Something is off, and you do not yet have a clear word for it.
Not a diagnosis. Not always a crisis. Just a sense that you have been managing it alone for longer than you can sustain, and you want a place to feel like a person again, not just a function in someone else's day.
Some of this might sound familiar.
Not a checklist to pass or fail. Just the shapes this tends to take, in case it helps to see them named.
You feel like you are not yourself anymore, and you cannot quite remember when that started.
You miss who you were before kids, and you do not know how to grieve that without feeling guilty about it.
You are reacting in ways that do not line up with the parent you wanted to be.
The guilt, the shame, the anger, the exhaustion are loud, and the joy is quieter than you expected.
You can manage everything for everyone else.
You have lost the thread on how to manage yourself.
You suspect that some of what is hard now started long before parenthood, and you are ready to look at that.
You want a place to think out loud with someone who is not invested in your performance.
Your child's behaviour has become the thing you cannot solve, and you want strategies that work for your actual child, plus help using them when you are activated.
If you see yourself in even one of these, you are in the right place.
What this might feel like
In their own words. Some of what parents say, before they have a name for it.
I love my kids. I am also tired in a way that goes deeper than tired, and I do not know how to say that out loud.
I have spent so long being what everyone needs that I do not remember what I need. I do not even know how to want things anymore.
I am not in crisis. I just cannot keep doing it this way.
How I work with parenting, at every stage
The work is one-on-one and shaped around what you are actually carrying, not what a textbook says you should be working on. Most clients arrive with a vague sense that something has to change and a clearer sense of what they are tired of. We start there. The first sessions are reflective and slower; we get curious about the shape of your week, your body, your relationships, your history with this kind of difficulty. For many parents, what brings them in is their child's behaviour and what it pulls out of them, so parent coaching often becomes part of this work: practical strategies for what your child is doing, alongside the inner work that lets you reach for them in the moment. The picture clarifies as we go.
The methods are practical and drawn from a range of trauma-informed, evidence-based modalities, so the work fits you rather than fitting you to the work. Internal Family Systems for the parts of you that seem to take over. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the automatic thoughts that have hardened into truths. Polyvagal-informed work for a nervous system that has been running hot or shut down. Attachment-aware perspective for the relationships that shaped you and the ones you are shaping now. Narrative therapy for the stories you have inherited about what parenting is supposed to look like. We do not pick one model and force everything through it; we use what each session needs.
You will not be diagnosed by me. You will not be told that what you need is a self-care app or a parenting book. We will work at the pace your nervous system can hold, and we will be honest about what is shifting, what still needs more time, and what is yours to change versus what is the world around you asking too much.
Practical details
Sessions and format
50-minute individual sessions, virtual across Ontario or in person Tuesdays in St. Agatha.
Virtual sessions across Ontario or in person in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. We can talk through which format fits your life on the consult call.
Fees and insurance
A receipt is provided for insurance reimbursement under Social Work Services, and many extended plans cover sessions. You confirm your coverage with your insurer.
For full details on session fees and payment, visit the Fees & Insurance page.
Every new client starts with a free 15-minute phone consultation. Once we have spoken, we will book a time that works for both of us. There is no obligation to continue.
Starting does not have to be complicated.
Book a free consult
A free 15-minute phone call. We talk about what is going on and whether we are the right fit. No obligation to continue.
Find your footing
Once we have spoken, we will book a time that works for both of us. The first sessions are slower and reflective; we get clear on what you are carrying.
Do the work, together
We work at the pace your nervous system can hold, and check in often about what is shifting and what you need next.
Frequently asked questions
Probably yes, and the question itself is part of the answer. Most parents who arrive at this question have been minimising what they are carrying for a long time, often because they are comparing themselves to a parent whose situation looks worse. Therapy is not only for crisis. It is also for the slow erosions that make the rest of your life harder to enjoy, and the patterns that have been running you for years that you would like to understand. If we talk on the phone and I think therapy is not the right fit for what you are facing, I will tell you and point you toward what is.
It is almost always both, and untangling the two is one of the things we do. The parent you are is shaped by the person you have been your whole life, and parenthood often surfaces patterns that were there long before the kids arrived. We work with the parenting layer and the underneath layer, and the work compounds.
You can bring what is on your mind. The sessions are individual, and the agenda is yours. Some weeks we will work on something specific, like a recurring fight or a decision you are sitting with. Other weeks we will sit with what is showing up that day. The shape of the work is responsive to what is actually present, not to a treatment plan written for someone else's parenthood.
Related areas
Many clients working in individual counselling are also navigating one or more of the experiences below. The pages cover the most common.
Ready to talk?
Every new client starts with a free 15-minute phone call. We talk about what is going on, what you are hoping for, and whether we are the right fit. No paperwork. No pressure.