Treatment Approach
I prefer an eclectic counselling approach,
which incorporates a range of therapeutic tools,
client feedback & evidence-based psychoeducation.
This style seeks to tailor treatment to each client's goals
and strives for client-centred, trauma-informed care.
Therapeutic Frameworks
Person-Centred & Humanistic
Narrative & Compassionate-based
Anti-Oppressive & Multicultural
Family Systems & Attachment Theory
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Cognitive Behavioural
Bio-Ecological System & Human Development
Key Treatment Areas
Mood & Emotional Processing
If you are struggling or feeling out of control with your mood or emotions, you are not alone.
Life experiences can bring worry, anxiety, fear, or shifts in mood—both heightened and depressed—that may create uncertainty about the future, our sense of self, and our relationships.
Emotions such as stress, anger, sadness, guilt, and shame can feel overwhelming and may make it difficult to feel hopeful. When left unaddressed, they can also contribute to longer-term physical, somatic, and mental health concerns.
My goal is to guide our conversations by focusing on what feels most relevant to you. Together, we explore conscious, unconscious, and subconscious thoughts and emotions to support insight, healing, and meaningful steps toward your goals and desired changes.
Boundaries & Relationship Support
Relationships are not always easy, and maintaining healthy boundaries can be challenging. We often care deeply for our loved ones despite ongoing difficulties; however, unhealthy relational patterns, such as enmeshment, emotional diffusion, or avoidance, can lead to resentment or a sense of responsibility for another person’s feelings, or feeling blamed for them. Over time, these patterns can strain relationships, particularly when behaviours shift toward trying to change others rather than respecting autonomy and mutual boundaries.
The brain and body naturally respond to perceived threat or unsafe relational dynamics through emotions such as sadness, guilt, anger, or frustration, especially when we feel blamed, accused, or disrespected. Exploring both past and present relational patterns with a professional can support deeper understanding of what truly matters to you and help identify healthier, more intentional steps forward.
Stress, Trauma, Grief & Loss
If you are coping or struggling with past or current stress, trauma, grief and loss, or have experienced forms of abuse, neglect, or violence, you don't have to face it alone. Help and support are available.
Stress, grief and loss, and traumatic experiences can impact us physically, emotionally, and psychologically in different ways. Learning to recognize our own safety cues and body's responses is an important part of healing. I integrate evidence-based psychoeducation through a safe, genuine and non-judgmental space.
Self-Identity, Cultural Values & Beliefs
Our values and beliefs naturally change and evolve throughout life, particularly during key developmental and experiential periods. These shifts may differ from those around us and can be challenging to navigate. Influences such as family-of-origin and personal history, relationships, spiritual or religious beliefs, and home, school or work identities all shape our sense of self and may highlight the space between who we are and who we hope to become.
Aspects of identity such as gender roles, sexuality, migration experiences, and bi-cultural or multi-cultural identities add further layers to self-understanding. These experiences often involve uncertainty, meaning-making, and questions of acceptance or belonging within families and communities. Counselling provides a safe, supportive space to explore these complexities.
My approach begins with understanding what makes you, through open dialogue, unconditional positive regard, and the development of a trusting therapeutic relationship.
Attachment & Challenging Behaviours
Attachment is present in all aspects of life and influences how we experience ourselves, others, and the world around us. Feelings such as fear, anxiety, or avoidance can shape our relationships and patterns of connection. Much of our core attachment style develops early in life, often within family and close relationships. Attachment extends beyond how we bond with others and can also include our relationship to material possessions, dependency, substance or other addictive patterns, which can contribute to unhealthy attachment dynamics or relational ruptures.
Understanding personal and relational history is key to exploring attachment styles. Past experiences with family or loved ones may involve guilt, blame, anger, or rejection and can be influenced by multigenerational patterns—ways of relating that are passed down, whether healthy or not.
Within a non-judgmental and supportive counselling space, we will explore past, family, and current attachment patterns. Reflecting on earlier responses to conflict and stress can help increase awareness of how these patterns influence present relationships and reactions, whether individually or within partner, family, or parent–child relationships.
Body-Mind Connection & Awareness
Western medicine and psychology more than ever widely acknowledge the science and benefits of the mind–body connection, recognizing healing as a holistic process rather than previously separating mental and physical health.
Somatic symptoms and our body’s own safety systems—particularly the nervous system, including dorsal and ventral vagal responses—are now understood as meaningful signals rather than dysfunctions, guiding therapeutic work toward regulation, resilience, and embodied awareness.
Body and self-awareness help deepen our understanding of the mind–body connection through somatic responses. This may include slowing down thoughts, grounding, and gently exploring daily behaviours to support nervous system regulation.
We will explore your current grounding and self-care practices, and I will integrate psychoeducation on neuroscience to support understanding of emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. Together, we identify which learnings resonate with you, strengthening body–mind attunement, regulation, and self-awareness.
Contact
To book a free phone consultation,
please submit the form below or reach me by email, text or voicemail.
© 2024 by PS Counselling Services
