The first session is an opportunity for us to meet and to discuss the potential of working together. I encourage you to ask any questions you have that will help to determine fit including questions about the therapeutic process and my experience. We’ll review informed consent and confidentiality, speak to the therapeutic process, and to what brings you to seeking out therapy at this time. I’m interested to know what your experience in therapy has been in the past, what you may hope to attend to in sessions, and will offer space to begin speaking to your concerns and history.
Frequency and duration are specific to your circumstances. Important considerations can include scope and duration of issues that have brought you to therapy and intensity of difficulties and distress. We will discuss this together to determine what can work for you.
While I am trained across multiple modalities including mindfulness based, cognitive behavioural, dialectical behavioural, emotion focused and trauma focused approaches, and can integrate approaches that may be helpful for you, my specialization and focus is relational and psychoanalytic.
Some people may prefer and may benefit from a more structured and time limited process that includes goal setting, homework, weekly worksheets, and a pre-designed program. This is not my approach and In this case I would suggest working with someone else who may be a better fit for you.
I am interested in the particularities of your experience, the meaning you attribute to this, the relationship between presenting issues and your history, and long standing and unconscious patterns. I offer a collaborative and relational process oriented towards depth of understanding and the potential for sustained, expansive and transformative change. I am interested in knowing who you have had to be to get to where you are, the ways you have learned to connect and protect yourself, and interested in providing space to explore new possibilities.
Theoretical orientation and approach is one aspect of determining fit. What is going to be helpful for you at this time is important to consider. I encourage you to ask questions, speak to your experience, and to listen to and trust yourself in determining fit. Does this person appear to get me or potentially have the capacity to, do they have humility and a willingness to be challenged and to potentially be wrong, may be important questions to consider. Therapy as a process can include contending with painful emotions and experiences, moments of uncertainty and discomfort, where old ways of relating and new ways of being can emerge . The capacity to speak to what comes up, including what presents in the therapeutic relationship, is important to the process.
My standard fee for individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is $170.00 per session, and $200 per session for couples therapy. Sliding scales fees are determined based on individual circumstances. I have limited and upcoming availability to provide psychoanalysis at a sliding scale rate.
My services are covered by insurance companies that provide benefits for therapy provided by Registered Psychotherapists. I will provide a receipt for my services that can be provided by you to your insurance provider for reimbursement.
I am located one block east of Spadina subway station north of Bloor at 36 Madison Ave. The closest intersection is Bloor Street West and Spadina Avenue.
I do both in person and virtual sessions. We can determine what works best for you considering factors including accessibility and privacy.
I typically accept payment by e-transfer and can also accept personal cheques and cash. I will issue a receipt upon payment.
I maintain sliding scale spots and have upcoming and limited availability to provide psychoanalysis at a sliding scale rate. Priorities for sliding scale spots are low-income individuals including folks with intergenerational experiences of poverty, low wage workers, single parents, and folks with experiences of homelessness and street-involvement.
I require 24 hours notice for cancellation. My full fee will be billed for lack of notice excluding emergencies.
Major tenets of psychoanalysis include an attention to the relationship between present experience and the past, the therapeutic relationship as important to a process of change, and an examination of unconscious patterns and meaning. I am happy to speak further to my approach which includes engagement with contemporary and classical schools of psychoanalysis.
As a depth based process psychoanalysis attempts to attend to the roots of problems. This includes an attention to relationships between emotional, cognitive, somatic, and behavioural experience and an illumination of unconscious patterns and meaning. An attention to present experience, the past, and aspirations for the future including conflicted aspects of self, processes of development, self-actualization, grief and processes of repair can be important elements. The therapeutic relationship and what emerges, including patterned ways of relating, new possibilities, and an examination of transference and countertransference dynamics, can be significant to a therapeutic process oriented towards development and growth. I am happy to speak further to my approach, psychoanalytic concepts, and my theoretical orientation.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis both offer an attention to relational patterns, the unconscious, and utilize the therapeutic relationship as a means of realizing change. Psychoanalysis offers a more intensive process, meeting multiple times weekly, and can be indicated in cases of long standing unresolved issues that may be a significant source of distress, including issues of self-esteem, alienation from meaning and purpose, dissatisfying relationships, depression and anxiety. I am happy to speak further to the distinction between psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis to determine what may be most suitable for you.