Building the Capacity for Complexity
The space to move from reflex to reflection
A holistic approach in the real sense: the body, the mind, your history, and your current life. Nothing is off-topic — it all tells us something about what's going on. Seeing it clearly is often the beginning of change.
The work is learning to hold the contradictory and paradoxical feelings that come up around a person, an event, or an experience. Two or more things can be true at once — that's the complexity. Building the capacity to hold it is what we do together.
Registered Psychotherapist over a decade of experience. Online sessions across Ontario.
PLEASE NOTE:
This website is not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
If you are in distress or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 at any time.
My Approach
Being able to manage the complicated reality of life allows you to build meaningful, mature relationships, live from your authentic self, and perform at the top of your game.
I believe you have many of the answers you are seeking. In this space we will practice engaging your curiosity to find them.
My hope is that you come to know yourself well enough to stay steady when the stakes are high — in the room, in the decision, in the relationship.
My work draws on psychodynamic, somatic, and polyvagal-informed approaches.
Approaching psychotherapy with a holistic view and building a reservoir of compassion towards yourself is how you can become the very touchstone you have been looking for.
What People Bring
Transracial Adoption — for adoptees who want to make sense of their story on their own terms. Together we will find language for what's been hard to name, and for the story that's yours to tell. Parents raising a child whose race or culture isn't their own are also welcome.
Racial Identity — we can look at how race has shaped what you believe you're worth, what it's cost you to carry, and what you'd like to unlearn.
Reparenting the Self — coming to know yourself well enough to be genuinely available to others: as a parent, a partner, a leader.
Caring for the Caregiver — there comes a time when you take care of others — a sick child or partner, a sibling who needs support, an aging parent. This role is sometimes invisible and often thankless. Having a witness and the right support while in this role is necessary to maintain balance and avoid burnout.
Relationships — we look at the patterns and dynamics you find yourself repeating in your various relationships with colleagues, partners, friends and family. We will uncover what is really happening, what is under your control and what constructive actions you can take.
Life Transitions — managing the inevitable transitions we face in life and finding the opportunities to grieve, and grow. Examples: losing your job, a breakup, loss of a child, loss of a parent, a diagnosis, aging.
Anxiety —including the kind that doesn't look like anxiety from the outside. We look at what sets it off, how to steady yourself in the moment, and how to recover afterward. The approach we build is the one that fits you, not the one that's supposed to work.
Depression — a steady point of contact when the path feels lonely. We meet regularly, in a space quiet enough to notice what's still alive in you, and patient enough to let that grow back.
Let’s begin the honest conversations you’ve been wanting to have. Together.
Services
Individual Psychotherapy for Adults
Psychotherapy helps you understand yourself more deeply. That's what makes it possible to stay steady when the stakes are high, know what you actually value, and let that shape how you meet the world.
In session, we pay attention to what happens while you talk — the pause, the breath, the thing you almost said. Those are the clues that show you what's worth holding onto, and what you can put down.
People often describe the same kind of a shift. Over time they begin to notice something in the body, for example, a tightness, a held breath. The noticing is the space. And in it, the old reflex isn't the only option anymore: there is room to ask a question, or to step away and come back.
That's the work. Not the absence of reaction — the moment before it, where reflex becomes reflection and you get to choose.
Sixty-minute sessions online or by phone, anywhere in Ontario.
A thirty-minute free consultation is available.
A receipt is provided for insurance — many extended health plans in Ontario cover Registered Psychotherapists now. it's worth checking that yours does.
About Me
Dharini Woollcombe
Registered Psychotherapist #009273
I came to this work from an intensive six year programme at the Centre for Training in Psychotherapy in Toronto. My international upbringing and my background in the arts inform my approach and the awareness I bring to my therapeutic work.
I lived in various countries growing up. Much of what I understand about people came from that, long before any of it had clinical language attached. I have seen firsthand how culture, language, race, belief systems, affect and shape people in ways that are easy to miss from outside What I keep noticing is that most of us want to be deeply understood, and to feel seen.
My career in acting taught me about listening, how much information our bodies give us, and the tension between what we think others want from us and what we want for ourselves.
Years of performing under pressure left me with one question: how do you stay rooted in yourself while remaining open to what the moment asks? I've come to think that it takes deep trust in yourself, which begins with self-compassion.
Your quiet moments and your public ones can both be lived in a way that feels like you. That's not a temperament — it's a set of skills, and they can be learned. Helping people find that is the work I want to do.
