Counselling Psychotherapy
Services

Counselling and Psychotherapy Services

While friends and family offer invaluable support during tough times, counselling and psychotherapy provide a unique, neutral, and non-judgmental environment. At Transcendence, we’ve created a safe space where we can work together to help you navigate life’s challenges and transitions. Our goal is to empower you to find your voice, build confidence, and create the life you truly desire. We offer integrated services with effective, down-to-earth strategies to help you gain new perspectives, explore options, and develop personalized coping mechanisms at your own pace. Our services are available in-person for Brampton residents and online for all Ontario residents. Explore our individual, couples, and family services below, and feel free to contact us for a complimentary 15-minute consultation to learn more.

Read more about the Benefits of psychotherapy

Explore Our Services Meet Marialuisa Book Appointment

Individual Psychotherapy: Creating the Life You Want

What is Individual Psychotherapy?
Individual psychotherapy is a confidential and collaborative process tailored specifically to you. It’s a dedicated space where you can openly explore your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and life experiences without judgment. Together, we’ll delve into the underlying patterns that may be holding you back, providing you with practical tools and effective resources to foster self-understanding, process past events, and develop healthier ways of relating to yourself and the world. It’s about moving from where you are to where you want to be.

What are the Benefits?
Engaging in individual psychotherapy offers profound benefits that empower you to take control of your well-being:

  • Gain Deeper Self-Awareness: Understand your inner world, including your triggers, strengths, and motivations.
  • Manage Emotions Effectively: Learn strategies to cope with and reduce the impact of trauma, addictions, difficult relationships, abandonment, stress, burnout, anxiety, or depression.
  • Heal from Past Experiences: Process and integrate difficult events such as trauma, abuse, addictions, difficult break-ups, challenging relationships, loss, and grief.
  • Boost Self-Confidence & Self-Esteem: Build a stronger, more positive relationship with yourself. 
  • Improve Relationships: Address attachment, intimacy, and relational difficulties to foster healthier connections with others.
  • Develop Coping Skills: Acquire practical methods to navigate life transitions and daily stressors more effectively.
  • Achieve Personal & Career Growth: Gain clarity on your goals and unlock your full potential.

Why Should You Attend?
Many people consider individual psychotherapy only when they’re facing a crisis. While it’s incredibly effective during challenging times, psychotherapy is also a powerful, proactive investment in your future. It’s not just about addressing problems; it’s about actively creating the life you want.

You might attend if you want to:

  • Heal from the lingering effects of trauma, addictions, difficult relationships, or abuse.
  • Find relief from persistent depression, anxiety or chronic pain.
  • Improve your relationships, fostering healthier connections with others and yourself.
  • Improve your self-confidence and build a stronger sense of self.
  • Navigate major life transitions, career changes, or personal development goals.
  • Address specific concerns like problematic gambling, gaming, technology use, shopping, sex or porn addictions.
  • Simply gain a neutral perspective, clarify your path, and proactively cultivate greater joy and resilience.

In individual therapy, you’re not just solving problems; you’re building a foundation for lasting positive change, equipped with the practical tools and effective resources to navigate life with greater ease and purpose.

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Couples Psychotherapy: Strengthening Your Connection and Growing Together

What is Couples Psychotherapy?
Couples psychotherapy, also known as couples counselling or relationship therapy, provides a safe, structured, and neutral space for partners to address challenges, improve communication, and deepen their connection. It’s a collaborative process where both individuals can feel heard, understood, and supported. As your therapist, I act as a guide, helping you identify unhelpful patterns, express your needs effectively, and develop healthier, more fulfilling ways of interacting. Our focus is on helping you create positive change within your relationship, providing practical tools and effective resources to help you reach your goals as a couple.

