Overcome the emotional difficulties that are holding you back.
When people think of healing, they often think about another person healing them. They consider healing to be a passive exchange where the healer works on them and they receive the healing. The concept of playing an active role in the process of healing can sometimes be an unfamiliar one.
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, can help people improve relationships; address mental health concerns, illness, and emotional difficulties; reduce trauma symptoms; and handle other life situations that make it difficult to be introspective, to feel grounded and content, and to move forward positively with life. The goals of psychotherapy can include knowing yourself better so you can accept all of you; developing purpose and a sense of meaning in life; reducing, managing or eliminating troubling symptoms; alleviating emotional, psychological or even somatic pain; helping you discover how to be more fully you; improving self-esteem and self-efficacy; and especially increasing your sense of wellbeing and wholeness.
In order to benefit from psychotherapy in terms of it changing your life for the better, you will need to commit to attending regular therapy sessions and engaging with enthusiasm or at least curiosity. You also need to commit to doing assigned practices, as well as integrating what you have learned into your day to day life, the effort will result in better relationships, more acceptance of self, greater capacity for joy, love, problem solving, handling stress skillfully, tolerating difficulty with more ease and just so much more freedom to choose how to respond to life’s opportunities and challenges.
There are three phases in psychotherapy that emerge organically and will facilitate you reaching these goals. They are:
1. To develop a solid relationship and have a willingness to learn how to actively engage in the therapeutic process. The therapists’s first job is to build a real, authentic connection so that the client can feel comfortable trusting the healing process that will ensure. Having a positive therapeutic relationship has been demonstrated to be as powerful as, if not more powerful than, the treatment method a therapist uses and is viewed as one of the causes of positive change in psychotherapy. If there is a disconnect between the therapist and client, the client will not be as willing to engage in the commitment, courage, self-responsibility, enthusiasm, trust and practice that these healing modalities require.
2. To do the work. At CPYC, the client usually commits to at least 6 months of weekly or biweekly therapy. The relationship between client and therapist can take time to build, and the tools of psychotherapy can take time to learn, once the therapist is clear on how best to apply them to the particular client. Once these aspects have taken root in the client, the deeper work of clearning trauma symptoms and longstanding relational issues begins and this requires substantial courage and at least some trust in the therapist and the modality.
Psychotherapy can evoke feelings of anxiety, stress, anger, fear, frustration, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, shame or a feeling that you want to flee. When we fact these unpleasant feelings together in therapy, they can be worked through, understood and accepted. Often, these experiences when they are worked through in relationship while grounded in the body, offer the most profound opportunties for healing in the therapeutic experience. We encourage you to stay in therapy through these moments as our therapists are skilled in working these moments through with you.
With your psychotherapist, you co-create ideas and practices that move you towards what you want in your life and who you are behind the symptoms or survival strategies you have identified with. Small gains need to be experienced to encourage you to persist with your work. But once you begin to trust these smaller gains, you can really step into focusing on creating real change in your unconscious expectations, perceptions, triggers and relational patterns. As you develolp greater freedom, and more ability to make conscious choices around how to respond to stress, you may choose to go even deeper towards experiencing and embodying the higher principles of understanding, joy, acceptabnce, compassion, love, authentic connection and peace.
3.Ending therapy. This phase of psychotherapy involves evaluating where you began and where you are now. It involves solidifying what you have learned, resolving any outstanding ruptures and feeling satisfied and content with your life and yourself. This is the phase where you end your relationship with the therapist. Many people find endings have been painful; this ending is a good opportunity to experience an ending that is healthy, joyful and nurturing.
Clients in therapy learn how to become more and more self-sufficient and capable of bringing about healing in their being as they are guided to know themselves more deeply, to understand the theory and apply the tools exactly how they need them. The healing will integrate into their psychological and physiological systems and change their being. The healing will remain within. This iis the beauty and the gift of these healing modalities. It is always a joy for therapists to accompany clients as they discover the healing capacities of their own bodies, minds and engergies.
Psychotherapy is not meant to change you; it is meant to find you.
We practice psychotherapy at Collingwood Psychotherapy & Yoga Centre. You will know that you are in the right place if:
- You feel embarrassed or nervous to come to therapy. You are not alone! The most common reason Canadians do not access mental health services is because they are worried about being judged by the therapist or other people who know they are seeking help. We aim to create a safe, non-judgmental and confidential environment so that you can feel comfortable doing your therapy work and talking to us if difficulty between us arises.
- You are looking to understand how to feel more connected in relationships.
- You are willing to commit the time and energy for regular sessions and possibly homework to engage in the process of change.
- You recognize that our role as therapists is to create a safe space for you to explore your emotions and guide you as you work to connect more deeply to others and your internal world.
- You appreciate a caring, intuitive, experienced, hopeful and authentic healing dialogue.
- You want therapy based on relational, attachment-based, trauma, sensorimotor, yogic, mindful and neurobiologically informed theories.
For additional information about psychotherapy or to book a session with us in Collingwood, Ontario, contact our practice today.
Tara McGee
Psychotherapist, OCSWSSW
MSW, RSW, Dip TIRP, Yoga Therapist
Peter Madore
Registered Psychotherapist, CRPO
Dip TIRP
Marta Borges
Registered Psychotherapist, CRPO
Masters Mental Health Counselling
Jessica White
BSc, OCT, MACP
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Our Mission
To provide clients with an accepting, friendly space to discover their healing path and to develop therapeutic relationships that sustain, inspire and guide them.
To provide clients with highly skilled, self responsible and self aware psychotherapists and yoga therapists who are always striving to learn about advancements in their fields and to continually develop themselves.
To create psychoeducational opportunities for clients to empower them to learn about their symptoms and how they can move towards healing and growth.
To provide innovative training programs that develop highly competent, self aware, self responsible, and inspiring psychotherapists and yoga therapists.
