I am the descendant of French settlers and German immigrants to Canada. I live and work on the sacred land of Tkaronto (Toronto), which is the traditional territory of many First Nations including the Wendat and Mississaugas of the Credit. I have been profoundly shaped by my own ongoing healing process as well as by my spiritual practices and by the people who have come to me for healing.
I am a Registered Psychotherapist (RP), I was a Certified AEDP Therapist, and I’ve been in private practice since 2010. My approach as a therapist has been informed by a focus on the body in relationship and in the present moment, the workings of trauma, and the transformative potential of neuroplasticity. I have drawn from my training in psychodynamic therapy (I am a graduate of the Centre for Training in Psychotherapy) as well as Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) and Emotion Focussed Therapy (EFT) for couples. Before becoming a therapist, I completed a PhD in English literature at the University of Toronto, where I also designed and taught several courses. I have worked as a clinical supervisor and have taught many seminars and workshops both in person and online. I was a participating clinician in the 16-session research study on the efficacy of AEDP (see APA article here).
As a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual woman, I am in a period of accelerated growth and transition as I seek to better understand the workings of white supremacist society around and within me. Specifically, I have come to see that approaching health and healing through an individual lens is insufficient, and that many of the therapeutic frameworks I have been formally trained to use cannot be understood separate from the patriarchal, white supremacist society that was the context for their creation.
My work to decolonize my practice and myself will be lifelong. Today it means shedding certain professional titles and designations, distancing myself from particular organizations, deepening my race-informed critical consciousness, and broadening the frame of my own and others’ healing from individual to collective and from psychological to spiritual. It also means continuing to shift my relationship to meditation practices that I came to initially from a western, white-centred, appropriative framework, whose roots are ultimately indigenous and Asian.
As I work to heal the ways in which my body carries familial and collective trauma, I must grapple with the historical truths that determine my privilege and disconnection from my body and the earth. Working through these obstacles through body practices, private study, and within community is my commitment to coming into right relation with other beings including the people who come to me for guidance. Some of the ongoing trainings and workshops I have attended and am committing to are with the following individuals and organizations: Resmaa Menakem, White Awake, Robin DiAngelo, ERE (Education for Racial Equity), Sonya Renee Taylor, PISAB (People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond), Shawna Murray-Browne, EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity, and Rev. angel Kyodo williams.
Kristina Kyser Registered Psychotherapist 