Past Experiences Don't Have to Keep Running the Present.
Trauma isn't only what happened. It's what stayed, in your body, your relationships, your sense of what's safe. Individual trauma therapy offers a space to work through it at a pace that doesn't retraumatize you.
Book a free 15-minute consultationShelby Doherty-Sirkovich, RP, MACP · CRPO #12083 · CCTS-I · Accepting new clients
Not About Whether It Was Bad Enough to Count
Trauma is what stays in your body and mind after difficult experiences. It's not defined by whether something was objectively severe, it's defined by how it affected you. Whether it was a single event, a period of sustained difficulty, or a pattern of experiences over time, trauma leaves a mark on how your nervous system reads the world going forward.
You might function well day to day. The trauma shows up elsewhere: in your relationships, your stress response, your ability to trust, or the way you feel in your own body. You may not have connected what's happening now to what happened then. That connection is often part of the work.
Trauma therapy here is certified, trauma-informed, and integrative. The CCTS-I credential means this work is grounded in clinical trauma training, not just general therapy applied to difficult experiences. We work at your pace, we prioritize your sense of safety, and we don't push into material before you have the tools to manage the intensity.
A Few Sentences. See if Any Land.
You're always scanning, even when things are fine. Unable to relax fully, waiting for the next problem. Your nervous system doesn't seem to have an off switch.
You react to things in ways that feel out of proportion, and you know it in the moment, which makes it worse. The reaction isn't really about what just happened.
Your body holds it. Tightness, numbness, difficulty breathing easily, feeling disconnected from yourself. You've learned to work around it, but it's still there.
Certain situations, people, or dynamics trigger something that doesn't match the present moment. You know logically that you're safe. Your body doesn't agree.
You avoid things (situations, conversations, places) that remind you of past experiences, even indirectly. You've built your life around the avoidance so gradually you almost don't notice anymore.
Your relationships are affected. You push people away, or you stay in situations longer than you should, or you don't trust your own read on things anymore.
You wonder if you're overreacting, or whether something that happened years ago can really still be affecting you this much. The answer to both is yes, and you don't have to keep talking yourself out of it.
Processing What Happened Without Being Forced to Relive It.
Trauma therapy here is not about talking through painful memories until they lose their charge. It's about helping your nervous system understand that the threat is no longer present, and building enough capacity and safety to do that work without being retraumatized. In practice, sessions might focus on:
- Understanding your nervous system response. Why you react the way you do, what's happening in your body, and how trauma has shaped your threat detection system, including why it's working exactly as it was designed to.
- Building capacity before processing. We don't move into difficult material until you have tools to manage the intensity. Somatic work helps you reconnect with your body in a way that feels safer than it did before.
- Processing trauma when you're ready. Not by forcing you to narrate what happened, but by working with your body and mind together so your nervous system can complete what it couldn't at the time.
- Identifying patterns from the past that are showing up now. How trauma has shaped your relationships, your self-perception, your boundaries, and the ways you cope. Sometimes we're reacting to old threats that are no longer present.
- Rebuilding a sense of safety: in your body, in yourself, and eventually in your relationships. Trauma tends to damage all three, and the work addresses all three.
The approach is trauma-informed and integrative, drawing from somatic therapy, ACT, DBT, Gestalt, narrative therapy, and psychodynamic work, based on what is most useful for each person. Trauma work isn't linear. Some sessions build coping capacity. Others process specific experiences. Some are about understanding patterns. The work adapts to where you are.
Adults Carrying the Effects of Past Experiences, Whether or Not They've Named It Trauma
- Something happened (or a pattern of things happened) and you've never fully processed it. You've managed, but you know you're managing around it rather than through it.
- You don't think of yourself as someone with trauma, but you recognize the patterns: hypervigilance, emotional reactivity, difficulty with trust, a body that won't settle.
- The experiences you're carrying weren't dramatic by external measures: but they shaped how you see yourself, what you expect from others, and how safe the world feels. That counts.
- You've been through therapy before, but it didn't get to this layer. Or it wasn't trauma-informed, and talking about it made things worse, not better.
- The effects show up most clearly in your relationships: in who you choose, what you tolerate, how you respond when you feel threatened, or how difficult it is to let people in.
- You want to do this work with someone who holds the CCTS-I credential and understands trauma at a clinical level, not just as a general concept.
You don't need a diagnosis or a clear narrative of what happened to begin trauma therapy. Many people start without either. The consultation is the right place to figure out whether this is a fit.
Therapy is one form of support. If you are experiencing symptoms that may indicate PTSD or complex trauma, your family doctor or a psychiatrist can provide formal assessment and consider whether medication is appropriate alongside therapy. If you are in crisis, the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline is available 24/7 by call or text. In an emergency, call 911. For Ontario community and social services, call 211.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Trauma refers to experiences that overwhelm the nervous system's capacity to process and integrate what happened. Unlike ordinary stress, which resolves when the situation changes, trauma can leave lasting effects on how the body and mind respond to subsequent experiences. These effects can persist long after the original event.
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No. Trauma can result from events that might not appear severe from the outside, including childhood neglect, chronic emotional invalidation, relationship betrayal, or repeated exposure to threatening situations. The determining factor is the impact on the individual nervous system, not the external appearance of the event.
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Yes. Unprocessed trauma can continue to shape behaviour, relationships, and physiological responses long after the events that caused it. Many people first recognize the effects of earlier trauma through patterns in their current relationships or through responses that feel disproportionate to present circumstances.
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Trauma therapy is paced and collaborative. It typically involves developing a sense of safety before engaging directly with difficult material, and it draws on the body as well as the mind because trauma is held somatically as well as cognitively. It is not about reliving events but about processing them in a way that reduces their ongoing influence.
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No. Registered Psychotherapists in Ontario do not diagnose, and accessing trauma therapy does not require a formal diagnosis. If you are noticing effects that feel connected to past experiences, that is sufficient to begin exploring whether therapy might be useful.
From the Blog
Certified trauma therapy, across Ontario
I work with adults across Ontario navigating the effects of trauma, including complex and relational trauma, caregiver trauma, and institutional betrayal. I hold the Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist – Individual (CCTS-I) credential from the Arizona Trauma Institute, which means this work is grounded in formal trauma training rather than general therapeutic experience applied to difficult material.
My approach is integrative and trauma-informed, drawing from somatic therapy, ACT, DBT, Gestalt, narrative therapy, and psychodynamic work. We go at your pace. We prioritize safety and capacity before processing. And we don't force anything.
If any of this resonates, a free 15-minute consultation is the place to start. It is a low-pressure conversation to see whether what I offer is a fit.
Book a free 15-minute consultation- Registered Psychotherapist, CRPO #12083
- MA Counselling Psychology, Yorkville University
- BSc Psychology (Hons), University of Toronto
- CCTS-I, Arizona Trauma Institute
- Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution, York University