About
I’m Ivana, thank you for being here
Ivana Kolakovic
MA, Registered Psychotherapist (she/her)
(5-year Training Program)
Somatic Experiencing® Professional Training
(PSE Practitioner)
Fundamental Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Toronto Institute for Psychoanalysis
Embodied Experiential Dreamwork Certification Program with Leslie Ellis
This Is Me
I Am a Registered Psychotherapist & Somatic Practitioner
I am a Registered Psychotherapist and trauma practitioner. I am deeply passionate about supporting you in your process of sitting with and naming all that is painful and scary within you and around you. Moreover, I am passionate about seeing you step into your own power and resilience and beauty.
I completed 5-year Psychotherapy training at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto, 3-year Somatic Experiencing training for trauma resolution (Montreal), and I hold a MA in Women’s and Gender Studies (Carleton University, Ottawa).
I work from a humanistic, embodied and evidence-based framework and have additional trainings in CBT therapy, sex therapy, psychoanalytic theory and peer-based crisis response/suicide care strategies. For several years, I worked as a supervisor at the Distress Centre of Greater Toronto and have rich experience in frontline crisis work, supporting folks who struggle with suicidal ideation/attempts, self-harm, substance use and isolation, that are the direct result of marginalization, poverty and/or abuse they experienced at some point in their lives.
I was born and raised in Kraljevo, Serbia (former Yugoslavia). Throughout my childhood and young adulthood, I was exposed to different forms of violence and to the abundance of love and creativity and care. This is where I learned a lot about the persistence of beauty amidst suffering, as well as the preciousness and complexity of every human life.
Pozivam za svedoka vrijeme, početak i svršetak svega
– da je svaki čovijek uvek na gubitku.