Trauma Therapy in Ottawa
I have extensive experience working with trauma, both single-incident and developmental, including four years of front-line crisis work. My approach is psychodynamic rather than protocol-driven: we work with what emerges in the room rather than following a predetermined sequence. This isn't for everyone, but for those who want to understand their experience rather than simply manage symptoms, it can be a better fit.
How Trauma Actually Works
Most people think of trauma as a kind of blown fuse: an event so overwhelming that it damages the mind. If that were true, there would be little reason for hope, because you can't undo what happened. Many trauma sufferers feel exactly this kind of despair.
But that model is wrong. The normal response to an overwhelming event is actually recovery. Your mind knows how to process difficult experiences, and given enough safety and support, it does so on its own. An overwhelming experience is not the same thing as a traumatic one.
Trauma occurs when that natural process gets stuck, and there is always a reason. The current event has connected with an earlier experience that was never fully processed at the time. The mind is now fighting on two fronts at once: the present situation and the unresolved past that it has reactivated. Neither can be thought through clearly, because the two have become entangled. The result is confusion. It becomes unclear whether the threat is internal or external, past or present, real or imagined. In fact it is all of these at once, which is exactly why it feels so impossible to sort out on your own.
This is actually good news. It means the problem isn't that the traumatic event broke something in you. It means something from the past is blocking your mind's natural ability to process the present. That blockage can be understood, and it can be resolved. The goal of the work is to untangle the present from the past, so that your symptoms can actually go away, not just become more bearable.
What Trauma Counselling Looks Like
Many trauma therapies focus on managing symptoms: grounding techniques, breathing exercises, learning to tolerate distress. These can be useful in the short term, but they leave the underlying problem untouched. They teach you to cope with something that hasn't been resolved.
Psychodynamic trauma therapy works differently. Instead of managing the symptoms from the outside, we work to understand what they mean. Why is your mind responding the way it is? What earlier experience has the present situation reactivated? This is careful, gradual work. It doesn't involve forcing you to relive anything, and it doesn't follow a fixed script. We go at the pace that makes sense for you, and the focus is always on making the experience intelligible rather than simply tolerable.
The result, when the work goes well, is that the trauma loses its hold. Not because you've learned to manage it, but because you've actually processed it. The nightmares stop. The hypervigilance eases. The past becomes the past.
Who This Is For
People come to me for trauma therapy for different reasons. Some have experienced a single overwhelming event (an accident, an assault, a sudden loss) and find that it won't let go. Others have lived with the effects of developmental trauma for years: a difficult childhood, neglect, emotional abuse, or an environment that was unpredictable or unsafe. Some have tried other approaches like CBT, EMDR, or somatic work and found them helpful up to a point but incomplete.
What these people tend to have in common is that they want to understand what happened to them, not just learn to live with it. If that describes you, this approach may be worth exploring.
Trauma Therapy in Ottawa: In-Person and Virtual
I offer trauma therapy from my office in central Ottawa (361 Waverley St), with in-person sessions available Friday evenings and Saturdays. Virtual sessions are available most weeknights for clients anywhere in Ontario.
I offer complimentary 20-minute consultations to discuss your situation and whether this approach might be helpful for you.
Further Reading
How I Work with Trauma — a closer look at the psychodynamic approach to trauma work.
Why "Coping Strategies" Aren't Enough — on the limits of symptom management.
What Happens Here — what to expect from psychodynamic therapy.
Related Services
Psychodynamic Therapy in Ottawa · Psychoanalysis in Ottawa · All Services