Individual therapy at Levity
Individual Therapy in Ottawa (and online)
We offer individual therapy (that’s just you and the therapist) in person in Ottawa West. We’re happy to welcome individuals for in-person therapy at our Centrepointe office location or virtually by video anywhere in Ontario.
Starting individual therapy can be daunting. What does a therapy session look like? How do I know if I’m doing therapy “right”? What should I be looking for? These and many other questions might run through your mind as you search for therapy options.
Some therapists offer solutions, and give you activities to do with the intention of making the bad stuff go away. For some, these approaches are helpful because it’s comforting to think we can get rid of the bad stuff. And boy do we wish we could. Our approaches to working with individuals acknowledges that we truly can’t make the bad stuff go away, but we can soften it and look at it differently, thus making it feel less overwhelming.
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How Individual Therapy works
"What do I talk about?" and other concerns
Individual therapy begins with what you want to work on. Typically you have in mind what’s going on in your life that isn’t working, even if putting that into words is challenging.
We often hear a combination of items on the “what isn’t working” list; as humans, issues often link from one to the other. Rarely is someone feeling anxious without also experiencing challenges at work or home, or perhaps having past experiences that reinforce anxiety, or having a body that is highly sensitive to changes in environment. Rarely is someone feeling depressed without also having trouble with relationships or past experiences that impact their mood.
Humans are complex, so you don’t have to arrive at therapy with a concise, single thing to work on. And, if you do arrive with a single thing to work on, get ready to have that single thing expanded upon until you’re like, “Yep, there’s more here.”
Each therapist at Levity starts individual therapy work by getting a thorough background on you, your history and all the areas of your life. We want to know you, not just what you think is “wrong” with you.
Then we use our knowledge and training in specific techniques to work with you on how you relate to your concerns. We often see clients who are very critical of themselves and their thoughts, so we work on softening how you talk to your self (also known as self-talk) and how to respond to yourself when you make a mistake or behave in unhelpful ways. If you’ve experienced trauma, we’ll work on giving you language to put to what your brain is doing and how it’s trying to protect you. Our approaches depend on our unique therapeutic styles and you and your concerns.
Therapy with us is like…
Individual therapy at Levity
We’re trained as therapists to tailor our treatment to your unique needs. This means we can’t give one solid “This is how we work with individuals all the time always” claim here. We can tell you that we most often work with individuals in these ways:
- We’ll discuss what you’re experiencing and give you information that helps you understand your experience better
- We’ll work on how you relate to your thoughts through noticing what your brain is doing and appreciating how it’s trying to protect you or help you in some way
- We’ll have you noticing what your brain is doing and what you can do for yourself in overwhelming, uncomfortable moments
- We will be there with you as you feel your feelings. Always.
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