Irish's Story

A Fellow Human

Dear Prospective Client, 

As you contemplate choosing the counsellor or therapist you want to work with, you may find yourself looking through the Irish Oak Wellness website. Since you are here, I want to share a brief story about my life that I hope will support you in making the decision that has brought you to this page. 

If I was to answer, "What led me to becoming a psychotherapist and counsellor?", I would say that it is simply my life experiences as a human. Experiences of loss, grief, traumatic events, and the ups and downs of life brought me to a place where I decided to dedicate my learning and growth to becoming a person who can support others through their journeys. The first step to supporting others is becoming committed to one’s own healing, therefore any tool or therapy practice I use with clients is something that I work with as well.

My work within the helping profession finds its roots in a mentorship role I participated in at University of Toronto for a student with a disability, as I too live with a life-long physical disability. Years down the road, I became a peer supporter for those grieving death loss, as I had experienced the death of my partner and my father.

Through my experiences and through synchronicities of life, I found myself to continue pursuing personal and professional growth leading into becoming a Registered Psychotherapist. 

When I look back at my life, it partly surprises me to see where I am today and partly feels like this was always meant to be. I moved to Canada in the late nineties from India and here I learned to manoeuvre my life as child, teenager, and adult living with a progressive physical disability.  

As a solo practitioner, I prfioritize client care, and I do so by having a small client case load so that I can show up in the most supportive way possible for each client. If you choose to move forward with working together through counselling or therapy, I find it is important that you have information on my journey of what brought me here and how those experiences have taught me to not only do counselling or therapy work, but also to show up for a fellow human from the understanding of human experiences.  

If you choose to move forward with booking a free consultation, we can both connect and explore together if the therapy space I provide is what you are seeking in your journey of life. 

With deepest gratitude and appreciation,

Irish Dhindsa, RP, CCC