The same conflicts keep happening in your relationships.
Sex feels like a chore. You're navigating a break-up or betrayal. You're healing from sexual trauma.You feel emotionally disconnected from yourself or your partner.
You’re questioning your desires, relationships, or sense of self. Cultural expectations or gender roles feel difficult to carry. You want to feel connected to your body,
pleasure & joy - especially after trauma.
Sometimes, what we struggle with in our relationships, sexuality, and within ourselves has a deeper history.
SHALYN ISAACS, M.ED, Counselling Psychology
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
CRPO License #10523
Member, Canadian Association of Psychodynamic Therapists
For 10 years, I have worked in the mental health field, supporting people in deepening their connection with themselves, their sexuality, and their relationships
after experiencing trauma, particularly sexual trauma.
My work explores how unconscious beliefs and
psychological patterns, trauma and childhood
experiences, gender roles, and cultural expectations
can shape the ways we relate to ourselves, our intimate
relationships, and our sexuality.
The majority of my work over the years has been supporting
those who have experienced sexual trauma with rebuilding their
connection to their sense of pleasure, mind-body, and with having
fulfilling relationships.
As a therapist, I am warm and inviting, and also offer direct
observations and ask questions to support you with finding
answers within yourself.
I have a love for supporting people with making the
unconscious, conscious - in the pursuit of greater
psychological freedom to create mutually satisfying
relationships that end hurtful cycles and that support ripples
of change in one's family, relationships, and future generations.
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
SEXUALITY, DESIRE, INTIMACY
Sexuality, mind-body connection,
sexual trauma healing, pleasure, intimacy,
sexual shame, cultural values around sexuality.
RELATIONSHIP ISSUES & PATTERNS
Attachment, recurring relationship patterns, dating, emotional intimacy, relationship difficulties.
BREAKUPS & RELATIONAL HEALING
Breakups, separation, divorce, betrayal, grief and healing from past relationships.
FAMILY, CULTURE & GENDER
Family experiences, family expectations, cultural expectations, gender roles and intergenerational patterns.
CAREER & LIFE TRANSITIONS
Career changes, work stress, major life transitions, financial pressures, financial trauma.
ANXIETY, STRESS, AND BURN-OUT
Anxiety, chronic stress, overwhelm, perfectionism, burnout, depression, over-thinking.
COUPLES PSYCHOTHERAPY
EMOTIONAL DISTANCE
Emotional disconnection, loss of closeness, loneliness within the relationship, push-withdraw dynamics.
SEXUAL INTIMACY
Sexual desire, differences in desire, sexual disconnection, pleasure & intimacy.
CULTURE, FAMILY, GENDER ROLES
Cultural differences, family expectations, gender roles, intergenerational relationship patterns.
CAREER & FINANCIAL PRESSURES
Career pressures, work-life stress, major transitions, balance, financial stress
RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT
Recurring arguments, communication difficulties, resentment, unresolved conflict.
INFIDELITY / BETRAYAL
Affairs, betrayal, trust issues, relationship repair.
PREGNANCY & POSTPARTUM
Sexuality in pregnancy & postpartum, changing sexual desire in postpartum, relationship changes
PARENTING CHALLENGES
Becoming parents, parenting styles, changing relationship roles after children.
MY APPROACH:
Psychodynamic psychotherapy for exploring how the unconscious shapes our relationship with ourselves, our partners, and sexual wellness.
My approach to therapy with individuals and couples is grounded primarily in relational psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theory. I also draw from trauma-sensitive and anti-oppressive frameworks, alongside training in sex therapy, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), mindfulness, somatic approaches, and yogic and Buddhist principles.
This means that I ask questions and make observations to support you in:
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Exploring patterns that keep repeating in your relationships.
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Understanding the unconscious meanings and emotional histories underlying why these patterns may continue.
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Examining how family, culture, gender expectations, social conditions, and life experiences have shaped your relationship with yourself, your partner, your body, and your sexuality.
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Creating opportunities for new relational experiences that allow for greater connection, pleasure, joy, and healing.
I believe that many of the ways we relate to ourselves and others are shaped by experiences and messages we have internalized, often outside of our conscious awareness. Our childhood relationships and life histories matter, but so do the worlds we grew up within: cultural values, family expectations, gender norms, experiences of power and marginalization, and financial or social conditions.
Rather than simply asking “How do I stop doing this?” psychodynamic therapy creates space to become curious about why a pattern developed, what purpose it may have once served, and why it continues to emerge in the present.
Through developing this understanding and experiencing new ways of relating, therapy can support you in responding to yourself and others with greater awareness, choice, and compassion rather than automatically repeating patterns shaped by the past.
Speaking Engagements, Teaching,
Workshops, & Projects
For over 10 years, I have explored how culture, gender, trauma, and social systems shape people's inner worlds and relationships through my teaching workshops, research and work with universities, mental health organizations, community organizations, and media. These experiences continue to inform how I work with individuals and couples today.
My Office Space: Hamilton, ON
My office is located inside the Hamilton Therapy Collective building located at
185 Young Street.
My Hours:
Saturday & Sunday: 8:00am - 1:00pm
Monday - Wednesday: 5:30pm - 8:00pm