Hi, I’m Shira. I’ve lived with pain – and I’ve healed from pain. I know how lonely it can feel, and I also know that the path out is not about willpower, but about connection, safety, and choice.

I am a Registered Psychotherapist with the CRPO, in Ontario. I am also a parent, homeschooler, and parent to kids with neurodiversity and food allergy. I work with neuroplastic symptoms and primary pain, as well as anxiety, overwhelm, and burnout. I work with individuals and parents, including Highly Sensitive People, perinatal, homeschooling parents, and parents living with the complexity of food allergies.

I like to think of Pain Reprocessing Therapy as an ice cream shop: there are many flavours, and we choose what works for you. We try different flavours until we find something that sits well. If expressive writing feels overwhelming, maybe it's not your flavour. If focusing on your breath isn’t accessible, there are many other ways to work with your nervous system. If sensory grounding—like savouring a piece of chocolate— helps create safety, we lean into that. And sometimes I challenge you to try something that seems challenging. The way through chronic neuroplastic symptoms can wind and wend, and it unfolds in its own time.

I am trained in Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), Predictive Processing Flash (Four Blinks), and am currently completing EMDR training. My home is in a you-centered approach, known as Person-Centered therapy (Carl Rogers), where you are the expert of you. I bring the psychological knowledge, curiosity, and a willingness to learn alongside you. I draw from mindfulness, grounding, “this-and-that” thinking (holding multiple truths at once), humour, and inner-child and IFS-informed work and occasional blunt guesses about what might be going on.

I’m not afraid to challenge you—and I can take the heat if you’re frustrated with me. I see the commonalities across psychotherapeutic methods more than I see the differences. Across modalities, I’m most interested in sense-making: connecting the dots of how you came to be where you are, so you can choose a path forward that feels safer, more regulated, and less driven by fear or symptoms. This involves challenging old patterns, learning what safety can feel like (whether you've ever felt it or not), processing trauma, and trying on new ways of being with yourself in your life.

If we’re not the right fit after meeting—or not the right fit right now—I’ll do my best to help you find someone who is. Making connections matters to me. For those seeking free or low-cost therapy (not necessarily PRT-trained), Canadians can explore options through several programs, including my own project, Find a Student Therapist (www.findastudenttherapist.ca).