Our services
What we do
Free Consultation
Finding the right therapist matters. Research consistently shows that the relationship between client and therapist is one of the most important factors in creating meaningful change in therapy. We offer a free consultation to help you, your child/youth, or your family determine what kind of support may be the best fit. This conversation gives you an opportunity to ask questions, share what is bringing you to therapy, and get a sense of whether our approach feels right for you. During the consultation, we can help clarify whether individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, assessment, parent support, Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy, or another service may be most appropriate. This first conversation is about fit, clarity, and helping you take the next step in a way that feels thoughtful, supportive, and informed.
Individual Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a collaborative, relationship-based process that helps people better understand themselves, their experiences, and the patterns that may be affecting their thoughts, emotions, behaviours, relationships, and daily life. At different times, life can feel manageable and clear. At other times, it can feel overwhelming, uncertain, painful, or difficult to navigate alone. Individual psychotherapy offers a safe, respectful, and supportive space to pause, reflect, and work through these experiences with the guidance of a qualified mental health professional. Therapy is more than supportive conversation. It is a skilled, ethical, and clinically grounded form of treatment that uses evidence-informed approaches to help reduce distress, strengthen coping, improve emotional regulation, shift unhelpful patterns, and support meaningful change. At our practice, psychotherapy is provided by experienced registered social workers and psychotherapists who are authorized to provide psychotherapy in Ontario and New Brunswick. Our work is grounded in clinical training, professional regulation, ethical practice, and a deep respect for the therapeutic relationship. We offer individual psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and adults, and support clients with concerns related to trauma, complex trauma, grief and loss, anxiety, depression, burnout, vicarious trauma, relationship and family difficulties, life transitions, emotional regulation, sexual abuse, interpersonal violence, ADHD, learning differences, neurodivergence, and the unique stress carried by helping professionals, caregivers, and first responders. Our goal is to offer therapy that feels safe, thoughtful, compassionate, and meaningful, helping you better understand yourself, move through what feels stuck, and find a path forward that supports healing, connection, and lasting change.
Couples Therapy
Couples therapy offers a space to understand not only what partners are struggling with, but what is happening underneath the struggle. Inspired by relational work, we see couples therapy as a place to explore the patterns, longings, injuries, fears, roles, responsibilities, and hopes that shape how partners reach for one another, protect themselves, disconnect, and try to find their way back. At its heart, couples therapy is not about deciding who is right or wrong. It is about creating a more honest and compassionate understanding of the relationship, including the ways each partner’s history, nervous system, communication style, unmet needs, and protective strategies show up between them. We specialize in working with couples where one or both partners are navigating a mental health concern, trauma history, ADHD, learning differences, or neurodivergence. Even when there is deep love and a desire to stay together, these experiences can create very real stress within the relationship. Emotional regulation, communication, intimacy, responsibility-sharing, parenting, sensory needs, burnout, shutdown, reactivity, avoidance, and feelings of loneliness or misunderstanding can all become part of the couple’s daily life. Our work helps couples slow these patterns down, understand what is happening with more clarity, and develop ways of relating that feel safer, more respectful, more connected, and more sustainable. We support couples in moving from blame and disconnection toward curiosity, accountability, repair, and meaningful change.
Family Therapy
Family therapy is a specialized form of psychotherapy that supports people within the context of their closest and most meaningful relationships. Rather than focusing on one person in isolation, family therapy looks at patterns of interaction, communication, roles, history, and relationship dynamics that may be contributing to distress or making change feel difficult. At our practice, we understand families as powerful and complex systems. Families can be places of love, belonging, identity, and support, and they can also hold pain, grief, rupture, misunderstanding, and old histories that continue to shape present-day relationships. Family therapy creates space to slow these patterns down, understand them with more compassion and clarity, and work toward healthier ways of relating. Family therapy is not only about resolving conflict. It can also support families in strengthening connection, improving communication, navigating transitions, responding to parenting or caregiving stress, repairing trust, processing grief and loss, and making sense of emotional patterns that have developed over time. We specialize in working with complex family relationships, including adult child-parent relationships, sibling relationships, grief and loss within families, and the old histories that can resurface during life transitions, caregiving, conflict, illness, separation, or loss. We help families explore what is being carried, what is being repeated, what needs to be understood, and what may be ready to shift. Family therapy may involve family members participating together, or one individual engaging in therapy with a clear focus on their family relationships and broader family system. Our approach is systemic, trauma-informed, relational, and grounded in the belief that people are best understood within the context of their relationships, histories, environments, and lived experiences. A unique strength of our practice is our ability to work collaboratively as therapists when clinically appropriate. This allows us to bring multiple perspectives, shared expertise, and thoughtful consultation to complex family work, while remaining focused on safety, clarity, compassion, and meaningful change.
Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy
Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy that thoughtfully integrates horses into the therapeutic process. Sessions are grounded in clinical psychotherapy and are facilitated by Melissa Maltar, MSW, RSW, a Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist with specialized training in trauma, relational practice, nervous system regulation, and Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy. This service is offered off-site at **Shady Hills Farm in Puslinch, Ontario**, located at **750 8th Concession West**. In Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy, horses are not used as tools or props. They are understood as sentient, relational beings who can support presence, reflection, emotional regulation, connection, boundaries, and self-awareness. Because horses respond honestly and in the present moment, they can help clients notice patterns in how they relate to themselves, others, their bodies, and their environment. Sessions may involve observing horses, sharing space with them, grooming, leading, mindful movement, grounding exercises, or simply noticing what happens in the relationship between client, horse, therapist, and environment. The focus is not on riding or horsemanship. No horse experience is required. Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy can be especially meaningful for clients who benefit from experiential, body-based, relational, or sensory approaches to therapy. It may support people working through trauma, anxiety, emotional regulation, grief, relationship patterns, boundaries, self-trust, shame, and nervous system overwhelm. While the farm setting and presence of horses offer something different from a traditional office, the work remains psychotherapy. Sessions are guided by clinical goals, ethical practice, emotional safety, and the therapeutic relationship.
Clinical SupervisionÂ
Clinical supervision is an essential part of ethical and competent psychotherapy and social work practice. It provides clinicians with a dedicated space to reflect on their work, strengthen clinical judgment, explore complex assessment and intervention issues, and consider how their own responses and experiences may be influencing the therapeutic process. In many Ontario organizations, especially within larger amalgamated or consolidated community-based settings, supervision has increasingly become focused on administrative responsibilities such as documentation, accreditation, caseload management, organizational policy, and program mandate. While these areas are important, they do not replace the need for meaningful clinical supervision that supports direct practice, critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and ongoing self-reflection. Clinical professionals may also find that they are not receiving supervision from a member of their own profession, which can create added effort in determining whether a supervisor has the relevant clinical expertise, experience, and understanding of the profession’s values, ethics, and standards of practice. Members of this practice offer clinical supervision opportunities for professionals seeking thoughtful, practice-based support in their work. Please connect directly with an available member to learn more about supervision options.
Training for Clinical Professionals
Professional clinical training is offered through our collaboration partner, The Clinical Collective. The Clinical Collective is a multidisciplinary team of highly experienced clinicians who provide specialized psychotherapy, training, clinical supervision, and consultation. Their faculty have worked together for decades and bring deep practice-based expertise in complex areas of clinical work, including trauma, interpersonal abuse, sexual abuse, harmful and concerning sexual behaviour, sibling sexual abuse, youth dating violence, family reunification, and relational trauma-informed care. Their training is designed for professionals and organizations looking to deepen clinical knowledge, strengthen confidence, and build specialized capacity in areas that are often complex, sensitive, and difficult to navigate. Trainings are practical, thoughtful, and grounded in direct clinical experience, with a focus on skills and frameworks that can be applied meaningfully in practice. The Clinical Collective offers full-day workshops, brief workshops, customized organizational training, comprehensive training series, consultation, and supervision. Training can be adapted for both live and virtual audiences and tailored to the needs, mandate, culture, and service context of each organization. Professionals interested in clinical training, case consultation, or specialized professional development are encouraged to visit The Clinical Collective to learn more.