Family Counselling Services in Lakeshore, ON.

I am a registered clinical marriage and family therapist with specific training, supervision and experience in helping families work though the challenges they are facing. The therapy is often for relationships that have become conflictual and often disengaged. Family can provide the strongest and most important relationships we have, except when they don't - this is when they can become some of the most painful and challenging relationships to work through and heal. Family therapy is specifically geared toward addressing and turning around these complex and emotionally charged relationships.

Family members play an extremely important role in our health and well-being. Supportive and connected families will optimize our health and happiness. My goal is to help you and your willing family members to obtain connection, support, and fulfillment in each other via openness, honesty, boundary setting, compromise, and understanding. We will explore your families' culture, meaning systems, history, goals and individual thoughts and feelings in a respectful and thoughtful way so that you will all come to understand one another and get past the resentment and anger that often weighs families down.

My interest in Family Therapy grew out of my work with patients in acute care hospitals. As I interacted with the patients and their families, I realized that if one family member is in pain, all the family members are somehow affected. This insight caused me to shift my focus away from the more traditional psychodynamic theories I was earlier taught in University and to focus instead on how family therapy and family systems brought healing. This growing body of literature, which started in the 1960s, has revolutionized my thinking, enabling me to find a more generous, holistic, and integrated approach to patient care and family healing. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation today

In the contemporary world, families manifest in diverse and dynamic forms, often encountering unique challenges. At Atlas Therapy, we empower family units to nurture psychological and emotional connections. Through recognizing imbalances, we guide members in acquiring functional communication skills, fostering an environment where each individual feels heard, supported, and understood. Our goal is to strengthen the bonds of all families, irrespective of their shapes, sizes, or compositions.

It is common for families to seek therapy in order address various issues in or outside of the home. Life is often stressful, overwhelming and full of change - at times it helps to have a therapist for support during periods of transition. A therapeutic setting allows family members a safe space to communicate thoughts and feelings;, reflect on our experiences; learning and growing in the process.

The issues your family faces are our focus. Lack of communication, misunderstanding, sibling conflict, or child development issues can affect the whole family. Families can enhance communication and resolve issues through family counselling. Family counselling helps families communicate and understand each other, making conflict resolution easy. Counselling sessions enable individuals to communicate and resolve disputes while respecting everyone's opinions. Family therapy may accompany individual treatment. The goal is to improve communication, conflict resolution, and relationships. Each family is unique, and one member's problems can affect everyone.

A family of four walks into a bar... (okay, therapist's office, fine) each with a different reason why they're there. Also, some of them don't want to be there at all! Get it! Actually, there's no punch-line, it's just normally how it goes. Regardless of what event brings them through the door, families often come in feeling divided and disconnected. That's why my job is to find the common ground so that everyone feels like they're being respected, heard, and have something to gain from the experience. My hope is that you will leave here: 1) Feeling more unified around a common goal 2) Clarity for how to move forward together 3) A renewed sense of what matters most

Within each family are the experiences of each family member. In family therapy, you, and your family can explore how each member’s roles and perspectives impact the family as a whole. You can learn to cultivate a family environment grounded in respect for individual experiences, sense of connection and shared understanding. I work with individuals, couples and families. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit for therapy.

Imagine a family as a tree with branches, roots, trunk representing parts of the immediate and extended family. When working with families, all elements are considered. Usually there is a request for family therapy due to one of it's members in crisis, often a child. However, when an analysis of need is done it becomes apparent that more than one member of the family needs help in adjusting, growing and learning new behaviours. Clients contact me for a variety of reasons: to improve communications, solve family problems, support in special situations such as death, divorce, marriage, illness, child or adolescent issues.