Trauma Therapy & PTSD Counselling in Ontario

After a frightening event, the mind can stay on alert long after the danger has passed. You may relive it without warning, see it when you close your eyes, feel your heart race at reminders, or avoid places and people connected to it.

This is not weakness and it is not permanent. We use approaches with strong evidence behind them, including EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy and prolonged exposure, always at a pace you set.

You will never be pushed to describe more than you are ready to describe.

Some trauma is not one event but many, repeated or prolonged over time. It can shape how safe you feel with other people, how you handle stress, and how you see yourself.

Treatment starts with stability and safety, then moves at your pace into what sits underneath. Somatic approaches and trauma-informed yoga can help where trauma shows up in the body.

Flashbacks, driving and passenger anxiety, and fear of the road are common after a collision. Approved treatment is billed directly to your auto insurer, so it costs you nothing out of pocket.

Family members may qualify for their own funded counselling, even if they were not in the vehicle. Read more about car accident therapy.

Trauma after a workplace incident can make returning to work feel impossible. We provide psychosocial assessment, trauma treatment and graduated return-to-work planning, coordinated with your employer or case manager where you want that. Read more about return-to-work support. Employers can also explore our corporate and EAP programs.

Child and teen therapy and paediatric counselling from age four in Grimsby and St. Catharines, from age five in Oakville, and from age ten in Kitchener, with in-home, in-school, and virtual appointments also available. Children rarely describe distress in words. It appears as clinginess, nightmares, refusing the car, trouble at school, stomach aches, or anger that seems to come from nowhere.

Therapy is adapted to age, using play, art and structured activity for younger children and more direct conversation with teenagers. Parents are involved in a way that respects a teenager’s privacy, and we will always explain what we are doing and why.

Sitting with people who understand without needing it explained is a particular kind of relief. Our groups bring together people working through similar difficulties, led by a clinician.

Groups run alongside individual therapy or on their own, and they are often the point at which people stop feeling alone in this. Ask us what is currently running.

It depends on what you are dealing with, and anyone who gives you a number before assessing you is guessing.

Focused trauma treatment is often a matter of months rather than years. Chronic pain, brain injury or long-standing difficulties usually take longer. We reassess at intervals using the same measures, so progress is tracked rather than assumed.

We will also tell you honestly when we think you no longer need us.

Usually weekly at the start, moving to every two or three weeks as things improve. Where someone is struggling considerably, or where intensive trauma work would help, we sometimes schedule more than one session a week. Treatments such as EMDR tend to work better with consistent, closer-spaced sessions early on.

Frequency is set with you around what you can manage practically and financially, not imposed.

Both are entirely normal and neither is a problem. Your clinician has seen it many times and will not be uncomfortable.

If you cannot find words, you do not have to fill the silence. Sitting quietly in a session is allowed and is sometimes the most useful thing that happens.

Not before you are ready, and never in more detail than you choose. Several of the treatments we use, EMDR among them, work without requiring you to narrate the event.

You can stop at any point. Being pushed to relive something before you are ready is not therapy.

Yes, at any time, and you do not need to explain yourself or worry about causing offence. The fit between you and your clinician matters more than almost anything else in therapy, so if it is not right, tell us and we will match you with someone else. Because we are a clinic rather than a sole practitioner, that is a straightforward change, and your history stays with us so you are not starting over.

The same applies to the approach itself. With more than thirty modalities across our team, if one is not working we can try another rather than persevering. If you have tried therapy before and it did not help, that often means the approach or the fit was wrong rather than that therapy will not work for you. Tell us what you tried.

Yes, subject to the legal limits that apply to every regulated health professional in Ontario: a risk of serious harm to you or someone else, and suspected harm to a child. We will always tell you if such a situation arises.

Where an insurer funds your care, they receive the treatment plans and progress reports needed to administer the claim, and they are entitled to request your clinical records. We will explain exactly what is likely to be shared before you begin, so there are no surprises. If there is something you would prefer not to have documented, tell your clinician and we will discuss how to handle it. Nothing is released to an insurer or anyone else without your written consent.

Our nurse practitioners can assess and prescribe, and our psychiatrists provide physician-level opinions on diagnosis and medication.

Many people do well with therapy alone. Where medication would help, we can arrange it rather than sending you elsewhere.

Where mood or anxiety has not responded to therapy and medication, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, neurofeedback and biofeedback are available at our Oakville clinic.

Treatment-resistant depression is not a dead end, and these are reasonable next steps rather than last resorts.

Specialized services →

Yes, if you want them to be. We offer couples and family sessions, and support for family members in their own right, since injury affects whole households.

With an adult client, nothing is shared with family without your consent.

Guide for family members →