Psychotherapy & Counselling Services
Individual Psychotherapy and Counselling Services are provided for Children, Youth, and Adults.
Issues addressed in psychotherapy include:
Depression
Stress & Anxiety
Relationship Challenges
Spiritual Healing & Transformation
Grief & Loss
Traumas. Emotional, Physical & Sexual Abuse
Sexual Concerns
Self-Esteem & Body-Image
Coping with Depression
Depression is a feeling of persistent sadness that can last for days at a time and can interfere with our daily functioning. Feelings of depression may be triggered by a painful life experience, such as an illness, a death in the family, losing a job, a divorce, or facing relationship issues. Other times depression may arise from feeling lost from our path and purpose in life. Some may feel depressed without any particular ‘known’ reason. Feeling depressed may cause a person to withdraw from participating in daily routines and activities with family and friends, and some individuals may also carry thoughts of suicide.
Psychotherapy can help you resolve the mental, emotional and spiritual influences creating depression. In our session together a safe, confidential and supportive environment will be provided so that you can explore unexpressed feelings and concerns and begin healing difficult emotions. During psychotherapy you will learn how to overcome mental and emotional blocks, learn strategies for self-healing, and begin building a life towards your passion, purpose and joy.
Psychotherapy can help people experiencing depression:
- Regain a sense of enjoyment in life by learning strategies for managing thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
- Solve or improve life situations that are contributing to depression, and enhance mental and emotional well-being.
- Transform limiting beliefs and thinking patterns that lead to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Feel more empowered and in control of your life.
- Recognize your inner potential, strengths and wisdom for achieving personal healing, well-being and positive life directions.
Overcoming Stress & Anxiety
Stress is often triggered by a situation that makes a person feel frustrated or nervous.
Anxiety is the experience of consistent underlying fear, worry and unease that can take us away from fully experiencing the present moment and our overall enjoyment of life. The mind and body can take on certain ‘anxiety’ patterns that have their roots in those life experiences where we felt threatened and unsafe. Being exposed to these situations, especially for prolonged periods of time, can wire our bodies and mind to experience anxiety and stress throughout our lives.
Psychotherapy can help you break free from these patterns. In our sessions together we will explore the root causes of stress and anxiety, and develop a treatment plan that empowers you to take control of your life situation. You will learn valuable skills for calming the mind and body, and managing stress and anxiety. Psychotherapy can assist you in developing the necessary tools and resources to create healthy psychological life patterns.
Various anxiety related issues are addressed in psychotherapy including panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and phobias.
Psychotherapy can help people experiencing stress and anxiety:
- Discover and understand the root causes of anxiety and stress.
- Release anxiety, tension and stress within the body and mind using a holistic psychotherapeutic framework.
- Learn coping skills and relaxation techniques to maintain calm and inner-balance. Use these skills to counteract daily stress, anxiety and panic.
- Identify and transform thoughts and feeling that create stress and anxiety. Learn to enjoy the present moment with ease, flow and trust by internalizing positive and empowering thoughts and emotions.
Resolving Relationship Challenges
Do you struggle to express your true feelings and needs within your relationships, or confront those behaviours within relationships that are hurting you? Do you long to experience greater emotional bonding, closeness, trust and intimacy within your relationships? Whether you are dealing with a romantic relationship, relationships with family members, friends or co-workers, or looking for a fulfilling relationship, psychotherapy can help you journey through relationships.
Other issues in relationships can include being the victim or perpetrator of physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse or sexual abuse. In these situations we may feel alone, afraid, sad, confused, upset and hopeless. Sometimes we are faced with having to decide whether leaving our partner is the best decision for us. Navigating divorce, separation or the contemplation of leaving a partner can be emotionally taxing.
Psychotherapy can help you with providing the clarity and guidance to successfully navigate your relationships and the challenges that may arise. In our sessions together we will work on helping you access your inner power and strengths, build courage, and release fears, so that you can take the necessary steps in your relationships to live a better and more personally fulfilling life. During our session you will learn strategies that will help you create healthy and mutually supportive relationships so you can feel better about yourself, your interaction with others, and your life.
Psychotherapy can help people experiencing relationship challenges:
- Gain a deeper understanding of the causes and contributors to relationship issues.
- Learn powerful tools such communication and relating techniques to overcome relationship challenges.
- Heal emotional wounds related to past relationships so that you can create healthy and fulfilling relationships in the future.
- Explore your authentic feelings and needs; learn to express them in healthy and successful ways within your relationships.
Spiritual Healing & Transformation
Often, the traditional psychotherapy framework cannot fully explain or work effectively with spiritual issue and mystical and anomalous experiences. Our psychotherapy sessions combine traditional psychotherapy and ancient wisdom teachings to provide guidance for those seeking to address spiritual and metaphysical issues, as well as understand personal mystical, spiritual and anomalous experiences.
During spiritual healing and transformation work clients will also be directed to deepen personal intuition and connect with their core essence. Application of eastern teachings to understand the nature of the self and our connection to the greater whole will be offered when beneficial for the client.
Psychotherapy can help people with spiritual healing and transformation:
- Heal traumas and issues that are spiritually and metaphysically related.
- Apply energetic clearing and energetic balancing.
- Learn eastern wisdom teachings and its application for inner awakening.
- Deepen intuition and Soul-self connection.
- Explore tools for daily use to maintain balance and harmony of body, mind, and spirit.
