Transformation Counselling

“When all your desires are distilled
You will cast just two votes:
To love more,
And be happy.”
― Hafez
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Do you have trouble managing your emotions? First developed by Marsha M. Linehan for treating borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, and can greatly improve your ability to handle distress without losing control and acting destructively. However, to make use of these techniques, you need to build skills in four key areas: distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, a collaborative effort from three esteemed authors, offers evidence-based, step-by-step exercises for learning these concepts and putting them to work for real and lasting change. Start by working on the introductory exercises and, after making progress, move on to the advanced-skills chapters. Whether you're a mental health professional or a general reader, you'll benefit from this clear and practical guide to better managing your emotions.
This fully revised and updated second edition also includes new chapters on cognitive rehearsal, distress tolerance, and self-compassion. Once you've completed the exercises in this book and are ready to move on to the next level, check out the authors' new book, The New Happiness Workbook .

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ― Rumi
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

What can you expect in your first counselling session? Swipe to find out!

“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been given to us, the ultimate, the final problem and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Historically there have been few options available for individuals seeking help for treatment-resistant loved ones suffering from substance abuse. Co-author Dr. Robert Meyers spent ten years developing a treatment program that helps concerned significant others improve the quality of their lives and learn how to make treatment an attractive option for their partners who are substance abusers.

Get Your Loved One Sober describes this multi-faceted program that uses supportive, non-confrontational methods to engage substance abusers into treatment. Called Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), the program uses scientifically validated behavioral principles to reduce the loved one's substance use and to encourage him or her to seek treatment. Equally important, CRAFT also helps loved ones reduce personal stress and introduce meaningful, new sources of satisfaction into their life.

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” ― Maya Angelou
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Swipe to read more about direct billing!

“Because you are alive, everything is possible.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Do you feel manipulated, controlled, or lied to? Are you the focus of intense, violent, and irrational rages? Do you feel you are ‘walking on eggshells’ to avoid the next confrontation? If the answer is ‘yes,’ someone you care about may have borderline personality disorder (BPD)—a mood disorder that causes negative self-image, emotional instability, and difficulty with interpersonal relationships.

Stop Walking on Eggshells has already helped more than a million people with friends and family members suffering from BPD understand this difficult disorder, set boundaries, and help their loved ones stop relying on dangerous BPD behaviors. This fully revised third edition has been updated with the very latest BPD research on comorbidity, extensive new information about narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), the effectiveness of schema therapy, and coping and communication skills you can use to stabilize your relationship with the BPD or NPD sufferer in your life.

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness.” ― Brené Brown
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

The length of counselling varies according to your goals for counselling, your life circumstances, and your life history. Swipe to read more!

“Those who truly love us will never knowingly ask us to be other than we are” ― Mark Nepo
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Gagan holds a Masters of Social Work and is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. She is certified in both Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR). She is also a certified mindfulness meditation teacher and she is presently pursuing her certification as a Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher.

Gagan specializes in working with adults who have experienced trauma in their lives. Trauma can manifest as day-to-day challenges in your present life, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, anger, guilt, or self-blame. Using the organic intelligence of your own nervous system, body, and mind with a trained trauma therapist, you can heal from trauma and difficult experiences. Gagan strives to provide a safe and compassionate space for you to explore your past and present difficulties, build your skills, and disentangle yourself from the clutches of your past so you can reclaim your life and thrive.

Gagan has devoted most of her free time to learning, practicing, and teaching mindfulness, which she does through her own daily practice and by taking courses, attending retreats, and teaching groups.

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” ― Brene Brown
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

What happens in the course of counselling varies from person to person, depending on your goals for counselling and your life circumstances. That being said, for most people counselling follows the same overarching pattern. Swipe to read more!

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Empowering, insightful, and psychology-driven, Beyond Beautiful is filled with proven, no-BS strategies for proactive self-care. This stylish and practical handbook takes a deep-dive into all of the factors that make it hard to feel good about yourself, and offers sage answers to tricky questions, like:

• Why do I hate the way I look in pictures?
• How can I stop feeling like a total slob compared to everyone on social media?
• How exactly does this "self-love" thing work?
• How do I find the confidence to use less make up, stop shaving, or wear what I want?
• Is body positivity really the answer?

Illustrated with full-color art, Beyond Beautiful is a much-needed breath of fresh air that will help you live your best life, know your worth, and stop wasting any more precious energy and mental space worrying about the way you look.

“Balance is the core of health. We feel and function best when our body’s systems are in balance, and when we’re in balance with friends, family, community, and nature.” – Bruce D. Perry
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Swipe to read about counselling services in Kitchener-Waterloo to set your goals and tap into your strengths!

“You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.” ― Henry Nouwen
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

We all carry s*xual shame. Whether we grew up in the repressive purity culture of American Evangelical Christianity or not, we've all been taught in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that s*x (outside of very specific contexts) is immoral and taboo. Psychotherapist Matthias Roberts helps readers overcome their shame around s*x by overcoming three unhealthy coping mechanisms we use to manage that shame.

Beyond Shame encourages each of us to determine our own definition of healthy s*x, while avoiding the ditches of boundaryless s*x positivity on the one hand and strict moralistic boundaries on the other. Define your s*xual values on your own terms, overcome your shame, and start having great, healthy s*x.

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” ― Maya Angelou
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Swipe to read about Narrative Therapy, a postmodern counselling approach in Kitchener-Waterloo to help you re-write the story of your life!

“Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.” ― Rumi
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Do you overeat during times of stress? Do you often find yourself eating when you're not even hungry? The Intuitive Eating Workbook offers a new way of looking at food. Based on the best-selling book, Intuitive Eating, this comprehensive workbook addresses the ten principles of intuitive eating, and provides an evidence-based model to help readers develop a healthy relationship with food, pay attention to cues of hunger and satisfaction, and cultivate a profound connection with both mind and body.

“Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.” ― bell hooks
📸 Tharani Jeyakumar

Counselling in Kitchener-Waterloo that uses attachment and insight to let go of out-dated beliefs!

On this week’s Finding Mastery podcast, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk shares how people adapt to traumatic experiences and what’s at the root of the trauma.