My approach

First and foremost, I am client-centred. This means my focus is on helping you determine what feels right for you at all times. My framework is systemic, meaning that I locate any experiences of the individual within the greater system (e.g., your biology and environment), recognizing that you are part of a greater system which impacts and shapes your lived experience. I believe that our mental health is predominantly influenced by our environment and our biology. This can include external influences (e.g., relationships, work, systemic oppressions) and internal ones (e.g., metabolic health, nutrition, sleep, movement, etc.). See the bibliotherapy and resources pages for more information. I also strive to operate from a decolonized framework, aiming always to explore and name the ways that colonial systems create illness and displace blame onto the individual.

I am an Internal Family Systems (IFS) informed therapist. IFS is an evidence-based therapy, which states that you are not broken, but have an internal system that is working very hard to try and help you based on old patterns. It views the psyche not as a unitary mind, but rather as a multiplicity of parts (e.g., “A part of me loves him, and a part of me hates him.”).

IFS facilitates your connection to, and compassion for, your own parts. By internally witnessing and listening, you are able to directly understand the positive intent behind all of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. In getting to know your system, we go only as fast as the system allows. The intent is to gain your system’s trust so that we can access more wounded exiled parts which are burdened with extreme beliefs and emotions.

A primary mechanism of IFS is memory reconsolidation, by which we experientially open up memories and bring new information to them in order to change their emotional charge. IFS contends that our triggers come from implicit (unconscious) neural networks which are associated with traumatic memories. These do not need to be “big T” trauma, but can be “little t” trauma such as emotional misattunement in childhood. By experientially entering into memories, we are able to bring your present self to witness what was not well held and witnessed in the past, and provide any missing experience.

EMDR therapy is an evidence-based treatment for trauma, including PTSD, and is recommended by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. It can be used to treat both acute and developmental or chronic traumas. With EMDR, we collaborate to find a target memory for a presenting issue, activate that target memory, and then reprocess it using bilateral stimulation. The most common form of bilateral stimulation is eye movements, done by tracking the therapist’s fingers horizontally. The working hypothesis is that these memories are maladaptively stored, such that they are not able to integrate into the adaptive information processing network (aka your present day understanding); by reprocessing the memory via bilateral stimulation, your brain is able to access this adaptive network and create associations that allow the isolated memory to integrate. You can learn more via EMDR Canada.

There is a lot of power in simply being heard and validated. While we are now understanding the importance of somatic and internal work, I’ve often heard people dismiss talk therapy as being ineffective. This is not my personal experience. I am a huge advocate for somatic and internal work, but I also deeply value talk therapy. I believe the most important thing is for you and I to trust your system and what it wants to do. Talking can allow you to put it all “out on the table,” so that together we can hold space to witness and comprehend the content of your life. Often, it can be helpful just to have someone listen so that you can naturally come to your own realization.

Somatic therapy helps to reconnect you with your body, increasing your ability to be with and process the felt experience of emotions. It also helps you to understand the body’s messages and increase your trust and relationship with your body.

My learning is primarily in Hakomi (a mindfulness-based somatic therapy), attachment-based work with Diane Poole Heller, and an introductory level of Relational Somatic Therapy.

Since 2014, I have found a lot of personal healing through psychedelics in a therapeutic context. Since 2019, I have supported individuals with psychedelic preparation, harm reduction support, and integration from a psychoeducational harm reduction framework. Before my registration as a clinical counsellor, I completed two psychedelic trainings/initiations: one focused on a relational somatic framework for psychedelic-assisted therapy and the other for facilitation of 5-MeO-DMT experiences. I have over 10 years of experience guiding individuals through psychedelic experiences.