Hi, I’m Tristan.
Pronouns: he/him
I’m passionate about empowering people who feel misunderstood, ashamed, anxious, and lonely, to feel comfort and acceptance in their own mind, body, and spirit.
I understand that the accumulation of traumatic life events can lead to unfulfilling relationships, disempowering career paths, anxiety, and depression.
I enjoy helping people like you heal from developmental trauma, grief, and anxiety. I believe everyone deserves to experience fulfilment, joy, and safety.
How my passion for working with trauma, spiritual crises, anxiety, and burnout formed.
My own healing journey wasn’t straightforward. I experienced complex childhood trauma, and was surrounded by communities that reinforced shame. I went through most of life being made to feel that I was the problem for not simply getting over my past and moving on. And believe me… I tried!
What I didn’t know was that all the things I felt made sense. Feeling social anxiety in groups, feeling lonely and detached even when I was in relationships, and wanting connection but not knowing how to let people in. These were all products of intergenerational trauma, racism, and oppression. Being able to safely explore these feelings at my own pace with knowledgeable therapists helped me learn to love and trust myself, find new meaning in my faith, and cultivate supportive relationships.
Healing my own trauma has helped me understand the unique ways that anxiety, grief, loss, spiritual crises, trauma, and burnout all overlap. My abilities to support others in feeling inner security, fulfilment, and joy are informed by my lived experience as a trauma survivor, and a lifelong commitment to spiritual and meditative practice.
What therapy with me feels like.
Therapy doesn’t have to feel cold, analytical or like a to-do-list item.
Perhaps you’ve seen the therapists in films and movies who are distant and act like the expert in the room. I don’t believe in that approach. I believe that therapy works when you are empowered to discover your own unique healing process, and learn to trust your inner wisdom.
Rather than offer a band-aid solution to your problems, I get down in the hole with you. I step into your world so that we can understand how the problems formed, but more importantly, how to heal.
You’ve had too many people put you down. You’ve encountered too many obstacles to happiness. You deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and care.
How I live my passion as a therapist.
I started my career as a lawyer, working in private practice and later for non-profits. But truthfully, I felt stuck.
I went to law school wanting to help others. Yet, so many of the people I saw were struggling with the impacts of trauma. Even worse, they were surrounded by people that didn’t understand how anxiety, depression, shame, and loss can make life feel hopeless. From the outside, it can look like you have your sh*t together, but on the inside everything is falling apart. Experiencing my own burnout taught me what wasn’t working. More importantly, it also became the spark that started my own journey of trauma healing.
Giving up a successful career to become a trauma-informed therapist was more than a career change. It was a calling to a life of service.
How I serve others.
I understand that as humans, we always aspire to become better. But when our past is a burden and the memories are painful, it can feel like we can never outrun ourselves. We often carry a sense of shame, and even though we try to change, it can feel like we are always stuck. Stuck with the same people, the same problems, and the same cycles of anxiety and depression.
I want to help you see that you deserve to feel fulfilled, understood, and accepted.
I want to show you that meaningful and empowering decisions are available to you.
I want you to discover the joy and freedom of supportive, authentic relationships.
Who I work with.
Most of my clients have experienced trauma in some form – oppressive family upbringings, dysfunctional family and work environments, racial discrimination, harassment, abuse, and violence.
Many of my clients may not have experienced trauma, but seek out my support to help with anxiety, depression, grief, loss of community, and relationship issues. They are individuals and couples dealing with life changes, communication issues, lack of intimacy, and relationship breakdown.
I also have special interests in supporting:
working professionals experiencing burnout and high demand environments, including lawyers and those in helping professions; and,
providing spiritual counselling to those experiencing loss of religious community, religious abuse, and spiritual seeking.
If you think we might be a good fit, I would love to hear from you.
Let’s talk!
Book your free 15-minute phone consultation.
Qualifications & Experience
I have experience working in a community clinic and hospital setting with clients ranging from ages 18 - 80, across a diversity of gender identities, ethnicities, sexualities, physical and cognitive abilities, cultures, and spiritual backgrounds.
College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO): Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), License #13879
Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA): Professional Member, #11247401
Certificate in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, The Embody Lab (2024)
University of Toronto, Master of Pastoral Studies, Certificate in Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy (2023)
Community Counselling Centre of London (CCCL) - Therapist Intern (2022-2023), Supervised Psychospiritual Education Basic 2
Scarborough Health Network (SHN) - Spiritual Care Intern (2022), Clinical Pastoral Education Basic 1
University of Toronto Peer Counselling and Sexual Education Centre - Peer Counsellor (2010-2013)
Approaches
Somatic Trauma Therapy
Relational Psychotherapy
Spiritual Counselling and Spiritually Integrated Therapy
Solution Focused Therapy
Family Systems Theory
Jungian Psychodynamics