Andrea Brassard M.A., CCC, RYT

"That which you have tried yourself, which you have experienced, which you have recognized as true, and which will be beneficial to you and to others; believe that, and shape your conduct to it." - Buddha

The first time I looked for Therapy, I didn't know what to look for. I had a broken heart, it was my first experience of this kind, and it was almost unbearable. It seemed so trivial, yet I had never experienced anything which interfered so much with my day to day life. I "googled" mental health in Toronto, and the only thing that came up was CAMH - The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health - the largest addictions and mental health hospital in Canada.

So, with sincere concern for my well-being I noted the address and walked down to the Queen & Ossington site to see if they could help me. I had an intake interview, and a counselor spoke with me for quite some time. He asked some questions, but mostly he just listened. And after telling him my recent experiences, worries, and the concerns I had that I might have a serious mental illness, he responded with words I'll never forget. He told me that what I was experiencing was a normal response to having one's heart broken. He said that sometimes people protect their hearts, not allowing themselves to be vulnerable to and to truly love another person until much later in their lives.

And if at this point their relationship disintegrates, often these people experience "breakdowns" very similar to mine, only they are further along their life paths, and it can be even more difficult then. It was as though he had lifted a thousand pounds off of my shoulders with a few words. It was normal to fall apart when you had a broken heart. I wasn't seriously ill, I wasn't a psychological abnormality, I was grieving.

The counselor suggested that I might seek a Therapist to help me work through some of my concerns, and so began my journey into my own psychological makeup.

I began therapy. I haven't turned back. This invaluable exploration of my internal landscape has been infinitely compelling. There are always more worlds, deeper levels, new experiences in life - to digest, process, understand, and accept.

I have grieved many times since that first big loss, and each time has been difficult in its own way. There is nothing more certain than the loss of something or someone we love to throw our lives into turmoil. I have found that in these times of mourning there is nothing more conducive to healing than engaging with our loss. There is a need to think about our loss and our changed lives (and one can't help but think about it, because we are supposed to). There is a need for time and space to re-navigate the world that we live in, one that is deeply changed. Therapy is a commitment to ourselves which honors our loss and our need to reintegrate our lives. Therapy is a commitment to personal growth and learning. It is a place where time is devoted understanding and exploring ourselves, our motivations, values, interests, needs, desires, and dreams. As a Creative Arts Therapist, I am equipped with skills and tools to help discover unspoken dreams, values, and strengths.

I would like to extend a helping hand to any Aboriginal person seeking therapy. I am a Métis woman of Cree Ancestry, and I am interested in integrating traditional healing and worldviews into our Therapeutic encounter. I was born and raised in a small town in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and I understand what it means to live in a community that is not familiar to me, to be separated from my culture and the land, and to struggle with my indigenous identity.

Therapy is a form of story-telling, a natural and necessary process of living - but somehow collectively we've forgotten how to listen to each others stories and the importance of telling our own. I believe that the most important thing I can do as a Therapist is to truly be present with and listen to your stories. The Creative Arts can bring our story-telling to a new level; an alive and embodied form of storytelling which evokes more than words and images, even action and experience! The Creative arts give us an opportunity to enter new worlds, as vivid as our imaginations, and from these worlds, to gain insight into our daily lives.

Sometimes life is overwhelming, and having someone dedicated to helping me figure my life out is a great resource. Therapy can be life-saving. There have been times I wouldn’t have made the choices I wanted to make, without the support and validation from my therapist. Where else does another person, unbiased, or trying to be, dedicate their time, energy, and resources to helping me? Not just helping me solve a problem – but helping me change a problematic pattern of behavior – helping me identify and articulate my core values and goals, and the ways I can best work towards them. Where else is someone listening with the intention of understanding me, understanding why I do what I do, and make the choices I make – helping me to understand myself, so that I have the ability to see what I do and how I act and react in the world; and when to choose to go along with my habitual behavior and when to choose not to.

Therapy is a gift to the self. Seeing myself for myself, often requires some difficult moments of acknowledging my “mistakes” and opening to perspectives I haven’t had before; the realization of my own humanity and limitations. I often make mistakes and seeing those can be very hard. But seeing is the first step to understanding, and changing. I do everything I do for a reason, and once I contextualize and understand my “mistakes” I no longer see them in a blaming way. They become the best I could have done in the given situation.  Acknowledging my mistakes allows me to begin the process of transformation and it is a liberating process, to free myself of habitual unconscious patterns of behavior – to raise myself to new levels of being and behavior – to see the many spirals of levels I can exist upon – to constantly be growing and recognizing this growth – to witness my journey (to have the capacity to), it’s a beautiful process – a gift. It is a gift I’d like you to experience too, and a gift that only you can give yourself. Or as Martha Graham so aptly put it, “I would like to think that I had, in some way, given them the gift of themselves”.   

My office is centrally located at the south-east corner of Yonge and Eglinton (2221 Yonge St. Suite 504) across the street from Eglinton Subway station. Here is a map. I look forward to meeting you!