our philosophy
Reaching out for help is not always easy, but you're doing it.
At Authentically You Counselling and Psychotherapy, we work with the mind and the body, the present and the past. We typically see clients that have previously sought therapy with no long-term success.
How are we different? Our approach is constantly adapting to integrate new knowledge and research. We believe that there is no one-size fits all approach, and so we only take the best from a number of evidence-based therapies to give clients a truly unique experience.
what we offer
Bodily Awareness (Interoception)
- Increasing sensitivity to bodily cues so you can catch the distress before it gets out of control.
- Increasing somatic vocabulary.
- Developing self-care habits.
- Meeting basic bodily needs.
Emotional Intelligence
- Increasing emotional vocabulary.
- Naming emotions.
- Understanding emotions as they come up for you and others.
- Exploring how all emotions serve a purpose - there are no "bad" feelings.
Psychoeducation
- Different physiological states (fight/flight/freeze) and how they can affect your physical and mental health.
- Why your struggles are biologically correct (as opposed to a personality flaw).
- How to overcome mental health struggles by developing internal resources.
- Child development and attachment.
Reprocessing Memories
- How memories are stored.
- Why some memories get stuck in the past.
- Retelling vs. Reliving.
- Using EMDR, IFS, Play Therapy, Psychodrama, Narrative Therapy, and Gestalt to reprocess disturbing memories.
Distress Tolerance and Coping Skills
- The difference between the two
- What coping skills can help with.
- What coping skills cannot help with.
- When to use which coping strategies.
- Breathwork, grounding, dual awareness, visualization, body attunement, and meta-cognition and meta-emotion.
Integrative Approach
- Why therapy may not have worked for you in the past.
- Discussing which therapy you need and when, as different therapies work with different parts of the brain.
- Asking for permission before we change therapies.
- Retelling vs. Reliving.
Trauma is not what happens to you, it's what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.
Gabor Maté