Awkward Owl
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Brittany Dagenais
Registered Psychotherapist
Awkward Owl Psychotherapy
Therapy is, for many of us, one of the only spaces where we can allow ourselves to be fully seen without judgment or expectations.
Many people come to psychotherapy having experienced a chronic sense of loneliness or other-ness, having had to hide or reject parts of themselves in an effort to find acceptance and belonging. Therapy is a space where we can learn to unmask and explore the emotions and experiences that have built up over time, that often feel tangled, confusing, overwhelming, or stuck.
Brittany Dagenais, RP
Individual Psychotherapy
In-Person and Virtual, Orillia ON
I am experienced working with clients with a history of childhood trauma, mood disorders, low self-esteem, and eating disorders. I bring an attachment and trauma-informed approach to psychotherapy, as well as warmth, honesty, observation, and intense curiosity.
Although I work with all kinds of people, as a neurodivergent therapist, I offer people who identify as a creative, ADHD, AuDHD, Autistic, gifted, or highly sensitive an experience of shared communication and perceptive styles.
Therapy with me is often reflective, thought-provoking, emotional, and a bit quirky! I deeply value connection and showing up with honesty and transparency so that we can collaborate and co-create change that feels meaningful and transformative to your sense of self and ways of living.
At the centre of relational therapy is the belief that healing and growth happens within connection to self and others, not within aloneness, and that this is an essential part of being human.
Psychotherapy: A Relational & Emotion-Focused Approach
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As a relational therapist, I bring attention and responsiveness to the innate driving forces in your life - your core emotional, physical, and relational needs, your emotion-behavioural system, attachment systems, and individual variations in perception and processing- and how they have been impacted and impaired by your experiences.
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I also bring attention to how you relate to yourself and to me. These are ingrained patterns and they invariably show up in the therapy room; most people come to therapy and unconsciously act out their unhealthy patterns with me. I gently challenge these and guide you towards healthy patterns and genuine connection, processing all of the pain tangled up along the way.
When we have greater understanding and responsiveness to these parts of our self and patterns of relating we become able to navigate and trust our inner world, which in turn allows us to navigate and intentionally interact with our outer world. This integrates how we think with how we feel, bringing calm and congruence to our sense of self. ​​
Therapy is rarely a quick fix or feel better option; it's more often an uncomfortable and reflective process that progresses in non-linear ways. At the exact same time, it can be a tremendous relief to release heavy emotions and have someone respond to you in ways that you didn't even know you needed.
I'm often described as...
Curious, Observant, Expressive, Insightful, Intense, Non-Judgmental, Pragmatic, and Authentic
If my therapist self was an animal it would be...
A Garden Spider
When I'm Not Therapist-ing...
I love to garden, cook, read, puzzle, create art, and play video games.
About Brittany
When I (she/her) was first starting out as a therapist I read the book Sometimes Therapy is Awkward and it was such an “oh shit, it’s not just me” moment.
I have been described countless times over my life as someone who is awkward - benignly out of step with social norms, lacking a sense of social ease - so perhaps it makes perfect sense that I would find myself in a career where awkwardness is the norm, not the exception.
As I have learned to embrace the awkward and uncomfortable parts of therapy, I have grown to absolutely love the work I do; I love being a part of genuine and honest experiences with clients. I love being able to be both analytical and highly emotional at the same time. I love all of the quirks and strengths and stories that clients bring into the room with them, and even though it’s incredibly heavy to witness these at times, I love that I get to be the person that is trusted to do this work with them.
Having moved through life with my own experiences of trauma and a sense of otherness from being neurodivergent, I’m particularly attuned to people’s feelings of having to hide or reject parts of the self in an effort to find belonging. I have a knack for seeing the things that are going on under the surface and my work with clients tends to be deep, thought-provoking, and emotional. I bring a patience and warmth to sitting with clients through the darker, more difficult parts of therapy.
Adult Children of Emotionally-Immature Parents, by Lindsay Gibson
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Divergent Mind, by Jenara Nerenberg.
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Healing the Shame that Binds You by John Bradshaw
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Restoring the Kinship Worldview by Wahinkpe Topa and Darcia Narvaez
My favourite books to recommend...
Therapy feels like an incredibly honest conversation in which you slowly lower your defences, walls, and mask in front of both yourself and me.
When we learn to be truly honest with ourselves and others we open up the possibility of connection with our genuine self rather than with our defensive and hurt self
Attachment behavioural systems underpin how we relate to ourselves and others in our unconscious attempts to find safety and get our emotional needs met. People-pleasing, shame, guilt, avoidance, self-harm, and eating behaviours are all behaviours that can be understood and transformed through this perspective.
ATTACHMENT THERAPY
Careful consideration is given to the client’s readiness and consent to explore and process their trauma experiences so that they feel a sense of safety, agency, and autonomy when they choose to share.
TRAUMA-INFORMED THERAPY
The therapist stays curious and observes the ways in which the client and therapist relate to each other throughout the session, helping clients understand their part in co-creating the relational dynamics that exist both within and outside the therapy room.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY
Sometimes the bigger questions of life, death, and how we fit into the world come up in therapy. We exist as individuals, but also as a social species in a world of hierarchical and unequal systems that we have internalized or been oppressed by. These impact our experiences of grieving, belonging, anger, hope, and meaning-making in ways that we can explore and understand.
EXISTENTIAL THERAPY
I currently maintain a small and intentional caseload in order to accommodate the higher emotional needs of relational-style therapy.
This allows me to be fully present, engaged, and responsive to all of the things said and unsaid in sessions as well as set aside dedicated time before and after your session to prepare, process, reflect, conceptualize, and maintain on-going professional development in relation to our work together.
Individual Psychotherapy
60 Minute Psychotherapy
$135/session
In-Person and Virtual, Orillia ON
Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, Self-Esteem, Difficult Family Dynamics/Attachment Trauma, Childhood Trauma
Specializing in (but not limited to) working with individuals who are neurodivergent - Autistic, AuDHD, ADHD, Gifted and 2e
Receipts can be submitted for insurance reimbursement if your insurance covers Registered Psychotherapy.
Contact
53 Andrew St S, Orillia ON
HOURS
Tuesday 10 - 2
Wednesday 10 - 2
Thursday 10 - 4
Friday 9 - 4
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I try my best to respond to emails and inquiries within 24 hours but it can take a bit longer on the weekends!