I provide counselling services for Individuals (13 years to adult), Couples and Families via secure video platform or telephone given your preference.
Virtual counselling is a little different from in-person counselling, which I conducted for 10 years and really is its own special experience that stands on its own.
With virtual counselling, you still get the analytical focus, compassionate witness and therapeutic guide while being in the comfort of your own home and avoiding the extra time that it takes to get to and from the office, find parking, deal with traffic and so on.
While I do not debate the merits of in-person counselling, in this time of increased awareness about health, wellness, honoring time, and balancing priorities, I am relieved to know that the virtual sessions that I have conducted have still maintained a feeling of warmth, compassion, safety and of being heard and assisted on the therapeutic/personal growth journey.
Therapy
Over the years, my professional and personal path have dove-tailed and culminated into a blend of studies that has informed my therapeutic approach.
It is difficult to stay in the track of one therapeutic approach fits all, when humans are more multi-dimensional than that.
My current approach is informed by spiritual, psychological and creative philosophies that include but are not limited to:
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
- Existential Therapy
- Jungian Analytical Psychology
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Reiki Therapy
- Play Therapy
How I use these approaches in therapy depends on what you are communicating that you are struggling with and looking for, what I sense and observe as themes, strengths and obstacles moving through your life, and which of the above as a blend of approaches resonates with you the most.
I prefer a client-centered approach that incorporates your wisdom, intuition, and needs vs. “therapist expertise”, or me as the expert. You may be looking for guidance but you are the expert on who you are and what you need.
I help guide you in the process of uncovering and accessing that wisdom. See below for more detailed descriptions of the therapeutic approaches that inform my practice.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) deals with how your current thoughts and behaviour affect you. It is based on the premise that our thoughts, not just external situations, cause us to feel and behave the way we do in certain situations.
This form of therapy focuses on changing one or more behaviours by changing the way we think about or respond emotionally to events. By implementing the strategies involved in this type of therapy, we can feel and act better even if the situation does not change, and we can feel more prepared to respond to future stressors more effectively.
CBT is considered among the most rapid in terms of achieving results many issues, including:
- depression
- panic attacks
- generalized anxiety
- phobias
- socially-based worries
- insomnia
- insomnia
- stress
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- relationship challenges
- decision-making difficulties
Existential Therapy
Existential counselling incorporates a view of people as being in a process of continual change and transformation. The existential approach is about exploring meaning and value, and learning to live in accordance with one’s own ideals, priorities, and values.
The goal of the therapist is to understand, work with, and reflect back to the client their own sense of meaning, assumptions and underlying life themes. This is meant to increase clarity and direction for the client.
Existential counselling endorses a holistic view of a person and works to explore with the client, their experiences with respect to the following four dimensions: physical, social, psychological and spiritual.
It is well-suited to the needs of someone attempting to clarify their own personal ideology, facing significant personal adversity or life change, and those needing to re-evaluate a direction taken in life.
Jungian Analytical Psychology
Analytical Psychology employs psychotherapy and depth psychology in the tradition established by psychiatrist C.G. Jung. The focus of this approach is on the role of symbolic and spiritual experiences in human life.
Key components of this approach include:
- the existence of the Ego
- Collective Unconscious (a shared, internalized and unconscious set of psychic structures that inform our values, beliefs and behaviours in humanity that shape us outside of and in addition to our personal life experiences)
- Archetypes
- The Shadow (parts of the personality or self that we repress or deny due to negative experiences in life, particularly childhood through to young adulthood)
- working with dreams
- the goal of Individuation (integration of the various aspects of self towards optimal personal development and growth)
Importance is placed on the impact of early life experiences, as well as the influence of factors that have a more universal quality that lie outside of our own personal experiences. Jung referred to these factors as Archetypes that form the collective unconscious and give shape to cultural narratives, myths and religious phenomena.
The analytic process is intended to bring the factors that have shaped us both personally and within the collective unconscious, into consciousness, allowing the individual to see more clearly what forces are at play in his or her life. The role of the analyst is to help facilitate the individuation process and accompany the client on her or his personal journey.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
Mindfulness-based therapies have been used to help people deal with stress, anxiety, depression, Borderline Personality Disorder, mood disorders and chronic pain.
The most popularly known form of this therapy is the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre, developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. (author of Full Catastrophe Living).
People can use Mindfulness to better connect with their emotional, psychological and physical states for the purpose of uncovering nuances of change in ourselves and our environment. In doing this, we can be more aware of these changes that are meant to alert us, so we can adjust our thoughts and emotional and behavioural responses to situations more appropriately.
By practicing these skills continuously, we can prevent relapse into past behaviours that have resulted in non-beneficial outcomes, and select behaviours that permit full engagement in our lives.
Mindfulness-based therapies have been used to help people deal with stress, anxiety, depression, Borderline Personality Disorder, mood disorders and chronic pain.
Narrative Therapy
The narrative approach to social work facilitates increased self-awareness and access to healing by assisting clients to talk about their problems as if they were a story.
This helps clients to view the problem more objectively as external to themselves, rather than some intrinsic part of them that they cannot change.
Narrative therapy helps clients see how the problem or pattern they are struggling with impacts their lives in both negative and positive ways. The narrative approach can be used to assist development of self- compassion, and compassion for the situations of self and others involved.
In the therapeutic process, the social worker and the client to come up with alternate stories as a way for the client to envision what his or her life might be like without the problem in question.
The primary benefit of the narrative approach is in helping the client gain distance and objectivity in regards to the problem, which in turn can help inform their future behaviour and highlight a path to their goals.
The primary benefit of the narrative approach is in helping the client gain distance and objectivity in regards to the problem, which in turn can help inform their future behaviour and highlight a path to their goals.
Reiki Therapy
Reiki is based on the premise that the body is more than just a collection of functioning parts, and that everything, including the human body, has a frequency, or energy field. It is a natural therapy that gently balances the life-force energies/fields and brings health and well-being to the recipient.
Reiki is a form of energy therapy that is facilitated by way of either light touch, or no touch. The effects of physical, psychological, and emotional distress are dissolved within the body’s inherent system of energy.
Reiki has become an increasingly popular Eastern-influenced therapeutic treatment in mainstream Western society (you will see it offered in many spas and health centres). Its effects are known to be largely relaxation, reduced stress and revitalization.
Reiki is a form of therapy that is complimentary to most physical and mental health treatments. While it is not meant to replace medical or psychiatric treatment, it can serve to enhance the benefits of both before, during, or after treatment.
(Source: Canadian Reiki Association)
Play Therapy
Credentials: Play Therapy Intern- Completed all three levels of training in play therapy through the Canadian Association of Child and Play Therapy (CACPT) December 2011
Play therapy is an effective form of therapy for children where play is used as a “language” or “medium” for children to express and better understand their feelings.
It is a therapeutic approach for human service professionals and as stated by Virginia Axline, “provides an opportunity for the child to ‘play out’ his or her feelings and problems just as, in certain adult therapy, an individual ‘talks out’ his or her difficulties”. A child’s self-understanding is one of the goals in this approach.
https://www.cacpt.com/site
With increased opportunity through play therapy for this expression and self- understanding, distress (typically demonstrated through behaviour for children) is able to be better diffused and managed by both child and parent.
Within the context of fostering creativity, increased self-awareness, inner child work, role-rehearsal and mind/body integration, the play therapy approach is also beneficial in the therapeutic process for adults.
