Whether you are single, partnered or married Delyse will work with you to change the hurtful patterns that cause unhealthy relationships or limit your ability to be intimate. You may be struggling to trust your partner or find yourself reacting with defensiveness or jealousy. Often partners find that old family wounds are activated in their struggles with each other. Couples come to therapy for a number of issues including; communication, intimacy, infidelity, decision making, and separation.

Delyse work's with couples from a perspective that sees relationships go through typical stages and challenges. She first works to assess where your relationship has become stuck, and work with you to develop goals for the therapy. She creates a structure that enables you to learn to communicate more effectively both in being clear about what you are communicating as well as hearing your partner. Delyse helps partners to safely address individual concerns with one another. Delyse is committed to helping partner's develop authentic and vibrant relationships with one another.

Delyse is experienced with a wide range of relationship issues and couples from alternative lifestyles such as Gay and Lesbian, couples dealing with infidelity, grief and mental health. Her approach includes training in emotionally focused therapy, and developmental counselling for couples (The Couple Institute), and study from a variety of approaches.

About Me.

I am a registered clinical counsellor. I specialize in relationship counselling and individual psychotherapy. I have 25 years experience in the counselling field.

In addition to working with couples I work one on one in in-depth psychotherapy. Clients come with many difficulties including, self esteem, depression, trauma, childhood abuse and anxiety. The following is a description of how I see the process in therapy.

Psychotherapy is about connection and relationship. When you develop a relationship with a therapist that you will discover aspects of yourself that have been denied or lost. Connection with a therapist allows you to become conscious of your experience. This can bring up uncomfortable feelings as you become aware of the illusions you may have been living with in order to keep you from experiencing the pain of your suffering. Typically people report a mixture of feelings at the beginning of therapy. There is often relief from feeling supported and safe to express oneself, and overwhelmed by experiences you may have buried.

Therapy is a process of concentrated inward focusing. Focusing inwards can put us intimately involved with what we are ashamed of. We can feel vulnerable and exposed. On the other hand, the process of telling someone about our innermost thoughts and feelings validates and begins to lift a weight off our shoulders. In therapy you don't have to worry about taking care of anyone else.

Coping with the pain in life often entails developing defenses that prevent us from seeing things as they are. Therapy is about de-mystifying, allowing us to learn to live with life as it is. At first illumination can be disturbing and we will want to resist as our defenses try to hold on and re-establish themselves. This struggle can occur internally as well as between you and the therapist. So what happens between you and the therapist is important therapeutic material. How you experience me will reflect your perspective and the experiences you have encountered in your life. How I experience you, can give me clues to these experiences and the ways you may be protecting yourself. Direct feedback about this experience is part of the process.

Therapy therefore involves an ongoing self-examination into those internal processes that prevent you from living the way you wish and from creating unnecessary suffering for yourself.

As we become conscious and connect more fully with who we are we can begin to have a different relationship with ourselves. We develop more ease with difficult experiences and have less reactions to others opinions or reactions. Therapy is also about encouragement. Only you can change things in your life by doing something different out in your world. Therapy provides a place to rehearse and prepare with the support of your therapist. As you experience a different kind of relationship with your therapist you will be encouraged to believe that you can have that with other people. For example, if you have experienced people dismissing you and have developed a belief that ‘everyone’ is not interested in what you have to say, the experience of your therapist paying attention to you and hearing you can change that belief. As you change this belief your interactions will change with other people.

Delyse works Monday to Friday and has evening and day appointments.