Stephanie Woo Dearden Counselling & Psychotherapy

I'm a psychotherapist who helps you feel and deal with your emotions so you can use them as strengths to make the difference you are meant to make in the world.

Trauma begets trauma. I've learned this professionally and personally. Everyone is born with emotional needs, yet you have no control over whether your home, community, culture or society will meet those needs. You don't have a say in your inheritance of intergenerational trauma, which impacts racialized communities disproportionately.

I believe we all have an equal right to mental health and no one should have to suffer alone. I counsel to support people like you who are taking the brave step of being vulnerable and attending to your emotional needs. Who want to live with love, openness and compassion and know your mental health is essential in making a positive difference. Who accept responsibility for how your emotional health impacts people in your personal and professional life and are doing your part in ending the cycle of trauma.

Emotionally healthy people not only experience the benefits of being connected to themselves, their lives, and their loved ones. They create emotionally healthy homes, communities, workplaces and societies. And anyone who wants to be a part of that deserves a collaborator in their healing.

In experiential therapy, we don't just talk about your problems, strengths and solutions. Together, we create the opportunity for you to feel, deepen, release, and ultimately make positive use of the emotions that are distressing you with support.

I'm trained in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), a therapy firmly grounded in current neuroscience, trauma theory, and in how to use emotions for positive transformation. I am a Level I AEDP Therapist. I have training in Somatic Experiencing, an approach to healing trauma that recognizes our experiences are not just stored in our mind but in our body.

My title is:
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.

My education:
Masters of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University
Bachelor of Science in Honours Biology with a minor in the Classical Studies from the University of Waterloo