EMDR Psychotherapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is an evidence-based and extensively researched psychotherapy. Although initially researched as a treatment for PTSD, EMDR is effective for a variety of struggles including, anxiety, depression, disordered eating, addiction, abuse, attachment wounds, and grief.
Our brains are amazing and have an innate ability to adaptively process information. When we experience trauma or stress, often our brains will manage and resolve the events spontaneously. But sometimes, our experiences get stuck if they are not processed effectively. The processing gets blocked and the information becomes “frozen in time.” What fires together, wires together in our neural pathways. If those pathways get blocked, new and more adaptive learning cannot take place. Those memories may be encoded with the emotions, beliefs and physical sensations experienced at the time of the event or trauma. Trauma is less about what happened and more about how our brains digested the experience.
EMDR helps your brain process the traumatic event/experience adaptively and allows for the natural healing that our brains are wired to do.
Parts Work
Parts Work is a therapeutic lens that assumes that each of us has many different parts to our minds and psyches.
By bringing our awareness to these many different parts within us, we learn what each part needs, wants, and fears. As we build our understanding of how and why each part gets triggered, we are then more able to integrate (but not eliminate) the many aspects within us to create more choice, expand our ability to creatively problem-solve, and to give us a greater sense of wholeness and improve our ability to connect fully to the world around us with a greater sense of peace and self-acceptance.
Individual Therapy
Some common benefits of therapy include reduction of emotional pain, better sleep, improved communication, less stress, and increased happiness. Therapy can help you challenge negative thinking patterns and work through complex emotions. Therapy can help you explore patterns of behaviour that may not be consistent with how you want to live your life. It can help you work through family-of-origin issues and sort out how this has impacted your current relationships and connections with the people in your life. Therapy can help you set stronger boundaries and develop goals for the future.
I can work with you to find out what the barriers are that are holding you back from connecting to the world the way you wish to and work with you on finding the path that will lead you to where you want to go, free from the pain of the past, with new hope for the future.
Family Member Support
Supporting a family member struggling with a mental health issue or addiction can be very difficult to navigate alone. Learn how to best support your loved one as well as take care of yourself. I can also help you navigate the very challenging mental health system and ensure that you and your loved one is connected to the right supports.
ODSP Consultation
ODSP can be very challenging to get when you most need it. I can assist you in making sure you have the right medical in place, connect you to the appropriate supports and assist with the paperwork needed. By building the best possible application together, you will have a better chance of getting accepted. I can also support you with the appeals process as it can be difficult to navigate.
Sexual Abuse/Childhood Trauma
Sexual abuse and childhood trauma are distressingly common, and it can leave emotional scars that feel like they will never heal. Having lived with the trauma for so long, you may feel like your trauma experience is woven into your DNA. But with the right forms of treatment, your relationship with your life story can evolve and change.
Many individuals experience symptoms associated with painful and traumatic circumstances from their past. Anxiety, fear, and hopelessness are a few emotions that can linger post traumatic events.
Many of us have had some degree of neglect from our childhoods and we can often minimize the impact of this as we feel our parents did the best they could or what I experienced is not as bad as other people’s experiences. When a child doesn’t experience emotional security or support from their guardian figures, or experience difficult situations with peers at school, it can leave deep emotional scars that impact their ability to connect to the world the way they want to or even feel any sense of self-esteem or self-compassion. When our emotional needs are not met, it can be a form of trauma, as it can have long-lasting and profound effects on our emotional and psychological well-being.
By understanding your story and how it has impacted you, we can work together on ways to remove the barriers you are facing and heal. You can move from intense feelings of sadness, shame and despair to a place of belonging, self-love, self-compassion and growth. Our brains are neuroplastic and healing is possible throughout your lifespan. It is never too late to heal and live your best life, free from pain and trauma.
Issues Relating Specifically to Men:
I have worked in a men’s program for 12 years. This has given me expertise on issues that are very specific to men healing from childhood abuse and trauma. Gender can play a big role in the experience of the trauma and the healing so it is important to understand the things that gender has influenced to fully heal and recover from your experience.
Anxiety & Mood Disorders
It can be painful when your general emotional state or mood is distorted or inconsistent with your circumstances and interferes with your ability to function. You may be extremely sad, empty or irritable (depressed), or you may have periods of depression alternating with being excessively happy (mania). Anxiety disorders can also affect your mood and often occur along with depression.
Some examples of mood disorders include:
Major depressive disorder — prolonged and persistent periods of extreme sadness
Bipolar disorder — also called manic depression or bipolar affective disorder, depression that includes alternating times of depression and mania
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — a form of depression most often associated with fewer hours of daylight
Cyclothymic disorder — a disorder that causes emotional ups and downs that are less extreme than bipolar disorder
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder — mood changes and irritability that occur during the premenstrual phase of a woman's cycle and go away with the onset of menses
Persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia) — a long-term (chronic) form of depression
Through counselling and treatment, I will work with you to help you discover the root cause of your symptoms and work to remove the barriers holding you back from connecting to the life you want to live.
Psychosis
Recovering from psychosis can be a long and stressful journey for you and your loved ones. I can work with you to look at specific lifestyle changes that support mental wellness and help you achieve a restored sense of self. Most people recovering from this have a deep desire to get back to being their old selves. You have a deep desire to have the illness no longer be a dominant part of day-to-day living. We can work together to restore your social confidence - being able to talk to people and fully engage in relationships. We can work together on connecting to life in new ways, connect to hope that you may have lost along the way and support you through the changes and side effects of the medications.
Positive Psychology and Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks based on new experiences.
There are two main types of neuroplasticity:
Functional plasticity is the brain's ability to move functions from a damaged area of the brain to other undamaged areas.
Structural plasticity is the brain's ability to change its physical structure as a result of learning.
While people used to believe that the brain became fixed after a certain age, we now know that the brain never stops changing in response to learning.
By engaging in activities that heal the brain, you can build new positive neural networks in your brain. These activities could be learning new hobbies, connecting to new social groups, meditation, exercising, changing your diet, moving away from habits that don’t match the life you want to live, and developing new habits that support recovery. The sky is the limit on activities that could build new neural pathways.
Happiness is a skill, just like learning to play the piano. The three key factors to a happy life are positive social connections, engaging in activities that we fully enjoy and productivity. By adding activities in these three key areas, you can build on your positive wiring and feel a greater sense of peace, fulfillment and happiness.