15-Minute Discovery Call

Taking the first step to get support can be hard. I offer a FREE phone consultation to make this process easier and to determine whether we are a good fit.

Feel free to contact me directly or book a complimentary 15-minute discovery call to get started.

Individual Therapy Sessions

I offer individual virtual counselling (video or phone) sessions at the rate of $150 per hour.

Evening and weekend appointments are available.

Session Delivery

Video

Phone

Whether you prefer speaking to me over the phone ​or through a video session from the comfort of your own home, I've got you covered.

Therapies Used

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI)

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT primarily focuses on accepting what we cannot control and committing to behaving in a way aligned with living a meaningful life. ACT supports one in learning to stop avoiding, denying or struggling with one's internal experiences and accept that these experiences may be appropriate responses to certain situations and should not prevent one from moving forward with one's life. It promotes accepting our current reality, and cultivating greater distress tolerance skills while simultaneously determining and behaving in a way that is following one's values. Acceptance is not a passive act but a necessary step to getting unstuck and overcoming life’s challenges.

It is based on six core processes to help develop and expand psychological flexibility: acceptance, cognitive defusion, being present, self-as-context, focusing on one's values and committed action.

To Learn More: https://www.actmindfully.com.au/

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a therapeutic model that is based on the belief that psychological concerns are due in part to faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking and/or behaving. It is also based on the premise that thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all interconnected and influence each other. By identifying unhelpful patterns in both our thoughts and behaviours we can intervene using more adaptive tools that can be learned to help change patterns and relieve symptoms.

While we cannot change our automatic thoughts and feelings, we can learn to pause and determine whether our internal experiences make sense for the situation and mindfully take a course of action.

This model is focused more on the here and the now and on changing the unhelpful thoughts and behaviours that drive distressing emotions.

To Learn More: https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi)

CBTi is a type of therapy that helps those struggling with sleep issues and insomnia. With the support of a therapist, you gain support to break habits and patterns that interfere with sleep and replace them with new approaches that increase your ability and quality of sleep. CBTi consists of focusing on five key components: improving sleep hygiene, reviewing thoughts that are interfering with your ability to sleep, focusing on relaxation techniques to help prepare you for sleep and focusing on behavioural changes by way of stimulus control and bed restriction.

Since sleep is at the foundation of one's well-being and daily functioning, it can not only help relieve insomnia but has secondary effects of reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression and other psychological conditions. Wakefulness is part of the sleep cycle so our sleep quality is a direct correlation to our functioning and well-being during the day.

To Learn More: https://mysleepwell.ca/cbti/what-is-cbti/

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

DBT focuses on developing four areas: mindfulness, interpersonal conflict, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation

• Mindfulness: the practice of being in the present and acknowledging thoughts, feelings and behaviours as they happen, without trying to control them

• Distress tolerance: the process of learning how to cope during a crisis, especially when it is impossible to change, and accepting a situation as it is, rather than how it should be

• Interpersonal effectiveness: the ability to ask for what a person needs and to say no when necessary, while still maintaining self-respect and relationships with others

• Emotion regulation: the ability to manage emotions so that they do not control thoughts and behaviours.

Source: https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/dialectical-behaviour-therapy#:~:text=DBT%20teaches%20people%20to%20accept,and%20social%20aspects%20of%20living.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a therapeutic model that supports clients' focus on a specific distressing or traumatic memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements). There are eight phases, which include attachment-focused history-taking, resourcing, reprocessing and closure.

We use the train analogy to illustrate what happens in a reprocessing session: imagine yourself sitting in a train car (in your therapist's office) and if upsetting feelings come up, we invite you to consider it like the scenery outside the train. All you have to do is notice and let it go by. The key is to be simultaneously oriented to the present moment while also being engaged in the disturbing memory. Safety and stabilization will need to be ensured before engaging in reprocessing.

In EMDR your brain takes you wherever you need to go along associative networks with the belief that through this process it will eventually get you to a place where you can have peace with the memory you are reprocessing.

While newer than other models it has been extensively researched and validated by regulating and governmental bodies in Canada and around the world, including the World Health Organization.

Learn More:

About EMDR: https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/

Experiencing EMDR Therapy: https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/experiencing-emdr-therapy/

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS is a transformative and experiential type of psychotherapy developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz that is based on the premise that the mind consists of several sub-personalities or “parts”. As we grow up, parts form a system of interaction among themselves in the same way a family does. Each part has a unique perspective and holds different roles and beliefs. Some parts like each other, and some parts don’t. Regardless of their intention or motivation, our parts all have positive intent for you (from their perspective). IFS also believes we all have an inherent “Self” energy, which cannot be damaged and knows how to heal. IFS helps people access and heal their protective and wounded inner parts. The primary goal of IFS is supporting a client to get acquainted with their protectors by accessing their self-energy, paying attention to and supporting parts (especially ones who have taken on extreme roles) and helping them take on the roles they would like rather than the roles they felt forced into. When your internal system changes then the external system changes and vice versa.

Source: https://ifs-institute.com/about-us/richard-c-schwartz-phd#:~:text=Grounded%20in%20systems%20thinking%2C%20Dr,they%20were%20organized%20across%20clients.

Trauma-Informed Care

As humans we have all been through adverse life experiences, some to a greater degree than others. This type of approach considers the impact of our past and how it may continue to impact our present-day functioning.

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