Mike@therapytoronto.ca
Bloor-Christie

647-723-5274
ext 228

Mike Hynes BSc, Dip.PBM, Member CAPT

An officer on patrol one night sees a man on the ground searching for something beneath a streetlight. He asks “What are you looking for?”

The man replies “I’ve lost my keys, will you help me find them?”

After searching for a while the officer says to the man “They’re not here, are you sure this is where you lost them?”

The man says “No, I lost them back there in the dark, but this is where the light is.”

Variations of this story are interpreted many ways. It seems clear that no amount of searching in the wrong place will solve the problem of the missing keys. He knows his actions are useless but is continuing in the same pattern of looking where he is able to see.  A good psychotherapist can help you identify unproductive patterns in your life and suggest looking in the right area for the solution. A therapist may help you build the courage and skills to go looking in the dark. Sometimes a therapist helps with options and preparation to bring the right tools to the situation – such as a flashlight in this case.

In its simplest form psychotherapy can help you to solve problems in your life and develop strategies to reframe and cope with stressful situations. It is also possible to go deeper and to uncover how you manifest problems in the first place. Would it not have been better to have never lost the keys? Identifying how we begin our patterns and learning ways to act differently at our trigger points can prevent us from getting into fruitless searches or dead end relationships.

Psychotherapy can also help address the bigger issues in life. Problems that really prevent growth and can destroy relationships. For example, in one version of the above story the man was drunk and on his way home when he lost the keys. Addiction and the pain it is covering can often cause us to lose our way. Sometimes losing our way is an excuse to not arrive into a situation that is going to be difficult or uncomfortable. Working through your experiences compassionately and developing new understanding while practicing new ways of interacting leads to a very different experience of life. Time and energy well invested into the process of your own growth and the development of life satisfaction.

Psychotherapy at its best can help you to use your experiences as an opportunity for growth and building depth and strength. Meeting life challenges with emotional maturity and personal mastery is the real key to a fully embodied and rewarding life. Taking an active role in shaping your existence on this earth and setting your patterns so you influence your circumstance instead of being a victim to it. Life at this level can be as simple as managing our emotions so we don’t get too hot or too cold. Regulating our boundaries to provide the optimum balance with intimacy and integrity.

When you enter psychotherapy with me you will find that I am a caring, empathic, experienced psychotherapist with a deep understanding of the unconscious and an integrated view of the mind, body and spirit.

We work together to assist you through your struggles and move toward growth. I draw upon my own experience in psychotherapy to guide. I also offer expertise based on my education in psychology and psychotherapy. My method of psychotherapy is grounded in thorough knowledge of psychoanalytic and somatic techniques, emotional depth, and a compassionate presence connected to life.

I have worked in finance as well as the food business and have taught at the University of Toronto. You may also be interested to know that I have appeared on CityPulse News and Breakfast Television as an expert on dreams.

I generally work with clients at my office near Christie and Bloor but also offer online and phone therapy sessions.

Please call to arrange your first appointment and I look forward to hearing from you.