Coping with Grief & Loss
Loss of a loved one, a relationship, illness, divorce, breakup, and death; these are some of the difficult losses that we may experience in life. These experiences can often bring about immense pain and intense emotions. The emotional experience of grief and loss can be described as a cycle: we may feel at time sadness, anger, shame, guilt, denial or yearning. Sometimes a loss can trigger feelings of disorientation and loss of meaning in life.
Psychotherapy provides a safe and supportive environment for you to speak about your loss and the personal effect it has on you. Knowing that you are not alone, we will address your emotional experiences towards the loss and explore your strengths for coping with the new challenges.
Psychotherapy can help people experiencing grief and loss:
- Create a safe and supportive environment for you to speak about your loss and the personal effects it has had on you.
- Understand the stages and processes of grieving.
- Apply therapeutic tools to help express and heal painful emotions associated with the loss.
- Explore inner strengths to help you cope with and adjust to the new changes.
Clearing Trauma
Emotional, Physical, Sexual Abuse, and Other Traumas
Trauma refers to severely distressing life events that cause an overwhelming amount of stress to a person - mentally, emotionally and spiritually. While experiencing trauma a person feels that their body, sanity and life are in danger and there is little stability of ones world. During and after the incident a person may feel helpless, incredibly afraid. Trauma can be a one-time incident or a reoccurring experience, and can greatly impact or lives and personal functioning. The after-effects of trauma may include: persistently feeling unsafe, high anxiety, panic attacks, flashbacks, difficulties sleeping and eating, addictions and self-harming behaviours. Other effects of trauma can include feeling emotional numbness and the experience of ‘dissociation’ – not feel fully grounded or embodied within their present self.
Whether the experience is emotional abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, witnessing war or a natural disaster, coping with an illness or death, hospitalization, or any other destabilizing life event, psychotherapy can help you with healing unresolved trauma and it’s after effects. The therapeutic process assists in regulating and calming your nervous system, processing trauma memories and increasing integration of body, mind and spirit, so you can begin to feel safe again and regain a better life.
Psychotherapy can help people experiencing trauma:
- Process emotional memories and release the residue of trauma within the body, mind and spirit.
- Make sense of trauma related feelings and experiences, and manage reactions in day-to-day functioning.
- Learn healthy coping strategies for regulating and calming your body and mind.
- Increase your sense of presence and grounding and feel safe to ‘come home’ to yourself.
- Develop a positive relationship with your body and integrate disowned aspects of the self.
- Regain your sense of trust and safety in life.
Resolving Sexual Concerns
The topic of sex and sexuality in our society and personal upbringing may have been an area that caused us to feel shame, guilt and fear. Personal sexual violation may have led us to develop a negative relationship to sex and our own sexual essence. We may be experiencing difficulties in intimacy and sex.
Other concerns may include specific sexual issues such as chronic masturbation, porn addiction, or fetishes and fantasies that are negatively affecting your life and relationships. These sexual issues may have their antecedents in negative life experiences and unmet emotional needs.
Psychotherapy can help you with understanding the underlying causes of your sexual concerns, and to assist you in developing a healthier and more positive relationship with sex and your sexual essence. Learn healthy strategies to deal with sexual issues or overcome sexual addictions, with the focus of maintaining self-love, self-understanding and self-acceptance during the process. In our session we learn to embrace the shadows instead of pushing them away, and thereby work compassionately with all aspects of ourselves.
Psychotherapy can help people experiencing sexual concerns:
- Discover the underlying causes of current sexual issues.
- Examine limiting belief systems and past experiences that cause shame, guilt, fear or other negative emotions towards sex and sexuality.
- Heal negative life experiences related to sex and sexuality.
- Create new emotional and cognitive structures to relate to sex and sexuality in a positive and nurturing way.
Building Self-Esteem, Confidence, & Positive Body-Image
Low self-esteem or body-image issues often causes a person to experience negative feelings, including self-doubt and self-criticism, which can take the form of negative self-talk, social avoidance, and the experience of distressing emotions. While negative messages are rarely true, these thought patterns become so ingrained in a person’s thoughts that they begin to think they are real. Self-esteem, confidence and body-image issues can be shaped from childhood experiences, such as being the subject of verbal or physical abuse, neglect from family or caretakers, feeling unloved as a child or missing out on experiences that strengthen purpose or confidence. Other experiences that can influence self-esteem and body image include being the victim of discrimination or having a learning disability or physical impairment. Self-esteem and body-image issues can also be shaped in adulthood from life situations like changing a job, ending an intimate relationship, financial struggles, addictions, or physical health concerns.
In our psychotherapy sessions, we will address self-esteem, confidence and body-image issues, and you will learn powerful techniques to transform critical and limiting thoughts, feelings and beliefs. The result is building a strong inner-foundation based upon knowing of your worth, value and strengths, and the experience of confidence, inner-freedom, and self-empowerment. In the process develop various skills such as assertiveness, creating boundaries and much more.
Psychotherapy can help individuals with self-esteem and body-image issues:
- Understand and heal underlying causes of body image issues and low self-esteem.
- Transform self-critical thoughts and develop tools for developing self-love, self-compassion, and self-acceptance.
- Build a strong inner foundation based upon an knowing of your self-worth, value, and strengths.
- Experience confidence, inner-freedom and self-empowerment.
- Build more balanced, mutually beneficial and satisfying relationships.