In-Person in Toronto, ON
Online in
Ontario
Joy, connection, and relief are possible even in the darkest of times. I offer an embodied, relational approach to therapy that helps you investigate anxiety, disconnection, and recurring motifs that no longer feel like they are allowing you to fully engage with your life. I spent many years trying to jump straight to a solution, as though I was a problem to be fixed. In my experience, fixing/improving yourself won’t bring you the relief you’re seeking because it bypasses the juicy bits: understanding how you got here, and how you've kept this going for so long. Instead, we explore your present-moment experience (your thinking-feeling-sensing-moving body) to build awareness and self-trust, which makes change and spontaneity possible. I bring a steady, attuned presence, at times a twinkly humour, and a deep respect for how your adaptations have supported you to survive this far, while helping you discover new ways of being that feel more spacious and alive. If you’re looking for therapy that honours your whole self, insists on centering your creativity and humanity, and supports real, lasting shifts, I invite you to reach out for a free consultation.
Client Focus
Session Format: Individual sessions.
Age Specialty: Adult
Demographic Expertise: LGBTQ+, Women clients.
Languages: English
Treatment Approach
- Gestalt Therapy Encourages awareness of thoughts, feelings, and actions in the present moment. It helps people integrate different parts of themselves for wholeness.
- Relational Psychotherapy Emphasizes the healing power of the therapist-client relationship. It uses trust and safety as a foundation for change.
- Somatic Therapy Helps clients notice how emotions are stored in the body. It uses breath, movement, and awareness for healing trauma and stress.
Approach Description: My approach is rooted in embodied, relational Gestalt therapy, where we pay attention not only to *what* you say, but *how* you are saying it. Together, we explore your thoughts, sensations, emotions, gestures, and movements - your whole thinking-moving-sensing-feeling body - to deepen your awareness of how you relate to yourself, others, and your world.
The heart of the matter is often, "What's going on? How did I get here? What's next?" This somatic, body-based work can be especially supportive for experiences like anxiety, trauma, overstimulation, and relational wounding. Rather than trying to fix or change yourself, we slow down and listen inward, building trust in your body’s signals and your own capacity to make sense of what’s happening.
Grounding is an important part of the process of understanding yourself and your situation. In my experience, prioritizing calm or “regulation” is not the way to find relief or clarity. We might find ways to use grounding explorations as a way to reconnect with the present moment, noticing where you feel supported, where you feel tension, as ways to get information about how you are available/not available for support, and why that makes sense in your life. In moments of uncertainty, it can be supportive to pay attention to what you know to be true in the here and now, and bodily sensation is one way into this wisdom.
Therapy is also deeply relational. We are always influencing and being influenced by others/the environment, a process that is often outside of our awareness. In our work together, we pay attention to what emerges between us: how you express yourself, how you respond, and what feels easy or difficult as we move along together.
YOU ARE AN ARTIST (yes, you) - Each of us is an artist in our own way. Creativity, exploration, and deep play are always available to us in therapy. At times, we may gently incorporate movement or voice exploration as a way to access parts of your experience where you may not have words yet to describe. These moments can help us to discover something new, creating space for insight, integration, and choice. From this growing awareness, you can begin to relate to yourself and others with more flexibility, clarity, and a sense of being more YOU.
Fees & Insurance
Fees
- Average Session Fee 155
- Out of Network
Education & Credentials
Alison Taylor RP, GIT.Dip, CAPT, CRPO
- Female
- License # 11799
- Licensed in Ontario
- Practicing Since 2021
Education: Gestalt Institute of Toronto (5-year training, GIT.Dip)
Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy (1-yr training)
Certified Alexander Technique Teacher (3-year training)
Bachelor of Education
Bachelor of Music
Alison Taylor Practice Details
Therapy Sessions
- Available In-Person in Toronto, ON
- Available Online for residents of Ontario
- Online Therapy Details: Online sessions are offered through Jane Video. All video sessions are GDPR, HIPAA, and PIPEDA compliant.
IS THERAPY FOR ME?
You don’t need to have it all together to begin therapy. The best beginnings start with a good amount of mess. Therapy can be a space where you can risk being real (aka: messy), being seen, and being yourself, starting exactly where you are. I offer individual therapy for adults, working at a pace that feels right for you. Together, we explore how you got here (to therapy, and also to this point in your life), while making sense of the relational and historical contexts shaping your experience today.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THERAPY?
The human experience is wide and varied, including anxiety, grief, disconnection, overwhelm, joy, curiosity, loneliness, awe, and connection. Therapy with me is a collaborative process between two humans, sitting together, bringing curiosity and awareness to exactly what is. Grounded in Gestalt therapy, our work focuses on your present-moment awareness: how you think, feel, sense, and move through your world, and how you make meaning from your experience.
WHAT IS EMBODIED THERAPY?
Rather than only talking about what’s happening in your life (the story), we also pay attention to *how* you are experiencing and expressing your situation: your body language, words, metaphor, images, gesture, what feels easy or difficult to share, and what happens between us in the room. This can open up deeper layers of understanding that often go unnoticed.
WHAT IS RELATIONAL THERAPY?
Because we are relational beings, much of our experience is shaped through how we impact and are impacted by others (since we're hardwired for connection, it's pretty tough to avoid impacting others!). In therapy, we explore the recurring motifs in your life and relationships without judgement, building awareness of your responses and creating space for new possibilities to emerge. This experiential (doing), embodied (paying attention to thoughts, sensations, etc.) approach supports you in reconnecting with your own sense of self and trust in your wise knowing.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "LIVED EXPERIENCE?"
My work is grounded in a phenomenological approach, meaning your unique, lived experience matters more than fitting into a diagnostic category. We stay close to what is actually happening for you - how you feel, what you notice, and the meaning you make of your experiences - so that any shifts arise from understanding, rather than pressure to become someone different/better than you are (in my experience, this kind of "fixing" doesn't work anyway).
WHAT IS THE "ECOSYSTEM MODEL"?
I also hold your wider context in mind. You exist within relationships, environments, and systems that shape your sense of self. In an ecosystem, every being, creature, and element play an important role in sustaining the environment. Through a therapeutic ecosystem lens, we explore how you’ve come to relate to your contexts, what roles you’ve taken on in order to sustain the situation (and the benefits/costs of doing so), and how these generous choices both support and limit you in how you've learned to adapt creatively to survive intolerable situations. From there, we begin to open up new ways of responding to your situation that fit more accurately with who you are now.
At its core, this work is about building awareness, trusting your embodied wisdom, and choosing choicefulness, so you can move through your life with more clarity, connection, and a sense that you are allowed to be fully yourself.