Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy Therapists in Canada
A short-term, evidence-based approach that helps people process suppressed emotions, often linked to chronic pain, anxiety, and unexplained physical symptoms.
What to look for in an Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy therapist on Purple Lotus
- Training in EAET or related emotion-focused approaches
- Experience with stress-related physical symptoms or medically unexplained conditions
- Comfort working with suppressed or avoided emotions
- Short-term, structured approach with clear goals
5 therapists for Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy in Canada
Browse 5 therapists offering Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy. Find the right counsellor or psychotherapist for your needs.
Louis Lin
Have you ever rushed out the door only to realize you forgot something or spilled coffee all over yourself? Have you ever said to yourself, “I'm tired of feeling this way/ I shouldn’t be feeling like this,” yet the feelings persist and sometimes come back stronger? These may seem like two distinct, unrelated instances I am raising, but I parallel them with how we often approach our problems: we tend to want to rush through them or judge ourselves for having the emotions and reactions to the difficulties life tosses at us. I’m here to propose an alternative: your feelings are valid, no matter what you’re seeking help for. We rarely move through life with intention and space to slow down and reflect. I see counselling as a dedicated space created for you by you to get curious about yourself, tend to the parts that need some fine-tuning and updates, and process some uncomfortable emotions that the outside world doesn’t always give space for. I offer 15-minute complimentary consultations for all clients who are interested in working with me. Looking up therapists is a big step – in my opinion, you are already halfway from where you began to where you would like to be!
Gabriel Roy-Wright
I grew up in Saskatchewan but was called to the mountains and relocated to the Canadian Rockies at the age of eighteen. Since then I have lived abroad, on the coast, and now call Rossland, BC my permanent home. My upbringing instilled in me a strong desire to contribute meaningfully to my community and society. I am at my best when I am able to help others. My drive to contribute coupled with an interest in human decision-making led me to counselling. On my journey to becoming a counsellor I completed a number of experiences that sharpened my ability to understand, listen, and empathize with others: getting an undergraduate degree in psychology, working as a research assistant, volunteering to teach underserved youth snowboarding, working on a crisis line, and lastly, as a support worker– integrating adults with autism into their community in Trail, BC. I completed my practicum at Child and Youth Mental Health services (CYMH) under the guidance and supervision of Sean Larsen. It was under Sean’s expert guidance that I found my passion for helping children and youth. My time at CYMH assisted me in understanding how I can help families struggling with interpersonal and mental health concerns. As my practice has grown, I realized the distress many parents were experiencing in their romantic relationships. I took Gottman Method Couples Therapy training to provide couples counselling to our community and help struggling couples create better communication and understanding. I honour confidentiality, openness, connection, and engagement.
Lexie Morgan
Are you looking for a ‘hype you up’ but call you on your shit therapist? I might just be your gal! Are you dealing with perfectionism? Going through a break up? Contemplating making a big life change? Experiencing grief, stress, overwhelm or loneliness? I prioritize authenticity in therapy, and aim to help people untangle themselves from problems that hold them back. I work with you as we navigate the peaks & valleys of life experiences. I often support, students, hospitality workers, parents, teachers, nurses, shift workers, ski patrollers, guides & 'first timers' to therapy. Life can be messy & complex. Are you looking for a ‘hype you up’ but call you on your shit therapist? I might just be your gal! Are you dealing with perfectionism? Going through a break up? Contemplating making a big life change? Experiencing grief, stress, overwhelm or loneliness? I prioritize authenticity in therapy, and aim to help people untangle themselves from problems that hold them back. I work with you as we navigate the peaks & valleys of life experiences. I often support, students, hospitality workers, parents, teachers, nurses, shift workers, ski patrollers, guides & 'first timers' to therapy. Life can be messy & complex. My office located in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver at 4th & Arbutus. I offer virtual counselling via telehealth throughout BC. *Insurance* Counselling is covered or reimbursed by many extended benefits programs. I am registered with many major Canadian insurance providers: Canada Life | Great-West Life Green Shield Canada Manulife Medavie Blue Cross Mines & Associates SunLife AMS - UBC Student Benefits Vail Resorts EAP *Education & Registration* I hold a master's degree in counselling from City University and a bachelor's degree in Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria. I am dual licensed with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC) as a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) as a Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC). License Numbers: RCC # 20414 CCC # 11250646 *A bit more about how I work & my background* Lexie (she/her) is a Registered Clinical Counsellor practicing