Find a Therapist in Abbotsford, BC

I'm passionate about working with those who grew up in a family where they were given adult responsibilities at a very young age. You took care of everything and everyone. Today, you’re still taking care of everything. You’re exhausted, but saying no or asking for help is uncomfortable, so you don’t. Instead, you stuff your feelings down, pretend like everything is good, and act like you have it all together. At times, it becomes too much, and you explode. Shortly after, you feel guilt, and you “help” more to ease it. Then you become angry, feeling disrespected and stuck. Hopeless. You want things to change and don’t know how to make change happen. As a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), I provide skills to help you manage your emotions and advocate for yourself, so you’re not controlled by others or your guilt. I can help you strengthen your boundary-setting skills, so others learn how to respect you in the ways that matter most. Working with me can help you know your value and your worth. Together, we will move you toward your desired goals and empower you to make the changes you’ve been wanting. Call me, and let’s talk about how we can work together. I’m an experiential relationship specialist with a trauma-informed lens. My therapy style is integrative, with a foundation in systems and relationships. What this means is that I’m comfortable working with multiple people in the room, as well as considering those who are not. I look at the relationships you are a part of and consider how your experiences influence your emotions, perceptions, actions, and patterns of behavior. This also means that I’m not a cookie-cutter therapist. I don’t believe my clients are made from a single mold or that therapy is one-size-fits-all. I create therapy to fit the client’s needs and meet them where they are at. You can expect sessions to be relational and collaborative, a human experience where I will get to know you as a person while working toward your desired goals. Key methods used: experiential therapy, emotionally focused therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and trauma-informed care.

I help people in Seattle and across Washington with anxiety, burnout, trauma, perfectionism and eating disorder recovery. I view therapy as a collaborative, client-driven process guided by your goals and pace. My role is to offer insight, gentle challenge, and support as you navigate life’s complexities and reconnect with your inner wisdom. My approach is warm, calm, and integrative, helping you cultivate self-compassion, release old patterns, and build a life that feels authentic and aligned with your values. I draw from holistic and evidence-based practices, including polyvagal theory, parts work (internal family systems, IFS), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), somatic approaches, attachment theory, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), to support healing through the mind-body connection.

I am a geek, and a therapist. I work with individuals, couples and families and I specialize in working with geeks, gamers, and people who work in the tech industry. If you're struggling in your relationships with your partner or family members, or simply feeling anxious or sad and you're not sure why, I can help. We can work together to find the tools and strength that you need to create positive change. I often help people with social skill growth, anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorders, grief, and communication. My primary focus is in helping families and individuals from various backgrounds and cultures explore new ways to tackle the hurdles and challenges in front of them. I have established a specialty in working within the "geek" and "tech" environments by being able to communicate on a more familiar level regarding video games, card and board games, anime, and computer software technology. When working with families my focus is to help facilitate better communication and establish more functional patterns of communication. With individuals we will work on identifying the areas that you struggle and finding solutions that last. Either way my focus is in helping my clients find lasting and positive change.

Our families are our first social environment and, consequently, are powerful in how they shape our behavior. There is nothing like a romantic relationship to put us in touch with the attachment wounds, negative patterns, or roles with which we grew up. In fact, Imago theory posits that we will actually choose a mate that is exquisitely designed to push our buttons! The idea, of course, is to propel us to grow and change. Often, however, I find that this is the gridlock in which couples find themselves when they present to therapy. My expertise comes into play in holding the space for clients to examine themselves and their relationships in such a way as to enlarge their view and their capacity for change. My experience, education, and intuition allow me a razor sharp focus to see and interrupt negative patterns of interaction and collaboratively move them in a more healthful direction.

About My Clients: I love to work with clients who really want to be done with their suffering, but don’t know how to do that. I integrate EMDR with Alison Teal’s Super Resourcing, a close cousin to EMDR that combines powerful resourcing and Parts work to achieve deep healing of your wounds. Background and Approach: In working with clients with trauma in their backgrounds – and many people have several – I use a process that’s tailored to each client. We’ll pay close attention to the pace of work that’s right for you. We’ll work together to develop your ability to be mindfully present and peaceful in your daily life. We can look at the coping tools you’ve been using, and look for ways to make them more adaptive for your present life. We can use some powerful tools to strengthen your internal resources. All these methods work to help you be well-grounded more often, in more situations, even in stressful times. Trauma work doesn’t have to be as painful as you might imagine, and I’ll be with you helping find ways to make it as gentle as possible. EMDR, integrated with Super Resourcing and Parts work, can help you stay within your range of emotional tolerance. Overall the aim is to balance progress with gentleness. Personal Beliefs: I am a longtime ally of People of Color, women, LGBTQIA people, and I support social, economic, and environmental justice. I believe that deep down, we are meant to exist in community and connection. I strongly believe in everyone’s inherent right to discover who they are, and to live their fullest life.

