Strength-Based Therapists in Waterloo, ON
DeRoux Jones
Registered Psychotherapist
I’m DeRoux Jones, a Registered Psychotherapist in Ontario with a Master of Counselling Psychology specializing in Marriage & Family Therapy. I serve individuals, couples, and families, helping with anxiety, depression, grief, relationships, and Christian counselling. My approach is collaborative, evidence-based, and client-centered, creating a safe space for growth and healing.
Katherine McNichol
Registered Psychotherapist
Katherine is a Registered Psychotherapist with 8 years of experience supporting adults, couples, and teens through anxiety, trauma, depression, burnout and relationship issues. Trained in EFT, CBT, and EMDR, she takes a direct and compassionate approach to help clients move from surviving to thriving. She offers virtual psychotherapy across Canada and is current accepting clients.
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.
Horace Spence
RSSW, Psychotherapist
Coach Spence Wellness & Therapy Services provides trusted, culturally grounded therapy and holistic coaching for individuals, couples, and families. We support healing from stress, anxiety, and conflict while strengthening communication, resilience, and self-care. Through counseling, workshops, and wellness tools, we help clients build balance across mind, body, and spirit.
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…
Khysandra Lee
Registered Psychotherapist
Christina Hong
Registered Provisional Psychologist
Hello there! I am Christina, I have a genuine love and care for connecting with people. I’m here to support you if anxiety has been making life feel heavy or overwhelming. I believe that, counselling at its core is the genuine collaborative connection of individuals coming together to navigate this wonderfully bizarrely life of ours. In my role, my mission is to create a warm, supportive, and j…
Janalyn Dodds MSW, BSW, RSW
Registered Social Worker/ Psychotherapist
I am a Registered Social Worker and psychotherapist with The Support Station, a Canadian-based, woman-owned organization that believes cost shouldn't be a barrier to accessing quality mental health and wellness support. Each client's session fees are adjusted according to not only their monthly income, but also any bills and debts paid out regularly get considered as well.
Sophie Cohen
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Trauma-informed therapy available virtually
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!
Lisa O’Donovan
Registered Psychotherapist
I offer Psychodynamic, trauma-informed therapy for adults and couples in-person in Burlington and virtually. I support clients navigating complex trauma, relationship difficulties, addiction and recovery, family dysfunction, and life transitions helping to uncover and understand emotional and relational patterns, process experiences, build greater self-awareness in a safe, compassionate space.
Varshini Skantharajah
Registered Psychotherapist
Heather Andrew
Registered Clinical Social Worker MSW RCSW
Heather Andrew is the founder of Aspen Wellness Centre. Heather has been a Mental Health Therapist for over eight years, supporting clients with a variety of needs including complex trauma, ADHD, PTSD, grief, anxiety, depression, family conflict and more. Heather is passionate about providing trauma informed care to her clients and is a fierce advocate for mental health awareness.
Cristal Hines
Clinical Social Worker & Therapist
I am a Registered Social Worker, and trauma therapist specializing in complex trauma, PTSD, family therapy, and racial trauma. I provide culturally responsive, trauma-informed care using CPT, CBT, DBT, and Narrative Therapy to help adolescents, adults, and families heal, build resilience, and create meaningful, lasting change.
Mandeep Lalli
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Are you feeling anxious, overwhelmed or stuck? Maybe something feels wrong? I help people navigate anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, and relationship struggles, with culturally sensitive care that honours your full background, including pressures others may miss. As a South Asian therapist who spent 15 years in the corporate world, I bring lived experience and real-world context to therapy.
Cassandra Tennriello
Registered Psychotherapist
Hi! I'm a Registered Psychotherapist and Canadian Certified Counsellor with 11 years of experience. I walk alongside my clients as they heal, whether supporting emotional regulation, processing trauma, or navigating life transitions. I use an integrative approach, drawing from different theories, modalities, and approaches that fit their unique needs!
Lester Vega
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
I offer psychotherapy rooted in both psychodynamic and Jungian approaches for adults living with the lasting impact of early adversity, complex trauma, and attachment wounds. Together we explore anxiety, burnout, relationship patterns, grief, shame, spirituality, and dreams at a pace that fits your nervous system. I provide secure online therapy across Ontario and a free 30‑minute consultation.
Navkiran Bajwa
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Hi! My name is Nav and I am a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) in Ontario! I currently practice in Vaughan and offer in-person & virtual sessions! Feel free to contact me for a free 15 minute consultation to see if I'd be a good fit for your needs!
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.
Rae Jardine
MA, RSSW, CC-PMH
I'm currently accepting new virtual clients in Ontario as well as in-person clients in Toronto with immediate availability and no waitlist, including limited sliding scale spaces. 2SLGBTQQIA+, Neurodivergence, Trauma, Perinatal
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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.