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What we help with
However you arrived here, there is a way through.
This is where our work meets the things you are carrying.
Clinical Psychology Therapy in Toronto & online
All of the therapists, at the Design Your Life Centre, are experts in a range of evidence-based psychological therapies (e.g., Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Schema Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Gottman Couples Therapy) to address a range of mental health and life challenges including anxiety, stress, depression, low self esteem and problems in relationships. However, our East Toronto psychotherapy practice specializes in:
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Anxiety, Stress & Burnout
When you have been living in survival mode for too long, your mind and body can become caught in a loop that is difficult to interrupt on your own. We help you reset your nervous system toward safety, build practical tools for self-regulation, and see your circumstances more clearly. From this steadier place, you can make conscious choices rooted in where you want to go—shifting from simply surviving life to having the capacity to thrive.
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Grief & Loss
Grief does not move in a straight line, and some days it settles into something heavier and harder to name. We sit with the weight of it instead of rushing you past it, and help you find your footing again. You do not have to perform being okay here.
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Trauma & PTSD
Traumatic memories can feel as though they are still happening—reexperienced through the body, emotions and nervous system long after the danger has passed. We help you safely process these experiences so they no longer hold the same grip. Over time, what was once relived as trauma can become part of your story: a memory that carries meaning, reveals your resilience and helps inform the new patterns you choose to live from moving forward.
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Relationship Issues
Our relationships often reveal the patterns we have learned to repeat—the beliefs, experiences and ways of protecting ourselves that quietly shape whom we choose, what we tolerate and how we connect. We help you understand these patterns with compassion, heal what continues to influence you from the past, and develop a healthier relationship with yourself.
As you learn to trust your own experience, find your voice and establish healthy boundaries, you become better able to discern which relationships align with who you are becoming. The goal is not to change another person. It is to help you move beyond old patterns and consciously create relationships—and a life—that reflect what you truly want.
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Depression
Depression can arise for many reasons, sometimes following prolonged periods of stress and often overlapping with other physical and mental health challenges. We approach healing from a mind-body-spirit perspective, offering practical tools alongside a safe, compassionate space to understand what has contributed to where you are. Together, we help you reconnect with yourself, begin moving forward one step at a time, and gradually feel part of life again.
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Life Transitions
Even the life transitions we welcome can bring grief, vulnerability and a surprising sense of uncertainty. Change asks us to leave something behind before we fully know what comes next, and that middle place can be one of the hardest places to be. If you find yourself there, we would be honoured to help you make sense of what you are leaving behind, find your footing in who you are becoming, and guide you through to the other side.
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Infertility
The journey toward becoming a parent can be one of the most profound experiences of your life. When you are doing everything “right” and it still isn’t happening, the uncertainty can touch every part of you, often bringing old wounds, fears and vulnerabilities to the surface.
We help you turn toward what is emerging with compassion, process the difficult emotions this journey asks you to carry, and learn how to care for yourself through the uncertainty. In many ways, this becomes part of learning to parent: becoming a safe, loving and trustworthy presence for yourself first.
We cannot promise that this journey will end with a child in your arms. What we can do is help you move through it in a way that leaves you more deeply connected to yourself—having become the kind of parent to yourself that will remain part of your legacy, whatever form your family and future ultimately take.
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Pregnancy & Postpartum
Pregnancy is one of the most profound transitions a woman can experience. With every pregnancy—whether your first or your third—your body, relationships and sense of self are changing, while so much of what is unfolding remains beyond your control. It can ask you to find a delicate balance between caring deeply for yourself and surrendering to the extraordinary process taking place within you.
With change can also come grief—for the life and identity you are leaving behind, for the experience you expected to have, or, when a pregnancy does not unfold as hoped, for a loss that can be difficult to put into words.
We are here for all of it: to support you through pregnancy, the transition into parenthood, pregnancy loss, postpartum adjustment, and whatever unfolds along the way.
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Chronic Pain & Illness
Living with chronic pain or illness can make your symptoms the centre around which everything else begins to revolve. We help you begin shifting the centre back toward life.
Our mind-body approach invites you to become curious about your experience rather than simply fighting against it—to build the capacity to be present in your body, listen to its signals, and respond to yourself with greater honesty and compassion. This can mean learning to recognize and respect your limits, prioritize your own experience, and gradually build capacity around what gives your life meaning.
We hold space for the possibility that you can feel substantially better while helping you create a life that is meaningful now. Rather than allowing pain or illness to define what is possible, the work is about strengthening your relationship with yourself and your body, expanding your capacity over time, and moving toward a life increasingly organized around what matters to you.
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Your Best Self
Nothing is wrong, and something is still calling. This work is for the season when life is fine and you know there is more. We help you close the gap between the life you have and the one you know is possible, and build the habits of mind that keep you there.
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Sport & High Performance Coaching
Going from really good to excellent asks something different of you than getting good did, on the field or off it. We work with the pressure, the identity tangled up in it, and the quiet cost of staying at the top, so you can keep going without losing yourself.
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Neurodiversity
Understanding your neurodiversity can change the way you understand your entire life. Experiences you may have interpreted as personal failings—difficulty with focus, organization, emotional regulation, sensory overwhelm or simply doing things the way you were told you “should”—can begin to make sense in a different way.
We help you understand how your mind works, recognize both the challenges and strengths that come with it, and develop practical strategies that work with your nervous system rather than against it. The goal is to create a life that fits you more honestly—one where you can use your strengths, support the areas that require more care, and stop measuring yourself against a version of who you were never meant to be.
