About psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Toronto with Fadi Abou-Rihan

hello

I'm a registered psychotherapist and psychoanalyst based in Toronto and I've been in private practice for over two decades. I work with adult clients locally and internationally. I am available to those that can meet in person and, via tele-therapy, to those that may not have local access to qualified and experienced clinicians.

I work with people who, in spite of great difficulties, have not given up on finding meaning in their lives. I help them as they struggle with isolation, depression, anxiety, grief or early trauma. Some are trying their best to manage difficult relationships. Others are wondering about their orientation or identity--gendered, sexual, ethnic. Others still are planning the next meaningful transition in their lives.

Get in touch if you would like to meet and discuss what you're struggling with and how I may be of help.

what moves you?

What gives you meaning? What of all that lies ahead is genuinely freeing and what is just the sequel to a painful past or a limiting present?

What struggles and difficulties have you been carrying for so long they've become the uniform that wears you down every day you show up for life? And what about the days when you can’t or don’t want to show up at all?

Where do you feel you belong the most and how much strength or agility do you need to get there? Or might you belong the most where you already are? And if so, what do you need to do to make your environment more sustaining, more enlivening?

patience, compassion, curiosity

You've tackled these questions already. You tried the confidences with friends but there is only so much you’re comfortable sharing. Self-help hasn’t delivered on its grandiose promises and, as it turns out, cognitive therapy is the one-size-fits-all therapy that just doesn't seem to fit. Medications have helped numb the pain; but, by the same token, they've put the pleasure even further out of reach.

In spite of great difficulties, people still seek meaning in their lives. The basic question that meets anyone starting psychotherapy--what ails you?--often leads to one that is deeper and more compelling: what moves you? The answers to both are connected and psychotherapy offers the patience, compassion and curiosity needed to sort them.

new connections, new possibilities

What got you to your present are feelings and events, relationships and memories—faint or strong, good or bad, no matter. You’re not the sole author of what’s led you here, but you carry it with you. Psychotherapy helps you know it better and gives you the tools to sort it out. It’s by sorting out what got you here in the first place that you may begin to cross a divide and move forward.

Psychotherapy helps you tell your story, in your words and at your own pace. You'll begin to make new connections; what you feel will make more sense and what you know will become more useful. You'll be more aware of your strengths and more careful about your limitations; your ability to meet life's challenges may now grow.

and so, the journey begins...

my services

psychotherapy

psychotherapy

You have a life and a history that are unique. As unique is the difficulty you’re now facing: a persistent sense of emptiness or anxiety, a painful loss, a tough transition. Psychotherapy helps you make more sense of the difficulty, or make sense of it in a different way; its context and causes become clearer and, in the process, it becomes less draining, more manageable. Eventually, you may find that you have space for new experiences, feelings, relationships.

psychoanalysis

psychoanalysis

From our yongest and most impressionable to our adult and self-reliant, our characters are affected in ways that are often elusive and difficult to explore. Psychoanalysis is a process of self-observation that leads to understanding and transformation. It is built on a relationship of trust, confidentiality, and non-judgement. Its aim is to take stock of strengths and weaknesses, talents and limitations, to live with the knowledge of who one is and what one can and wants to do.

supervision

supervision

For psychotherapists, I offer supervision—both practice and case specific. My approach is exploratory and pragmatic. While Freud, Winnicott and Lacan have been my major inspirations, I subscribe to the principle that no one theory can reign supreme over the psyche and no single perspective should account for an entire clinical repertoire. This is why as a supervisor I am less interested in pushing a doctrine than I am in helping answer a question, introduce a possibility, trace a link or loosen an impasse.

about me

I have been in private practice in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Toronto since the late 1990s.

I am a member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, a graduate of the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and hold a PhD from the University of Toronto.

Alongside my clinical work, I maintain an active research record. I published a book on Winnicott recently, following an earlier one on Deleuze and Guattari. I’ve also published a number of professional articles and reviews and given many conference papers in Canada, the US and Europe.

fadi abou-rihan

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