DBT Therapists in Canada

Welcome to my page! You may be living with the effects of trauma, coercive control, emotional or spiritual harm, or a long period of feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or disconnected from yourself. Perhaps relationships have felt unsafe or confusing, your sense of identity has been shaken, or daily life feels heavier than it should. You may be searching for clarity, stability, and relief from patterns that no longer feel manageable. Many people who reach out are not only looking to cope, but to understand what has happened to them, to restore a sense of dignity and self-trust, and to feel hope and meaning again. Over more than 30 years of working with anxiety, pain, and trauma, I am continually moved by the resilience people carry, even in the aftermath of profound difficulty. My work is trauma-informed and paced with care, supporting both the need for greater stability in daily life and a deeper understanding of lived experience, relationships, and a sense of self. I am open-minded, authentic, and warm. I use an integrative approach that is most suited to your personality type, current situation and specific needs. My role is to offer a steady, compassionate presence where difficult feelings and memories can be approached safely, without pressure or judgement.

Welcome, I'm passionate about helping individuals navigate life's challenges and cultivate a deeper sense of well-being. Change is daunting when you are alone at the start of a journey. My approach is rooted in creating a safe, compassionate, and nonjudgmental space where you can explore your inner strengths, overcome obstacles, and foster lasting change. Having a someone working with you as you go through change can make it a lot more manageable. My therapeutic style is best described as empathetic, genuine, safe and collaborative. I am trained to help you overcome your current challenges and emerge more resilient. Working together, we will develop strategies for you to meet your own personal goals. You are more than a label or a set of symptoms. You are unique and my approach is developed to be adjusted based on your personal needs. My practice draws from various therapeutic approaches. I guide clients in embracing their emotions, clarifying their core values, and taking meaningful steps toward a life rich in purpose and fulfillment. I also help individuals and couples develop secure emotional bonds, strengthen their relationships, and nurture healthier ways of connecting with themselves and others. Whether you're seeking support for trauma, anxiety, relationship struggles, or personal growth, I tailor my therapeutic approach to meet your unique needs. Together, we'll embark on a journey of healing, self-discovery, and empowerment. Your mental health matters—let's take the first step toward a brighter and more fulfilling future I used to work as an C-suite executive in the corporate world and have decided to orient my future to helping others on their journey.

I provide individual therapy to children, adolescents, and young adults experiencing anxiety, emotional dysregulation, interpersonal challenges, and life transitions. Those who have difficulty managing stress, understanding their emotions and behaviours, may find it helpful to work through challenges and develop coping skills to navigate life experiences during therapy sessions. My approach to therapy offers a warm, collaborative, and non-judgmental approach with an emphasis on the therapeutic relationship. I strive to create a safe space working alongside children, adolescents, and families to establish goals and a plan to achieve them in hopes of creating meaningful and sustainable change!

Do you struggle with anxiety, people pleasing or feelings of overwhelm? Do you have a difficult relationship with your parents or get easily triggered? Maybe you have ADHD (or think you do) and feel like you can't do life "right"? If you experience any of these, I can help! You likely need to uncover unhelpful patterns, heal the past wounds holding you back, and develop actionable tools to help you return to a more grounded, regulated state. I'll help you process AND keep you accountable (warmly and compassionately of course). I'm trained in both Talk and Art Therapy. You can try both or choose whatever one feels best for you. Why try art therapy? Because sometimes our thoughts and feelings are hard to express with words alone. Creativity can provide another avenue of expression to dig in deeper. Heads up: No art skills are needed and we'll still use talk therapy approaches too! My style is warm, curious and collaborative. That involves both listening AND supporting you shift out of patterns no longer serving you. Together, we'll build on sessions over time with intention and direction. Let's get you thriving, not just surviving! To book a free consult, email or visit my site for the online booking link.

