My Therapeutic Stance
I am a registered therapist with a trauma informed, somatically based, transpersonal counselling approach. This means that I have an understanding of how challenging and traumatic life experiences are perceived and stored, both cognitively and in the body. I am practiced at holding others with emotional and somatic sensitivity. My experience is that creating a satisfying and meaningful life is most powerfully supported through somatic engagement and presence. My passion is attention and love for what IS in each moment.
I am deeply committed to anti-racism, to all forms of equity and to supporting lived experiences of safety to discuss these topics. My academic learning has focused on social and political systems of racial, gender, and sexual oppression, including modes of resistance and decolonization. I am a cis hetero white woman and I live with daily consideration of how to mobilize my privilege in support of a radically more just society.
Modalities and Approaches
Sessions will be shaped by what you bring into the discussion and what your goals and desires are. We can work with specific modalities and we can also allow fluidity and bring in various tools and approaches that best support your needs. The following are some of my favourite and most effective lines of enquiry.
Inner Relationship Focusing
Inner relationship focusing is a practice that builds our ability to give attention to our inner experiences, both somatic and emotional. By dropping into the body and seeking the "felt sense" of the moment with curiosity and support, we can develop a more positive and empowered relationship to ourselves
Attachment Therapy
Attachment to early caregivers is a model that shapes how we engage in all other relationships, often experiencing similar emotional patterns. Attachment therapy promotes awareness of how we move in connection with others and supports shifts in relationship dynamics by making clear what unmet needs and unspoken beliefs are directing our behaviours and desires
Family Systems Therapy
It is common to perceive ourselves as individuals, self defined and self directed. It is also true that we establish our self definitions within a larger social system - our families. By considering the dynamics of our individual families and also recognizing the intergenerational patterns that are common inside our family system, we can gain greater awareness of the pressures that have shaped us. Family systems work reveals what is felt and often unseen and unnamed.
Polyvagal Theory
Polyvagal theory focuses on the way that your nervous system responds to the external world and relational experiences. There are three states: ventral vagal (relaxed, socially engaged), sympathetic (triggered, reactive), and dorsal vagal (overwhelmed, frozen). Using this lens, we can better understand the situations that move you between states and also the circumstances that most effectively return you to a grounded, connected state.
Transpersonal Therapy
The foundation of transpersonal therapy is the absolute safety and supportiveness of the therapeutic relationship. Our time together is an opportunity for you to experience a connection in which your needs are my unconditional priority; where your honest expression is invited, respected, appreciated. This may seem simple - I assure you, it is profound. Subconsciously, we spend a great deal of time guarding and performing for others. Spending time inside of a secure connection powerfully develops your ability to bring this trusting, confident part of yourself to other relationships in your life.
Gestalt Therapy
This modality focuses on immediacy and experience while exploring past situations that continue to burden you. Often, we replay conversations and situations in our minds because our bodies and emotions are stuck or disconnected; overwhelm in the past leaves us feeling that we have no options now. We can use role play and imagination to revisit these moments, supported by body awareness and connection to self in the present moment. We can finish what feels unfinished; we can rescue ourselves by remaining present with all that comes up as we return and explore the past.
