P. Anne Winter
RelPsych(Dip), Clinical Member OSP

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.- Marcel Proust


You may be considering psychotherapy in crisis, or have a vague curiosity or experiencing troublesome ongoing concerns. Possibly you are coming into therapy due to a nagging sense of dissatisfaction with certain elements of your life. In any case, choosing a therapist whom you feel comfortable with is extremely important for your journey.

What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy can offer you a path to explore insights about yourself that help change maladaptive patterns in your life, assisting you to improve your life choices. Psychotherapy entails that you invest your time, commitment and finances into a process that gives no absolute guarantees. However, well-directed therapy promotes new paths of growth and comfort with oneself.

When feeling isolated, severely anxious, or overwhelmed with life, one learns how these feelings are possibly related to early childhood neglect or abuse. When that felt experience reappears in a current situation, therapy can guide you to your strengths to create a safer environment for your future.

The Goals of Psychotherapy

You will bring your own hopes and desires to therapy. Tools that can help you to reach them are to have an understanding of the way your sense of self was developed. This is facilitated as you become aware of situations that block your potential, or lead to unsatisfying patterns of relating to yourself, others and the world.

These insights are the stepping-stones to giving you a new way to approach challenges to fully experience the pleasures and joys of life.

Whatever the specific outcome, two of the most important goals of individual psychotherapy are to remove obstructions to one's potential, and to develop tools to confidently handle future emotional challenges.

Who comes for psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy can be effective for people with a sense of stuckness, guilt or shame, severe low self esteem, or depression, as well as relational problems that seem to show up in all areas of ones life.

At times people come in for therapy because they are aware that they seem to have some unusual experiences that stop them from being whom they wish to be.  For instance, they may feel as if they are watching themselves as if in a movie, or not being able to make a decision because there seem to be so many choices they are grappling with in their head. Or, they may feel out of sink with their actions and not remember how they arrived at a certain destination or acquired certain apparel. At times when looking in the mirror, they may feel that they have changed and wonder how this can be. At other times they may notice that their actions don't seem to match how they feel.

It could be that they may be aware or not of severely traumatic incidences in early childhood that are coming up to the present as a sort of haunting. These emotions may feel overwhelming and may be related to a form of posttraumatic stress.

Therapy can help reduce the impact of one incident trauma to chronic long-term repeated trauma through specialized skills directed towards awareness and skills building.

My Approach

Through intuition, empathy, and interaction, I tune into my client's strengths, aptitude, and potential. This goal is to enable clients to develop positive and effective ways of appreciating themselves to explore new coping skills acquired in therapy to other life challenges.

I view therapy as a collaborative process where my role is both active and supportive as the client acquires necessary skills to overcome emotional challenges. An important goal is to have a safe and non-judgmental environment. When achieved, there is a sense of vitality and enthusiasm and engagement in one's life.

Initially there is time spent developing a trusting alliance while you come to experience more authentic ways of becoming yourself. As you experience therapeutic support and gain a stronger sense of self worth, I may, as your therapist, start to challenge you to examine some of the more difficult obstacles.

Although this inevitably involves some degree of effort due to self-doubt, fear, or pain the struggle does lead to increased harmony of oneself.

Each person's therapy will be different.  Your qualities, your way of relating, and issues, all impact how you experience therapy and the way that you will benefit from the therapeutic experience.

Some of the assisting modalities that I teach may involve Energy Psychology, grounding exercises, and expressive arts.

Often behavioral patterns, reactions to situations, and ways of relating to our self and others can be guided by unconscious factors.  When identifying these grappling's into consciousness, we reduce the power they have had over us. 

Some of the Problems that I have Seen Benefit from Psychotherapy

• Destructive anger or rage
• Addictions, compulsions or obsessive thinking
• Sexual Problems or Gender related issues 
• Self destructive behavior or repeated failure
• Life stressors
• Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
• Confusion or inner conflict
• Somatic disorders
• Emotional numbness
• Inhibiting self-consciousness
• Dissatisfaction with yourself and your life
• Despair

• Shyness
• Women's issues
• Adoption

My life experience

I have been fortunate in living a highly creative life, which I like to tap into to get on board with my clients in therapy.

Throughout my life I have been involved in many art forms, dance (Ballet) all forms of visual arts and pottery. They are like golden threads throughout my life giving voice to expression when at a loss for words for emotions not yet named. 

The second silver thread has been my interest in emotional expression through the body through dancing professionally, teaching Yoga and practicing therapeutic massage. 

The corner stone in therapy is talk therapy however, in working with me one can explore the particular feeling messages that your body expresses through guided imagery, movement awareness, as well as finding ones creative expression niche whether it be writing, drawing or otherwise.

Educational background

International Society for the Studies of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) General and Advanced

Toronto Institute for Relational Psychotherapy

George Brown College

Assaulted Women and Children's Advocacy and Counseling Program (Hon's)

Professional Affiliations

Ontario Society for Psychotherapy Clinical Member

ISSTD

Secretary RA/MC Interest Group ISSTD

Volunteer Work

Opened Casey House

Hospice Team: Carmelita Lawlor

Publications

Survivorship

S.M.A.R.T.

Various Massage and psychotherapy journals.

I work with people from all types of cultural spiritual and sexual identified backgrounds. Although anyone can come for therapy, my practice focus is with late adolescence through to seniors.

I see individuals, couples and families.

I look forward to meeting you for an initial consultation either on the phone or in person.

The office is located at Spadina and St. Clair Avenue W. convenient for TTC or car.

Please feel free to set up a consultation with me; here's my map.