welcome

Our mind, body, nervous system, neurology, our parts, and our attachments are manifestations of our unconscious mind interwoven like a beautiful quilt, invisibly but palpably blanketing our daily life.

This layered perspective is what I think of as The Art of Psychotherapy.

It’s the practice of staying curious about how our individual threads of experience and our temperament are braided together.

Noticing our patterns, fears, aversions, attachments, fantasies, dreams, and projections.

This type of work is slow medicine, an act of love, sometimes painful, sometimes messy, sometimes insightful, sometimes liberating, and sometimes so incredibly obvious once it surfaces you may wonder how you didn’t see it before.

It is thoughtful, courageous work.

These threads have been twisted and knotted over years, sometimes decades, kneaded into us as implicit understandings and unconscious beliefs.

It takes patience and perseverance to loosen the knots.

Every minute we spend opening ourselves up with curiosity and honesty in a therapeutic space is meaningful, and can be healing.

One can gain compassion, understanding, and appreciation for one’s path, the experiences that brought you to this moment, the joyful moments and the challenging moments and everything in between.

A psychotherapeutic journey can illuminate just how intricately our unique tapestry has been woven over the years from every and all our experiences, and our relationships.

The beautiful, the sorrowful, the traumatizing, the infuriating, the repetitive, and the banal.

This is an invitation to sit, look, be curious, imagine, remember, wonder, question, and reflect upon your memories, interpretations, understandings, feelings, and relationships.

Together we explore how these experiences have impacted your daily life (thoughts, behaviours, perspectives, patterns, emotions, mood, self-care, working life) and how it all comes together to contribute to how you may be challenged, stressed, and/or suffering at this time, as you read this sentence, contemplateing beginning a therapeutic journey.

In session, I work to be experienced as attentive, curious, warm, patient, and inquisitive. I approach each session, and each client, with an open mind and offer my respect to us both, and to the process.

It is important to slow down in therapy in order to give ourselves the space to feel and reflect. This ‘slow medicine’ allows us to unpack at depth whatever you find yourself talking about. I encourage you to attune yourself to your body in therapy, as we reflect together on what it may be communicating. Your questions and observations will guide our work, and I will continue to encourage you to gaze compassionately at yourself, to offer yourself the care and thoughtfulness you likely extend to others, rather than the harsh judgment and criticism many of us apply to ourselves.

My intention is to ask questions that you may not immediately know the answer to, to dig a little deeper, and/or sit with the not-knowing. In time, we will come to see your unconscious at work through your body sensations, dreams, relational patterns, attachment wounds, and even the odd Freudian slip. The unconscious is a wise and sometimes humorous teacher and together we learn to listen.

Experiences we have with societal forces like racism, sexism, or homophobia can have as strong an impact on us as more personal or familial traumas. For these reasons, understanding ourselves and others better through the lens of power in society and talking about all our “ism”’s may be a piece of our work together. Our relationship, that of client and therapist, can bring some of these issues to light…. Who I am may trigger you somehow; how my gender, race, whiteness. privilege, sexual orientation, body type, economic status, education level, and temperament may land on you positively, neutrally, or negatively, and bring something important to discuss into the room. Your experience with me is as welcome as any and all other subject matter you wish (or resist) to discuss.

As time goes on, my hope is that some of the challenges you experience with others will surface between us. These can be challenging waters to navigate, but truly is a sign of progress and makes the therapy more effective.

If this sounds and feels right, please be in touch for a 20-minute complimentary consultation so we can see if we’re a good fit to begin this work together.

Curiosity creates space to wonder…

What am I feeling at this moment?
Why do I feel this way?
What’s happening in my body?
Why and how and when do I ignore my own needs? 
What is making me feel ashamed? Guilty?
Why did I react that way?
How have I ended up in this situation yet again?
How am I participating in this repetition?

Questions like these don’t always have answers, or at least not clear or immediate ones, or ones with words.

However, these types of questions create space for other parts of ourselves to speak, parts we might usually silence, ignore, or intentionally deny.

A therapeutic setting allows us more space to intimately consider the complexity of ourselves, our behaviours, repetitions, feelings, fantasies, and our existence.

Practicing this kind of curiosity allows us to feel more, imagine more, and harness bravery and resourcefulness to speak our truth.

It reminds us that we are strong and can show up for ourselves, and do challenging things.

It leads to the development of respect, dignity, and appreciation toward our selves and our journey.

This is a particular type of Self, one that is earned and behaves as a self-surrogate parent.

This Self learns how to hold us when we feel most alone, allows us to respect and love others more fully, to wake up to ourselves and show up in our lives with more capacity to get the most out of our relationships and our experiences, to take in all that life has to offer.

The art of living begins with curiosity.