JAO (jay-oh) Therapy
A Coherence-Based Approach to Counselling.
Sometimes therapy doesn’t need to begin with everything that is wrong.
At JAO Therapy, my primary therapeutic approach is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)—a collaborative, evidence-informed approach that helps you identify what you want to be different, recognize the strengths and resources you already have, and begin creating meaningful change through small, achievable steps.
Rather than spending most of our time analyzing the problem, we become curious about possibility.
Therapy That Builds on What Is Already Working
I believe people are much more than the problems that bring them to therapy.
You may be experiencing anxiety, emotional overwhelm, difficult family relationships, negative self-talk, parenting challenges, stress or a significant life transition—and these experiences deserve to be understood. But they do not have to become the entire focus of therapy.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy helps us look for your abilities, resources, relationships, exceptions and successes—even when they seem small.
Together, we explore the future you would prefer and begin noticing the practical steps that can help you move toward it.
A Calm Nervous System Helps Create Space for Change
My solution-focused approach is supported by another important foundation of my work: nervous system regulation.
When we are overwhelmed, anxious or emotionally activated, it can be difficult to access our strengths, think flexibly or see possibilities.
For this reason, therapy may also include practical strategies for calming and regulating the nervous system, mindfulness and meditation practices, and selected CBT-based tools for understanding the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
The goal isn't simply to talk about change.
It is to help you experience, notice and build upon change in your everyday life.
Working With Children and Families
Solution-Focused Therapy can also be particularly engaging when working with children, adolescents and families because therapy doesn't have to revolve around what a child is doing “wrong.”
Instead, we become curious together.
Children and parents can begin discovering strengths and successes that may have become difficult to see when a family has been struggling.
My work with children and families may incorporate solution-focused conversations, emotional-regulation skills, nervous-system education, creative activities, CBT strategies and practical tools that can be practiced between sessions.
Therapy With Direction, Hope and Possibility
You do not need to have everything figured out before coming to therapy.
We can begin with a much simpler question:
What would you like to be different?
From there, we look together for the strengths, resources and possibilities that can help you move toward it—one meaningful step at a time.
Coherence is about creating greater alignment between where you are now and where you would like to be. In our work together, we focus not only on what is difficult, but on what you want to be different, the strengths and resources you already have, and the small signs that tell us change is beginning to happen. Along the way, we can also build greater nervous-system regulation and emotional steadiness—helping you feel more able to respond to life with clarity, confidence, and choice.
Clinic Offerings
Talk Therapy - a.k.a counselling
Therapy That Looks for Possibility
Therapy can make space for difficult experiences without allowing the problem to become the whole story.
In our sessions, I listen carefully for the things that can sometimes become overshadowed when life feels difficult—your strengths, resilience, important relationships, past successes, hopes, and the moments when things are already going a little better.
Our conversations are purposeful and collaborative, with an emphasis on hope and future-building. We may notice small changes, explore exceptions to familiar patterns, identify what you would like more of in your life, and build upon the things that are already helping. Sometimes a subtle shift in perspective or one achievable next step can begin to create meaningful movement and a renewed sense of possibility.
Alongside our conversations, I may introduce practical strategies from CBT, mindfulness, emotional and nervous-system regulation, HeartMath, when they complement what we are working toward.
Mind, Body and Meaning
I believe meaningful change involves more than our thoughts alone.
How we think, feel and respond is influenced by our nervous system, our relationships, our experiences and the meaning we make of them. For this reason, therapy may include learning to recognize what is happening in your body, developing greater emotional steadiness, and finding ways to create enough internal space to respond rather than simply react.
There is also room for the deeper questions that sometimes emerge in therapy: What matters to me? What kind of future do I want to create? What gives me a sense of connection, purpose, hope or meaning?
For some people, this includes spirituality. For others, it may be found through relationships, nature, personal values, creativity, compassion or a growing connection with themselves. There is no prescribed belief system at JAO Therapy. This part of the work is welcomed when it is meaningful to you.
My role is not to tell you what your answers should be. It is to listen closely, ask thoughtful questions, help you recognize strengths and possibilities that may have become difficult to see, and support you in building hope and moving toward the future you want to create.
At JAO Therapy you can choose counselling services OR Biofield Tuning services OR a combination.
Biofield Tuning
Wellness Service
A different approach.
Biofield Tuning is a complementary, sound-based practice that supports relaxation and nervous system settling. Considered an 'adjunct' therapy tool - it can be used with talk therapy or offered on its own as a method to help the body relax and release tension or pain.
Tuning forks are used to create gentle sound frequencies either around the body or, in some cases, lightly on the body. This type of therapy works on the premise that we have 'energy' around us and our bodies, our minds, and our feelings are impacted by the field around us.
Many individuals report after a session:
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A sense of calm or relaxation
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Reduced tension in the body and in thoughts
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Release of pain in certain parts of the body
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Increased clarity and ease
Biofield Tuning is:
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A wellness-based service (not psychotherapy)
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Non-regulated
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Not intended to diagnose or treat mental health conditions
It can be experienced on its own or, if you are a psychotherapy client, used as an optional, adjunct complement to support overall body/mind regulation.
Virtual Sessions
"The focus is not on analysis, but on support—creating the conditions for your system to settle and do what it is naturally designed to do."
Both psychotherapy and Biofield Tuning sessions are available virtually.
Sessions are conducted through a secure video platform and follow the same structured, focused approach as in-person work. You will be guided through the process in a calm and supportive way.
Virtual sessions allow you to:
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Access support from your own space
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Reduce travel and scheduling barriers
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Engage in a comfortable, private environment
For Biofield Tuning, distance sessions are offered as a standard option. Many individuals experience similar states of relaxation and nervous system settling as they would in person, though each session is unique.
Because this work is not limited to the physical body, many people find distance sessions to be similarly calming and grounding as in-person sessions.