Let Me Introduce Myself
Hello from the very edge of Larose Forest in Hammond, Ontario!
Whether you are up in Pickle Lake, way South in Kingsville, or anywhere in between, the wonderful world of virtual therapy gives Ontarians everywhere access to my practice and my services.
I understand how daunting it can feel to find a therapist you feel comfortable with and who you trust can help you. To ease that discomfort, here I’ll tell you more about the struggles I can help you overcome, my approach to therapy, and my qualifications and experience. If what you read speaks to you, I would love to meet you in a free consult.
Struggles I Can Help You Overcome
My focus in psychotherapy is on trauma, anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, self-doubt, and depression. I use a variety of cognitive and somatic approaches to therapy to help clients identify and modify false negative beliefs to turn anxiety into peace, overwhelm into self-empowerment, burnout into joyful engagement, self-doubt into self-love, and depression into clarity and meaning.
My approach relies heavily on accessing the subconscious mind and thus your own personal power to heal yourself. Instead of simply learning strategies to manage symptoms, we work together towards eliminating the root cause of the distress.
My Approach To Therapy
In our journey together, my first priority is to create an environment that is conducive to healing.
Healing begins when we can accept where we are at in the moment while having just enough hope (no matter how minuscule) to entertain the possibility that maybe, just maybe, things can be different for us. I've been there, and as painful and as seemingly hopeless the experience all was, it has given me the gift of understanding, and therefore, ensuring I can provide you with an environment in which you know, despite your feelings of hopelessness, healing is within your reach, and probably closer than you think.
I believe most of our suffering is the result of what we come to believe about ourselves and the world as a result of negative experiences. Every decision we make is, to some degree, based on what we hold as fundamental truths about ourselves and the world. Most of our maladaptive behaviours are also a result of operating on a set of outdated, false beliefs, without even realizing we are doing it. When we alter those negative self-beliefs, everything changes.
If you’re interested in this topic, I encourage you to read this post on my blog: Healing: Finding Your Way From Pain to Peace
With that in mind, my approach is twofold:
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I help people identify the false/erroneous negative beliefs that are guiding their thoughts, emotions and behaviours, and keeping them stuck.
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I help them dissolve those beliefs and adopt more adaptive beliefs, which, in turn, affect their thoughts, emotions, and ensuing behaviours, allowing them to live more calmly, peacefully, and authentically.
I achieve the first part using mainstream approaches such as CBT, DBT, ACT, and Person-Centered Therapy, while seeing the behaviour as a symptom of the problem, the true problem being the false beliefs, a foundation based on our version of the truth, which is not really the truth. Once those beliefs are identified, I turn to somatic approaches such as EFT tapping and EMDR to modify those beliefs at a subconscious level.
My Qualifications and Experience
I am a bilingual (French/English) Registered Psychotherapist (RP) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. I am also certified by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) as a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC). I hold a Master’s degree (M. Ed.) in counselling.
Before I joined the clinical world, I resided on the research side. I earned a Master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Computer Science specializing in Artificial Intelligence. More specifically, I studied and elaborated mathematical models that help shed some light on how we, humans, reason in the world. Further to that, I completed a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) also in Artificial Intelligence in the department of Computer Science. This time, I elaborated on the work I had accomplished in my M.Sc. by using some of my mathematical models to explore and measure more aspects of human behaviours pertaining to cognition, epistemology, decision making, problem-solving, situational understanding, inferences, and just how we make sense of the world around us.
The first few years of my career were dedicated to behavioural analysis in different capacities. That work, combined with my own personal experience with anxiety, led me to what felt like a natural transition to the clinical side.
Before becoming a private practicioner, I had the opportunity to work in community contexts, where I had the priviledge to work with women struggling with diverse mental health issues. The resilience of these women always left me inspired and in awe.
I also had the honour to work as a Mental Health Counsellor within the Conseil des écoles fransaskoises (CEF) school board in Saskatoon, SK for a few years. In that role, I offered individual therapy to children and adolescents, consultations with parents and teachers, in-class observation, assessment and recommendations, workshops, and program creation. I also had the opportunity to create many resources on various topics related to mental health and well-being, and I participated in many initiatives to promote well-being and inclusion in schools.
I now spend the majority of my time witnessing healing and growing, from the comfort of my home, to the comfort of yours!
Start Today With a Free Initial Consultation
If you’re ready to shift from pain to peace, I’m here to help you. I would love to take a few minutes with you to answer any questions you might have.
I invite you to schedule a free consultation with me. We will meet via video and I’ll be ready to answer any question you might have about our time together, my services, my approach, and my philosophy to healing.
If you think we are a good fit, we’ll discuss the next steps. There is, however, no pressure! You are free to take your time and explore other options. There is also absolutely no need to commit to working together at the time of the consultation. You can get back to me if and when you decide you want to move forward.
I look forward to chatting with you!
Manon Sookocheff