Hi, I’m Ari!
I’ve recently completed my Master of Counselling and am currently waiting for my professional designation*. I also hold a BA in Psychology and Human Services. I’m trained in Gottman Level 1 & 2 for couples, and I’ve completed additional training in maternal mental health - an area close to my heart. Before becoming a counsellor, I spent nearly a decade working in harm reduction and addiction services, experiences that taught me to see people through a lens of compassion and possibility. I genuinely believe that people are doing the best they can with what they have.
As a therapist, I’m warm, curious, and very human. I want therapy to feel like a space where you can exhale - where you don’t have to perform or defend, and where your story is met with respect, softness, and deep listening. I’m not here to tell you who you should be. I’m here to walk beside you as you make sense of your experiences, clarify what matters to you, and gently return to the parts of yourself that may have been quieted by pain, shame, or expectation.
I’m especially drawn to working with trauma, particularly sexual injustice and birth trauma, and with people navigating grief, identity shifts, and major life transitions. I love supporting folks who are deconstructing long-held beliefs, stepping into new versions of themselves, or trying to understand who they are in the midst of change. I also work with mothers at every stage, including those in perinatal and postnatal seasons.
My approach blends Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Jungian perspectives, existential and person-centred work, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Narrative Therapy. I often bring in myth, symbol, and storytelling, because I believe the stories we carry - those we inherit and those we create - shape how we move through the world.
I am committed to a practice that is inclusive, affirming, and grounded in consent and collaboration. I welcome queer, transgender, non-binary, LGB, ace, and poly individuals. I affirm all bodies and draw from Health at Every Size (HAES) principles, honouring each person’s inherent dignity and wisdom.
My name is Sebastian Wingfield and I am a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC #10006435) and a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC #22622).
Beyond my master’s degree in counselling psychology, I have extensive training as an existential therapist and integrate elements of humanistic, psychodynamic, and contemporary cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques in my work to form an individualized treatment plan that is co-authored with the client.
What does existential therapy look like?
When most people hear the term “existential therapist,” they might think about different ideas like “existential dread or crisis” and someone in a scratchy turtleneck who just wants to talk about death and meaning. And yes, these are technically existential concepts, but my approach is a little different. Without getting into too many details, what’s essential is this: My aim each session is to help clients become more of who they really are, rather than who they should be. The more experience I’ve gained as a counsellor, the more I have become convinced that when clients can expand their ability to be who they really are, the more meaningful life can be.
This process will look different for each client, as my approach is non-prescriptive; but it is guided heavily by principles of therapy that are collaborative, person-centered, trauma-informed, and attachment-informed.
>“To be human means to be constantly questioned by life, and in the existential understanding, it is the job of the human being to respond to life’s questions with the best possible answer in a particular situation; through these answers, the human being becomes responsible for his/her life. ”
