I believe in your healing.
Relationship Therapy
You feel hurt and unheard, but your partner doesn’t seem to care. Or they might even say they also feel hurt and unheard. This is often because you are hurting on much deeper levels than you realize. Therapy can help get you back to seeing and hearing each other.
Trauma, Anxiety, Depression
Trauma reaction is a survival strategy applied to everyday situations. This started when a survival situation happened in your everyday life: it blurred the line between what is extraordinary and what is ordinary.
Therapy can bring back balance.
Self-Worth
Many in the current society believe they have to produce benefit to be worthy. This can quickly create a loop, e.g. “I don’t need a relationship to feel worthy because I have a good job.”
Therapy can help you find a way out.
Your Own Space
These days it is difficult to truly be yourself and talk freely, even with the loved ones. Often, a stranger is easier to talk to, but then you have to worry about confidentiality. Therapists are trained strangers who will protect your confidentiality, and, for me, it is totally appropriate to use therapy this way.
Those Who Care About Better Tomorrow
I will not guilt and shame you for not doing enough or not knowing the right words. We are not supposed to do everything – it is not possible. This society is designed to pit our self-preservation against collective liberation, and denying it helps no one.
I believe it is important that we each figure out who we are in the society and what life we want to live, and caring about better tomorrow should fit it.
Growing up a trans kid in the 70’s and an environmentalist kid in the 80’s, I have had the privilege of being exposed to this culture. I will not “teach” you what I know, but it will help me hold space for your exploration.
Who Do I Work With?
The most important factor is that you feel seen. It is also helpful if you find me intriguing.
Some are very different from me and like me for the “fresh eye.” Others are similar to me and like me for the shared experience. Social media content creators might find my lived experience valuable.
People of marginalized neurotypes (aka neurodivergent, autism, ADHD, gifted, artists) often say it is easy to talk to me.
Am I the right therapist for you? The best way to find out is by actually talking to me.
About Tamaki
I am Tamaki Kano (鹿野環 | they/them), RCC, CCC, MCP-AT, M.Sc. I came to Turtle Island as an adult immigrant from Japan.
I became aware of psychotherapy after experiencing violence. I was sent to the university’s counsellor, who taught me how new trauma is processed through the lens of my past, including childhood trauma I did not know to name.
I learned to study myself, which helps me to this day. However, I struggled (and still struggle) to find a therapist who could understand my experience as a racialized, trans immigrant. After being disillusioned in my previous career, I decided to become the therapist I needed.
Therapy is about change, and I believe my work is deepened by my own experience of change, both chosen and forced, in myself and in my environment. Living across cultures, breakups, career change, “starting over,” adopting a traumatized dog, playing and reffing sports, systemic and interpersonal violence, and being out-trans nonbinary gay kid in the 70’s, to name a few.
Personal Values
I do not expect you to hold the same values and will never pressure you to.
I strive for universal design. I wear N95 (aura) / KN95 (GATA) except when outside and windy.
I do not use any AI note-taking, automated transcription, or machine-learning / LLM. I have nothing against therapists who do, but I do not believe AI can document a person’s growth in therapy the way I can.
I stand for I/indigenous self determination (including Palestine, Africa, and Turtle Island), Black Liberation, Disability inclusion, 2SLGBTQIA+ equity, gender-affirming care, harm reduction and safe supply, housing as a human right, and Japan’s full apologies and reparations.
Approaches
I am grounded in humanistic therapy (person-centred and existential). I am trained in EMDR, EFCT (relationship therapy), trauma therapy, somatic, the nervous system regulation, art therapy, DBT, and the anti-oppressive modern CBT.
I respect all cultural healing, from ethnocultural ceremonies to community gatherings to family traditions.
I am informed by the common factor theory: research shows that how the therapist engages is more important than the techniques.
I actively maintain a trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, land back praxis in professional, personal, and political aspects of my life.
I do not believe in “curing” autism or ADHD. Symptom management can be effective, but beyond that I provide three therapeutic approaches. 1. neurodivergent people experience oppression and the resulting anxiety, 2. even without oppression, it is difficult, lonely, and confusing to be different, 3. glorification of unmasking does harm and sometimes turn into toxic positivity or aspie supremacy.
“What approach would work for me?” Sorry about the cliche, but it depends. Please book a no-pressure consult to discuss (if I think that you would be better served by another therapist, I will be honest with you).
Fees
I keep my fees low instead of sliding scale.
I only offer a limited number of free or half-cost spots.
Individual Therapy (60 min)
Relationship Therapy (60 min)
Peer Consult (60 min)
$150 / 60 min
$180 / 60 min
$150+GST / 60 min
Direct billing with FNHA, ICBC, Greenshield, Blue Cross (including some StudentCare), and SunLife may be available. Please inquire.
I do not charge a cancellation fee.
Contact
Please use the form below, email me, or book a consult from the confidential booking site.
psychotherapy, psychotherapist, registered, licensed counselling psychotherapist, asian, east asian, japanese, transgender, neurodivergent, autistic, adhd, gifted, neurospicy, neuroqueer, BIPOC, POC, racialized, immigrant, trans nonbinary non-binary enby agender pansexual gay bisexual
