Our approach
Psychodynamic therapy looks at the patterns underneath what keeps repeating: how earlier relationships shaped the way you protect yourself now, and how understanding that loosens its hold.
A method tailored to you, never one-size-fits-all.
In plain language
Psychodynamic therapy starts from the idea that a lot of what drives us runs below the surface. The ways we learned to stay safe, get love or avoid pain in our earliest relationships tend to keep operating long after they stop being useful, and they show up as the same argument, the same anxiety, the same feeling of never quite being enough.
Together we slow down and get curious about those patterns: where they came from, what they were protecting, and how they play out now, including in the therapy relationship itself. Making sense of them is not about blaming the past. It is about having a choice where before there was only a reflex.
It is a relational, unhurried way of working. There is no worksheet. The relationship you build with your therapist is part of how the change happens.
What repeats now usually made sense once. We find out where it started.
What you feel, avoid or cannot quite name points to what matters.
Once a pattern is seen, it loses some of its automatic pull.
In our work together
What we work on is yours to name. Here is how it tends to show up in sessions, woven in with whatever else fits you.
We notice the situations, relationships and feelings that keep coming back, and look at them together.
We connect present reactions to earlier experiences and relationships, with curiosity rather than blame.
How things feel between you and your therapist is useful material, and a safe place to try something different.
Insight lands over time. We give it room, then notice what starts to change outside the room.
Is it a fit?
If some of this resonates, it may be part of how we work, always at your pace.
The same relationship pattern keeps returning, anxiety or low mood has no obvious trigger, you know what you should do but cannot do it, or a family history sits underneath how you feel about yourself now.
Understand why you react the way you do, feel less at the mercy of old patterns, build relationships that feel less like the past, and know yourself with more compassion and less confusion.
Who offers this here. Melissa Huang, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), draws on psychodynamic and attachment-based work alongside EFT, IFS and EMDR, in person in North York and online. Katherine Guo, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), offers relational, psychodynamic therapy for adults and couples in English and Mandarin, in person in North York and online, from 28 September.
No single method fits everyone, most of our work blends a few, always at your pace.
Explore more
Most of our work blends a few of these, tailored to you.
Acceptance and Commitment
Learn moreEmotionally Focused
Learn moreInternal Family Systems
Learn moreMemory reprocessing
Learn moreCognitive Behavioural
Learn moreDialectical Behaviour
Learn moreSoftening the inner critic
Learn morePresent-moment grounding
Learn moreQuestions, answered
A few of the things people ask about this approach. Anything else, just ask on your free call.
Mindful Connections Therapy
Book a free 15-minute call and we will see if we are a good fit. No pressure, no commitment, phone or video, in person in North York or online across Ontario.