Embodied + Relational Psychotherapy + Clinical Counselling
THERAPY APPROACHES
TRAUMA THERAPY
If your reaction to a current situation or challenge feels too big, overblown, or overwhelming, when logically you think it shouldn't be this upsetting or hard, you might have "old stuff" being activated by present experiences. Whether you think of yourself as someone who has experienced trauma or not, this type of therapy can be incredibly impactful in releasing the negative beliefs, emotional reactions, and blocks that are affecting you today.
The type of trauma therapy I do addresses unhelpful things someone took away from a negative experience or trauma that continue to negatively impact your life. This may be any negative experience that has lasting effects for you; what is trauma can be different for different people. I use a blend of approaches, including EMDR, to guide you through identifying how negative life experiences have affected you, and to process it effectively so you can move beyond it. You can read more about the types of trauma and negative life experiences I focus on here.
“...it is hard to imagine the scope of an individual life without envisioning some kind of trauma…”
Mark Epstein, MD
The Trauma of Everyday Life
RELATIONAL THERAPY
My relational approach centres our relationship in our work together, using our connection, building our trust, and exploring our dynamic to go deeper into your emotions and needs.
I also view all types of relationships throughout ones life as significant and impactful. We may look at your early and current relationships from an attachment lens, considering how your early experiences of care, love, neglect, abuse, or whatever it looked like for you, affect your current relationships, emotional well-being, and the way you view yourself and cope with the world.
One of the approaches I use, AEDP, focuses on "Undoing Aloneness." Sometimes the greatest harm, trauma, or challenge comes from being left alone with our feelings, being told they are wrong or too much, or being asked to ignore, repress, or deal with them alone. Through therapy, we can address these past experiences and the lessons we took from them that are no longer helpful, such as "I am too much" or "I am not worthy" to build a deeply felt sense of connection and worth.
EMBODIED THERAPY
I work from an embodied approach, meaning I consider the ways our bodies hold memories, traumas, and strategies for coping with challenges, and I use somatic approaches in therapy. Our bodies are where we first experience emotions before our mind interprets them. In session that means we might stop to notice how your body feels, where in your body you're experiencing an emotion, or how your body is reacting to certain memories or topics.
Sometimes a coping strategy someone learns to deal with early experiences of trauma or aloneness is to disconnect from feelings and their body. That means we might take our time to slowly reconnect, while also focusing on staying grounded and feeling safe enough to explore. But it doesn't mean you're not a fit for this type of therapy, and might mean you could find some deep meaning and growth from embodied therapy.
I incorporate somatic approaches and the body into all of the specific types of therapy I use, including EMDR and AEDP, and we can decide how connecting with your body fits into therapy for you.