Robin Roger MA, Dip ATPPP, Member CAPT

Every human being is a complex, fascinating creature with a unique history. Although there are certain broad strokes in the stories that people tell me in therapy, each person comes with a very personal, individual challenge. My goal is to help you understand your own unique self so well that you can pursue a life that suits you best.

This process involves simple components: a quiet room, complete confidentiality, undivided attention, regular appointments and a shared desire to understand. From that starting point you and I explore your inner life together. Our ongoing conversation can be about anything and everything: your concerns, pressures, quandaries, aspirations, pleasures, pains, rewards, frustrations, dreams and realities. Themes and insights emerge from that dialogue that shed light on who you are, how you came to be that person and ways that change can occur.

Putting your feelings into words and expressing them to a person who wants to hear them and understand you brings surprising self knowledge, intense relief and genuine change. When confusion and thwarted feelings and fantasies are brought into the open, you become free to put your understanding and energy to new and more productive ways of living.

My part first and foremost, is to listen attentively, reflectively, impartially, and receptively. Your part is to simply tell me what is on your mind. I offer thoughts about what I hear being revealed and concealed, point out emotional patterns that might have remained hidden, consider how the relationship we are developing might bear a resemblance to other relationships you’ve had in the past, and bit by bit we arrive together at a new understanding of who you are and how you can move into a different future.

Mental anguish is far more debilitating and far more common than is ever fully acknowledged. You don’t necessarily see it in others when you look around and this can make it seem as if psychotherapy is a desperate measure suitable only for people in crisis. But serious emotional challenges arise in every life. Everyone should feel free to seek help with those challenges.

About Myself

I received my Master’s Degree from University of Toronto and am a graduate of the Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society. I’m also a writer, editor and passionate reader. I frequently review books on mental health for such publications as The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and The Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis.

My formal training is only part of my psychotherapeutic education. It’s often said that psychotherapists are born, not made. In my case that means that the formal credentials, significant as they are, are only the final professional step at the end of a lifetime of studying human beings with burning curiosity, deep concern and ongoing passion. I began training as soon as I was old enough to know that there were creatures in the world who needed to be figured out and I’ll go on trying to understand myself and others as long as I live.

Because psychotherapy is a partnership, it’s important to see how you feel with a potential therapist before you make a decision. I’d be pleased to meet with you for a 45 minute free consultation to chat about psychotherapy, answer questions you might have,  and give you a chance to get to know me a little bit. Here’s where my office is located.