Compassion Focused Therapists in Thornhill, ON
Katelyn Matias
Registered Psychotherapist
Hi, I’m Katelyn Matias, a Registered Psychotherapist and the Founder of Anchor & Bloom Psychotherapy. My approach to therapy is trauma-informed, relational, and grounded in attachment theory. I believe that our experiences, relationships, and nervous system responses shape how we understand ourselves, navigate emotions, and connect with others.
Salima Jadavji
Registered Social Worker, MSW, RSW, CHyp™
I support high-functioning professionals and caregivers who feel exhausted, anxious, or disconnected beneath the surface. Using a trauma-informed, collaborative approach, I help you move beyond coping toward steadiness and self-trust. Email [email protected] to book a free consultation and see if we’re a fit.
Eleni Anagnosti
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), ADHD-CCSP, MS, HBA, BA
My approach is compassionate, culturally attuned, and collaborative. I draw from CBT, strengths-based, solution-focused, and trauma-informed approaches to support ADHD, anxiety, depression, burnout, grief, life transitions, and relationship patterns. Together, we focus on building practical tools, emotional balance, and a stronger sense of self-trust.
Rachelle Trudel, RP / PA, CCC - *Psychothérapeute bilingue*
Registered Psychotherapist / Psychothérapeute autorisée
Welcome! I support my clients in healing from burn-out so that they can get back to feeling like themselves and to being able to handle the demands and pressures of work and home life in a healthy way. I use my knowledge in CBT, SFBT, and mindfulness to support my clients in a compassionate, collaborative, pragmatic, goal-oriented, and trauma-informed way. I look forward to meeting you!
Laura Shaw
Registered Psychotherapist
Do you have high expectations or a brain that won’t shut off? I specialize in supporting women (20s-40s) navigating anxiety, life transitions, and suspected (or confirmed) neurodivergence (ADHD or AuDHD). My approach is neuro-affirming, mind-body centered, and specifically tailored to help you stop overthinking and start living authentically. Let's build a life that actually feels like you!
Jordan Best
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Anxiety can make your world feel smaller. Whether you're struggling with OCD, panic, health anxiety, social anxiety, an overwhelming phobia or constant worry, therapy can help you break free from the cycle. I provide compassionate, evidence-based therapy using ERP, CBT, and ACT to help you face fear, build confidence, and reconnect with the life you want to live.
Mehek Somani
Registered Psychotherapist
Hi there! I'm Mehek. I'm glad you're here! I specialize in burnout, stress, people-pleasing, self-esteem and relationship issues, intergenerational trauma for POC and immigrant communities. Using an emotionally focused, attachment-based, IFS, DBT, trauma informed and culturally sensitive approaches, I offer online therapy across Ontario (Mon–Fri) and Walk & Talk sessions in Oakville on Saturdays.
Katharine De Santos
Registered Psychotherapist
Healthy Minds Psychotherapy was founded in 2018 with the mission of providing psychotherapeutic care to individuals from diverse backgrounds, fostering resilience in each person and our community as a whole.
Cierra DoCouto
Registered Psychotherapist
Helping adults in Burlington, Ontario navigate anxiety, self-esteem challenges, relationship concerns, and attachment patterns. Offering in-person and virtual psychotherapy that is collaborative, evidence-informed, and tailored to support personal growth, emotional well-being, and resilience.
Ukasha Malik
Registered Psychotherapist
Ukasha Psychotherapy is a private therapy practice focused on trauma-informed care, self-awareness, and empowerment. It offers a safe, supportive space for clients to work through challenges like anxiety, depression, and relationship issues. The practice emphasizes accessible mental health education, coping tools, and personal growth.
Yasmin Ahmad
Registered Psychotherapist
Sisu Therapy offers virtual psychotherapy to adults across Ontario. A calm, collaborative space for anxiety, overwhelm, life transitions, and navigating cultural or family expectations, with care taken to move forward at a manageable pace.
Li Li
Registered Psychotherapist
Li offers relational psychoanalytic and trauma-informed somatic/EMDR/IFS/EFT therapy, to support individual, couples and families in communities such as immigrants, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent (ADHD), and professionals, whose experiences resonate with her own life journey the most. She holds a compassionate, culturally attuned space where clients can express freely and rediscover their authentic self.
Mara Behan
Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Feeling stuck in painful relationship patterns or life transitions? I offer a warm, collaborative space to help you rebuild trust, improve communication, and find clarity through healing. You don’t have to do it alone—reach out for a brief consultation to explore if we’re a good fit.