What are the Benefits?
Engaging in couples psychotherapy can lead to transformative changes in your relationship:

  • Enhanced Communication: Learn effective ways to express yourselves, listen actively, and truly understand each other’s perspectives, overcoming communication difficulties.
  • Constructive Conflict Resolution: Develop healthier strategies to navigate disagreements and resolve conflicts, fostering understanding instead of resentment.
  • Deeper Intimacy & Connection: Rekindle emotional closeness, passion, and a stronger bond.
  • Understanding Relational Patterns: Identify and shift unhelpful dynamics rooted in attachment and relational difficulties.
  • Increased Empathy: Gain profound insight into your partner’s experiences, needs, and feelings.
  • Healing & Repair: Address past hurts, betrayals, or resentments in a supported environment, fostering forgiveness and moving forward.
  • Navigating Life Transitions: Successfully manage significant changes together, such as starting a family, career shifts, or retirement.
  • Addressing the Impact of Addictions: Develop strategies to cope with the challenges posed by addiction within the relationship, fostering support, understanding, and a path towards healing for both partners.

Why Should You Attend?
Many couples seek therapy when they feel stuck, disconnected, or are experiencing recurring conflicts. However, couples therapy is also a powerful tool for proactive relationship enhancement, even when things feel relatively stable. It’s about consciously creating the partnership you truly desire.

You might attend if you want to:

  • Address the impact of specific issues like trauma and addictions on your relationship.
  • Overcome persistent attachment or communication difficulties that create distance.
  • Rebuild trust and intimacy after a challenge.
  • Learn how to better support each other through individual struggles like depression, stress, or anxiety.
  • Strengthen your bond and communication through major life changes such as living together, marriage, having children, or navigating an empty nest.
  • Prepare for marriage: Lay a strong foundation for your future together by discussing expectations, values, and potential challenges before tying the knot.
  • Deepen your understanding of each other and ensure your relationship continues to thrive and evolve.
  • Work on intimacy after being in a long-term relationship, especially when facing challenges like routine, decreased passion, health issues, financial stress, or differing libidos.
  • Address the impact of past trauma, such as sexual abuse, on your current relationship.
  • Break free from toxic patterns from childhood that are being recreated by one or both partners.
  • Navigate how individual trauma is interfering with the health of your relationship.

In couples therapy, you’re not just fixing problems; you’re actively building a stronger, more resilient, and joyful foundation for your shared life, equipped with practical tools and effective resources to nurture your connection for years to come.

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Family Counselling/Psychotherapy: Cultivating Harmony and Understanding

Family counselling/psychotherapy views the family unit as an interconnected system, where each member’s actions and experiences influence the others. This approach addresses the overall dynamics, communication patterns, and interactions within the family to foster positive change for everyone involved. We define family as whatever that means to you, recognizing that families come in many forms and are built on unique connections.
Family therapy provides a facilitated space for members to express themselves, understand differing perspectives, and work collaboratively towards shared goals. The aim is to help your family create positive change and reach your goals for more harmonious and meaningful interactions, providing practical tools and effective resources along the way.

What are the Benefits?
Engaging in couples psychotherapy can lead to transformative changes in your relationship:

  • Improved Communication: Learn to listen actively, express needs clearly, and reduce misunderstandings, especially valuable for navigating communication difficulties.
  • Stronger Family Bonds: Increase empathy, understanding, and emotional connection among family members.
  • Effective Conflict Resolution: Develop healthier ways to manage disagreements and resolve family conflicts constructively.
  • Addressing Behavioral Issues: Understand the root causes of challenging behaviors and develop collective strategies for support.
  • Navigating Life Transitions: Help the family adjust to significant changes like divorce, remarriage, a new baby, or a move.
  • Healing from Shared Experiences: Process collective trauma, loss, illness, chronic pain, or grief as a unit.
  • Supporting Individual Members: Provide a supportive environment for a family member struggling with issues like depression, anxiety, addictions, illness, chronic pain and other stressors.

Why Should You Attend?
Families often seek therapy when they’re experiencing persistent conflict, a breakdown in communication, or when one family member’s struggles are impacting the whole system. However, family therapy is also an incredible resource for proactive growth and creating a more resilient, harmonious family environment. It’s about consciously creating the family life you all envision.

