Trauma Therapy in Vancouver
Are you living with overwhelming anger that seems to come out of nowhere, or sadness that won't go away?
Trauma can overwhelm your mind and body, leaving you feeling disconnected and stuck.
Our Vancouver-based trauma counselling services can help. We offer a safe, inclusive environment to understand, integrate, and overcome these painful experiences.
We utilize EMDR and Internal Family Systems therapies to provide relief from trauma symptoms. If you are struggling with trauma symptoms such as flashbacks, avoidance, irritability or overwhelming anger, disrupted sleep, or unpredictable mood, let us help you get unstuck.
Meet the Team
Stillwaters therapists have advanced training in treating trauma, including Internal Family Systems and EMDR therapies.
EMDR Therapy for Trauma
In our trauma therapy sessions, we utilize a blend of therapeutic approaches tailored to your individual needs, including EMDR, Internal Family Systems and other trauma-informed practices.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a psychotherapy approach developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s to help people who have experienced traumatic events or distressing life experiences.
EMDR therapy involves a structured eight-phase process in which the therapist helps the client process distressing memories and associated thoughts and feelings. The therapist uses bilateral stimulation, typically in the form of side-to-side eye movements, hand tapping, or auditory (sound) cues, to help the client reprocess the traumatic memories. This bilateral stimulation is believed to help the brain process and integrate the distressing memories, reducing their emotional charge.
Currently, Jonah Fialkow is offering EMDR therapy in Vancouver and online. As a trained EMDR therapist, he will gently guide you, helping you to reframe and challenge any negative beliefs you have about yourself or the world due to your experiences. Jonah also incorporates mindfulness techniques, stress management strategies, and other holistic approaches to promote healing on multiple levels.
What is Internal Family Systems Therapy?
IFS stands for Internal Family Systems therapy, a type of psychotherapy developed by Richard C. Schwartz in the 1980s. IFS therapy is a therapeutic approach that aims to help clients explore and understand their inner selves, recognizing and working with different "parts" of their personality; in particular those parts which have helped them cope through painful situations in the past. In IFS, "parts" refer to distinct aspects of a person's psyche, each with its own unique characteristics, beliefs, and emotions.
The main idea behind IFS therapy is that each person has multiple inner parts, and these parts may have different roles and functions within the individual's personality and day-to-day behaviour. Some parts may serve a protective function, while others might hold emotional wounds or painful feelings. By exploring and making peace with these parts, clients can gain insight into their inner conflicts and work toward achieving a more balanced and harmonious sense of self.
Many people find great relief from IFS, both as a path towards self-knowledge and a way to interrupt cycles of behaviour that started as a way of coping, but are no longer helpful. IFS is inherently non-judgmental and works from the perspective that there are "no bad parts." When you are working with an IFS therapist, your whole self is welcome; which on its own can be a healing experience for those struggling with shame.