Services
I provide counselling for individuals and children & families.
ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Psychotherapy is an effective treatment to manage and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Therapy helps folks to uncover underlying causes of their worries and fears, teaches new strategies for relating to your anxiety and/or depression, creates new and helpful perspectives and thinking patterns, and develops effective coping and problem solving skills.
Grief and Loss
Your loss may be from losing someone you love through separation, rejection, divorce, abandonment, betrayal, miscarriage or death. It may be that you have lost an aspect of yourself through lost self-esteem, lost health, lost innocence, lost reputation or a lost dream. Loss also includes losing a physical object, loss of safety after a trauma or a loss that occurs through developmental transitions. I welcome working with you regardless of what loss you have endured.
Family Counselling
When children experience developmental trauma, they often have difficulty feeling safe and secure and this insecurity comes out in their behaviour and/or through difficulty with the relationships that they have with those around them.
I work with children, teenagers and biological/adoptive/foster parents, to assist them to develop skills and strategies to build safe, healthy relationships with one another.
I use the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy model when working with families. This collaborative, attachment-focused model was designed by Dr. Daniel Hughes. It is effective with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma and focuses on facilitating a healthy emotional connection between the child and primary caregiver(s).
TRAUMA-INFORMED COUNSELLING
Experiencing trauma can cause harm to your sense of self, your sense of safety and your ability to regulate your emotions and create and maintain healthy relationships. Trauma results from an individual’s experience of an event, series of events or a set of enduring conditions, in which the person’s ability to integrate his or her emotional experience is overwhelmed and/or the individual experiences a threat to their life.
Post-trauma symptoms vary from person to person. Some examples of this may include anxiety, panic attacks, struggles with addiction, self-harm, hyper-vigilance/mistrust, flashbacks/nightmares, feelings of shame/self-loathing, hopelessness, nervous system dysregulation, insomnia, numbing, decreased concentration, decreased interest, irritability and/or depression. I provide trauma-informed psychotherapy to all of my clients.
FAITH & Spirituality
It is important that my clients feel welcome to incorporate their religious and spiritual beliefs into the counselling session. If your faith is a part of your identity, it is likely valuable for you to have a safe space to explore how your beliefs inform your life decisions. I have an appreciation for how faith can provide an individual with a deep sense of meaning, connection, hope and resilience.
I believe in the dignity and value of every person and strive to communicate unconditional positive regard to each client. I appreciate a holistic approach which includes exploring and caring for our mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being. I have a non-judgemental, gentle approach in working with my clients.
I have had the privilege to work with many clients from a wide range of religious and spiritual backgrounds, many of whom identified incorporating their faith in counselling to be integral part of their healing and progress.