Are you struggling to maintain relationships? Maybe you feel disconnected, unable to get through the day without negative thought patterns. As a psychotherapist, I work with both teens and adults, specializing in relational and childhood trauma. However, I also work with individuals who have faced various life challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and attachment difficulties. Holding a queer identity and a crisis counselling background, my therapeutic space is highlighted in inclusivity, incorporating anti-oppressive and strength-based frameworks to create a safe, non-judgmental space for you to express your thoughts freely. My sessions often take a client-centred approach, building a collaborative process of unlearning damaging self-beliefs, practicing healthy coping skills, and reclaiming your life through newly formed self-awareness. This is your journey, and I will work closely with you to develop a treatment plan specific to your unique needs and goals. I view trauma as a relational experience. Not only is it often experienced in relationships with others, but it is also a new development of healthy relationships that can assist in healing.

If you’re finding it hard to connect with others, feeling stuck in painful relationship patterns, or overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, or sadness, you’re not alone. Many of the struggles we face are not flaws or signs of failure. They are often adaptations to past experiences where emotional needs, like being comforted, feeling safe, accepted, or truly heard, weren’t fully met. I work with adults navigating relationship challenges, low mood, overthinking, uncertainty about themselves, or difficulties with focus and restlessness. These experiences can be influenced by many factors, such as ADHD, burnout, identity-related stress, or difficult past experiences. You might notice patterns like shutting down, feeling easily overwhelmed, or being misunderstood in your closest relationships. These are often protective responses that once helped you cope, but are now getting in the way of the life and relationships you want. My approach is grounded in a trauma-informed lens and an understanding that mental health is shaped by many layers—our biology, environment, culture, and early relationships. I also pay close attention to how the nervous system responds to stress and safety, helping you make sense of your emotional reactions with more compassion and less shame. Clients often share that they feel relieved when their struggles finally start to make sense. I walk alongside you with warmth and respect as we explore your experiences with curiosity, not judgment. My hope is to help you reconnect with parts of yourself that feel lost, hurt, or misunderstood. Together, we’ll build healthier emotional responses, uncover strengths buried beneath survival patterns, and move toward a life and relationships that feel more secure, fulfilling, and aligned with who you are.

You are thinking about facing an issue that you are carrying (big or small), and changing things for the better. I'd like to be a part of that change. I'm Roberta McClelland. I'm a registered social worker with over 10 years of experience in the field. I work with female teens, post-secondary students, and adults who are coping with grief, caregiver fatigue, major and minor life transitions, relational stress, depression, anxiety, self-harming behaviors, trauma, and abuse via in-person, virtual, and phone appointments I will create a safe, collaborative space for you that is focused on your strengths, that respects your needs and your voice, and that will flex with you as you move through your change journey. And I will support you in this journey by using a variety of treatment techniques based on what fits best and feels best for you. As a counsellor I'm committed to providing a non-judgmental place where you can bring what is heavy, look at what hurts, say what you need to say, and plan for a better tomorrow. If this sounds like a good fit for what you're looking for right now, please get in touch and consider meeting with with me for a free 15 minute consult to see if we're a good match Call or Email Roberta McClelland now for a free 15 minute consultation - (226) 242-3641 Let's Connect(226) 242-3641

Hello : ) Are you intellectualizing your pain? Since 2016 I've been practicing therapy to help you uncover now defunct, but once life saving defense mechanisms. I dedicate myself to providing safe, understanding, and nonjudgmental care that reconnects you to you. I have countless trauma trainings, plus DBT, CBT, DDP, EFFT, Psychodrama for Traumatic Stress, and exposure to Gestalt Therapy. I participate in psychoanalysis and am a true believer in the healing relational aspect of therapy. I know the importance of an intersectional approach to personal growth and I seek to help you discover your wholeness versus the elusive permanent wellness.

