###ABOUT ME
Hello! As a Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist I help individuals with stress, depression, anxiety, or emotional dysregulation make changes to the way they manage their difficult feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. I provide trauma-informed care and value a collaborative approach combining both my clients expectations of therapy together with my experience and knowledge in psychological wellbeing. I look forward to learning about your concerns and working on moving you towards a more meaningful and rich life.
###EDUCATION
- Master of Social Work, University of Toronto
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, York University
###MY THERAPEUTIC APPROACH
- I incorporate Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into my work with individual clients
- CBT believes that the way individuals perceive a situation is more closely connected to their reaction than the situation itself. Individuals’ perceptions can sometimes be unhelpful and unrealistic and so CBT helps people identify their distressing thoughts and evaluate how realistic or helpful the thoughts are. Then individuals learn how to think more realistically and helpfully which allows them to feel better.
- ACT implements acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behaviour change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility means being able to contact the present moment fully, and changing behaviours so that they are in accordance with our chosen values.
- My goal is for us to work together as a team to find out what is keeping you stuck
- As we do this I will support you in developing skills and strategies to help you get unstuck while moving you towards a better and more meaningful life
- The values I apply in sessions are respect, curiosity, and being intentional
###WHAT TO EXPECT IN THERAPY
- At first I will ask you questions to find out more about the problem that has led you to therapy. We will explore:
- the different fears, self-criticisms or other unhelpful thoughts that you get caught up in
- the emotions, urges, impulses or sensations you struggle with
- the situations, activities, places, or people you avoid or put off
- the behaviours you do that make your life worse in the long run or have negative consequences currently in different areas of life such as work, relationships, or your health
- Next I will ask you what your goals are for therapy. To help you determine your goals you will want to think about what will be different in your life once you complete therapy. Questions to consider will be:
- what will you be doing more or less of?
- how will you be treating yourself, others or the world differently?
- what people, places, activities or challenges will you be approaching rather than avoiding or putting off?
- are there any activities you will be better able to focus on or engage in?
- are there any people you will be more attentive to or present with?
- Finally I will start to introduce you to different skills and strategies that you will begin to practice in session and then eventually outside of our sessions in order to help you reach your goals
###DURATION & FREQUENCY OF THERAPY
- At the start of our work together I believe it's beneficial for us to meet more regularly - usually once every 1-2 weeks. Session are 50 minutes.
- As you develop and strengthen skills, the time between sessions will increase so you have more time to practice them outside of our sessions.
- The number of sessions needed before you start to see a change depends on how long you have been struggling with your issues, whether or not you have engaged in therapy previously, and whether there are other factors like a history of trauma or abuse.
- One thing that is guaranteed is that maintaining our mental well-being is a life long journey that really never has an end point, it just becomes more manageable as we get better at it.