I am a clinical psychologist in private practice. I work with adults who seek help for relationship concerns, depression, anxiety, attention deficits, substance useabuse, traumas big and small, and many other questions that come up in daily life. An open and honest dialogue is possible in an atmosphere of listening and thinking. Our sessions are private and confidential. Talking things out is the first and easiest ways to identify the root causes of many problems. Thinking things through is like putting together a puzzle. You might already know what the final picture will be and getting there is a very fruitful journey.

A relationship in which one partner is autistic and the other is neurotypical can be lonely for both partners. You can feel isolated and hurt, which often leads to a fear that nothing can ever change for the better. As a specialist in working online with neurodiverse couples, I offer you a unique understanding of the dilemmas and challenges encountered by each of you. You can learn to identify the differences between you and understand the effects of these differences. Our work together includes creating strategies for effective communication in a blame-free environment where you can begin to show compassion not only to your partner but to yourself. If you have children, we can include parenting concerns. Often, a parent begins to see autism in himselfherself only after one of the children has been diagnosed. Family considerations are key to our work together. Sometimes, couples are confused about their relationship goals: one partner wants to leave and the other wants to stay. Individually, we will look at each partner's hopes, dreams, and needs, and then come together to see what is possible. Our work includes a frank assessment of the difficulties and the rewards involved in this unique relationship. I will support you with education and skills development along the way. If you choose to work with me, we will focus on your specific concerns and issues as they arise. I will offer you supportive education and strategies as we look at your lives together. My role is slightly different than you may be accustomed to if you have worked with a therapist previously because of the additional emphasis on clinical education. My goal is to be certain you understand the neurodiverse relationship in terms of what can change and what cannot change so that you move in directions that are productive, while offering you suggestions for communication skills and strategies. I help partners understand their own way of being in the world and their partner's, as well as how to create news ways of communicating that can lead to a stronger relationship and increased intimacy. Please contact me by email. I am not able to return phone calls.

When dealing with emotional or mental health challenges, my primary intention is to support you by incorporating techniques that help reframe unhelpful thoughts, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and encourage you to identify your key goals. Together, we can determine the steps we need to take in order to achieve them. Much of my experience is in individual therapy and outreach work, where I help people work toward their life goals and navigate emotional and mental health challenges. I incorporate various client-centered approaches that focus on supporting you in reaching self-actualization around your objectives. My work also prioritizes creating a safe, non-judgmental space where you can feel heard and supported with what you’re going through.

If you’re someone who prioritizes other people's needs over your own, if you question your deservingness and worth, if you feel sensitive and overwhelmed by an intense world, if your perfectionism won’t let you relax, or if your physical and mental health are impacting your relationships and quality of life, I am really glad you are here. Many of these issues can leave you feeling isolated, lost, directionless or lacking a sense of identity and purpose. I use a holistic approach help my clients discover and change their patterns of behavior formed by being othered in their day to day life, chronic stress, chronic illness, family dysfunction and trauma. My clients tend to be those who experience oppression, people in the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, 1st and 2nd generation immigrants, highly sensitive people, those with chronic illness, and those who work high stress jobs sometimes including secondary trauma. I welcome all walks of life to this space and strive to help you feel safe enough to unravel the complexity of who you are, with me as your witness. The therapy I provide asks you to be brave enough to go into deeper and more vulnerable places where you can unearth how you truly feel and experience the world. Therapy with me will help you move you towards living more authentically, recover your sense of purpose, awe and meaning, and hopefully live a more peaceful life. I use Internal Family Systems, EMDR, strengths-based, relational healing and somatic awareness therapies to help you heal your traumas, phobias, negative beliefs, etc. I offer a free 20-minute consultation and look forward to hearing more about what brings you to therapy.

You’ve probably spent years trying to be who others needed you to be. The good daughter, the fixer, the one who never made things harder. You might be exhausted from carrying emotional weight in silence, struggling with your relationship to faith, or wondering why you keep repeating patterns that leave you feeling small, anxious, or invisible. I’m Lujane, and I work with people like you—folks healing from power dynamics, shame, fractured family roles, or culturally complex expectations. I became a therapist not to “fix” people, but because healing became my way of life. Long before I had a license, I was in the work: unlearning perfectionism, facing my own trauma, and learning to live with emotional truth. Our work together won’t be about perfection—it will be about presence. In therapy, I show up exactly as I am. I don’t offer tools I wouldn’t use myself. I don’t ask you to mask, perform, or be polished. My clients often tell me it’s the first time they’ve felt fully seen, especially as Muslims, first-gens, queer folks, or recovering people-pleasers. We’ll talk about what it means to live with integrity, to feel without apology, and to build relationships that don’t drain you. I draw from trauma-informed relational therapy, internal family systems work, shame resilience, and play-based healing, because therapy can be both practical and sacred. If you’re looking for a therapist who honors faith, emotion, and authenticity, not just theory, I’m here. You deserve a space where you don’t have to impress anyone. Let’s build that together.