My Approach to Therapy
My approach brings together a deep understanding of how our bodies, identities, relationships, cultures and systems we live within, shape our experiences of mental health and healing. I draw from social justice perspectives and a range of evidence-informed psychotherapy approaches individualized to your needs, experiences and hopes for therapy.
I Believe That:
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Our bodies and minds are interconnected. Embodied movement, mindfulness practice, grounding exercises, music, rhythm, art, and writing can support nervous system awareness and can be important parts of navigating mental and emotional wellbeing.
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Therapy is a collaborative process. I encourage you to bring your knowledge, experiences, culture and ways of making meaning to shape our work together. I remain curious about supporting change that feels meaningful to you, at a pace that honours your needs, values and sense of safety.
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We come to know ourselves through relationship. Our experiences of connection, belonging, attachment, and disconnection can shape how we understand ourselves and relate to others. Therapy can offer space to explore these patterns, make sense of the experiences that have shaped you, and make room for new ways of relating.
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A systemic approach to therapy invites you to explore how patterns of connection, culture, identity, and the systems of power and privilege around you can influence your experience of yourself, your relationships, and your mental health.
If you have questions or are curious about my approach, I invite you to reach out for a free, 20-minute consultation to see if we might be a good fit.
How We Might Work Together
During the course of our therapy sessions, we might explore your experiences through the lens of:
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A place where we can get curious about the stories and meanings you’ve developed about your life. We’ll explore where these stories began, how they were influenced by dominant voices in your life, and whether they’re still serving you - and how we might create space for a new, preferred story to emerge.
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We’ll explore the ways that emotions, stress, and past experiences of trauma may be stored in the body - and the immense capacity for healing though mind-body and land-based practices. Read more about somatic practices below!
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Through the lens of EFT (for couples) and EFIT (for individuals), we’ll explore your relationships through the lens of your attachment history and needs. We’ll identify patterns of reactive communication that could be impacting connection and will focus on developing secure attachment bonds.
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We’ll explore which parts of yourself are showing up in relationships or situations - and will get curious about the needs, hopes, beliefs, or burdens these parts might be carrying. We’ll nurture your relationship with your core, curious, compassionate, self.
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We’ll explore the strengths, resources and values you bring into the therapy room, and will focus on making small, but significant changes to honour the outcomes you’re envisioning for yourself.
What are Somatic Practices?
Somatics comes from the word “soma” which is Latin for “body”. Somatic practices are practices which are rooted in the body, and center the body’s natural wisdom. Rather than solely using the brain or rational thought to interpret our experiences, somatics focus on our felt sense, or the wisdom we are able to gather by turning our attention toward the feelings and sensations that that are alive in our bodies.
With a somatic lens, we see that all the experiences we have survived stay in our bodies, through memories, unconscious tensions, chronic pain, fear or numbing.
Somatic practices ask the question “what memories, experiences, ancestral traumas and wisdoms are living in this body, and how can I honour them?”
It is important to acknowledge that somatics are an inherently Indigenous practice.
All traditions and cultures have ways of connecting to the body through movement, ritual and community.
The Western division between mind/body - and denouncing of the body - is what necessitated the labeling of a separate field of “somatics”, which uses body-based approaches to transformation and change.
In other cultures and traditions, this distinction is unnecessary, as the body is not separate from life or self or nature, but interconnected with all.
Somatic practices can create change in the body in a way that is interconnected with mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing, and are vital to creating embodied and just communities.