You might attend if you want to:

  • Address the impact of stressors such as trauma, addictions, grief, illness, chronic pain on family dynamics.
  • Improve attachment and relational difficulties among family members.
  • Navigate the challenges of a blended family and build stronger bonds.
  • Develop strategies to support a child or teen experiencing anxiety, depression, OCD, or self-esteem issues.
  • Enhance overall family cohesion and create a more supportive and loving home environment.
  • Learn better ways to communicate and deepen your understanding of each other, building a stronger foundation for the future.

In family therapy, you’re not just solving problems; you’re empowering your family to function more effectively, support each other through challenges, and collectively create a more peaceful, understanding, and loving home, equipped with practical tools and effective resources for lasting positive change.

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OUR TEAM

Meet our Counsellor/ Psychotherapist

Marialuisa Elias

Registered Social Worker/ Psychotherapist

Book with Marialuisa

Hi there! I’m Marialuisa, and I’m a Registered Social Worker with a master’s degree from the University of Toronto. With over 16 years of experience, I’ve had the privilege of working with individuals, families, couples, and groups on their unique journeys.

My approach is all about offering empathetic, gentle, and truly empowering support. I deeply believe in your ability to look within, discover your own answers, pursue your dreams, and ultimately become the architect of your own positive change. My focus is always on helping you create the life you envision and reach your personal goals.

To support you on this path, I draw from a range of evidence-based and scientific approaches known for their effectiveness in facilitating positive transformation, including:

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): We’ll work on identifying and shifting unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors.
  • Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT): This helps you understand and transform emotional responses for healthier connections.
  • Attachment Theory: We can explore how early relationships might be shaping your current ways of relating to others.
  • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): We’ll highlight your strengths and build on what’s already working to move you towards your desired future.
  • Motivational Interviewing (MI): This collaborative approach helps you explore and resolve any mixed feelings you might have about making changes.
  • Mindfulness: We’ll cultivate present-moment awareness to help you navigate daily stressors with more compassion and ease, and enhance your overall well-being.
  • Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): A specialized approach to help you process and heal from past traumatic experiences.

I’m also committed to continuously growing in my field, and I’m currently completing Complex Trauma Certification Training (CCTP/CCTP-II) to provide even deeper support for those impacted by complex trauma.

My Specialties Include:

I specialize in working with individuals (16 years and older), couples, and families dealing with a comprehensive range of concerns, including:

  • Trauma:
    • Child abuse
    • Sexual abuse
    • Interpersonal violence
    • Domestic violence
  • Relationships:
    • Attachment, relational, and communication difficulties in relationships
    • Intimacy concerns
    • Healing for couples after separation or affairs
    • Difficulties communicating and developing a strong emotional connection
    • Pre-marital counselling
    • Navigating relationships with extended family
    • Problems finding or keeping relationships
  • Addictions:
    • Substance addictions
    • Behavioural addictions, such as:
      • Problematic gambling and gaming
      • Shopping
      • Porn and sex addiction
  • Depression & Anxiety
  • Loss & Grief
  • Personal Growth & Well-being:
    • Stress and burnout
    • Perfectionism
    • Self-confidence and self-esteem
    • Body image
    • Life transitions, including:
      • Career transitions
      • Family transitions (e.g., from not having children to becoming parents, navigating adolescence, empty nest syndrome)
    • Procrastination
    • Lack of motivation
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APPOINTMENT

Schedule a 15-minute Phone Consult

Call us to schedule a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation to answer any questions you may have. Please note that this is a brief consultation to help you assess whether our services are the right fit for you, and not a therapy session.

Once you decide this is the right fit for you, we will schedule a 90-minute assessment session in which we collect and discuss relevant information that will allow us to know you better and design a tailored treatment plan. Subsequent individual sessions are 60 minutes, while couples and family sessions are 90 minutes.

Fees and Insurance Coverage

Assessment sessions (90 minutes) –$270/ session

Individual sessions (60 minutes) –$180/ session

Couples and family sessions (90 minutes) –$270/ session

Most insurance companies cover Counselling/Psychotherapy by Registered Social Workers. Please contact your insurance company to find more information. Sessions are paid in full by cash, e-transfer or credit card. At the end of your session, an official receipt will be issued for reimbursement.

