How I work
I mostly work with person-centered and emotion-focused modalities.
The person-centered part of this means means that I believe in your inherent ability to move toward growth and wellness and that I strive to create an environment that supports you to do this. I also believe that moving into alignment with who you truly are and helping you come into contact with your authenticity will support your wellness and reduce distress. I am also committed to accepting all parts of you as you bring them into therapy, even the parts that you may feel ashamed of or uncomfortable with.
The emotion-focused part of it means that I believe in following feeling. When a feeling comes up, I might guide you to stay with it and notice what is happening in your body. I might support you to express an emotion and help you feel safe enough to feel it and move through it. Often, we block our emotions because we think they are not ok or because they feel too scary to be with. This can lead to energy becoming trapped in our bodies and various symptoms and suffering. I may support you in widening your window of tolerance so that you can experience all of your emotions more fully and in a way that feels less scary and overwhelming. With your consent, we may engage in experiential exercises to help you access and express your emotion. Sometimes we might sit in silence also if that is what feels needed in the moment!
Attachment is also a focus in EFT (you can read more about Sue Johnson’s work here) and we may talk about the “internal working models” you have developed that govern how you relate to yourself, to others, and to the world around you.
I also work in a relational way. I prize and prioritize the therapeutic relationship and may draw attention to what is coming up between us as part of our work together. I may ask you how it feels to share something with me or how it feels to hear me share something with you. I may ask how it feels to be in the room with me and what you notice coming up for you. I strive to be with you so that you are less alone in your experience. I will also bring my authentic and full self to this work. I will use my own experience of what is coming up in my body and mind as I sit with you to inform our work together.
Who I work with
I work with teens (12+) and adults. I firmly believe you are never too young or too old to access counselling and support! I work with people of all backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and relationship orientations.
Therapeutically, I who are struggling with a variety of challenges including:
- exploring gender identity and sexual orientation, including aromanticism and asexuality
- grief and loss, including losses of desired life events that have not come to fruition
- navigating relationships of all kinds (e.g., romantic, familial, friendship)
- struggling with relationship with self including self-criticism, self-acceptance struggles, and feeling bad about oneself
Mangrove Counselling 