on the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territories. Lexie’s approach to counselling is characterized by warmth, authenticity, and compassion, with a goal of fostering a relaxed environment where clients can explore their thoughts and emotions without fear of judgment. Lexie roots her work in a trauma informed, anti-oppressive, social justice lens. This may involve looking beyond the individual to understand their experiences within broader social and cultural contexts, as she joins clients on the path to self-discovery, healing, and change. Lexie has over ten years of experience working in the field of mental health. She draws on her experience providing counselling and practical supports to diverse communities, including children and families with complex medical and mental health needs, new immigrants and LGBTQQ2S+ folx. She has worked as a grief and loss counsellor at a hospice, provided crisis and suicide prevention support and developed industry specific work place mental health trainings for the hospitality and tourism sector. Montira Mental Health was born out of Lexie’s own experience as a hospitality manager at different backcountry lodges across British Columbia. As a lodge manager, Lexie observed the intersection of mental health and personal challenges within remote and isolated live/work environments which lead to high rates of burnout amongst her staff. The transient nature of tourism dependent communities, seasonal employment, high cost of living and limited access to low barrier community mental health offerings further impacted her staff. Lexie’s connection to the outdoor community is born out of years of living, working, and recreating in the Rocky, Purcell, Selkirk and Coast mountains. She is an avid backcountry skier, trail runner, and hiker who finds a deep sense of connection to herself and her community through time spent in the outdoors. To learn more, please see my website: montiramentalhealth.com
Suzanne Paszkowski
Maybe you have tried therapy before and it has helped you work through certain feelings or get through a specific crisis. But maybe you still find yourself repeating the same behaviors in subtle ways—perhaps until they become not so subtle and you find yourself back in therapy, in the midst of another crisis, one that eerily echoes your past experiences. You want not just to work through present issues, but also to delve deeper into your personality and life experiences to come to a better understanding of who you are, where you come from, and what your values are—with the goal of becoming the person you want and are able to be. Together, we will explore your past and present, thoughts and feelings, in order to help you gain a more holistic understanding of yourself and your potential. My background is in ancient philosophy and I am training to become a psychoanalyst because I believe that talk therapy can lead to genuine connection and enable self-discovery and self-understanding. If any of the above sounds intriguing, please feel free to contact me. I am open to new clients, especially those looking to dig deeper. Therapy can be truly transformative; sometimes it just takes finding the right person to connect with.
What is Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy?
Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) is a short-term, evidence-based approach designed to help people understand and express emotions that are often suppressed or avoided. It is particularly useful when physical symptoms, like chronic pain, fatigue, or tension, are connected to unresolved emotional experiences. Rather than avoiding difficult feelings, EAET helps you approach them in a supported way, process what's underneath, and express emotions that may have been held back for years. Many people seek this approach when medical explanations haven't fully accounted for what they're experiencing, or when they sense that stress and emotion are contributing to their physical or psychological distress.
Sessions focus on building awareness of how emotions show up in the body and how unexpressed feelings can fuel symptoms. By working through them directly, EAET aims to reduce both emotional and physical suffering.
EAET was developed by psychologist Mark Lumley and colleagues at Wayne State University. It draws on emotion-focused and psychodynamic principles, along with education about the mind-body connection. Randomized controlled trials have shown EAET to be effective for fibromyalgia and similar conditions, including outperforming CBT for pain reduction in some studies.
Who this approach may help
Chronic pain with an emotional component
People with fibromyalgia, back pain, or chronic tension that has not fully responded to medical treatment and who sense that unresolved stress or emotion may be a factor.
Unexplained physical symptoms
People experiencing fatigue, digestive issues, or headaches investigated medically without a clear explanation, where emotional suppression may play a role.
Difficulty expressing emotions
People who tend to hold back anger, grief, or fear because those feelings feel overwhelming, wrong, or likely to cause conflict.
Anxiety or depression linked to emotional avoidance
People whose low mood or anxiety stems more from avoiding difficult feelings than from unhelpful thought patterns alone.
Trauma-related physical symptoms
People who experienced stressful or traumatic events and have since developed physical symptoms they believe are connected, even when medical explanations are incomplete.
What happens in a session?
- 1
Understand symptoms and goals
The therapist asks about your current symptoms and what situations seem to trigger or worsen them, building a picture of how stress and emotion may be involved.
