IFS is a powerful, experiential therapy that helps you understand and heal different parts of yourself. Rather than seeing emotions or behaviors as problems to eliminate, IFS recognizes them as parts of you that are trying to help in their own way. By fostering self-compassion and curiosity, we work together to create balance and harmony within.

Video: What is IFS by Dr. Tori Olds

While insight and understanding are important, true change happens when you engage with your emotions in a deep and felt way. My approach goes beyond just talking—sessions may involve guided imagery, somatic awareness, or other experiential techniques to help you access and process emotions on a deeper level.

🌀 Rather than simply challenging thoughts, I help clients engage with them in a deeper, more embodied way—exploring where they come from, how they show up in the body, and what they might need to shift or soften.

You are the expert on your own experience. Therapy should feel safe, affirming, and at your pace. Whether you’re exploring identity, healing trauma, or working through day-to-day struggles, I’ll support you in a way that honors your unique journey.

I’m also informed by cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), especially when clients lead with strong analytical parts that are already trying to make sense of their thoughts and plan healthier behaviours. CBT can offer a helpful map for this kind of inner work. I tend to use it as a supportive framework, while also inviting you to go deeper — to connect with the emotional experience underneath those thoughts and behaviours.

Therapy does not exist in a vacuum—it is shaped by the systems and structures we live within. I strive to provide a space where clients from all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences feel seen and valued. My practice is informed by anti-colonialism, anti-racism, harm reduction, and intersectional feminism, recognizing how social and systemic factors impact mental health. This means acknowledging power dynamics, advocating for your autonomy, and working collaboratively to create a space that is free of judgment and oppression.

Healing doesn’t just happen in sessions—it unfolds in daily life. We’ll explore ways to bring self-awareness and self-compassion into your everyday experiences, helping you create meaningful and lasting change.

A lot of how we act, think, and feel is rooted in memory — not just the kind we can easily recall, but the kind that lives in the body and nervous system. Internal Family Systems (IFS) talks about “parts,” and I find that a helpful way to describe these patterns. But we can also understand them more broadly (and scientifically) as memory — and we can understand memory (even more sciene-y) as the neural pathways our brain has built over time.

Some of our memories are conscious and story-based, but many are implicit. These implicit memories help us navigate the world automatically — like knowing how to tie your shoes or respond to your boss’s tone — without having to consciously work it out every time. Without these shortcuts, our brains would be overwhelmed.

But some of these internal blueprints — these automatic responses — were shaped in moments of stress, fear, or pain. In therapy, we’re not just talking about those patterns — we’re engaging with them in real time. When we slow down and emotionally connect with what’s happening, it signals to the brain that this moment matters. Research suggests this kind of emotional engagement is what allows memory reconsolidation to occur — the process by which old implicit memories can be updated. That’s how real, lasting change happens: not just by thinking differently, but by experiencing something new in a way your brain and body can actually take in.