Individual & Couples Therapy · In-person in Toronto & Online across Ontario

YOU CAN FEEL SECURE IN LOVE

Therapy can help you understand the patterns you bring into closeness, build more secure relationships, and stay connected to yourself while connecting deeply with others

UNDERSTANDING ATTACHMENT

What we experienced growing up can follow us into adult relationships.

Long before we have words for love, trust, boundaries, or intimacy, we are learning what happens when we need another person. We learn whether people come when we reach for them, whether our emotions are welcome, whether conflict can be repaired, and whether closeness feels safe. These early experiences can become patterns that follow us into adult relationships. You may notice that you:

  • become anxious when someone feels distant
  • withdraw or shut down when closeness feels overwhelming
  • struggle to trust that people will stay
  • feel responsible for other people’s emotions
  • find yourself repeating relationships that feel painfully familiar

These patterns are not character flaws. They are ways of relating that developed in relationship, and they can continue to change through your new relationships..

HOW THERAPY CAN HELP

What We Can Work on Together

Therapy is not about teaching you how to never need anyone. We are wired for connection. The work is learning how to experience closeness without abandoning yourself, and how to remain yourself without having to disconnect from others.
  • understanding your attachment patterns and relationship history
  • communicating needs without losing yourself or attacking the other person
  • tolerating vulnerability, intimacy, and healthy dependence
  • developing boundaries without using distance as protection
  • working through fear of abandonment, rejection, or engulfment
  • repairing after conflict instead of repeating the same cycle
  • building greater trust in yourself and in your relationships
WHAT HEALING CAN LOOK LIKE

Security Can Be Built

You do not need to have had a secure childhood to experience secure relationships as an adult. Attachment patterns can change. Through self-understanding, therapy, and relationships that offer consistency, responsiveness, and repair, people can develop what attachment researchers have called earned security.
  • being able to ask for what you need without feeling ashamed for needing it
  • staying connected during conflict without chasing or disappearing
  • trusting that disagreement does not automatically mean abandonment
  • feeling close to another person without losing your sense of self
  • recognizing when the past is shaping what you expect in the present
  • choosing new relational patterns rather than repeatedly reenacting familiar ones
  • becoming more able to receive love, care, and support
  • knowing that rupture can sometimes be followed by repair

WHO THERAPY CAN SUPPORT

Therapy may be a good fit if…

  • the same relationship patterns seem to repeat
  • you experience anxiety, jealousy, or fear of abandonment in relationships
  • you tend to withdraw, shut down, or need distance when someone gets close
  • you lose yourself or over-function in relationships
  • you are navigating dating, heartbreak, betrayal, or relationship transitions
You do not need to know your attachment style before beginning therapy. We can start with what happens when you get close to someone, and what happens inside you when that connection feels threatened.
Getting started

We are here to support you.

Step One
Book your first session
Choose a therapist and appointment time that works for you. You can meet in person in Toronto or virtually across Ontario.
Step Two
Meet your therapist
Your first session is a chance to talk about what brings you to therapy, what you hope will feel different, and what support might be most helpful.
Step 3

Begin at your own pace
Together, we’ll build a therapy process that feels collaborative, thoughtful, and responsive to your needs..

Meet Your Team

Therapy for Attachment and Relationships with Ivana Psychotherapy

Our therapists work relationally, with attention to attachment, trauma, the nervous system, and the patterns that emerge between people. We support clients navigating dating and relationships, attachment wounds, betrayal, intimacy, boundaries, conflict, family-of-origin patterns, and the ways earlier relationships can continue to shape present ones. Therapy is not about eliminating your need for other people. It is about developing greater freedom in how you relate, with more capacity for closeness, boundaries, vulnerability, repair, and choice..

“The greatest gift to others is our own best selves.”

— James Hollis

Therapy for attachment and relationships in Toronto and online across Ontario

You are beautiful

Individual and couples therapy for adults Attachment & Relationships  In-Person and Online