Online Psychodynamic Therapy
Online Psychodynamic Therapy
Five Seas Integrative Therapy
Karen Baker, Registered Psychotherapist
We humans are mysteries to ourselves. We find ourselves in messy situations and don't know how we got there - nor how to get out. We do things we regret and don't know why, then turn around and punish ourselves for it. We can feel joy, but also deep suffering - and even though struggle is a universal experience, we tend to carry the burden alone.
Sometimes the emotions that frighten us most (shame, rage, grief, fear, loneliness) get exiled. Pushed into the shadowlands of the unconscious, where we hope they'll stay quiet. But they don't. The more we ignore them, the harder they work to make themselves known. They show up in our patterns, our reactions, our relationships, our dreams.
Depth-oriented therapy is not about having the answers, or knowing the way. It's about being willing to go into uncertain terrain, together. At times, when needed, I provide a steadying hand, or guidance, but I think of myself more as a travelling companion: someone who has made many journeys, who won't disappear, or lean on you, when things get rough, and who isn't afraid of getting lost - for that is exactly when the most necessary, and often beautiful, discoveries are made.
Together, we begin by building what you'll need for the journey: tools for safety and steadiness, a growing capacity to read your own inner weather - to recognize when your nervous system sounds the alarm, and to find your way back to stable ground. Then we start to map the terrain: looking for patterns in thoughts, behaviours, emotional responses. Sometimes symbols, images, or dreams appear as unexpected signposts along the way.
Deeper in, we enter the shadowlands. This part of the work asks something of you. We move through it carefully, at a pace your system can sustain. Some of it involves grieving, or sitting with emotions that feel unbearable. But through this, something starts to move - what once felt monstrous begins to reveal itself as misunderstood. These exiled parts carry messages (communications from a truer self) about what you need, what you want, who you actually are, and always were.
Our purpose is to discover this: that the stories we carry about ourselves, about what's possible, about whether we're safe or worthy of connection, often say more about the state we're in than the truth of who we are. As the nervous system finds steadier ground, a different story becomes available: one with room for calm, for genuine connection, for curiosity and compassion toward ourselves and others.
If you find yourself circling old familiar paths, are curious about your inner world, and wondering how to do more than just survive, perhaps I can be a trustworthy ally on your quest to discover a way of life where you can thrive.