Virtual Online Emotion Regulation and Trauma Therapy Services in Ontario

Common broad themes we work on in therapy include:

  • Unpacking and analyzing patterns of behavior we want to change (such as using substances, overeating/restricting/bingeing, avoiding needed tasks, lashing out, etc.) 

  • Learning a variety of new and more effective responses to upsetting emotions, interactions, and situations

  • Troubleshooting and problem solving difficulties that arise when doing things differently

  • Increasing compassion, validation, and understanding of the self while making needed changes to behave and live in alignment with our values

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is the modality I draw from the most- it’s the one I have the most extensive experience in, and the one I’m most passionate about.

While DBT was originally developed for chronic suicidality and self-harm, it has been found effective for a wide variety of concerns, including trauma, eating disorders, substance use, anxiety, and depression.

DBT aims to help people build a more balanced and intentional response to stressful life experiences. Dialectics is the idea that two seemingly opposing thoughts or ideas can be true at the same time, and both are necessary:  we need to offer ourselves understanding and compassion for even our most challenging behaviors AND work towards doing things differently to create lasting change and improve our quality of life. As a behavioral therapy, a significant part of DBT is learning new ways of doing things (called “skills”) to change the way we think and feel.

The skills of DBT fall into 4 broad categories:

  • Distress Tolerance (surviving difficult situations without making them worse) 

  • Mindfulness (noticing nonjudgmentally what is happening both inside and outside of you)

  • Emotion Regulation (increasing wanted emotions while decreasing the frequency and intensity of unwanted ones)

  • Interpersonal Effectiveness (how to ask for what you want or say no to what you don't want in a way that preserves your relationships and self-respect).

Therapeutic Modalities

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Internal Family Systems

Internal Family Systems (IFS) focuses on understanding and connecting with different "parts" of ourselves that develop in response to events in our lives; some are parts that work to protect us, while others are parts that continue to feel hurt or vulnerable by past events. IFS posits that all humans have a "core self" which is our true nature, our essential, balanced selves. The goal of treatment in IFS is to be able to, from our core self or wise mind, offer compassion and understanding to the many parts of our identity and history.

Somatic Interventions

Somatic interventions are intended to increase awareness of bodily sensations that may be linked to a sense of anxiety or threat; we can then work with these sensations to decrease tension and increase our sense of ease and relaxation. While talk therapy often involves “top-down” interventions (changing the way that we behave and think in order to change the way that we feel), somatic interventions are a “bottom-up” intervention (shifting our physiology to change the way we think and behave).

I value virtual therapy because:

  • research suggests that virtual therapy is just as effective as in-person therapy for most issues

  • it allows clients to remain in their own space with familiar objects/loved pets/other comforts nearby

  • it reduces barriers to attending sessions (such as time commitment, energy required to get to treatment)

  • it allows clients to have a wider range of choices when selecting mental health service providers

Location and Fees

Emotion Regulation and Trauma Therapy is a virtual service located within Toronto, offering online appointments across Ontario.  

Fees are $175/session. Therapy is often covered in full or in part by private insurance and receipts will be provided for you to submit.

I do ask for 24 hours notice of cancellation (with flexibility on compassionate grounds), otherwise a fee may apply.