Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a somatic therapy method developed by world-renowned Dr. Pat Ogden that helps you understand and resolve how your nervous system holds on to stress or trauma. Together, we pay attention to the messages your body gives (like tension, posture, movement, or impulses) and work with them to create more regulation, safety, and self-awareness. This approach is especially helpful for healing trauma that feels “stuck” or hard to talk about. A fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response may be stuck in your nervous system from a past experience and somatic methods have protocols for accessing these neural networks to help your body resolve these experiences.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is helpful for: 

1. Acute or Single-Incident Traumas (e.g. car accidents, workplace incidents, assault, threats to physical safety, medical trauma, traumatic loss, etc)
2. Developmental or Relational Trauma (e.g. childhood abuse or neglect, the effects of being raised by a parent with a personality disorder or significant mental health issue, domestic violence, psychological or emotional abuse, chronic stressors, high control religions or cults, dissociation, etc)

Cognitively, you may be aware that you live in 2025 and the trauma of the past is ‘over’. However, due to our brain development and its protective wiring, our nervous systems and bodies often have not updated to the present timeline and may continue to use ‘old’ maladaptive coping strategies that are no longer helpful to you.  Even when we’ve “talked through” something, our nervous system may still be holding on. You might notice this in the form of tension, shutdown, startle responses, or a general sense of being on edge. This method is particularly transformative in helping clients clear out accumulated trauma being held in their bodies and create new experiences that their nervous system can actually feel in real time to update old ways of being into new, more adaptive ways of being for the present day.

EMDR is a research-supported therapy that helps the brain reprocess painful memories so they no longer feel so raw or intrusive. Using bilateral stimulation (like eye movements or tapping), we work together to reduce the emotional intensity of past experiences—without needing to relive every detail. EMDR can be particularly effective for trauma, anxiety, and stuck patterns that haven’t shifted with talk therapy alone. Sometimes, memories get “stuck” in the brain and body, and even years later, they feel just as vivid and painful. EMDR helps the brain reprocess these memories so they become less charged and less disruptive.

We begin by creating safety and building resources, create a map of memories or feelings to target, then—when you’re ready—we revisit distressing memories using bilateral stimulation (like eye movements, tapping, or sounds). You remain in control the entire time. This process helps the brain update how it stores the memory, reducing symptoms like anxiety, flashbacks, shame, or avoidance. If you like a little more structure to your sessions, this is a great method for you.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a practical, evidence-based approach that helps you notice—and gently challenge—the patterns of thinking and behaviour that may be keeping you stuck. Sometimes, we develop automatic thoughts or beliefs that feel so familiar, we don’t even realize they’re shaping how we feel and act. CBT brings these patterns into awareness and offers tools to shift them in supportive and lasting ways.

Rather than diving deep into the past (though we can explore where things started), CBT is focused on the here and now: how you’re thinking, what you’re feeling, and what you’re doing. Together, we’ll build insight and skills you can apply between sessions—so change doesn’t just stay in the therapy room but shows up in your everyday life.

CBT is especially helpful for: Anxiety and overthinking, Depression or low motivation, People-pleasing and perfectionism, Self-criticism or shame, Chronic stress or burnout. In therapy, we work together to identify these automatic thoughts, test them against real-life evidence, and create new, more balanced thoughts like “I’ve handled this before” or “It’s okay to be nervous.” You will also learn calming strategies you can use to lower physical anxiety.

While I don’t practice a purist form of CBT, I infuse cognitive-behavioural strategies into my approach with clients where fitting.

Existential Analysis explores the deeper questions in life—like meaning, freedom, responsibility, and belonging. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why am I here?” or struggled with decisions, direction, or identity, this approach offers space to reflect on your values and what truly matters. It’s not about quick fixes, but about depth analysis, insight, encountering oneself and the world, creating a more authentic and fulfilling way of being in the world.

