Integrative Depth Therapy
Into the Deep Therapy practices an integrative depth therapy approach.
In plain terms, psychotherapists use many modalities, yet most fall into two broad groups. Behavioural therapies focus on concrete tools to reduce difficult symptoms. Depth therapies look beneath symptoms to the patterns, stories, relationships, and unconscious dynamics that shape them, with the aim of sustained healing and growth. Both are valuable.
We integrate these approaches. At times, behavioural tools are the first step so that you can get relief and feel safer inside yourself. If you are treading water in heavy waves, we help you float and catch your breath first; then, once there is steadiness, we go into the deep to map the currents beneath the surface and change what keeps the waters rough.
By unconscious, we mean a living field of experience outside everyday awareness—learned patterns and protective adaptations, yes, and also imaginal and archetypal layers: symbols, dreams, myths, creative impulses, and transpersonal motifs that can orient, renew, and guide. Our integrative depth orientation brings together multiple ways of engaging this material: attending to what unfolds in the therapeutic relationship here-and-now, tracking the body’s intelligence, meeting inner parts of the self, exploring dream and symbolic content, and making meaning from recurring life themes.
In practice, sessions may include skills for calming the nervous system and managing day-to-day challenges, alongside depth work that explores formative experiences, core beliefs, symbolic material, and relational patterns. Our team draws thoughtfully from multiple frameworks. No single model fits everyone; the mix is tailored to you. Each practitioner works from a personal blend of depth and behavioural modalities; the specific approaches they use are listed in their individual profiles.
“Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable.”
— Brenda Ueland
What we all share
No matter which clinician you see, the work rests on shared foundations. The approaches listed here inform our tone, our ethics, and how goals turn into care. Clients often move among categories depending on the phase of work—building stability, going deeper, and weaving insights into daily life.
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"Oppression, to be effective, must be invisible." - James Baldwin
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We recognize that social identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, religion, and class, shape experiences of mental health and well-being. We work to create a safe and inclusive space where intersecting identities are welcomed, valued, and explored with respect and humility. We stay mindful of how social and political systems of oppression may contribute to distress, and we collaborate with you to challenge and resist those forces where possible.
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“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change” - Carl Rogers
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We create a warm, supportive, non-judgmental environment. Our goal is to understand your experience as accurately and empathically as possible. Being witnessed with unconditional positive regard can reduce shame and open the door to your innate capacity for change and growth.
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“The relationship between therapist and patient is the crucible in which change takes place.” — Irvin Yalom
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Across our practice, the stance is relational. Feeling safe, heard, and seen by others is central to mental health. Many people, often because of early experiences, find relationships confusing or frightening at times. The therapeutic relationship serves as a microcosm of your wider relational world. Sessions focus on what is happening in the here and now between therapist and client, inviting collaborative exploration of these moments. Naming patterns, needs, and protective strategies as they arise allows challenges to be worked through in real time, offering a corrective emotional experience that supports new ways of relating to yourself and to the people who matter most.
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"The process of healing from trauma is not just about fixing what is broken, but about discovering and reclaiming our inherent wholeness." - Dr. Gabor Mate
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We recognize the pervasive impact of trauma and the need to approach it slowly, patiently, and gently. Trauma can be a single event or a series of events that were not fully processed by mind or body. It is not only psychological, it is also embodied and can show up as physical symptoms. We attend not only to what happened, but to the imprint left on your mind, brain, body, and soul with the aim of helping you live fully and feel securely engaged in the present.
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”
— Pema Chödrön
Skills and Behavioural Approaches
Different clinicians in our practice draw on different blends of the following approaches. To see which modalities a given therapist uses—and their related training—visit the Team page and open their profile.
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“Acceptance is a key to happiness. It opens the door to a new beginning, and it allows us to be present to the moment instead of being caught up in our worries and fears.”
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ACT emphasizes accepting difficult thoughts and feelings rather than fighting them. The goal is psychological flexibility—the capacity to act in line with your values even in the presence of discomfort. We draw on mindfulness and behaviour-change strategies to support a rich, full, meaningful life.
