Charmaine Ross, RSW, MSW, MIRHR, J.D. Candidate

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

It is important for me to strengthen our connection by making you feel safe and comfortable to authentically share your thoughts, feelings, fears, and tears in a calm, conversational, and judgement-free space. I treat all my clients with compassion, dignity, and respect. And, I view psychotherapy as a process of awakening the unconscious and exploring each client’s unique skills, abilities, and talents.

I have trained in and use a variety of clinical models and integrative approaches, including Mindfulness, Solution-Focused, Strengths-Based, Cognitive-Behavioural, Dialectical Behaviour, Emotionally-Focused, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative, Harm-Reduction, and Family Systems approaches to name a few, to support my clients with coping with life’s challenges and creating positive changes in their lives. I support adults, emerging adults, and youth who struggle with finding their balance in school, at work, or at home. My clients commonly report losing their balance due to stress (e.g., physical, psychological, psychosocial, and/or psycho-spiritual) and/or major life challenges (e.g., perceived setbacks or failures, friendship issues, unfair treatment or abuse, career pressure, job loss, getting older, grief and loss, addiction concerns, etc.). As such, I can help you to become more self-aware and to develop improved coping strategies and healthy self-care habits so that you can better manage everyday stressors and major life challenges. Gradually, you will notice reduced negative impacts to your mental, emotional, physical, physiological, and/or social health.

In the words of Glenn Close, “[w]hat mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation”. I have had my fair share of trials and tribulations and have had the opportunity to encourage and be encouraged. I look forward to walking alongside you in your journey towards better mental health. If you would like to become a client of mine, I can offer you a free 15-minute telephone consultation to answer any initial questions you may have. Of course, should you wish to get started right away, please feel free to book a session with me directly. Talk to you soon!

Therapy with Charmaine

In our first session together, I will spend some time getting to know you and the issues that brought you to therapy—I will ask about your background and history, including your support systems, relationships, interests, and strengths. I will also ask about your presenting concerns and therapeutic goals. In future sessions, we will work towards those goals together. Our therapy sessions can be anywhere between an hour to two hours and often occur on a weekly basis but can be more or less frequent as per what works best for you!