Strength-Based Therapists in Waterloo, ON
Nikki Ward
Registered Psychotherapist
Therapist & Clinic Owner at Electric City Wellness Accepting new clients both In-Person in Peterborough & Virtually throughout Ontario! Offering FREE 20-minute consultations!
Signy Fridriksson
Registered Psychotherapist
It takes a lot of courage to start a healing journey! I listen with empathy and respect as you explore the challenges that life has brought you. I am known to be warm, calm and non-judgmental. I provide a safe, reassuring environment, allowing you to grow in self-awareness, self-compassion and a sense of hope.
Jodi Evers
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Providing person-centred, psychodynamic therapy for adults across a wide range of treatment goals. Using an integrative approach that considers the whole person, treatment is adapted to the individual and is deep, experiential, challenging, trauma informed and focused on the body, emotions, and patterns of behavior.
Abby Tait
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
You might come to therapy feeling stuck in familiar patterns - ways of coping, thinking, or relating that once made sense but now feel hard to shift. You may be thoughtful and self-aware, yet find yourself overthinking, avoiding certain emotions, or feeling disconnected from who you are or where you’re headed. Questions about identity, values, and purpose often sit quietly underneath these experi…
Shelley Sayle-Udall
Registered Psychotherapist (RP)
I’m Shelley, a psychotherapist offering integrative, mind–body therapy that goes beyond talk therapy. My work combines insight with nervous system, physiological, and gut–brain understanding to help clients truly make sense of their experiences. Through psychoeducation and compassionate support, I help people reconnect with their inner wisdom and create meaningful, lasting change.
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.
Tina Pirvali
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Accepting new clients. I provide virtual therapy across Canada for adults and couples navigating trauma, relationship challenges, communication difficulties, infidelity, codependency, attachment patterns, and life transitions. Using a warm, trauma-informed approach, I help clients strengthen their relationships, reconnect with themselves, and create lasting, meaningful change.
Annie Szalkai
Registered Psychotherapist
I work with adults from diverse backgrounds, supporting those navigating anxiety, stress, and self-esteem challenges. My approach is client-centred and integrative, drawing from CBT, ACT, EFIT, Solution-Focused Therapy, and more to meet each person’s unique needs.
Mackenzie Fournier
Registered Psychotherapist
Hi, I’m Mackenzie! I’m a Psychotherapist who loves keeping therapy real, down-to-earth, and practical. I help people untangle patterns around anxiety, food, and self-trust using tools grounded in science. In sessions, I bring my authentic self—you can expect a mix of support, guidance, and maybe a little humour when it feels right—so we can tackle challenges together without the extra pressure.
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-Wed).
Donnica Campbell
Registered Social Worker/ Psychotherapist
Beginning therapy can feel like a vulnerable step, and it can also open the door to greater grounding, clarity, and self-connection. I work from a trauma-informed and inclusive approach. Together, we’ll explore what healing looks like for you, at a pace that feels supportive, and work toward feeling more connected, empowered, and well.
Christine Nichols
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
You deserve the peace that comes with living authentically. On your journey to finding your purpose, you may be experiencing stress, anxiety, low-mood, or challenges with your self-worth. These experiences can make life feel overwhelming, and it’s easy to feel disconnected from the person you truly are. A better, more connected life is possible. As your therapist, I provide a genuine, compassion…
Anastasia Berezowsky
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
My practice blends talk therapy and structured accountability to help you find balance and resilience—especially when life feels demanding and you need some direction. With a background in Kinesiology and Psychology, I take a whole-person approach that connects mind and body. I support clients who feel misaligned and need the space to untangle themselves from the stressors of every day.
Shereen Ishag
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Virtual and In-person Psychotherapy in Burlington for teens (12+), adults, couples, and families. I work with clients experiencing relationship difficulties, emotional disconnection, anxiety, grief, and trauma-related concerns. I draw from emotion-focused and attachment-based perspectives, including EFCT-informed work, as well as other integrative approaches.
Emma Hartley
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), MACP, BA (she, her)
Are you looking for a therapist that knows what it's like to feel lost or overwhelmed and how to find your footing again? Noticing yourself feeling more anxious, "just tired", and craving a space to slow down and reconnect with a sense of meaning or purpose? Trying to make sense of shifts in mood, questioning careers, exploring relationships, parenting and identity, or a major life transition?
Joanna Czub
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
I support women who have spent years caring for everyone else and now feel exhausted, guilty, disconnected from themselves or unsure who they are beyond their responsibilities. My work focuses on childhood and relational trauma, shame, people-pleasing, difficult family relationships, grief and the struggle to establish boundaries without feeling selfish.
Sarah Perone
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
I help individuals and couples break painful relationship cycles so they can feel more connected, secure, and confident. I support concerns like recurrent conflict, relationship anxiety (and ROCD), limerence, and resentment. Using an attachment- and evidence-based approach, I offer warm, non-judgmental virtual therapy across Ontario. Book a free 15-minute consultation to get started.
Grace Gao
Registered Social Worker
Grace is passionate about creating accessible and culturally responsive mental health support, particularly for individuals who may feel hesitant to seek formal counseling services. As a bilingual professional fluent in English and Mandarin, she values creating a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment where clients feel heard and respected.
Johanna Benoit
Registered Psychotherapist
NIHB provider, specializing in CPTSD and trauma, perinatal grief and loss, PTSD, anxiety, depression and borderline personality disorder.
Khysandra Lee
Registered Psychotherapist
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Frequently Asked Questions About Strength-Based
What is strength-based therapy?
Strength-based therapy is an orientation in therapy that deliberately focuses on the client's existing resources, strengths, values, capabilities, and resilience — rather than primarily on pathology, deficits, and problems. It is not denial of difficulties; it is a choice to place equal or greater weight on what is working, what the person has overcome, what they value, and what they are capable of. Strength-based approaches include Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Positive Psychology therapy, narrative approaches, and many humanistic frameworks.
How does strength-based therapy differ from traditional approaches?
Traditional approaches often focus heavily on problems, symptoms, deficits, and what is wrong. Strength-based therapy shifts the lens: rather than "what is your problem and what caused it," it asks "what do you want to be different, what resources do you have, and what has worked before?" This is not bypassing real difficulties — it is choosing to mobilize the person's existing capacity alongside addressing their challenges. The approach is often experienced as more validating and energizing than deficit-focused approaches.
What is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)?
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is one of the most widely researched strength-based approaches. Developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, SFBT focuses on identifying and amplifying what the client does when the problem is less present (exceptions), describing in detail what their preferred future looks like (the miracle question), and building on their existing strengths and resources. SFBT has evidence for depression, anxiety, family therapy, school settings, and diverse populations. It is brief — often 3–8 sessions.
Is a strength-based approach appropriate for serious mental health concerns?
Yes — strength-based approaches are not limited to mild concerns or wellness coaching. Identifying and mobilizing resilience and existing resources is valuable alongside evidence-based treatment for depression, anxiety, trauma, and serious mental illness. A strength-based lens does not mean ignoring suffering — it means holding both the difficulty and the capability simultaneously. For very serious presentations, strength-based approaches are most effective as part of a comprehensive treatment plan rather than as the only approach.
Who benefits most from strength-based therapy?
Strength-based therapy tends to resonate particularly with people who feel pathologized or whose sense of self-efficacy has been eroded by chronic difficulties; with people who prefer a future-focused, action-oriented approach over extended exploration of the past; with children and adolescents for whom building on strengths is developmentally appropriate; and with people from cultural backgrounds where talking about problems or expressing distress is less natural than focusing on action and solutions. The approach can be deeply empowering when done well.