Understanding ADHD If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're exhausted. Not the kind of tired sleep fixes — the kind that comes from spending years fighting your own brain and losing more often than you'd like to admit. Maybe you have a diagnosis. Maybe you've suspected it for a decade and never had it confirmed. Maybe you're a woman who was told it was anxiety, or depression, or that you were "too sensitive," and ADHD never even came up until recently. Whatever your path here, I'd guess you're tired of half-working strategies, tired of starting over, and tired of feeling like everyone else got a manual you never received. Let me say this plainly: ADHD is genuinely frustrating to live with. Not "quirky," not "just a different way of thinking" in some tidy, inspirational sense — frustrating, in the day-to-day, why-can't-I-just-do-the-thing way. That frustration is real, and it deserves to be named instead of smoothed over. You are not lazy. You are not broken. You are not failing at things that come easily to everyone else — you're doing hard things with a brain that runs on a different operating system, often without the support that operating system actually needs. How I Can Help I hold an MA in Counselling Psychology, and I'm also an ADHD Certified Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP) and Clinical Coach — which means I work at the intersection of two things people with ADHD usually have to go find separately: real emotional support, and real skills training. The counselling side is where we deal with the parts that therapy is built for — the shame that's built up over years of masking, the identity questions that come with a late or self-identified diagnosis, the impact on relationships and self-worth, the emotional weight of just being an ADHD brain in a world that wasn't built for it. The coaching side is where we get practical. Insight alone doesn't get the laundry done or the report finished. As an executive function coach, I help build the actual scaffolding — systems for follow-through, structures that survive contact with a bad week, and My Approach Most people I work with already know what they want to do. The gap isn't motivation — it's the space between knowing and doing, and that gap is often more emotional than it looks. Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) — that sharp, disproportionate sting of criticism or perceived failure — is one of the biggest hidden drivers of ADHD struggles, quietly shaping careers, relationships, and self-worth long before anyone connects it back to ADHD. I draw on CBT, DBT, and ADHD-informed coaching to work both angles at once — the emotional regulation and distress tolerance side, and the concrete executive-function side. DBT skills in particular map unusually well onto ADHD life. Sessions are structured, but they flex: there's no judgment for showing up late, needing to move around, or not having a formal diagnosis in hand. What We Can Work On RSD and emotional regulation — the sharp sting of perceived criticism and the mood shifts that come with it Executive dysfunction and procrastination — not a willpower problem, a wiring problem, and one we can actually build around ADHD burnout — the specific exhaustion of running on compensation and masking for too long Self-suspected or undiagnosed ADHD — you don't need a formal assessment to start making sense of your own brain ADHD in women — masking, late diagnosis, and the hormonal impact that most ADHD resources still leave out Perfectionism and shame — especially the kind that's been quietly accumulating since childhood Communication and relationship struggles — the ADHD patterns that show up with partners, friends, and family Workplace challenges — deadlines, follow-through, and functioning in systems that weren't built for your brain Major life transitions Additional Areas of Expertise While ADHD is my primary specialty, I also work with clients navigating addiction, anger management, and men's mental health issues. Addiction: I help clients understand the patterns behind their challenging behaviors. Whether it be substances, pornography, gambling, or social media—I can help develop healthier coping strategies to build sustainable recovery. I also support caregivers, partners, and family members affected by a loved one's addiction, working through boundary-setting, managing worry and frustration, and taking care of your own wellbeing while supporting someone you care about. Anger Management: We explore what's beneath the anger—frustration, shame, or feeling unheard—and develop tools for emotional regulation and communication that actually work in real life. Men's Issues: I create judgment-free space for men to explore emotions, relationship challenges, identity, and personal growth. Whether you're dealing with stress, transitions, or feeling stuck, we'll work through it together. Across all areas, my approach remains practical, collaborative, and grounded in compassion.

