The Refuge is both our organization and a place inside you, where safety and compassion provide the foundation for healing your relationship with yourself and with others. We offer holistic, trauma-informed care that seeks to foster your healing, growth and self-expression from the inside out – body, mind, spirit and relationships.
The Refuge is a network of experienced trauma therapists. Each practitioner has years of experience and extensive training in a variety of therapeutic approaches to support you in your healing journey.
You’re not going crazy.
It’s not what’s wrong with you – it’s what’s happened to you.
It’s how you’ve coped and adapted to survive life’s stressors and traumas.
Our mental and physical health are interconnected. Chronic stress, traumatic events, poor attunement from our caregivers as children, abuse, neglect, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, or other overwhelming life situations and transitions can create a number of emotional changes, body sensations and medical conditions that may be causing you concern. And you may have found yourself resorting to unhealthy coping strategies that were your best attempt to manage the pain, distress, emptiness or shame within.
Trauma and stress can create dysregulation, disorganization, disconnection and fragmentation. Many mental health and physical health “disorders” can be simplified and reframed in terms of these features. The Refuge can help with restoring greater regulation, organization, integration and wholeness.
What you’re experiencing doesn’t have to be a life sentence.
Our therapeutic approaches are inspired by a variety of contemporary treatment modalities and offer a refreshing alternative to the “same old, same old”.
Our services draw from a rich body of knowledge and training, with a trauma and regulation focus that includes body-oriented modalities, attachment and inner child work, emotion regulation, mindfulness and self-compassion, trauma renegotiation, boundaries and assertiveness training, and experiential learning, among others.
Whether you book regular sessions, attend a group or a workshop, or come for professional consultation, know that our practitioners are committed to building safety, rapport and trust, and to fostering your choice, voice and empowerment in working towards your goals.
Restoring your sense of self-worth, self-care, and self-confidence is possible.
It’s time to come home to your SELF. True refuge is within.
To learn more about how our practitioners can support you to befriend your body; develop greater resiliency, emotional flexibility, distress tolerance and capacity for pleasure; restore a sense of aliveness and authentic selfhood; and feel more embodied and empowered, read through the sections on this site you feel most drawn to. Note what resonates with you. And when you are ready, contact us to see how we might work together to support you in your process of healing and recovery.
Welcome home.
Psychotherapy and counselling services serving Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, and surrounding areas. All of our affiliates offer online services in Ontario, and some also offer services in Nova Scotia. See specific practitioner pages for more information.