Johanna Beyers
PhD, Advanced Candidate CAST, ATC, Member CAPT

Do you long to be whole? Being whole should be the most natural thing in the world and yet most of us experience only a relative state of self-connection.

If we think of ourselves as an ecology, in the way of a garden or a forest, all our elements would fit together and belong, attuned to each other, each with its own character, cycles, habits and place.

Life is full of transitions from one state to another. I believe psychotherapy helps us optimize the transitional states in which we find ourselves, so that we can experience a fuller, more joyful life. Therapy can open us up to our greater potential, uniqueness and gifts for relatedness, even when we are experiencing such deep losses as divorce, death, deprived sense of self or the failure of our career ambitions.

I have always been deeply interested in people’s connectedness to inner life and nature.

In our work together, we shall pay attention to this balance of inner and outer, to the effects of unknown, unlived dreams on your body and creative energy.

Who comes to me?

Adult clients come to work with me for reasons of:

Creative and emotional impasse
• Lack of direction or meaning
• Divorce
• Career issues
• Psychosomatic wellness/illness
• Mid-life stagnation
• Deprived sense of self

Older children and adolescents may be referred because they

• Do poorly in school
• Experience emotional difficulties
• Are dealing with family issues, such as divorce
• Demonstrate symptoms of ADHD, anxiety or depression.

My work in Sandplay

Sandplay is a particular interest of mine, and many people find it useful. A sort of visual dream work, it lets us listen closely to our own embodied process and find new responses. I have seen many times how sandplay enables people of all ages, from childhood up, to create and sense the new possibilities within themselves that words alone could not express as powerfully.

Sandplay has proven very valuable to those in states of transition, especially during divorce or other profound changes in the family. Depending on the client, sandplay may be the primary mode of therapy; usually people like a combination of sandplay, conversation, dream analysis and expressive modalities such as collage.

The sandplay below was created recently by a colleague wishing to explore the current shape of his life, and is reproduced with his permission.

My Training and Experience

I did not pursue psychotherapy directly. First I became a geologist and forest policy analyst and had a career in science policy and environmental education, as a teacher and consultant.

While I studied these fields, I engaged in my own therapeutic process in response to significant transitions in my own life and began working with dreams.

During my doctoral studies I was struck by seeing how often people from different disciplines and organizational experience clashed when attempting to work together on a project,  despite having the best conscious intentions. This is what led me to discover sandplay. I found that when a different modality of communication could be used, many seemingly impossible obstacles could be overcome. I continue to provide consulting services to organizations in addition to my therapeutic practice. My fascination with sandplay spurred me to leave academia for this more experiential modality, through which clients discover new adaptive responses to their internal ecology.

These experiences became the basis for my decision to study Jungian-oriented sandplay therapy formally through the Canadian Association for Sandplay Therapy (CAST).

Currently I am completing my final requirement for certification as a Sandplay Therapist. I am a member of CAST and the Canadian Association for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (CAPT).

I work in English as well as in Netherlandic (Flemish and Dutch).

My office is located at Avenue Road and St.Clair West. There is parking, and it is at the westbound stop of the TTC "512" streetcar. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information for yourself or a child. You may reach me at 647-723-5274 ext.225 or by email.