Therapy Approaches at Smart Therapy™
At Smart Therapy, I offer depth-oriented therapy for adults across Ontario, specializing in trauma, anxiety, OCD, depression, self-esteem, and personal growth. My work draws from integrative approaches such as:
- Emotion-Focused Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Brainspotting
- Hypnotherapy
- Enneagram Therapy
- Dream Analysis
Together, we’ll explore both the symptoms you’re facing now and the deeper roots beneath them, creating a personalized path toward healing, resilience, and greater self-understanding.
Personalized Therapy
Integrative therapy to support your unique needs
I believe healing is not a “one-size-fits-all” process. Every person comes to therapy with a unique history, personality, and way of making sense of the world. Because of this, I draw from a variety of depth-oriented approaches rather than relying on a single method. Each approach offers a different doorway into healing, whether that means processing emotions, exploring unconscious patterns, or connecting with inner resources you didn’t know you had.
This page gives you an overview of the main approaches I use in therapy. You don’t need to decide ahead of time which one is “right” for you as most clients benefit from an integration of several. These methods work together, supporting you in exploring both the surface symptoms you’re struggling with and the deeper layers of meaning beneath them.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, schema, and Jungian therapies
Psychodynamic therapy looks beneath the surface of symptoms to uncover the hidden forces that shape how you think, feel, and act. Much of what influences us lives in the unconscious: past experiences, unmet needs, and early relational dynamics that quietly repeat themselves in our adult lives.
Psychodynamic work helps bring those patterns into awareness so you can understand them and, over time, change them. Sessions often feel like a collaborative exploration. Together, we follow the threads of your thoughts, memories, and emotions, paying attention to moments that reveal deeper themes.
The therapeutic relationship itself becomes a mirror, showing how old patterns may be playing out in the present. By making unconscious material conscious, you gain the freedom to step out of cycles of anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem and begin to live with greater choice.
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
Heart-centered healing
EFT helps you connect directly with your emotions, rather than avoiding or pushing them down. Many people find themselves caught in cycles of overthinking or self-criticism, but underneath those patterns are unprocessed feelings that need attention.
By slowing down and noticing how emotions show up in the body, (eg. a tight chest, a sinking stomach, a wave of heat), EFT creates space for transformation. Through guided awareness, you learn how to process emotions in real time, developing skills for clarity, self-regulation, and self-acceptance.
EFT can be especially powerful for those who feel “cut off” from their emotions, struggle with overwhelming feelings, or find themselves repeating painful relational patterns. In therapy, EFT not only helps reduce symptoms like anxiety and depression, but also strengthens your ability to respond to life with greater balance and resilience.
Brainspotting Therapy
A brain-body and mindfulness therapy
Brainspotting is a brain-body therapy that helps process unresolved trauma and emotional pain stored deep in the nervous system. It grew out of EMDR when therapists noticed that fixed eye positions could access powerful processing zones in the brain.
By finding a “brainspot," which is a specific eye position connected to a felt sense of activation, Brainspotting allows the body and brain to release what feels “stuck.” This approach doesn’t rely on talking, but on mindful attunement and the body’s natural capacity to heal. Many clients find Brainspotting helps them move through trauma, anxiety, grief, or performance blocks more efficiently than traditional talk therapy.
It can also be combined with Expansion Brainspotting, which builds inner resources like peace, joy, and resilience. Together, these methods help you let go of old pain while strengthening your sense of possibility and freedom.
Enneagram Therapy
Understanding your personality and archetypes
The Enneagram is more than a personality system, it’s a psychological framework that highlights core fears, motivations, and survival strategies shaped in early life. When used in therapy, it shines a light on blind spots and automatic patterns that often drive the inner critic, relationship struggles, or decision-making conflicts.
Rather than boxing you into a type, the Enneagram invites compassionate curiosity about the way your patterns protect you, and how they can also limit you. By integrating the Enneagram with depth-therapy approaches, we can explore how your type connects to schemas, attachment style, and emotional needs.
This framework helps clarify why certain situations trigger strong reactions and points toward pathways for growth. Clients often find that working with the Enneagram in therapy deepens self-awareness, improves relationships, and increases compassion for themselves and others.
Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapy (C.Hyp™)
Working with your subconscious
Hypnotherapy uses a focused state of awareness to access the subconscious mind, where many of our core beliefs and emotional patterns are stored. In this state, the mind becomes more receptive, allowing outdated patterns (like harsh self-criticism or feelings of shame), to be replaced with healthier, more supportive ways of relating to yourself.
This method can be particularly effective for inner child healing, trauma recovery, and increasing self-compassion. Clients often describe hypnotherapy as both relaxing and transformative, leaving them with a greater sense of wholeness and inner calm. Whether used as part of ongoing therapy or in a focused Hypnotherapy Intensive, this approach supports deep and lasting change by helping you access strengths and wisdom within yourself that may have been hidden.
Dream Analysis & Dream Therapy
Working with your night time dreams
Dreams are a natural pathway into the unconscious, offering symbolic insights into feelings, conflicts, and inner resources. In therapy, dream analysis creates a space to explore your dreams collaboratively, not through fixed “dictionary” meanings, but through personal associations, archetypes, and the themes that resonate most with you.
Dream work can be profoundly healing, helping you connect with hidden aspects of yourself, process trauma, and discover new meaning in your experiences. From recurring dreams to nightmares or fleeting fragments, each dream can serve as a doorway into deeper self-understanding. Clients often find that exploring dreams enriches their therapy process, opening access to creativity, resilience, and personal growth.
Next Steps on Your Path
Moving forward in your healing
By integrating these modalities, therapy becomes both practical and transformative: helping you relieve symptoms like anxiety or depression, while also fostering deeper self-understanding, creativity, and resilience. My goal is not only to help you feel better, but also to support you in becoming more fully yourself.
If you’re curious about these approaches and how they might support your healing, I invite you to explore the full pages linked above — or reach out to book a session and begin your journey.