It is a phenomenological, person-centered therapeutic approach that explores what it means to live a fulfilling and authentic human life. Rooted in existential philosophy and developed by Viktor Frankl and Alfried Längle, it focuses on helping individuals come into inner consent with their choices, relationships, and life situations. By exploring lived experience with openness and precision, it aims to strengthen a person’s capacity for freedom, responsibility, and self-connectedness, especially when faced with suffering, uncertainty, or loss of meaning.

Central to Existential Analysis are the four fundamental existential motivations—core human needs that must be met for a meaningful life: (1) the need for existence and security (“Can I be? Is it safe to be?”), (2) the need for connection and emotional vitality (“Do I like to be? Do I like my life?”), (3) the need for identity and authenticity (“Can I be myself?”), and (4) the need for meaning and values (“What am I living for?”). When these pillars are intact, a person experiences a deep sense of authenticity—living in alignment with their true values and inner truth. Existential Analysis supports clients in gaining clarity about their experiences and making personally meaningful decisions that they can affirm with inner consent.

IFS (Internal Family Systems), or Parts Work, is based on the idea that we all have different “parts” of ourselves—like an inner critic, a people-pleaser, or a wounded child. Sometimes these parts clash or experience persistent inner conflict, and it can feel overwhelming or like you’re stuck in indecision. IFS helps you get to know each part with compassion, understand what it’s trying to protect, and help your system feel more integrated and at peace. Parts work relies on the research in neurobiology and brain development that views your brain and personality as made up of different neural networks or “parts”—different aspects of your personality that each have their own stories, roles, and emotions. You might notice an internal critical voice, a worried planner anticipating everything that could go wrong, a part that wants to numb out or avoid, or a tender younger part that still carries hurt.

Rather than pushing these parts away, we invite them into compassionate conversation. Every part has a reason for showing up—it’s often trying to protect you, even if its methods no longer help. By getting to know your inner system, we work toward more balance, clarity, and internal harmony.

In my work, I rely heavily on Dr. Janina Fisher’s Structural Dissociation Model which helps explain why we can sometimes feel like different parts of us are pulling in opposite directions—like one part wants to stay calm and present, while another reacts with fear, shame, or anger. This model suggests that after overwhelming or traumatic experiences, our minds may “split” into parts: one that tries to carry on with everyday life (e.g. “I’m fine, and how are you?”), and others that hold painful emotions or memories and react automatically to triggers. These parts aren’t signs of being broken or “crazy”—they’re protective, formed to help us survive. Therapy can gently help these parts reconnect and work together, so you can feel more whole, safe, and in control.

Psychoeducation is the process of learning about what you’re going through—emotionally, psychologically, or neurologically—so you can better understand yourself and what’s happening inside. In therapy, this might look like exploring how the nervous system responds to trauma, understanding the patterns of anxiety or depression, or learning why boundaries, attachment styles, or inner critics form the way they do. When you understand why something is happening, it becomes less scary—and you gain clarity and tools to respond more effectively.

Psychoeducation empowers you to be an informed participant in your healing. It helps connect the dots between your past experiences and present patterns, and invites you to work with your mind and body rather than against them. Many clients say, “I wish someone had explained this to me years ago.” Therapy isn’t just about feeling—it’s also about knowing, and that knowledge can be a source of strength, validation, and lasting change. I believe that knowledge is power that leads to awareness, and awareness is often the first and biggest step towards creating change.

Exploring experiences helps you get to the heart of what you’re feeling—especially the deeper emotions that may be driving relationship patterns, depression, or anxiety. Sometimes, we develop strategies to avoid painful feelings—like anger, grief, or vulnerability—but that avoidance can leave us disconnected, reactive, or stuck. This approach supports you in accessing and expressing your emotions safely, and in learning how to respond to them with care rather than judgment. It’s ideal for those who want to reconnect with their emotional world and grow in self-understanding and self-compassion. 

An emotionally-attuned therapy process provides a safe space to uncover the emotions beneath the surface and helps you learn how to move through them instead of around them. Emotions are not problems to fix—they are signals that point to what matters most.