Michelle Waters
Counselling Practice Website
Practice Information
Hello. I'm Michelle Waters, and I help people with the super-sticky issues in life that just don't seem to budge. Perhaps you've had long-term anxiety or depression or both. You've tried everything you can think of. Maybe you have chronic pain, PTSD, ADHD, or an eating disorder. You might be in a relationship that you want to leave, or maybe you're single and want to finally have a relationship. You have just a little bit of hope left that it could be possible for life to move forward. You really don't want to be stuck like this any longer.
My clients have often been to therapy before, but have found that it wasn't helpful enough. Many of my clients know that they had trauma in their childhoods, but it's also common for some of my clients to be super confused about why they are so stuck in life when they can't think of anything particularly bad about their early years. They come to my office having worked very hard to stay positive, be nice, bury their emotions, and do all the right things. All of their efforts have almost worked, but not quite, and they are awfully tried of trying so hard.
Some of my clients have high levels of dissociation. That can look like "waking up" in the middle of a conversation and not knowing what you've been talking about, feeling like the world isn't quite real, "gapping out" for chunks of time and not knowing what you've been doing, hearing chatter in your head, having a surprising amount of difficulty finding where you parked your car. If this is you, you're not weird and you're not broken. Your whole self is just really busy trying to protect you, even though you might not need as much protecting anymore. This is treatable.
I am certified in a therapy tool called Lifespan Integration, which uses a simple timeline of your life to help your whole self understand that you are in the present now. This helps you stop reacting to the past so that you have energy to move forward. Lifespan Integration is a gentle tool that doesn't require us to dwell on difficult past events. The focus is on all of the brilliant ways that you managed to get through life to today.
I have more than 7 years of training and experience working with all types of trauma and dissociative responses, including Dissociative Identity Disorder. I also have eating disorder training from IAEDP (International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals).
Life can be a whole lot easier! It can be more enjoyable. You deserve to meet the real you.
I offer a free 15-minute consultation to get started. I look forward to meeting you soon!
There is so much that I wish people knew about eating disorders, particularly anorexia. Eating disorders are metabolic disorders. People with eating disorders are not weak. They don't have parents who are more controlling than everyone else's parents. They may or may not have had childhood trauma.
So many of the pieces that we blame people for are simply symptoms of the eating disorder: anxiety, inability to understand that they are ill or underweight, obsessions and compulsions. We don't blame people for losing their hair when they go through chemo, but both doctors and counsellors have blamed people for their eating disorders and symptoms.
With eating disorders, especially anorexia, there is no "right time" to address it. There's no such thing as "being ready" to get well. The reluctance and dismissal are just part of the disorder.
So come. Come even if you don't feel ready. That's okay. That's actually expected.
I look forward to seeing you soon!
Specialized Training
- I am certified in Lifespan Integration. Certification means that I have received all of the training, experience, and supervision in LIfespan Integra
- I have post-graduate training in Trauma and Dissociation from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
Client Fee (Individuals)
Availability
Latest Blog Post by Michelle Waters
As trauma, trauma symptoms, and trauma therapy are showing up on social media more often, dissociation is becoming a more common term that people are recognizing in themselves and starting to talk about. Here’s some information on why it’s an important symptom to understand and to treat. First, how do you say it? Dis-So-She-A-Shun Some people add an extra A to make: Dis- A-So-She-A-Shun Let’s leave out that extra A. What is Dissociation? Dissociation is truly the opposite of association. It’s a disconnection. Dissociation is feeling like you’re not aware of what’s going on around you. Everyone…