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A phone number where we can reach you during business hours
Insurance Info

If I Need Immediate Support

Please be aware that as much as we try to accommodate your needs and respond in a timely manner, we do not offer crisis counselling. If you are going through a crisis that requires immediate attention please call 911, contact your family doctor, go to your nearest hospital, or to your nearest police station. Examples of a crisis include if your safety or life is at risk, if you are concerned about hurting yourself or others, or if a child is at risk.

Helpful Contact Information

The Assaulted Women’s Helpline Crisis Line
GTA: 416-863-0511
www.awhl.org

Distress Centres of Greater Toronto
416-408-4357
www.dcogt.com

ConnexOntario
1-866-531-2600
www.connexontario.ca

Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH)
Emergency Department
416-979-6885
www.camh.ca

Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
416-924-4640
www.torontocas.ca

Peel Children’s Aid
905-363-6131
www.peelcas.org

You can also call 211
Or visit 211ontario.ca to find other resources

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Services we do not provide

Please note that we do not provide counselling/psychotherapy for anger management or PAR (Partner Assault Response), severe medically untreated mental health conditions, and learning disabilities.

We are not able to provide psychological assessments; access visitation and/or custody assessments, reports or recommendations; assessments, reports or recommendations to present or to include as part of hearings, trials or any other legal-related process.

From time to time we receive calls from very caring and loving family members or friends who are worried about a loved one, but this loved one does not want to seek help. Counselling/Psychotherapy works best when the individual identifies a need and fully consents to participate.

If you find yourself in a situation in which you identify a need for services for a loved one, but this person doesn’t seem aware of such need, minimizes your concerns or denies any problem, you can take this as an opportunity to seek help for yourself. Sometimes we focus all our attention on trying to help others, but we forget about ourselves.

Frequently asked questions

Psychotherapy is a regulated profession and is covered by most insurance companies. However, whether you are covered or not depends not on your insurance company but on the plan that your employer buys for you. Our services are offered by Registered Social Workers who have a master’s degree (MSW, RSW). Please contact your insurance to ask whether your plan covers Psychotherapy services delivered by Registered Social Workers.

Some companies offer a “wellness package” in which they cover services that are not necessarily regulated such as Reiki. But again, this will depend on the plan that your employer buys for you.

As far as we know our other services – Huna Healing, Shamanic Healing and ThetaHealing® are not covered by insurance companies and can’t be claimed as health expenses on your taxes.

We highly encourage you to contact your insurance directly and Revenue Canada to find out what you are eligible to claim.

We do not offer direct billing. Sessions are to be covered by clients who will be provided with a receipt to submit for reimbursement, if applicable.

We are not currently offering EAP services.

Our counselling/psychotherapy sessions start with one assessment session for individuals, and two for couples to inform our treatment plan. Although even one session offers benefits to clients, some studies suggest that on average four sessions (in addition to assessment) are recommended to see longer, lasting benefits.

If you are looking for a one-time session, these are some agencies that offer counselling walk-in services in the community:

In Peel we have:
Tangerine Walk-in Counselling
Family Services of Peel
Catholic Family Services of Peel-Dufferin

And for the GTA:
Toronto Family Services of Toronto
Catholic Family Services of Toronto

Our Counselling/Psychotherapy services are offered by Registered Social Workers who are regulated by a College. As regulated professionals, we can’t include any energy healing or other modality outside of the scope of Social Work.

Family members and friends offer amazing support and loving advice when we need it. However, there are times in which we might benefit from a third, neutral party who can help us invite new perspectives, explore our options, and find strategies to achieve our goals, at our own pace and without any expectation other than finding our own voice and make our own choices.

The registration process starts with a quick consultation over the phone to make sure we answer all your questions and you feel our services are a good match. The first appointment, which is an assessment session, is booked by our staff. After you are a registered client, you can book your sessions online if you chose to do so.