Trauma and PTSD Therapy and Counselling for Healing and Recovery

Trauma can make emotions feel intense, unpredictable, or difficult to understand. Therapy can help you recognize your triggers and nervous system responses, build greater capacity for emotional regulation, and respond with more choice and confidence.

Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing nightmares can occur after trauma. Trauma therapy can help calm your nervous system and address the root causes of sleep disturbance that may be making it difficult for your body and mind to settle and rest.

Trauma can leave you carrying painful beliefs about yourself or what happened even though you know it was not your fault. Therapy can help you explore these experiences with compassion and begin loosening the guilt, shame, or self-blame that may still be affecting you.

Trauma can leave you feeling disconnected from your body or uncomfortable with what you feel inside. Therapy can help you gently reconnect with body sensations, recognize signs of safety, and feel more grounded and present.

You may feel like you've been living in survival mode, disconnected from what once brought joy. As your healing unfolds, therapy can help you reconnect with what lights you up—your creativity, your relationships, and your capacity for joy and purpose.

Trauma can cloud your sense of identity or direction. Through therapy, you can rediscover who you are, what matters to you, and how to move forward without fear and avoidance constantly holding you back.

Individual therapy sessions last 50 minutes and cost $180. Payment is due at your appointment. We offer direct billing whenever possible, depending on your insurance plan.

Explore our Frequently Asked Questions for more information about insurance, direct billing, payment and cancellation policies.

Many extended health insurance plans cover sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist. You may have coverage through your employer, your partner's plan, a parent's plan (if you qualify as a dependent), personal insurance, a college or university student health plan or another source.

Before your first appointment, ask your insurer:

• Does my plan cover services provided by a Registered Psychotherapist?

• How much or what percentage is reimbursed per session?

• What is my annual coverage limit, and how much remains available?

• When does my annual coverage reset?

• Is direct billing available under my plan?

Knowing these details can help you plan your appointments and understand any costs you will need to pay yourself. 

Explore our Frequently Asked Questions for more helpful information about appointments, insurance, policies and what to expect.

The following insurance plans and benefit programs may cover sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist:

If your insurer is on this list, it does not guarantee coverage or direct billing. Before your first appointment, confirm with your insurer whether your sessions are covered and how much they cover.

Explore our Frequently Asked Questions for helpful answers about getting started, appointments, policies and what to expect.

Our private psychotherapy services are not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), Ontario's publicly funded health insurance program.

Depending on your eligibility, coverage may be available through the following programs and benefits:

• Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB): Mental health counselling coverage for eligible First Nations and Inuit clients.

• Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP): Temporary health coverage that may include mental health counselling for eligible refugees, refugee claimants and certain other groups.

• Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC): Psychotherapy coverage for eligible Veterans through approved benefits.

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP): Eligible serving or former members may have coverage through their RCMP health benefits or programs administered by VAC.

Our therapists are registered providers with these programs. Each program has different rules about who qualifies, how much it pays and whether approval is needed before sessions begin. Depending on your coverage, you may need to pay part of the session fee yourself.

Please get in touch with us before your first appointment so we can discuss the program you plan to use and any arrangements needed.

Explore our Frequently Asked Questions for helpful answers about appointments, payment, policies and what to expect.

At Inner Core Psychotherapy, we begin by helping you feel safe, understood and involved in decisions about your care. We take time to understand your experiences, explain our approaches and work together at a pace that respects your needs and boundaries.

Our therapists practice Somatic Experiencing and are Somatic Experiencing Practitioners (SEPs). We draw on Somatic Experiencing to help you gently notice physical sensations and stress responses, and to explore what supports you in feeling more grounded and present.

We also draw on Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Janina Fisher's Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST). These approaches help us explore different parts of your experience—such as feeling afraid, shutting down or becoming self-critical—with curiosity and compassion. Rather than treating these responses as personal failings, we explore how they may have developed to protect you.

