore and I want to re-discover who I am.
You are not alone if you find yourself feeling this way. As painful as they are, these are shared human suffering. The truth is that we are not meant to carry pain alone, and I want to help carry it with you.
Individual Therapy
Adults, Youth (15+)
Focusing on your individual experiences, needs and goals of what you long to accomplish. Therapy that engages with your emotions in your body.
My training and therapeutic stance is drawn upon Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). I’m an AEDP Level 3 therapist.
What’s different about experiential therapy is that you will have a “bottom-up” experience in our session - an experience in the body (bottom) and then coming to an insight (up) later. For example, it could be an experience of your emotions you’ve been accustomed to bury deep down or it could be a new experience within you that you might have never felt before. I will guide you to slow down and notice what’s happening inside – so that we can listen to the wisdom of your body. When old default sets in and makes it difficult for you to feel, I will highlight what might be going on so that you can be aware of your patterns in the moment. I, as a therapist, am an active participant in the process, joining you in your suffering, co-creating safety and secure attachment between you and I, going to places where you’ve shunned away from (likely for a very good reason) and undoing your aloneness and past wounding. This means that if you get stuck, I’m going to help you. If you don’t know how to call your emotions, we are going to build our vocabulary together.
“Nothing that feels bad is ever the last step. ”
What is AEDP?
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) is a boldly relational, attachment-based, experiential, healing-oriented therapy.
Contrary to a traditional psychotherapy model where sessions are centred around diagnosis and psychopathology, in AEDP, we look for “what’s going right” in the midst of human suffering. That does not mean that we ignore what’s difficult – there will be plenty of room for suffering. Dr Diana Fosha, the founder of AEDP, discovered that because of human beings’ innate drive toward self-healing when we privilege the positive we can go beyond the alleviation of suffering and rather than returning to the baseline, we can move to thriving and flourishing states, which leads to further broadening of positive emotions. Where we focus our attention has the power to shape new patterns. In AEDP, we slow down so that we can pay attention to what’s happening in the body. Positive neuroplasticity operates from the cradle to the grave (Fosha 2021) – meaning that our brain has the capacity to change from in-utero all the way until we die. In a healing-oriented model, such as AEDP, puts positive neuroplasticity into action and creates change and transformation at the nervous system level; therefore, making it a lasting change.
Art Therapy
Adults, Youth (15+)
Working with art in sessions, sometimes in between sessions, as a symbolic representation of your feelings.
One of the unique gifts I offer is Art Therapy. As humans, we experience life in images. Memories are stored in images and particularly ones that occurred in early childhood and ones of emotional impact tend to bypass the part of our brain that allows us to recall verbally. This can make talk therapy challenging. Through the creative process of simple art making these memories can gently be accessed and brought to our awareness in the presence and safety of our space together. As a professional Art Therapist, I am trained to facilitate this intricate dance in our sessions if you choose to do so.
Art Therapy is different from traditional art making where an emphasis is made on the final product and the outcome. Rather, the emphasis is on the process of creating, building as you make meaning one line or movement at a time.
You don’t have to be an artist to engage in Art Therapy. No drawing/artistic skills required.
“Art Therapy combines visual art and psychotherapy in a creative process using the created images as a foundation for self-exploration and understanding.” (excerpt from BCATA. Read more about Art Therapy: https://bcarttherapy.com/about-art-therapy/)
Who might benefit from Art Therapy?
• I am a perfectionist, struggling with anxiety, ADHD and having difficulty softening my rigid expectations of myself or others
• I am grieving and there are no words to describe how I feel.
• I have difficulty expressing and naming how I feel.
• I feel overwhelmed with my experience and don’t know what to do.
• I have painful trauma I am scared to talk about.
• I want to take a look at myself deeply and discover who I am.
• I am curious about Art Therapy and interested in seeing what it’s about.
And so much more.
Some of my art therapy services include, but not limited to:
Directive Art Therapy:
Guided and directed by me based on the initial intake assessment and goal setting. They can range from something small and simple that can be created during session to a bigger project that stretches over several sessions.
Body Mapping
Vision Board
PhotoTherapy
Non-Directive Art Therapy:
Open, client-centered without prescribed steps, accessing your subconscious and right-brain creativity and expression.
Sometimes there may be an experience in session where it makes more sense to illustrate it through art-making. In this case, I may invite you to non-directive Art Therapy.
Open Studio
Art Therapy Groups:
An opportunity to connect, create and reflect on who you are both individually and collectively as a group and look deeper within.
2 week Art Therapy group
Custom tailored groups brought to your organization
Parental Support
“Children need encouragement, like a plant needs water. They cannot survive without it.” Rudolf Dreikurs
…. and this quote still applies to us adults.
Have you heard yourself say about your young or adult child:
“She hates social settings and does anything to avoid it.”
“He has explosive anger outbursts and I am so tired of it.”
“I can’t get her to be motivated on her schooling/work.”
“I’m concerned about his impulsive behaviours.”
“I get triggered and explode at my daughter all the time. She knows how to push my buttons!”
“He has OCD. I’m so irritated by his rituals.”
“She must have bi-polar. I’m so tired of her ups and downs.”
“He and I have such a strained relationship. I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said, and I feel so ashamed of what I’ve done to him.”
“I can see myself reacting the exact same way my parents did to me, and I want to break the cycle.”
If you’ve heard yourself say any of the above, you are not alone. Parenting can be the most rewarding and challenging journey at the same time. No child comes with an instruction manual - even if they are young adults, there’s still no instruction ‘how to operate your young adult’! I completely understand the temptation for you to want someone to ‘fix’ your child. I’ve been there. The thing is, children (and young adults) live in the context of their families. In addition to my lived experience as a fellow parent, I have a decade of experience working with children and their families, specializing in symbolic ways of expression through Play and Art Therapy. Through my experience, I have seen the most long-lasting change in children when parents are involved and committed to creating a change. Through the attachment and developmental lens, I offer support to parents providing psychoeducation, coaching and demonstration of what you can do to create a change in your child and foster stronger attachment with your child.
My Therapy Process
Initial Consultation
Once you submit your information on my Get Started page, I will get back to you within 2-4 business days to arrange a time for a free 20 minute phone consultation. This is where you and I will connect for the very first time, assessing if we could be a good fit to engage in the therapy process.
therapy sessions
Ideally, either by the end of the first or the second session, we identify goals of what you want to accomplish in therapy, and we go from there. While I don't have a prescribed plan on how long you need to be in therapy for - many of my clients choose to work with me for long-term. I've seen most progress happen when clients are able to commit to a frequent and consistent (weekly or bi-weekly) work in order to see change and then gradually taper it down as you see fit. Therapy is an investment for your mental and emotional well-being, which often translate to physical health. You are worth that well-being. If you have a certain amount allotted for the year, I encourage you to invest more in the beginning in order to create a momentum of change.
pause and return
When you get to a place where you have accomplished your goals in therapy, feeling better and more at peace with where you are at in your life, that's often a good indicator that a season of therapy is coming to a close. It's ok to access therapy in seasons. You won't need me forever! And, when things start to feel heavy again or if you want to do a routine 'check-ins', I invite you to reconnect with me.