Life gets hard. So many responsibilities, it's hard to put ourselves first and we can stumble. We can feel isolated, overwhelmed, a sense of dread and anxiety with each passing day. This can lead to depressive feelings, loss of self confidence, addictions, self harm, and even suicidal thoughts. You're not alone if you're feeling this way. It can be especially hard to understand what is happening inside, if we had challenges in our past. I use an integrative person-centred approach so that together, we can work together to untangle the past, connect fully with yourself today, and build tools for the brighter future that you are hoping for. There may be many goals on your journey to well-being. In collaborating together, you will have a safe place to name your feelings for what they are: yours. I offer a trauma-informed, anti-oppressive lens to understanding, processing, and healing the roots of negative thoughts, feelings and experiences that may have been holding you back. Stepping into healing is an amazing act of courage. Working together, we can explore what is most meaningful for you today, as we navigate your journey towards mental health and well-being.

I work with children, teens, adults, couples, and families who may be feeling overwhelmed, stuck, disconnected, or unsure of how to move forward. My goal is to create a warm, supportive space where you can feel comfortable being yourself while working toward meaningful and lasting change. I bring a strong clinical background to my private practice, with experience working in hospital and community settings with individuals and families navigating a wide range of mental health, emotional, relational, and life challenges. My hospital experience has given me the opportunity to work with people during some of the most difficult and uncertain periods of their lives, supporting clients and families through complex circumstances, significant transitions, illness, trauma, crisis, grief, and changes in functioning. This experience has shaped the way I practice today: with compassion, clinical thoughtfulness, and an understanding that every person’s circumstances and needs are different. My clinical work includes supporting individuals experiencing anxiety, ADHD, OCD, emotional regulation difficulties, relationship and family concerns, grief, trauma, burnout, self-esteem concerns, and major life transitions. I also support clients through prenatal and postpartum challenges and the emotional impact of motor vehicle accidents and other traumatic experiences. I work with clients across the lifespan and tailor therapy to their individual goals, strengths, personality, and circumstances. OCD is a particular area of clinical interest and expertise for me. I have extensive training and experience supporting clients with OCD and related anxiety concerns, and I understand how consuming and disruptive intrusive thoughts, uncertainty, compulsions, and avoidance can become. My approach is compassionate, collaborative, and evidence-informed, with the goal of helping clients better understand their experiences and develop greater confidence in responding to difficult thoughts, feelings, and sensations. I also provide OCD-focused clinical supervision and consultation to other clinicians looking to strengthen their knowledge and confidence in this area. I also have a strong interest in ADHD and emotional regulation. For clients with ADHD, I recognize that challenges can extend far beyond attention and organization and may affect relationships, self-esteem, emotional regulation, work, school, and day-to-day functioning. Therapy can provide a space to better understand these patterns, develop strategies that are realistic for your life, and move away from shame or self-criticism toward greater self-understanding. My approach is integrative and individualized. I draw from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), trauma-informed practice, narrative therapy, and strengths-based approaches. Rather than using a one-size-fits-all model, I consider what you are experiencing, what has or has not worked for you in the past, and what you hope to change. Together, we can identify practical strategies while also exploring the deeper patterns, experiences, and relationships that may be contributing to what you are experiencing. I believe therapy should be both clinically meaningful and genuinely human. You do not need to have everything figured out before coming to therapy, and you do not need to know exactly what you need. Sometimes people simply know that something is not feeling right, that they are exhausted from trying to manage everything on their own, or that they keep finding themselves caught in the same patterns. Therapy can provide an opportunity to slow down, make sense of what is happening, and develop a clearer path forward. Whether you are navigating anxiety, OCD, ADHD, grief, trauma, relationship difficulties, burnout, a major life transition, or simply feeling stuck, I aim to meet you where you are. My role is not to tell you who you should be or how you should live, but to work alongside you to better understand yourself, build on your existing strengths, and develop meaningful changes that fit your life. I welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with clients and, when appropriate, with families and other healthcare professionals involved in their care. My hospital background has reinforced for me the value of collaboration and continuity of care, and I believe that connecting clients with the right supports can make an important difference in their overall wellbeing. Above all, I want therapy to feel like a space where you can be honest, understood, and supported without judgment. Whether you are coming to therapy for the first time or have been in therapy before, we can start wherever you are and work together from there.