About Me
Hi! I’m Aviva Bellman,
Registered Social Worker/Psychotherapist.
Since 2018, I've focused on helping clients wrestling with self-esteem issues, people-pleasing, and conflict avoidance in relationships. My practice aims to foster self-acceptance, self-worth, personal power, and authentic connection.
I am deeply committed to cultural humility, social justice, and embracing complexity in all forms. I am sensitive to the interplay of privilege and oppression in our identities and how this can show up in therapy.
My Jewish heritage is a core part of who I am. Growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community, I've experienced both the benefits of a connected minority culture and the challenges of negotiating values that did not fit for me. So, I bring to my psychotherapy practice an understanding of navigating conflicting cultural values. This helps me appreciate your journey of balancing an authentic self with familial, communal, and ethnic belonging. I also respect your unique experience, recognizing you as the expert of your life.
My Approach
I have a passion for helping people reconnect more deeply with the flow of their own experience: with their feelings, in their bodies. My therapeutic home base is Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT). EFT asserts that our feelings are our psychological truths, and provide us with important, life-enriching information. EFT can help folks struggling with confidence and conflict avoidance to access and express their experience; to rediscover their voice and power.
Of course, we often come to therapy to get relief from very painful emotions that don't seem to give us any helpful information, like an excess of guilt, shame, and beliefs of inadequacy. From an EFT perspective, we have to “feel it to heal it.” When we allow ourselves to feel painful feelings in therapy, in a safe and bearable way, they become accessible for healing.
Transformative techniques in EFT consist of using other, more helpful feelings to shift unhelpful feelings. An example of this is connecting with assertive anger to heal shame. An emotional alchemy takes place that births healing and wholeness.
Why You Should Work With Me
I guide you on a journey of accepting and processing your emotions, healing your psychological wounds, and discovering what you uniquely need. With my engaged and empathic presence, it becomes possible for you to dive into your own internal world, swim safely through your experience, and discover that you can surf your internal waves.
People tend to avoid “hard” feelings, because they are uncomfortable. I gently guide you into your feelings in a slow and safe way, so that you too can claim your inner experience and know what you need. We can also get overwhelmed by emotion. I am there to help you regulate in the moment, so that your feelings become bearable enough for you to move through them.
As a recovering people-pleaser myself, I am passionate about helping others reclaim their own internal worlds and find their authentic voices to use in the world outside. I believe that becoming intimate with ourselves is critical to developing healthy relationships. At the same time, I believe that healthy relationships help us reconnect with ourselves.
My Professional Background
I received my MSW in 2017 from Smith College, a U.S. based clinical social work program that integrates anti-racism and anti-oppression with the practice of psychotherapy. During my training, I completed two year-long supervised internships in Toronto, one at SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health, and the other at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
Since graduating, I completed advanced training in Emotion Focused Therapy (Levels 1 & 2); EFT for Generalized Anxiety; EFT for Couples (Levels 1 & 2), Deliberate Practice in EFT. I am a member of ISEFT, the International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy, and have been receiving supervision from Dr Sarah Thompson since 2018.
More About Me
I am an amateur singer who finds joy in both solo and group singing. This passion mirrors my work in helping others balance individuality and connection, appreciating both the beauty of our unique voices and the sweetness of unity.
As an avid gardener, I am dedicated to nurturing life toward its full potential. I have learned firsthand that when a flower doesn’t bloom, you change the environment, not the flower. You can count on me to accept you, trust your wisdom, and support your psychological growth.
20 Minute No-Cost Consult
I invite you to schedule a no-cost video consultation to further explore whether my approach is a match for your therapy goals.