Welcome
Therapy is an initiation into new ways of experiencing yourself and others. I love this work. I am passionate about helping people understand how they have adapted to navigate the world. This involves exploring your emotions, the different parts of yourself, and your internal world to understand how you have survived. This exploration allows people to fully appreciate the strategies they’ve had to use to get where they are today and to adopt new ways of connecting with themselves and others. I am excited to do this important work with people who feel ready to embark on this journey towards deeper understanding and integration.
I am a psychodynamic trauma therapist specializing in complex childhood trauma and narcissistic relational systems. I completed my Master’s in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Before becoming a therapist, I was devoted to understanding the adaptive function of emotions and completed my PhD and MA in Psychology at the University of Toronto where my research focused on the neuroscience of emotion. For over 7 years, I taught The Physiology and Psychology of Emotion and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Toronto. I loved teaching and realized that I wanted to apply my knowledge to help people better understand and live more in tune with the wisdom of their emotions.
In my therapy work, I integrate my cognitive neuroscience background to help people understand their minds and bodies and how they can unlock the wisdom of their emotional experiences. The more we can understand how our mind and body interplay, the more integration, harmony and compassion we can cultivate for ourselves. With this strong foundation, we can create and live our best life. I am an ardent believer that we all have the innate wisdom and ability to heal if we know how to understand what our emotions are telling us. We are wired for connection and understanding and that must start with the connection we have with ourselves.
My Approach
I am a psychodynamic and certified trauma therapist who specializes in treating adult survivors of complex childhood trauma as well as narcissistic abuse. These experiences often manifest as anxiety, depression, difficulty in relationships, low self esteem, pervasive guilt, a harsh inner or outer critic, and emotion dysregulation. I use a non-pathologizing approach to understand emotional distress. Instead of seeing human distress as an illness, I help people recognize their inherent strengths and understand the meaning behind their struggles. Many of the struggles people want help with are coping strategies that worked at an earlier time in their lives, but are no longer helpful. I work with people to explore how these behaviours came to be, how they served them, and how to cultivate new ways of being that align with their goals and values.
Together we will explore how your developmental history uniquely shaped who you are and how you experience the world and yourself. I employ different modalities to help integrate disconnected parts of yourself and to process and release emotional pain and limiting beliefs. I use a psychodynamic approach implementing Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed work, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) as integrative somatic modalities.
This work is more than just talk therapy or just focusing on the past, we will actively and dynamically explore and process the emotions and sensations that come up in session to integrate and create more meaning, internal stability and cohesion. The relationship with yourself is the most important foundation for all of life's endeavours. My priority is to help you create new ways of compassionately understanding your emotional world so you can achieve your personal goals of living well. If you want to embark on this work with me, please reach out for a phone consultation.
