Dr. Krystina Patton, ND, RP
Naturopathic Doctor & Registered Psychotherapist
Toronto ON
What's your "normal"? Has "just getting by" become a way of life?
As we struggle to persevere under the weight of anxiety, depression and mental distress, thriving takes a back seat to surviving.
We all have a survivor within us; a part that carries us through the bad times and holds us together when we feel like falling apart. It's a brilliant evolutionary adaptation - and an unhappy way to live.
As "survivor" goes from being a part that protects us during times of stress to just who we are, it loses its adaptive value.
But what if it doesn't have to be that way? What if there’s more to life than just surviving? What if there’s hope?
From getting back to normal, to redefining the boundaries of normal - there is a better way.
With extensive training in trauma, attachment and neurology, I go beyond psychoanalytic and talk therapy - because unfortunately for most of us, if we were able to think our way out of our emotional state, we would have done it long ago. Something more is needed for true transformation; something that reaches beyond the adult, logical self to the deepest layers of our being.
Combining mind, body and consciousness based therapies with attachment theory, EMDR, IFS, and somatic techniques, I help clients move from talking about their experience to processing through it. The goal is never "coping with" but "moving past" - thriving, not surviving.
Reclaim a new "Normal."
Call 416.726.9424 Today for a Free Consultation.
My journey into the world of mental health began at an early age, as I attempted to navigate the terrain of an emotionally turbulent environment.
By the time I was in my teens, my emotional operating systems were so hard wired, they spoke in absolute, irrefutable truths.
Everyone leaves. You're on your own. People will hurt you. Don't trust. Don't be vulnerable. Just survive.
Even if I'd had any inclination to question those beliefs, I would have found evidence everywhere - when you constantly shut people out, they do tend to walk away. But I didn't question, and so the pattern continued.
Trauma is a great example of classical conditioning; when something hurts, we learn to be careful. When something really hurts, we learn to protect ourselves against it ever happening again. The impact is stronger, the learning is deeper, and the protective strategies are more rigid, broader reaching, and longer lasting.
I had learned well. I didn't trust. I wasn't vulnerable. I did survive.
It worked.
And I was sick of surviving.
Healing was a process of unlearning and relearning, of challenging old beliefs and uncovering new truths. And somewhere between delving into my own emotional history and coming out the other side (which you can read more about here), I fell in love with the process.
Fixing and healing became discovering and transcending.
Surviving became thriving.
And thriving - my own and others’ - became all I wanted.