- 2
Identify avoided emotions
You explore the emotional experiences connected to those situations, including feelings that may be difficult to name, express, or even recognize.
- 3
Explore emotional patterns
Together, you identify emotions that have been suppressed or avoided, such as anger, grief, or fear tied to past experiences.
- 4
Practice expression safely
You practice expressing those emotions more directly through structured conversation, guided reflection, or exercises like writing or speaking to an empty chair.
- 5
Connect insights to daily life
The therapist tracks whether emotional processing shifts your physical or psychological symptoms and adjusts the work based on what you notice.
How it compares to other approaches
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thought patterns. EAET targets emotions directly, particularly those that are suppressed or avoided, rather than working primarily through cognition.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT was developed for relationship and attachment difficulties. EAET specifically targets the link between suppressed emotion and physical or psychological symptoms, and is more structured and shorter-term.
Somatic Therapy
Both approaches work with the body-emotion connection. Somatic therapy emphasizes body sensation, movement, and posture. EAET focuses more specifically on verbal expression of avoided feelings.
EMDR
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to reprocess traumatic memories. EAET works through direct emotional expression in conversation, without a memory reprocessing protocol.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Both explore how past emotional experiences affect present wellbeing. Psychodynamic therapy tends to be longer-term and more exploratory. EAET is structured, typically short-term, and more directly focused on emotional expression and physical symptoms.
How to choose an Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy therapist
Questions to ask before booking:
- 1
Ask about their specific training in EAET. Because it is a structured protocol, look for therapists who have completed formal training rather than those who simply use emotion-focused techniques in general.
- 2
Ask whether they have experience working with clients who have chronic pain, medically unexplained symptoms, or stress-related physical conditions alongside psychological distress.
- 3
Ask how they approach emotional expression in sessions and whether they are comfortable adjusting the pace to match what you can manage at a given point in treatment.
- 4
Ask what a typical course of treatment looks like, how long it tends to run, and what markers they use to know if the approach is helping.
- 5
If you are also being treated by a physician or other provider for a physical condition, ask whether they are willing to coordinate or communicate with your medical team.
When this may not be the right fit
EAET involves approaching and expressing difficult emotions, which can be activating. If you are in acute crisis, experiencing active psychosis, or have not yet built basic emotional regulation skills, a therapist may recommend starting with stabilization before undertaking this kind of work.
If your physical symptoms have not been fully assessed by a physician, therapy works best as a complement to ongoing medical care rather than a replacement for diagnosis. A good therapist will encourage you to continue appropriate medical follow-up.
If you strongly prefer a structured cognitive approach or find emotion-focused work difficult to engage with, a CBT-based or skills-focused therapy may be a better fit for how you prefer to process your experience.
If you are very early in trauma recovery, your therapist may suggest building coping tools before moving into expression-based work, to ensure you can manage what comes up between sessions.
Related specialties
Frequently asked questions
What is Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy used for?
EAET is used to treat conditions where suppressed emotions contribute to symptoms, including chronic pain, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, and depression. It helps people process difficult emotions they have been avoiding, which can reduce both psychological and physical distress.
How is EAET different from other therapy approaches?
Unlike therapies focused mainly on changing thoughts, EAET targets emotions directly. It encourages expression and processing of feelings that are often avoided, such as anger, grief, or fear. This makes it distinct from CBT, though it may be used alongside other approaches.
How long does Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy take?
EAET is typically short-term, often ranging from eight to sixteen sessions. The structured format focuses on specific emotional patterns and physical symptoms, which allows for meaningful progress within a defined period of treatment.
Is EAET effective for chronic pain?
Research supports EAET for certain types of chronic pain, particularly when stress, trauma, or emotional suppression play a role. It has shown positive results for conditions like fibromyalgia and other medically unexplained pain syndromes.
Do I have to have physical symptoms to benefit from EAET?
No. While EAET was developed partly in response to stress-related physical symptoms, it can also help people struggling with emotional avoidance, interpersonal difficulties, anxiety, or past experiences that feel hard to talk about or process.
Can I do Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy online?
Yes. Many therapists trained in EAET offer sessions online. Virtual therapy works well for this approach because the focus is on emotional awareness and conversation rather than physical techniques that require in-person contact. Check each therapist profile for available formats.
Looking for an Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy therapist?
Browse therapists in Canada who specialize in emotion awareness and expression therapy. Filter by location, fee, and session format to find the right fit.