I believe that all individuals have the capacity for change when given the opportunity, tools, and guidance. My approach is collaborative, client-centered, and eclectic, drawing on cognitive, psychodynamic, and somatic approaches to therapy. As a counsellor, I focus on creating a safe space filled with respect, encouragement, and support. In this calming and reassuring environment, clients are invited to examine patterns, behaviours, responses, boundaries, and relationships, that they may want to alter, understand, or reflect upon. I am interested in working with adolescents and adults of all ages, and with a variety of concerns.
Couples counselling - if this is your first session with me, please book in for a 100 minute initial couples counselling session
I welcome clients with diverse backgrounds and needs and provide counselling in English and Russian.
I believe that all individuals have the capacity for change when given the opportunity, tools, a...
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Please note that Amanda’s fees will increase to $150 from June 1st.
My work centres on helping people deepen their relationship with themselves and thereby create more authentic, connected relationships with others. Many of the folks I work with are carrying the impact of painful relational experiences—sometimes from childhood, and sometimes from the stress of being in spaces where they haven’t felt seen, safe, or accepted. Together, we gently untangle those wounds and build a sense of inner trust and safety, which I see as foundations for intimacy, self-expression, and belonging.
I also believe that insight alone isn’t always enough to create change. We can name a pattern, analyse it, and understand where it comes from—and still feel stuck. When we’ve been overwhelmed or hurt, it’s natural to retreat into our minds for safety. However, healing doesn’t always happen through thinking alone – often, we have to feel our way out. That’s why I support people in going beyond talking about their experiences and into processing and working through them. By practising being with our feelings as they arise—through presence, embodiment, and compassion—we access deeper layers of awareness where real transformation happens. I believe this kind of integration allows us to not only understand ourselves more fully, but live with more ease—rooted, connected, and free.
To support this kind of deep, embodied healing, I use an integrative approach and draw from Internal Family Systems, attachment theory, somatics, and intersectional feminism. These ways of working help us get to know the parts of you that need attention and acknowledge all the creative ways you have coped with struggle. They enable an exploration of how your identities and lived experiences influence the way you relate to yourself and others. Together, we’ll gently make space for what’s showing up in the present moment, including what your body might be holding, so that the shifts you want to see can happen not just in your mind, but throughout your whole system.
When I work with couples, I also draw on Relational Life Therapy. This direct and practical approach supports partners in shifting out of stuck patterns and moving toward greater closeness, accountability, and care.
I’ve always been drawn to the quieter layers beneath what we show to the world – to the places where grief, resistance, and tenderness live. My healing has meant recognising the echoes of old wounds in the present – and coming home to myself, again and again, through guidance, practice, and getting in touch with the quiet wisdom of my body. It was through this process that I came to understand healing as something lived and felt, not just understood – and it deeply informs the way I practice.
Some other things you might want to know about me are that prior to practicing therapy, I spent six years supporting women, trans, non-binary, and genderqueer survivors of sexual violence at a local rape crisis centre committed to justice-doing and anti-oppressive practice. I am a white, cis-gendered, queer, able-bodied, third-generation settler living on the stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I approach all my work with thoughtfulness regarding social and cultural contexts, paying close attention to how access to power and privilege shapes relationships.
I love to read, write, dance, and lose track of time in meaningful conversation. I care deeplyabout relationships where we can show up as we are and the messiness and beauty of what it means to be alive.
Please note that Amanda’s fees will increase to $150 from June 1st.
My work centres on helping p...
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Please note Sarah’s fees will increase to $150 from June 1st
My Approach to Therapy
As a counsellor, I help connect you with your own inborn strength and resiliency. My approach is rooted in compassion and in a deep faith in the healing that happens when we feel seen and validated. Years of yoga and mindfulness practice influence my approach to counselling, and I try to make counselling an embodied experience because I believe change happens when we are fully present in our experience. In working with me, you will find that I focus on fostering the capacity to be emotionally regulated and present with experience. I see counselling as a context where we can learn to have faith in our capacity to handle what arises within our lives and within
ourselves. As we practice meeting each moment with our whole human selves, we learn more about what matters to us, and it can become easier to move forward in ways that align with what we truly value.
Theories Influencing My Approach
I am particularly influenced by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which balances letting go of resistance to the difficult experiences of our lives with taking action to bring about the changes we desire in our lives. I also pull on the theory of Internal Family Systems (IFS), which beautifully holds space for the complexity of being human. I have done training in Relational Life Therapy (RLT), which emphasizes developing relational skills to build meaningful connections, and I also work with ideas from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which focuses on developing strong emotional bonds. Broadly, I am influenced by Attachment Theory, which explores how our early relationships with caregivers impact the unfolding of our lives and generally takes an embodied and relational approach. My master’s thesis focuses on understanding the lived experience of chronic pain recovery from a relational lens and aims to challenge more common individualistic perspectives on recovery.
Click here for Sarah’s full bio
Please note Sarah’s fees will increase to $150 from June 1st
My Approach to Therapy
As a counse...
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Please note Tamsen’s fees will increase to $150 per 50 mins for Individual sessions and $160 per 50 mins, for partner sessions, from June 1st
You aren’t meant to go it alone. We make sense of ourselves through our connection with others. Learning to pay attention to your ways of being in this world, without judgment or shame, is modelled in healthy relating. Many of us haven’t experienced or seen healthy relationships. We find ourselves repeating behaviours we dislike or reacting to mistreatment. Relationships are as unique as the individuals engaged in them, meaning one-size-fits-all answers do not exist to resolve differences. Replacing prominent cultural beliefs that disrupt intimate connection and learning skills to be with discomfort can change everything for us.
My approach is rooted in experiential and relational-oriented somatic therapy. I specialize in trauma, childhood issues, anxiety, PTSD, and complex PTSD. I also specialize in couples and relationships with the lens of Relational Life Therapy (RLT). I offer a weekly process group for those looking to expand their relational skills in practice.
Being with you is the heart of therapy. Profound change happens in the present moment with all that we are, and were, being witnessed with care.
Outside of Therapy
As a white, able-bodied, non-binary person, I am constantly investigating my privileges and ways of being. I am a 5th generation settler and a 1st generation immigrant to so-called Canada. I am polyamorous and have been partnered for over 20 years. I have travelled extensively throughout my life and am actively learning to communicate through differences.
Please note Tamsen’s fees will increase to $150 per 50 mins for Individual sessions and $160 per ...
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