Focus areas

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"If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather." - Stephen Fry

Almost all of us experience depression or anxiety, or both, during our lifetimes.  These feelings are especially common during transitional times of life - childhood, adolescence, mid-life and towards the end of life.  But the idea that these feelings are common comes as small solace to the person experiencing it.  I take a compassionate, practical approach using evidence-based strategies, including ACT, IFS and mindfulness.  Together we formulate a plan designed with one goal in mind: to have you feeling better.  

"You need to have courage to mature into what you actually are." 

- E.E. Cummings

The transition from childhood into adolescence and then adulthood is one of the most challenging times of our lives. For many of us, it's a time when mental health challenges rise to to the fore.  As a therapist, I am particularly interested in teaching young people the tools they need to establish and maintain good mental health.  Equipping young people with these strategies often reaps lifelong benefits - promoting resilience, wellbeing and a strong sense of their own identity.  I love working with my young clients as they "feel all the feelings" and find effective ways to create meaningful connections with friends, family and the world beyond.  

"But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest  people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole...”" 

- Rainer Maria Rilke

My approach to couples therapy is integrative - this means I draw from a variety of modalities to tailor a therapeutic program best suited to your particular relationship needs. I meet with each partner individually first as people are often coming from different places in the relationship...then we begin our work together by creating mutual goals with clear outcomes. Much of the work focuses on changing patterns of behaviour which means we are learning new skills or ways of being. So you guessed it - there is homework! But it's not so much "hard work" as "play with a purpose".     

"No, autism is not a ‘gift’. For most, it is an endless fight against schools, workplaces, and bullies. But, under the right circumstances, given the right adjustments, it CAN be a superpower." 

- Greta Thunberg

As someone with close family members who are neurodivergent, I bring professional and personal experience to this area. Whether we're talking about autism, ADHD or OCD, I have decades of experience working with folks of all ages right across the spectrum.  This lived experience informs my practice in a variety of ways - whether it's how I conduct sessions or my intimate knowledge of some of the challenges (and opportunities!) that can arise when we're working outside the neurotypical space..