These four are grouped together because they share a lineage and a temperament, even though each diverges from the others in real and clinically consequential ways.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) asks a client to bring a disturbing memory to mind — the image, the belief attached to it, the body sensation — while engaging in bilateral stimulation, typically guided eye movements, sometimes alternating tapping or tones, moving through a structured eight-phase protocol developed by Francine Shapiro.

Therapy involves getting to know the parts on their own terms, understanding what each one is protecting against and why, and eventually helping the exiled, wounded parts get witnessed and unburdened, with Self — not another part — leading that process. The appeal is partly structural: it gives clients a concrete, almost visual vocabulary for internal conflict that's genuinely more accessible than most clinical language. "Part of me wants to leave and part of me is terrified

EFT, developed by Sue Johnson out of attachment theory, treats relationship distress primarily as an attachment problem rather than a communication or behavioral one: partners get stuck in rigid, self-perpetuating negative cycles — pursue-withdraw is the most recognizable, but there are others — that look on the surface like anger, criticism, or shutdown, but that function underneath as protests against disconnection, as increasingly desperate attempts to get an attachment ne

Existential and humanistic approaches share a starting point that's easy to state and hard to sit with: certain features of human existence — mortality, isolation, the burden of freedom, the absence of any given meaning — aren't problems to be solved. They're conditions to be faced, over and over, for as long as someone is alive to face them. Irvin Yalom's four "givens" (death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness) gave this tradition its clearest clinical vocabulary; Rollo Ma

Contemporary Psychoanalytic Therapy - What It Is The word "psychoanalytic" still conjures a couch, free association, and a therapist who says almost nothing. Contemporary practice looks very different. What's carried forward from Freud and his successors isn't the technique so much as a set of premises: that people are motivated by conflicts and longings they don't have full access to, that early relational patterns get replayed in later ones — including the one with the ther

I resisted watching Couples Therapy for awhile until one of my closest and most trusted colleagues insisted I give it a chance. The premise struck me as a professional hazard dressed up as entertainment: a psychoanalyst, Dr. Orna Guralnik, sees real couples in her Manhattan office while cameras run. My first reaction wasn't curiosity, it was something closer to protectiveness or resistance — for the couples, or maybe I was being a stick in the mud.

Psychologist, psychotherapist, social worker, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse practitioner — the titles get used almost interchangeably, but the training behind each one differs in ways that matter clinically. This piece walks through what distinguishes them: not just scope of practice and credentials, but the theory of mind each brings to the room, and how much depth-oriented, psychoanalytically informed work a given title actually implies.

I spent four days this summer learning, collaborating, and deepening my work alongside strangers I now consider colleagues. While much of the city was at the cottage, I was in a room in London for Tavistock Relationships' Couple Therapy Summer School — summer camp for couples therapy geeks, if you will. What struck me most wasn't the theory. It was being in a room together, with clinicians from five countries, pushing each other's thinking rather than defending their own.

Most couples aren't fighting about what they think they're fighting about. The content changes — the dishes, the in-laws, a missed text — but underneath it, the same shape keeps repeating. What's actually being repeated, and why it doesn't resolve with better communication skills.

EFT taught couples therapy to work with the fear underneath conflict — a real advance. But attachment theory doesn't fully explain why this particular fear takes this particular shape with this particular partner. A Tavistock-informed psychoanalytic approach holds emotion and attachment as one part of a larger picture — including the unconscious dynamics EFT's lens doesn't reach. In short: this approach does what EFT does, and more.

Anger is permitted. Grief is not. Aggression can move through the world freely in a way that tears cannot. What looks like a mood problem is often, underneath, an attachment problem — and the men carrying it rarely have the words to say so

Trauma is more common than we admit. Most people will experience at least one significantly traumatic event in their lifetime — and a lot of that suffering goes unnamed because we've defined trauma too narrowly. Contemporary psychoanalysts make a useful distinction: traumatophobia is the urge to resolve trauma and move on quickly. Traumatophilia asks a harder question — what might still be alive in it? What could it yet become?

EMDR has become the default treatment for trauma. But the research tells a more specific story. Most trials supporting EMDR studied episodic trauma — a car accident, a natural disaster, a single event with edges you can point to. Chronic relational trauma, moral injury, burnout — these are different animals. The tools that reach them are different too. Trauma is not one thing. The people carrying it deserve more than a one-size-fits-all response.

When did you last spend an uninterrupted hour with another person — no phones, no agenda — thinking honestly about your life? In a culture that simulates connection while quietly eroding it, that kind of attention has become unusual. It is also, for many people, where something important begins.

In this post, I explore why I use the word “patient” rather than “client,” and how this seemingly small choice reflects a deeper view of therapy—not as a service transaction, but as a serious, sacred healing relationship that honours psychic suffering and our shared humanity.

Emotional containment is the quiet work therapy does in the background: holding, sorting and making sense of feelings that feel like too much on your own. Drawing on Winnicott’s “holding environment” and Bion’s container-contained theory, this post explores how a reliable therapeutic relationship can transform overwhelming emotion into something thinkable, helping you feel safer, more coherent and more able to face your inner world.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition that affects both children and adults. Identifying ADHD accurately is crucial for effective management and support. In Toronto, comprehensive ADHD evaluation services provide detailed assessments to help individuals understand their symptoms and receive appropriate care. This article explores the ADHD evaluation process, what to expect during an assessment, the costs involved, and how to

A brief medical appointment can identify symptoms, but a comprehensive psychological assessment helps explain why those symptoms are happening. By looking at attention, mood, learning patterns, and underlying emotional dynamics, a full assessment offers clarity that supports more accurate diagnosis and meaningful treatment planning.

Whether you’re attending or preparing for university, taking a gap year, or unsure what comes next, this stage of life often brings a mix of excitement and uncertainty. You may be exploring who you are, how you work best, and what kind of path feels meaningful for you.