About Denise

Denise completed her Master’s in Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy at Wilfrid Laurier University and is a Registered Psychotherapist, a long-time member of MyLife Counselling and a member of the College of Psychotherapists of Ontario. She supported adults through anxiety, depression, grief, health challenges, and family stress as a counselling intern with the Upper Grand Family Health Team.

Denise’s approach is Person Centered and Attachment Informed. She draws on EMDR, Emotion Focused therapy, and Compassionate Inquiry, with a background in Buddhist meditation and is supported by her own Earth Based Spirituality practice. Sessions are warm, steady, and paced by you, with attention to how your body, mind, and spirit connect. Outside the office, Denise lives in Elora, where she is a parent to her young adult son, a nature lover, and an enthusiastic supporter of live music concerts and festivals.

Denise came to psychotherapy after a career in music management that took her across the country and around the world. Both paths grew from the same place: a deep curiosity about people and a trust in lived experience as one of our best teachers.

Trauma, Childhood Trauma, PTSD & EMDR

Difficult experiences, whether from childhood or later in life, can leave a lasting imprint that isn’t always easy to put into words. Maybe certain relationships feel harder than they should, some moments bring up more than you expect, or old memories still find their way into the present. These are understandable responses to what you’ve carried, and you don’t have to make sense of them alone.

Drawing on her own personal and professional experience, Denise offers a warm, trauma informed space where you set the pace. Her work is Person Centered and Attachment Informed, and she draws from several approaches depending on what feels right for you. Compassionate Inquiry helps you gently explore what sits beneath your reactions, Emotion Focused work makes room for feelings that may have been pushed aside, and body awareness and inner child work help you reconnect with parts of yourself that have been holding on for a long time.

Denise is also trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), a well researched approach that uses gentle eye movements to help the brain process difficult memories so they feel less heavy. EMDR isn’t the right fit for everyone or for every point in your journey, and it does take commitment. Denise will start with an assessment, answer your questions, and talk openly with you about whether it makes sense for you, so you can decide together what feels best.

Family & Relationship Dynamics

Relationship patterns have a way of repeating, whether with parents, siblings, adult children, partners, friends, or colleagues. You might find the same arguments playing out, struggle to say what you really need, feel unsure how to set boundaries at work or in friendships, or notice old hurts resurfacing in your closest connections. Sometimes these patterns stretch back further than we realize, passed down through generations in the ways families handle conflict, closeness, and emotion.

Denise helps you explore how your family history and past experiences shape the way you connect and communicate today. Through an Attachment Informed and Emotion Focused approach, she supports you in understanding the patterns you learned, gently untangling what no longer serves you, and finding clearer, more compassionate ways to express yourself and relate to the people who matter most.

Major Life Transitions, Burnout & Stress

Change looks different at every stage of life. In early adulthood, it might be pressure around school, a first career, or a sense that everyone else has it figured out. In midlife, it may be the weight of juggling work, family, and caregiving with little left for yourself. Later in life, retirement, changes in health, or a quieter social world can bring loneliness or a loss of purpose. Even welcome change can leave you wondering who you are now. Denise came to this work later in life herself and knows what it means to begin again.

Burnout can build slowly until rest alone no longer feels like enough. For some, it comes from workplace pressure and the feeling of always being on. For students, it may be the constant push to keep up with deadlines and expectations, or the overwhelm of feeling out of your element in a new environment. Caregivers often pour so much into others that little is left for themselves, and life burnout can creep in when every role you hold asks for more than you have to give. Denise helps you notice where life has fallen out of balance and gently explore what you need to find your footing again.

Grief & Loss

Loss can take many forms, whether it’s the death of someone you love, a divorce or breakup, the loss of a pet, a pregnancy loss, or the loss of your health, a job, a home, or the life you expected. Some losses are widely recognized, while others can feel quietly overlooked. When a loss is sudden or traumatic, grief can feel especially heavy and hard to make sense of, showing up as numbness, guilt, difficulty focusing, or struggling to accept what has happened. Grief can be its own kind of exhaustion too, especially when you’re expected to keep going as though nothing has changed. Denise brings professional skill and her own lived experience of loss to this work, helping you understand the unique relationship you had with who or what you lost. Together you’ll make room for grief without rushing it, find meaningful ways to remember and honour your loss, and, when you’re ready, explore what comes next.