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“A good coach is someone who can help you to find your passion, pursue your dreams and make a lasting impact on the world.” — Mike Tomlin
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Coaching focuses on specific personal or professional goals, from career development to relationship skills. We clarify values, set short- and long-term goals, create actionable plans, maintain accountability, and build targeted skills to overcome obstacles and reach desired outcomes.
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“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
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CBT helps you notice unhelpful thought patterns, test them against evidence, and build more balanced ways of thinking and acting. The aim is practical strategies to work with anxiety, low mood, and stress, and greater confidence in your ability to respond rather than react.
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“When we are free, we can look in the face of our cravings and desires and say ‘I don't have to satisfy you.’” — Marsha Linehan
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DBT is a framework for balancing acceptance and change. It starts from a dialectical stance—two things can be true at once, for example you are doing the best you can, and there is room to grow. Drawing on mindfulness and learning principles, DBT helps organise work around core capacities that support life under stress, steadier emotions, stronger relationships, and choices that fit your values.
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“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” — Christopher Germer
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Mindful Self-Compassion helps you relate to yourself with the same warmth you would offer a close friend. We pair mindfulness—clear and balanced awareness of what is happening—with compassion skills that build self-kindness and a sense of common humanity. Together these reduce harsh self-criticism and shame, and support resilience and steady change. The aim is not to make feelings disappear, it is to meet them skilfully so you can act in line with your values even when life is hard. Many people find that cultivating an inner ally leads to a steadier mood, more courage, and a gentler path into the deep.
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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
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MI is a collaborative, person-centred way of strengthening your own motivation and commitment to change. It is especially useful when there is ambivalence—the part that wants change and the part that wants things to stay the same. Rather than persuading or pushing, we draw out your values, hopes, and reasons, then help you weigh how current patterns fit with what matters most. The spirit of MI is partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation—your wisdom leads.
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“Your path is not to seek for love but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself you have built against it.” — Rumi
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Radical Compassion develops kindness toward self and others. We often use RAIN—Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture—as a simple practice for meeting suffering with wise care and transforming rigid self-judgment into understanding. Radical Compassion was created by psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach, and you can read more about it in her book here.
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“The real work of relationships is not occasional, or even daily: it is minute‑to‑minute. In this triggered moment right now… you can stop, pause, and choose.” — Terry Real
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RLT cultivates healthy, fulfilling relationships by addressing power dynamics and strengthening genuine connection. We emphasise personal accountability, direct communication, and relational empowerment, helping individuals and couples interrupt negative cycles and build respectful, honest, empathic dialogue.
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“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
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Solution Focused Therapy helps translate insight into lived change. It orients to your preferred future, notices moments when the problem eases, and draws out the strengths and supports already present. This present-focused, strengths-based stance builds hope and momentum, creates enough steadiness for deeper exploration, and offers practical footholds while we work with the roots of patterns. Attention stays on small, doable next steps and the signs they are helping, so change feels sustainable and aligned with what matters to you.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
— Carl Jung
Depth Approaches
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“Our emotions are the messengers of our souls, urging us to live a more authentic life.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Connection is a fundamental human need, yet protective strategies can lead to emotional isolation. EFT identifies and reshapes emotional and interactional patterns that block secure connection. Learning to track and trust emotion supports authenticity and fosters resilient, satisfying relationships.
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“[Everyone] should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.” — James Thurber
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The Enneagram describes nine core patterns that shape perception, motivation, and behaviour. Identifying your type can clarify longstanding habits, expand compassion for yourself and others, and point to tailored paths for growth. If you are interested in learning more about the Enneagram, you can visit the Enneagram Institute website here.
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“What is demanded of [you] is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear [your] incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.” — Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
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We live in a time with fewer shared meaning-making systems, so life’s largest questions can create significant distress. Together we explore meaning, purpose, values, and mortality to deepen understanding of a finite life, reduce underlying anxiety, and support a more authentic way of being.
