My Therapy Approach:
Toward deeper connection - within and between
At the heart of my work is a simple but deeply held belief: healing happens in relationship.
Many people arrive in therapy already highly self-aware - they understand their patterns, identify where their pain comes from, and can articulate what’s holding them back. While insight is deeply meaningful and very important step in creating change - I do not believe intellectual understanding alone creates lasting change. To be different, one must do something different.
But what leads us to do something different?
Patterns live in the body, in the nervous system, in emotion, and in relationships (family, intimate, friendship) just as much, if not more, than they live in the mind as thought patterns. This is why I approach therapy as a pathway to experience something new. In therapy, we are co-creating new experiences in the present - whether it is creating a safe space to process emotion, to communicating differently with your partner(s) or family members, or connect to yourself on a deeper level than you might ever have before. It is through these new relational experiences, in and outside of therapy, that create new pathways in your brain (also known as neuroplasticity). These new pathways can help you continually choose new patterns that centre on love, intimacy, and joy.
Below you will find reflections on the foundations of my work as therapist - rooted in relational, systemic, embodied, and collaborative practice.
What is relational therapy?
Relational therapy practices within the understanding that all things do not exist in isolation, but are defined by their connections and interactions with one another.
Our earliest relationships significantly influence how we learn attachment, how we protect ourselves, express needs, navigate conflict, experience intimacy, and understand our sense of self-worth. The patterns we developed in response to those relationships often continue long after the original circumstances have changed.
Working with a therapist who understands relationality means that therapy is not only a place to talk about relationships, but also a place to notice and respond to what happens within relationship.
We can use the therapeutic relationship as a tool to understand broader relational patterns that exist in your life - for example, noticing what gets avoided, what creates fear or shame, what leads to uncertainty or mistrust becomes part of the healing process. Together, we can begin to understand how old relational strategies get activated, where old wounds can be met with compassion, and where new experiences of trust, boundaries, repair, and connection are created as therapist and client, between partners or family members, or within different parts of yourself.
What is systemic therapy?
I also practice from a systemic lens - which means I do not see people as isolated individuals, or as problems to be fixed. I understand human suffering within the context of interpersonal and societal systems.
We all are shaped by the systems we live within: family systems, cultural norms, social expectations, institutions, and larger structures of power such as patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, racism, ableism, and cis / heteronormativity. These systems influence what we are taught about emotion, our bodies, attachment, safety, desire, self-worth, and belonging - everything.
Through a systemic lens, many struggles that seem personal or individual can be understood as deeply relational and contextual. As a systemic therapist, I do not perceive ‘problems’ to be located within the individual, but rather, I’m curious about how your family patterns, cultural conditioning, and social positionality all influence the challenges that you face. As a result, we’re shifting away from therapy that pathologizes people (which only invites more shame and blame), and moves towards a therapeutic experience that is understanding and compassionate.
Trauma and the body’s innate wisdom
In addition to relational & systemic practice, my therapy style draws from survivor-led trauma frameworks and body-based approaches - some of which have been taught by Indigenous, Black, and racialized folks who have been doing this work long before white settler therapists “created” and coined numerous trauma and/or somatic approaches to healing. With this said, I do also practice from models of therapy which have been taught within a colonial perspective, and I continually deconstruct and work to decolonize these approaches.
I draw from these frameworks to explore not only what you consciously know or believe in the mind, but also how your body and emotions carry the imprint of past experiences - from childhood, past lives (if that is within your belief system), or intergenerational histories across your lineage.
I do not see behaviours, patterns, or protective strategies as evidence that something is wrong with you!
I see them as meaningful responses to what you’ve lived through. I do not judge what you had to do to survive difficult relational, social, or traumatic contexts.
Anxiety, anger, dissociation, perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional overwhelm, hyper-independence, numbing, chronic self-criticism - all of these responses tell a story, and often make far more sense when we understand the conditions in which they were formed.
Our work is to understand those behaviours and thoughts with compassion and honour what they protected. In doing so, we will also explore whether they still serve the life you want to live, and work towards the change you wish to see.
The therapeutic relationship
In our work together, I aim to offer a space that feels warm, grounded, collaborative, and deeply attuned. I have often been described by clients, colleagues, and supervisors as empathetic, highly attuned, bold, and unflinching in the face of emotional intensity. One of the greatest strengths I bring to this work is my capacity to stay present with depth and emotion without rushing to fix or avoid what feels intense or scary.
Also - I am not a blank slate therapist! Rather, I am active, engaged, and genuinely present with you - I bring humour and curiousity to our conversations, and will work at your pace while still inviting you to challenge yourself in creating new realities.
I will never push you beyond your capacity, impose my interpretations, or force meaning into your own words. I am not a therapist that will offer advice, tips, tools or prescribed strategies. There is little evidence to suggest this kind of approach works - as it can actually disempower people from tuning into their own intuition & instinct, from learning the language of your body and your emotions. I am a collaborator and guide - I am someone who will hold the torch down into the Underworld, but throughout it all, your inner authority is the most important key to real, sustainable change.
Lastly, I do not believe healing is about becoming perfectly regulated all the time. That’s unrealistic, and also - dangerous. Dysregulation is very valuable information - it can point us toward your deeply held values, what needs have gone unmet for too long, and is a valid response to oppression, harm, violence, and injustice. When we tap into the body’s sensation and emotion, we’re understanding them as teachers of who we are, what we stand for, and what we desire. This is the empowerment available in understanding our inner world and the interconnectedness of all our relationships.
This approach might feel different than therapy you’ve experienced before
Many people I work with have spent time in therapy, self-reflection, or personal development work, and often arrive with a strong level of insight into their patterns.
Rather than focusing primarily on ‘managing symptoms’, advice-giving, or quick strategies for change, our work tends to slow things down and go deeper. We pay attention to what’s coming up, and how and why it makes sense in the context of your history, relationships, body, and nervous system. This creates a more in-depth understanding of how you feel rather that what you feel. This moves us out of intellectualizing emotion and patterns, and feeling into them. The difference allows you to be embodied, aware, and conscious - meaning, you get to access more agency and choice in your thoughts, behaviours, and creating the life and relationship you desire.
Sessions will feel more relational, reflective, and emotionally layered than structured and clinical styles of therapy. The goal of our sessions is to help you feel seen with me, with others, and within yourself too.
This is how new ways of relating and embodiment can be created.
Contact Me
Submit your questions and reach out in the contact form here. I’ll connect back with you within 24-48 hours.
📧 You may also contact me directly at: brittany@mossandmoontherapy.com
📱: (519) - 831 - 0481 (text only)
💻 Current availability: Accepting new clients
📖 For direct session booking, click here.