PSYCHOTHERAPY
We develop an internal map of ourselves, others, and the world through early relationships. This map shapes how we interpret situations, relate to others, and experience ourselves. Over time, it becomes so familiar it feels like reality.
People often come to therapy because something feels persistently wrong. Not just situational stress, but a longstanding internal state. This may show up as anxiety, low self-worth, emotional overwhelm, numbness, or chronic self-criticism, often attributed to life circumstances.
Most change efforts focus on the surface with new strategies, insight, or coping skills. Yet the underlying experience remains. These patterns are not just cognitive, they are embodied survival responses formed when overwhelming experiences were not co-regulated.
Without consistent co-regulation, the system adapts through patterns like hypervigilance, shutdown, or over-control. Over time, these adaptations become rigid and feel like personality rather than learned responses.
Common underlying themes include:
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I learned to disconnect from myself and others to feel safe
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I ignore or minimize my own needs
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I struggle to rely on others for support
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I struggle to assert myself without guilt, fear, or shame
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I feel like I have to earn love and care
These are not simply thoughts to reframe, but nervous system patterns shaping experience in real time.
This is a depth-oriented approach that focuses not only on insight, but on increasing the capacity to remain present with internal experience without automatically reverting to old survival responses. As this capacity grows, experience becomes more tolerable, reactions less automatic, and a greater sense of continuity emerges.
ABOUT ME
What feels like a problem is often an adaptation that no longer fits.
Many of the patterns that bring people to therapy are ways we learned to cope with emotional overwhelm in the absence of consistent support.
My work is direct and process-focused. We don’t stay only at the level of insight or explanation. Instead, we pay attention to emotional shifts, protective responses, avoidance, and relational patterns as they emerge in real time.
The focus is not just on improving how you function, but on working with the patterns that organize your experience. Over time, this builds a greater capacity to stay with yourself, respond more flexibly, and relate to others from a more secure place.
I have a Master's Degree in Counselling from the University of Ottawa. I am a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO).
Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final
― Rainer Maria Rilke
TREATMENT APPROACH
NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)
The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is a therapeutic approach for working with Complex Trauma (C-PTSD), including attachment, relational, and developmental trauma. It focuses on the unconscious, adaptive patterns that develop in response to early relational experiences and continue to shape identity, emotional regulation, physiology, behaviour, and relationships in the present.
NARM integrates a body-centred and psychodynamic approach within the framework of interpersonal neurobiology. It is grounded in mindfulness and a phenomenological orientation, supporting awareness of present-moment experience as it relates to a person’s sense of self and connection with others.
Rather than focusing primarily on recounting or analysing traumatic events, NARM works with how past adaptations are expressed in the present. These patterns may include disconnection, self-criticism, emotional dysregulation, or difficulty in relationships that originally developed as adaptive survival responses.
How NARM Works in Therapy
NARM therapy is collaborative and present-focused. Attention is often brought to current experience such as thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and relational dynamics as they arise in the session.
The therapeutic process explores how early survival-based adaptations shaped identity and continue to influence automatic patterns in daily life. Rather than processing the past in detail, the emphasis is on increasing awareness of present-moment experience and supporting greater flexibility, integration, and self-regulation.
Over time, this work supports the resolution of unconscious patterns of disconnection and strengthens the capacity for choice, presence, and connection.
Who NARM Is For
NARM is particularly helpful for individuals who may not identify with a single traumatic event but notice long-standing patterns such as:
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Chronic self-criticism or shame
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Difficulty with boundaries or relationships
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Emotional numbness, shutdown, or overwhelm
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Persistent anxiety or internal tension
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A sense of disconnection from self or others
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Feeling “stuck” in familiar patterns despite insight or effort
It can be especially supportive for those who have previously engaged in therapy but feel that deeper, implicit patterns continue to shape their experience.
What Clients Often Experience
Clients often report:
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Greater emotional regulation and resilience
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A more stable and compassionate sense of self
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Improved relational awareness and clearer boundaries
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Reduced shame and self-criticism
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Increased presence, freedom, and internal coherence
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A stronger sense of connection to self and others
Rather than focusing on changing the past, NARM supports shifts in how past adaptations are lived in the present, allowing for greater flexibility and aliveness in daily life.
A Note on Scope
NARM is a depth-oriented psychotherapeutic approach intended for ongoing therapy rather than crisis intervention. It is designed for individuals seeking to explore and transform long-standing relational and developmental patterns over time.
This Too Shall Pass
FEE
Psychotherapy sessions are $190 per 50-minute session. Services are covered by most extended health plans. Please check directly with your provider to confirm whether Registered Psychotherapists are covered under your policy.
If you are an Ontario resident, you may be able to claim the cost of non-reimbursed psychotherapy services as a medical expense on your income tax return.
Direct billing is available for most insurance providers.
CONTACT
Finding the right therapist is important, as a strong therapeutic relationship is essential for meaningful therapy. This process often takes research, patience, and intuition.
Your research and patience have brought you here. The next step is to check in with your intuition.
I encourage you to schedule a phone consultation if you are considering working with me. This gives us an opportunity to get a sense of whether we are the right fit for one another.