ABOUT
Mindful Living
Counselling Services
Mindful Living Counselling Services provides virtual counselling and psychotherapy services in Ontario, with a focus on health and wellness counselling. Individual therapy is available for adults (20-70).
Health and Wellness Counselling
Health and wellness counselling focuses on goals related to your sense of well-being. I specialize in stress and burnout management, anxiety and depression management, treatment of chronic insomnia, emotional support for living with chronic illness, and goals related to personal exploration and growth. Other areas of focus I can offer support for are listed below. What you may want to know about me is outlined here.
You may be looking for counselling for specific wellness, personal, or mental health goals. And/or you may mainly be looking for a dedicated space to share and process what you're going through, or have gone through, and to feel validated and a little less alone with it. You may not be exactly sure of your goals or hopes for counselling, but you just know you may benefit from being able to talk with someone on a regular basis. Prevention, maintenance, and emotional support are all equally important parts of managing our mental health! You don't need to be experiencing a crisis to start counselling. I'm here to provide individualized support, whether it be through psychotherapy, more goal-directed counselling, and/or supportive counselling.
If you do have specific goals, we will work together to help you identify what you would like to be different. We will help you break down manageable, realistic goals and develop a personalized wellness and counselling plan. We will explore the clinical interventions, skills, habits, and wellness practices that will help you prioritize your well-being, enhance your sense of vitality and of living intentionally, and move you toward the quality of life you want.
Areas of Focus and Specialization
MENTAL HEALTH
Managing anxiety or depression
Maintaining recovery and mental health
Enhancing coping strategies and psychological flexibility
Improving emotion regulation
PERSONAL GROWTH
Increasing insight into emotions, beliefs, and behaviours
Building self-esteem and self-compassion
Building a life more in alignment with values
Exploring purpose and meaning
WELLNESS
Managing stress and burnout
Improving work/life balance
Managing insomnia or sleep changes
Building healthy self-care habits
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
Coping with chronic illness
Navigating life transitions and decisions
Coping with loss and change
Managing difficult relationships
My Therapeutic Approach
Eclectic
My foundational approach is Person-Centered Therapy. I then consider and incorporate/suggest different concepts, techniques, strategies, and approaches to best support you. The disciplines and empirically-supported therapies I may draw from include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, mindfulness-based approaches, humanistic therapies, Feminist Therapy, positive psychology interventions, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, and Interpersonal Therapy.
Biopsychosocial
I incorporate a biopsychosocial view of health and wellness into my approach. It can be helpful for self-understanding and self-compassion to consider all the different experiences and factors that influence our mental health. This may mean us talking about everything from the brain to attachment theory to societal expectations to forms of social oppression. I believe it's almost impossible to leave out how social context, norms, inequities, systems, and institutions directly impact our well-being. I think one problem with "wellness culture" is that interventions are oversimplified, privilege and context is ignored, and the onus is placed on the individual to adapt. Our work together may focus on the steps you can take to improve your wellness, yes, but you may find it helpful for there to be transparency about the limits of this work and discussion of the system being broken, not you.
Informed
I draw from approaches that have been shown to be helpful for people. However, you inform me the most. I view clients holistically (i.e., I'm not treating a disorder, I'm supporting a person) and I consider individualized needs and strengths. My main focus, and the foundation of what grounds my choice and use of anything, is you feeling validated and supported. I take what I can from approaches rather than adhering strictly to a manualized, all-or-nothing approach or framework. Please know that any concept or strategy I pull from or suggest has to be done in a way that is aligned with the lenses and frameworks I practice from, as well as what fits for you. Any hesitation or disinterest in exploring a certain technique, or skills from a particular theory, is totally valid and will be respected.