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“Our parts can sometimes be disruptive or harmful, but once they’re unburdened, they return to their essential goodness.” — Richard Schwartz
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IFS views the psyche as a system of parts or subpersonalities whose protective intentions can sometimes create unintended harm. We help you meet parts with curiosity and care so burdens can be released and roles become more helpful. Sessions may include guided inner attention, mindful dialogue, and imagery so your system can function with more harmony. A demonstration of an IFS session is available on The Tim Ferriss Show beginning at 15:18.
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“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” — C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 326
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Jungian-oriented psychotherapy is a depth approach that helps bring unconscious patterns into awareness so you can live with more freedom and meaning. We treat symptoms, dreams, images, and relational patterns as meaningful signals, not just problems to eliminate, and we aim for individuation, a steadier alignment with your values and a fuller sense of self. In practice, we may work with dreams beginning from your own associations and then amplifying symbols to widen meaning; use active imagination, journalling, drawing, or other creative methods to dialogue with parts of the psyche; explore the shadow—the disowned or neglected aspects of self—and integrate their strengths safely; notice recurring complexes and relational patterns in the here and now, including how they show up between us; and link personal experience with larger cultural or archetypal themes to restore perspective and purpose.
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“We tell ourselves stories in order to live” - Joan Didion
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Narrative Therapy is based on the idea that the stories we tell about ourselves shape how we experience our lives, relationships, and possibilities for change. In this approach, therapy creates space to examine the dominant narratives that may be limiting or painful, while also uncovering overlooked strengths, values, and alternative ways of understanding your experience. Rather than seeing you as the problem, Narrative Therapy helps separate you from the problem so that new meaning, agency, and self-understanding can emerge.
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“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” — Sigmund Freud
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In psychodynamic therapy, we work to understand how early relationships, especially with primary caregivers, shaped coping strategies that were essential in childhood. Healing grows as these unconscious, once-adaptive patterns are recognised and updated in favour of more life-affirming ways of responding.
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“It is a joy to be hidden, and a disaster not to be found.” — D.W. Winnicott
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Schema therapy helps change long-standing patterns that keep you stuck. Together, we map the “old rules” learned in childhood, often adopted to stay safe, that still shape how you think, feel, and relate. We focus on core needs like safety, connection, and healthy independence, and how to meet those needs now. The goal is fewer automatic reactions, more choice, and relationships that feel steadier and more satisfying.
"The way we know we're alive is rooted in our capacity to feel to our depths, the physical reality of aliveness embedded within our bodily sensations - through direct experience."
— Peter Levine
Other Supports & Formats
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“Taking medication is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength and determination to do what it takes to live a healthy and fulfilling life.”
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For some, medication reduces symptoms and stabilises the psyche so deeper psychotherapy becomes possible. Our clinicians do not diagnose or prescribe medication. We work closely with, and can refer you to, a psychiatrist for assessment and ongoing care, coordinating therapy alongside medical treatment.
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“Psychedelics have the potential to bring us closer to the mystery of existence and to awaken us to the infinite possibilities of the human spirit.” — Ram Dass
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Psychedelic experiences can shift perspective and meaning-making, sometimes bringing growth and sometimes distress. Integration work helps translate insights into daily life, consolidate helpful changes, and process difficult material, including symbolic or hard-to-interpret imagery. Our clinicians do not provide or administer psychedelics, and we do not accompany clients during psychedelic sessions. We offer preparation and post-experience integration, with an emphasis on caution, informed consent, and support.
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“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
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Walk-and-talk therapy offers sessions outdoors, pairing gentle movement with conversation. We meet in nearby parks or on quiet neighbourhood routes at a pace that feels comfortable, keeping the same depth-oriented focus you’d expect in the office. Many people find that walking softens stress, loosens stuck thoughts, and opens new perspectives. We’re mindful of privacy, safety, and weather; if conditions change, we can shift to the office or secure video at any time. Accessibility matters: tell us what would help, and we’ll choose a route that suits your needs.
Healing Begins With a Conversation
Book a free 30-minute consultation with Into the Deep Therapy to learn more about our process, ask questions, and explore whether our approach feels like a good fit. We offer in-person therapy in Toronto (Yonge & Eglinton) and online therapy across Ontario.