(she/her)
Registered Psychotherapist
RP, CTP Dipl
inner alignment
Some of what we carry doesn’t have language yet. It shows up as anxiety, as burnout, as the patterns that keep repeating in our relationships, as a sense of being slightly outside our own life. Much of it was laid down before we had words for it — in childhood, in family, in the small daily rhythms that taught the nervous system what to expect from the world. Therapy, at its best, is the slow work of meeting what’s underneath. Reparenting yourself, in a sense, toward a more regulated life and an inner alignment that holds.
a particular moment, or the longer arc
Therapy can help when you’re feeling overwhelmed, disconnected from yourself, stuck, or struggling to cope. These feelings are usually responses to real life — relationship strain, processing loss in its many forms, managing the demands of work and life, working through identity and a sense of self at various stages and ages. Sometimes people come simply because they want to understand themselves more deeply. All of these are valid entry points to the same work.
engaging with what’s already there
Regardless of why you arrive, beginning psychotherapy is an act of engaging with yourself. An act of hope — the kind that invites new possibilities to emerge inside a framework of support and care. Whether the moment is anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, or a major life transition, a therapeutic relationship can be a profoundly meaningful place from which to do this work.
a depth and body-aware approach
My approach as a psychotherapist is psychodynamic and somatic. We work with what your mind knows and what your body has been holding — paying attention to thoughts, words, feelings, physiological responses, sensory experience, and voice. These are all aspects of how you’ve digested experience, and how you express yourself now. The work is collaborative, attentive, and slow when slow is needed.
authenticity, and what holds it
The practice of setting judgement aside and slowly coaxing out what’s actually true — your truth — takes courage. Together, we can make space for the authentic self to breathe and rest, and find the inner alignment that lets you approach life with greater ease.
When you’d like to begin, you can book a free consultation here: https://aws-portal.owlpractice.ca/dhw
Or, if it feels easier, write to me: dharini.woollcombe@gmail.com
growing self-awareness
My practice is collaborative — together we attend to your thoughts, your words, your feelings, the responses of your body, your sensory experience, your voice. These are all the ways you’ve digested what you’ve lived, and the ways you create your life now. This involves a great deal of careful listening on my part, and the offering of questions for us to explore.
body-centred, holistically
As we work, we’ll keep in mind the words you reach for, the thoughts you create, how your body responds, how you rest, how you move, how you breathe, how you speak. Your relationship to all of these things both mirrors and shapes how you relate to yourself and the people around you.
finding language for what was wordless
Keeping body, mind, personal history, and the present at the centre of our work gives us rich material to draw on. Once we build language around what’s been wordless, we can begin to consider what still serves you, what no longer does, and what you’d like to mindfully create for the life you’re living now.
moving forward with ease
I believe much of what you need is already within you. The work is to uncover what’s there, and to find a steadier connection to your authentic self — so you can move forward in your life with more freedom and ease.
Anxiety, Burnout, and the Patterns We Didn’t Choose
Many people come to therapy with anxiety, burnout, low self-esteem, or recurring patterns in relationships that they can’t seem to interrupt. These patterns were rarely chosen — they were laid down early, often before there were words for them. The work is to meet them with curiosity, in the body and in the mind, and to slowly understand what they’ve been protecting.
Identity, Racial Identity, and Inner Alignment
Identity work — including racial identity, transracial adoption, and the experience of being mixed-race or culturally in-between. Together we explore inherited, claimed, and emerging versions of self, and the work of integrating attachment patterns and cultural inheritance into a more aligned whole. This is one of the longer arcs of therapy, and one of the most rewarding.
Life Transitions & Major Changes
Support during periods of significant change — career shifts, relationship transitions, relocation, aging, and the slower transitions of identity and meaning that come with each stage of life.
Grief & Bereavement
Compassionate, patient companionship through loss in its many forms — including support around terminal illness, end of life, and grief that arrives at unexpected times.
Relationships, Sexuality, and Intimacy
Exploring the textures of your relationships, concerns around sexuality and intimacy, and the patterns that shape how you give and receive closeness — with openness and without judgement.
Birth & Reproductive Trauma
I hold additional certification in perinatal mental health and offer specialised support for:
Caregiver Support
Support for those caring for loved ones through illness, aging, or other long challenges — while sustaining their own ground.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Exploring the unconscious patterns and early experiences that shape your present-day life and relationships, often in ways that have been outside of conscious awareness.
Somatic and Body-Centred Work
Attending to how emotions and experiences live in the body, and integrating that physical awareness into the work of healing and change.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Developing awareness of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations to create more space for choice — and for change.
As a psychotherapist, my own journey through the arts and personal therapy, has been profound. It led me to bring the questions I’d been asking as an actor about characters, to the people around me — why do we do what we do, and why is it so often at odds with what we say we want? My need to understand the unwanted patterns we find ourselves living inside is what eventually led me to psychotherapy training.
My cultural awareness and sensitivity comes from years of living and travelling abroad, along with my acting training in language, movement, vocal performance, and presentation. My professional experience as an actor, using the body as an instrument for expression, is the basis of how I approach the mind and body in therapeutic work — not as separate, not at odds, but as instruments that, with the right attunement, access an allignment which creates greater ease.
My education in psychotherapy is rooted in the Centre for Training in Psychotherapy, Toronto. The training offers a strong academic foundation across psychodynamic theories, alongside deeply experiential elements both through personal and group therapy work. I understand and deeply respect what it takes for someone to reach out, enter into, and stay with the work of psychotherapy.
My hope is to help you find your inner alignment to bring more ease, more freedom, and a sense of yourself.
Dharini Woollcombe, Registered Psychotherapist (RP), CRPO #009273
when you’re ready
Or if it feels easier, write to me: dharini.woollcombe@gmail.com
Initial Consultation
A free 20-minute video call. We’ll talk about what brings you to therapy, what you’re hoping for, and sense whether we might be a good fit to work together.
About Sessions