Varshini Skantharajah
Registered Psychotherapist
Meredith Bailey
Registered Psychotherapist
I believe that as a therapist, it is a privilege to be invited into another person’s life & one I never take lightly. Reaching out for support may feel overwhelming, & the task of finding the right person for you can be daunting. I want to assure you this is a safe space, & my primary objective is YOU finding the right person for YOU. Your confidence in that decision is extremely important to me.
Amanda Rennick-Hazen
Registered Psychotherapist
I enjoy using a variety of techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Strategies, Mindfulness Meditation, Trauma Informed, Compassion Focused, & Emotion Focused. Depression & Sadness Anxiety & Worry Work , Home, & School Stress Grief & Loss Divorce & Separation Unexpected life transitions, unexpected change, lost opportunities
Yaroslav Grechkin
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), Registered Counselling Therapist (Candidate)
You may look like you have it all together, yet quietly struggle with feeling “not good enough.” I help thoughtful, sensitive adults and couples navigate shame, self-doubt, anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and emotional overwhelm. Together, we’ll uncover the patterns keeping you stuck and build a kinder, more authentic relationship with yourself.
Julia Finetti
Registered Clinical Counsellor & Couples Therapist
Julia Finetti (MA, CCC, RCC) is a compassionate therapist specializing in relationships, life transitions, and emotional healing. She creates a warm, grounded space where clients finally feel at ease. With a practical, insight-driven approach, Julia helps people set boundaries, break old patterns, and reconnect with themselves - delivering real, lasting change.
Allison Mundle
Registered Psychotherapist, Sandalwood Psychotherapy
Online therapy for women in Ontario navigating anxiety, relationships, and emotional overwhelm. You may look like you are holding everything together, while inside you feel anxious, emotionally drained, or disconnected from yourself. Maybe you are used to keeping the peace, carrying too much, or saying yes when something inside you is saying no.
Tracey Ropp
Registered Psychotherapist
Hello! I get that reaching out for support can be difficult, particularly when you’re already feeling busy with work, family, school, or just the overall demands of life in general. I can help to figure out what’s creating stress or unease for you, and then together we’ll develop practical, realistic strategies that fit for you in your current circumstances.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Compassion Focused
What is Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)?
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) is a form of psychotherapy developed by Paul Gilbert that integrates evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, cognitive therapy, and Buddhist psychology. CFT targets what Gilbert identified as a core feature of many people's psychological suffering: intense, chronic shame and self-criticism. It aims to cultivate compassion — for oneself and others — as a means of reducing shame-based suffering, regulating threat-based emotional systems, and activating the soothing-affiliation system associated with warmth, care, and psychological security.
What does CFT treat?
CFT is particularly suited to people with high levels of self-criticism and shame — which are common across depression, anxiety, eating disorders, personality disorders, trauma, and addictions. It was originally developed for people with severe, complex presentations who had not responded adequately to CBT. Research supports its effectiveness for depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and borderline personality disorder. CFT is also used in oncology settings, chronic pain, and with people experiencing psychosis, where self-compassion is an important resource.
What does a CFT session look like?
CFT sessions involve psychoeducation about the evolved nature of our emotional systems (threat, drive, and soothing/affiliation), exploration of how early experiences shaped the person's particular patterns of self-criticism and shame, and practices specifically designed to cultivate the compassionate self — including compassionate imagery (imagining a deeply wise and compassionate figure), compassionate letter writing, and mindfulness practice focused on warmth and care. The emphasis is on experiential rather than purely cognitive work.
Why is self-compassion so important in CFT?
Gilbert's research showed that changing the content of self-critical thoughts (as in CBT) was often insufficient for people with deep shame — because the problem was not just the thoughts but the hostile, contemptuous tone in which they were delivered to oneself. Cultivating a warm, compassionate inner voice — one that responds to one's own pain the way a deeply caring person would — produces psychological change that thought-challenging alone does not. Many people initially find self-compassion very difficult, which is itself part of the therapeutic work.
How long does CFT take?
CFT is typically delivered over 12–20 sessions for focused presentations, but longer-term work is common for complex trauma or personality difficulties. The time needed to establish a compassionate self-relationship and overcome resistance to self-compassion (which is often strong) varies significantly between individuals. CFT can also be integrated into longer-term psychodynamic or CBT work as a specific intervention for shame and self-criticism rather than used as a complete standalone therapy.