Sharlene Petigara

MCP, RCC

My counselling practice centers on resilience in the face of trauma, and I enjoy being able to provide a queer affirming practice and a safe space for people of colour. I am a certified Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment practitioner (also known as “parts work”), and am also trained in EMDR and Narrative Therapy.

Some of the areas that I can be most helpful working with are relationship issues, family systems, trauma, gender identity and expression, personal/professional boundaries, self-esteem, depression and anxiety, work/life balance, immigration and adjustment, healing from oppression and internalized oppression, and developing self-care/compassion.

My clients often find themselves connecting to a self that feels more authentic, and learning what it feels like to start to expand their capacity to cope with life’s stressors. Clients find that after only a few sessions they’re able to slow down difficult moments, identify what’s going on within them, and grow a sense of self-leadership in which there’s much more possibility and choice in how they live than it seemed. People consistently describe feeling lighter and more capable after sessions.

I have ten years of experience in the field of mental health and trauma, partly from my previous career as a Social Worker. This gave me a deep appreciation for the structural systems and identities that people navigate daily. You can trust that I have a solid understanding of the issues that people can face, and that I am passionate about helping people achieve their goals and live a more fulfilling life.

Cultural Identities/Lived Experience: Person of colour/bipoc

In Person: M Tu Th F, Online: M Tu Th F

Who She Supports

  • Individual Adults

Fee Options

  • Licensed | Benefits Coverage

Approaches

  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy | AEDP
  • Dialectical Behaviour Therapy | DBT
  • Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing | EMDR
  • Internal Family Systems | IFS
  • Mindfulness-Based Therapy
  • Narrative Therapy
  • Trauma-Informed Therapy
  • Trauma Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST)

Services

  • Adult Friendships
  • ADHD
  • Anger Management
  • Anxiety & Panic
  • Attachment Issues
  • Autism
  • Boundaries
  • Caregiver Burnout
  • Career & Educational Support
  • Childhood Trauma, Abuse, Neglect & Abandonment
  • Codependency
  • Depression
  • Diverse Relationship Structures
  • Ethical Non-Monogamy
  • Gender & Identity
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  • Grief & Loss
  • Interpersonal, Family & Relationship Issues
  • Isolation & Loneliness
  • Menopause
  • Mindfulness & Mind/Body Connection
  • Multicultural Identity
  • Parenting & Parent Coaching
  • PTSD & C-PTSD
  • Purpose & Meaning
  • Relational Trauma & Abuse
  • Self-Esteem
  • Sexual Trauma
  • Sex & Sexuality
  • Social Anxiety
  • Somatization
  • Stress & Burnout
  • Substance Use & Addiction
  • Systemic/Oppression-Based Trauma