Warm, caring and straightforward — in that order.

People arrive in my office at very different points. Some have been thinking about calling for three years. Some were told to come by a partner or a physician. Some have done therapy before and want something more useful this time.

What they tend to have in common is a sense that something is running the show that they cannot quite see. A reaction that is bigger than the situation. A pattern in relationships that keeps repeating with different people. A grief that will not resolve on the schedule everyone seems to expect. Naming that thing — precisely, without shame — is where the change starts.

How I work

I am not a silent nodder. I will listen closely, and I will also think out loud with you, push gently on the parts that do not add up, and offer a direct opinion when you ask for one. Therapy that consists entirely of sympathetic murmuring is comfortable and slow. I would rather it be kind and useful.

Practically, that means an approach that draws on several evidence-based traditions rather than forcing every person into one model:

• Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) — for the thoughts and behaviours that keep anxiety, depression and avoidance alive. Structured, skills-based, and among the best-supported approaches we have.
• Insight-oriented and existential work — for the deeper questions: meaning, mortality, purpose, and the parts of your history that still shape today.
• Grief and loss work — accompaniment rather than stages, with particular attention to disenfranchised grief that other people do not recognise.
• Health and reproductive psychology — for infertility, IVF, chronic illness, pain and the psychological weight of a body that will not cooperate.
• Couples and family work — communication, repair, blended-family dynamics and the arguments underneath the arguments.

We will set a direction early and revisit it openly. You should always be able to answer the question “what are we working on?” If you cannot, tell me and we will fix it.

Who I work with

Adults, couples, adolescents and young adults. Individuals navigating fertility treatment, people living with chronic illness, professionals whose anxiety has outgrown its usefulness, parents in the middle of a divorce, and teenagers who did not choose to be here and would like that acknowledged.

I also complete psychological evaluations where they are required — for bariatric surgery, and for fertility treatments including donor and gestational-carrier arrangements.

What I ask of you

Honesty, including about the weeks when nothing changed. A willingness to try things between sessions, because an hour a week is not where most of the work happens. And permission to be direct with you when I think you are avoiding something — which I will always do with care, and never as a surprise.

I believe that healing is a collaborative process. My goal is to create a safe, supportive environment where you can explore your emotions, uncover patterns, and develop the tools necessary for lasting change.Dr. Donna Duffin, Psy.D.