Therapy Modalities

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical, evidence-based approach that helps you understand how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours work together—and how small changes can create real relief. In CBT, we look at the patterns that may be keeping you stuck (like worry loops, harsh self-talk, avoidance, or people-pleasing) and learn CBT tools to respond differently in the moments that matter. CBT is not about “positive thinking” or pretending everything is fine; CBT is about building skills to challenge unhelpful thoughts, manage overwhelming emotions, and shift behaviours in a way that fits your real life. Many people like CBT because it’s clear, structured, and goal-focused, and CBT sessions often include simple strategies you can practice between appointments to build confidence and momentum. Whether you’re dealing with anxiety, depression, stress, panic, or low self-esteem, CBT can help you feel more in control—one doable step at a time.

Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is a structured, evidence-based therapy that helps the brain “digest” upsetting memories so they feel less intense and less likely to get triggered in day-to-day life. EMDR is often used for trauma and PTSD, but it can also help with anxiety, panic, phobias, and distressing experiences that still feel stuck or raw. In EMDR, you briefly bring a difficult memory to mind while using bilateral stimulation (often guided eye movements, tapping, or tones). This process supports the brain’s natural healing system, so the memory can be reprocessed—meaning you can remember what happened without feeling like you’re reliving it. EMDR doesn’t require sharing every detail of your experience, and the pace is carefully tailored to your comfort, with preparation and grounding skills built in so you feel supported throughout. Over time, EMDR can reduce emotional distress, shift negative beliefs (like “I’m not safe” or “It was my fault”), and help you feel calmer, more present, and more in control.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a modern, evidence-based approach that helps you feel better by changing your relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions, rather than battling them nonstop. In ACT, we learn skills for acceptance (making room for feelings like anxiety, grief, or self-doubt without letting them run your life) and mindfulness (coming back to the present moment), while also building commitment to meaningful action. ACT isn’t about “getting rid” of thoughts—it’s about noticing them, unhooking from them, and choosing what matters most anyway. A big part of ACT is clarifying your values—what you want your life to stand for in areas like relationships, health, work, or self-respect—then taking small, doable steps that align with those values, even when life feels hard. ACT can be especially helpful for anxiety, depression, stress, perfectionism, chronic pain, and people-pleasing, because it supports both emotional resilience and real-world change. Over time, ACT helps you build psychological flexibility: the ability to handle what shows up inside you and still move toward the life you want.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a gentle, evidence-based therapy that helps you understand your inner world by viewing it as made up of different “parts”—like the part that worries, the part that gets angry, the part that people-pleases, or the part that shuts down to cope. In IFS, these parts aren’t seen as “bad”; they’re often protective, trying to help you survive or avoid pain, even if their strategies create problems now. IFS also focuses on your core Self—the steady, compassionate, wise part of you that can lead with calm and clarity. With IFS, we learn to listen to parts with curiosity, reduce inner conflict, and help wounded parts heal from past experiences so they don’t have to carry burdens alone. IFS can be especially helpful for trauma, anxiety, shame, depression, relationship patterns, and harsh self-criticism, because it supports deep healing without forcing you to relive everything in detail. Over time, IFS helps you feel more grounded, more emotionally balanced, and more connected to who you really are.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a newer, neuroscience-informed trauma therapy designed to work with the very earliest “shock” and orienting responses in the nervous system—often happening before you even have words, clear emotions, or a full story about what happened. DBR (developed by psychiatrist Dr. Frank Corrigan) helps you gently track subtle sensations—commonly in the face, head, and neck—linked to the brain’s initial orienting tension and shock response, so the body can complete and release what got stuck at the time of the event. DBR is typically slow-paced and carefully titrated (done in small, manageable pieces), which many clients find supportive if they feel easily overwhelmed or tend to shut down or dissociate. DBR was originally developed with attachment shock in mind, and it’s also used more broadly for trauma-related distress where triggers still hit fast and hard, even when you “know you’re safe.”

Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is also used for related anxiety patterns. In ERP, you gradually and safely face the situations, thoughts, images, or sensations that trigger anxiety (the “exposure”), while practicing not doing the usual compulsions, reassurance-seeking, checking, avoiding, or mental rituals (the “response prevention”). The goal of ERP isn’t to force you to “like” uncertainty—it’s to help your brain learn, through experience, that you can handle discomfort and that anxiety naturally rises and falls without you needing to perform rituals to get relief. ERP is done in a collaborative, step-by-step way, usually starting with easier exposures and building confidence over time, with plenty of support and coping tools along the way. With consistent practice, ERP can reduce the intensity of obsessions, shrink the urge to do compulsions, and help you get your time, energy, and freedom back.

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is a compassionate, evidence-based approach that helps you better understand your emotions and use them as valuable information—rather than something to ignore, fear, or push down. In EFT, we slow things down to identify what you’re truly feeling underneath the surface (for example, hurt beneath anger, or fear beneath shutdown) and gently explore the needs and stories connected to those feelings. EFT helps you move through stuck emotional patterns, heal painful experiences, and build healthier ways of relating to yourself and others. EFT can be helpful for anxiety, depression, trauma, self-criticism, and relationship challenges, because it supports both emotional processing and lasting change. Over time, EFT helps you feel more emotionally resilient, more self-compassionate, and more connected in your relationships—starting with the relationship you have with yourself.

The Gottman Method is an evidence-based approach to couples therapy that helps partners strengthen friendship, improve communication, and manage conflict in healthier, more respectful ways. Using decades of relationship research, the Gottman Method focuses on building everyday connection (like understanding each other’s inner world), increasing positive interactions, and reducing patterns that can damage trust—such as criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. In Gottman Method therapy, couples learn practical tools for talking about hard topics, repairing after conflict, and staying emotionally connected even when stress is high. The Gottman Method also helps couples create shared meaning by clarifying values, goals, and what they want their relationship to stand for. Over time, the Gottman Method can support greater closeness, better conflict management, and a more stable, supportive partnership.

Polyvagal-informed therapy is an approach that helps you understand your nervous system—especially why you might get stuck in anxiety, shutdown, numbness, panic, or people-pleasing—even when you logically “know you’re safe.” Grounded in the Polyvagal Theory (how the body’s safety system works), polyvagal-informed therapy focuses on noticing your state (fight/flight, freeze/shutdown, or safe-and-connected), tracking body cues, and building skills to gently shift back toward regulation. In polyvagal-informed therapy, we use practical tools like breath, grounding, movement, orienting to the environment, connection, and paced exposure to support a sense of safety in the body. Polyvagal-informed therapy can be especially helpful for trauma, chronic stress, anxiety, dissociation, and emotional overwhelm because it treats symptoms as nervous-system strategies—not personal failures. Over time, polyvagal-informed therapy helps you build resilience, expand your “window of tolerance,” and feel more present, connected, and in control.