(she/her)
Registered Psychotherapist
RP, CTP Dipl
Challenging experiences in our lives can leave us feeling a range of difficult emotions. Our pain can leave us feeling alone and isolated. Imagine landing in a space where you do not have to bear this pain on your own. Where your experiences will be received with non-judgment, compassion, and curiosity. Where you do not have to pretend to be okay. This is the space of psychotherapy.
Together, in a collaborative effort, we embark on a journey to deepen your self-awareness and to examine the roots of your suffering. You will be deeply listened to and compassionately responded to. You will be supported to examine different aspects of your life, especially the painful experiences that seem to repeat. We will look at why this is happening and how we can expand self-awareness of these patterns to gradually shift them. We will work together to support your healing and deepen your self-understanding.
Psychotherapy is a space of potential; one in which the self, in all of its complexities, can become known and deeply appreciated.
My approach is warm, collaborative, and embodied. I mindfully cultivate a safe and compassionate space in which my clients can land. It is deeply important to me that, on arrival, you experience being non-judgementally witnessed and accompanied, no matter what you’re bringing. Together, we will embark on the journey of accessing and making meaning of both your internal world and how you relate to the outside world.
Therapy sessions are client-centred and will generally be client-led. We follow with curiosity the thoughts, feelings, and experiences arising for you in the moment. This is a process of gradually expanding awareness of your internal world. I will support you in wording complex experiences that are often unconscious and contribute to suffering. I will support you in encountering vulnerability in yourself.
My approach to therapy is also body-centred in that I believe in the importance of re-establishing connection between our mind and body on the journey to healing. I will support you in gently observing what is happening in your body as we explore and expand your self-understanding.
I approach psychotherapy from an intersectional, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lens. Our intersectionalities shape our sense of and relationship to ourselves, how we feel we get to take up space in the world, and how we engage with and form relationships with others and with systems of power.
Conscious or not, we are always engaging with one another from our social locations informed by our race, gender, class, physical ability, etc. When this is unacknowledged or minimized, it can lead to the erasure of essential dimensions of one’s sense of self and cause substantial pain.
An important overarching goal of mine is to support clients in reclaiming aspects of their intersectional experience that have felt erased, minimized, or unseen. Together, we will co-create a compassionate and open space to be with all of the nuances of your intersectional experience.
From a very young age, I have been curious about the human mind and experience. I have also sat with a vague idea of needing to heal. Academically, this led me to the study of psychology in university and child development in graduate school. Personally, searching for ways to heal from my own struggles led me to various modalities of therapy in young adulthood and to a yoga and meditation practice. I eventually completed my yoga teacher training in the lineage of T. Krishnamacharya from Yoga Therapy Toronto.
My experience of landing in psychodynamic therapy, during a challenging life transition, was transformative. I experienced firsthand the incredible potential for healing and self-understanding when I was witnessed by a compassionate other.
My therapy journey deepened as I realized a vision of how to be of service to others. This eventually led me to pursue studies to become a psychotherapist in the psychodynamic modality. I hold with deep gratitude the knowledge that someone is coming to me and entrusting me with their vulnerability. I feel honoured to be invited into a client’s world and to support their healing.
As my own therapeutic journey and clinical studies deepened, I recognized the need for addressing my intersectional lived experiences. I am a first-generation immigrant of Chinese descent and have navigated two or more cultural worlds my whole life. This experience is inextricable from my sense of self and how I engage with the world around me. There are nuances here that are unique to my experiences of privilege and oppression at the intersections of race, gender, and class. There are also intergenerational components to my experience of being the daughter and granddaughter of immigrant parents and grandparents who lived through particular sociopolitical times.
As my understanding of myself has expanded, so has the recognition of the importance of addressing intersectional experiences. I bring this awareness into my practice as a psychotherapist.
We would begin with a free 30-minute initial consultation over video or phone. This is an opportunity for us to get to know one another a little and for me to get a sense of the support you are looking for. This is also an opportunity for you to ask me any questions you may have about how I work and about any aspects of the therapy process.
For ongoing therapy, I see clients for 60-minute sessions on a weekly basis. I am currently seeing clients via virtual and phone sessions. I am available from Tuesday through Thursday. I accept payment via e-transfer and can provide receipts for reimbursement through various insurance plans.
If you are interested in proceeding with an initial consultation, please e-mail me at:
dianachang.therapy@gmail.com