Education is part of the process. Using resources such as Fisher's Living Legacy of Trauma flip chart, we explain how earlier experiences can influence present-day emotions, bodily responses and relationships. We also draw on Bessel van der Kolk's research and use concepts from polyvagal theory as a framework for exploring stress responses and emotional regulation.

You do not need to understand these approaches before starting. Your therapist will explain what they suggest and why, invite your questions and adapt the work with you. We aim to support greater self-understanding, connection, and choice so that you can feel calmer, more confident, and more like yourself again.

Explore the approaches we use in therapy that go beyond the clinical model to offer a human-centred experience.

Trauma can follow a single overwhelming event or repeated experiences of threat, harm, or a lack of protection. Traumatic experiences may include sexual assault, physical violence, frightening medical experiences, war, or witnessing violence.

Repeated or ongoing experiences may include:

• Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in childhood or adulthood
• Neglect, including repeatedly having basic or emotional needs unmet
• Living with domestic violence, intimidation, or threats
• Repeated humiliation, rejection, or psychological abuse
• Growing up without consistent protection, comfort, or dependable care
• Repeated disruptions in caregiving or traumatic separation from caregivers

When harm occurs within relationships you depend on, it can affect your sense of safety, trust, and connection with yourself and others. Responses that once helped you survive may persist long after the circumstances have changed.

People respond differently, and these experiences do not automatically mean someone has PTSD. You do not need to decide whether your experience "counts" as trauma before asking for support.

At Inner Core Psychotherapy, we explore your experiences with compassion and curiosity, helping you understand their impact without pressure to label them or share more than you feel ready to discuss.

Explore our blog to learn more about what complex trauma is and how repeated trauma can affect your emotions, relationships, body and sense of self.

There is no deadline to seek support. Even when difficult experiences happened long ago, reminders can trigger strong emotions, physical sensations, or protective responses—as though the danger were happening now. You may notice yourself feeling on edge, shutting down, withdrawing, or struggling to trust, without immediately understanding why.

Therapy can help you recognize these responses as ways you learned to survive, rather than signs that something is wrong with you. Together, we can explore them with curiosity and compassion, helping you notice the difference between past experiences and what is happening in the present.

The work involves more than talking about what happened. Your therapist can help you build awareness of your emotions and bodily responses, explore what supports a sense of safety, and develop more choice in how you respond. You don't need to revisit every detail, as that can be re-traumatizing.

At Inner Core Psychotherapy, we take a compassionate, trauma-informed approach that respects your pace and boundaries, supporting greater connection with yourself and a growing sense of agency in your life today.

Explore our blog to learn more about what complex trauma is and how repeated trauma can affect your emotions, relationships, body and sense of self.

You can seek trauma therapy without a PTSD diagnosis. You may notice that difficult experiences continue to affect your relationships, emotions, sense of safety or everyday life, even if you are unsure how to describe what is happening.

Your therapist will take time to understand your experiences and concerns without assuming that every difficulty is related to trauma. Together, you can explore what support would be helpful and identify goals that matter to you.

At Inner Core Psychotherapy, we offer compassionate, personalized care, giving you space to begin without needing a diagnosis or having everything figured out.

You may feel overwhelmed, go blank, or struggle to describe what is happening inside. These responses can arise when something feels distressing or brings up reminders of earlier experiences. They are not a sign that you are doing therapy incorrectly, and you do not need to push through them.

Your therapist will help guide the session, taking time to notice what you are experiencing and asking what would feel supportive. Together, you might slow down, pause, shift the conversation, or explore gentle ways to feel more connected to the present. Your therapist will explain any suggested approach and invite your feedback.

You do not need to share every detail or find the perfect words to heal from trauma. Your therapist will discourage you from doing so unless you feel your therapist must witness or hear your full story. Building trust and understanding your responses can be part of the work itself.

At Inner Core Psychotherapy, helping you feel safe is central to our trauma-informed approach. We respect your boundaries and choices, working collaboratively at a pace that supports you.