Rhoen's Ground & Growth Therapy

Hearing your child say, “Nobody likes me,” can be heartbreaking. The instinct is often to reassure them right away. You may want to say, “Of course people like you,” and start listing friends, classmates, or family members who care about them. But when an autistic child says, “Nobody likes me,” they are often communicating something deeper. They may mean: I feel left out. I don’t understand what I did wrong. I feel different from everyone else. I tried to connect and it didn’

When an autistic child becomes intensely upset, it can be difficult for parents to know what is happening. Is this a tantrum? Are they overwhelmed? Should I hold the boundary? Should I give them space? From the outside, autistic meltdowns and tantrums can sometimes look similar. Both may involve crying, yelling, withdrawing, dropping to the floor, or difficulty responding to an adult. However, what is happening underneath the behaviour can be very different. Understanding tha

Social anxiety is more than ordinary nervousness or a preference for small groups. It involves an ongoing fear of being judged, embarrassed, rejected, or negatively evaluated in social or performance situations. A person may avoid meetings, presentations, dating, telephone calls, classes, eating in public, or even brief conversations. Others attend these situations but rely on safety behaviours, such as rehearsing every sentence, avoiding eye contact, speaking as little as po

People pleasing is often misunderstood as simply being “too nice.” In reality, it is usually a learned pattern of prioritizing other people’s needs, feelings, and expectations while minimizing your own. A people pleaser may agree to things they do not have the time or energy for, avoid expressing disagreement, apologize excessively, or feel responsible for keeping everyone around them happy. In psychological research, related patterns are sometimes described as self-silencing

If you're searching for Therapy for burnout Ottawa, you may be feeling emotionally exhausted, overwhelmed, or like you're constantly running on empty. Burnout can affect your work, relationships, physical health, and overall quality of life. While it's often associated with demanding careers, burnout can also result from caregiving responsibilities, parenting, chronic stress, or prolonged emotional strain. At Ground & Growth Therapy, we provide Therapy for burnout Ottawa for

If you're searching for Ottawa autism services, you're likely looking for support for yourself or someone you care about. Finding the right therapist can make a meaningful difference in developing coping strategies, improving relationships, and navigating everyday challenges. At Ground & Growth Therapy, we provide Ottawa autism services for adults with Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a compassionate, respectful, and neurodiversity-affirming environment. What Is Leve

If you're searching for Cognitive behaviour therapy Ottawa, you're likely looking for an evidence-based form of psychotherapy that can help with anxiety, depression, stress, and many other mental health concerns. You may have noticed that some websites use the phrase Cognitive behavioural therapy instead. While the wording is slightly different, they refer to the exact same therapy. In Canada, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the more commonly used clinical term, but ma

There are seasons in life when stress feels unavoidable. A demanding job, caring for children or aging parents, financial pressures, relationship challenges, or simply trying to keep up with everything can leave you feeling overwhelmed. While stress is a normal part of being human, there comes a point where it can become something more. Burnout isn't just about feeling tired. It's a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion that develops when stress continues for to

If you're considering therapy, one of the first questions you may have is: how much does therapy cost Ontario? The answer depends on several factors, including the therapist's qualifications, the type of therapy being provided, session length, and whether services are covered through insurance or employee benefits. Understanding the typical cost of therapy in Ontario can help you make an informed decision and find support that fits your needs and budget. Average Therapy Costs

Autism is often still imagined through a narrow set of stereotypes: a young boy who avoids eye contact, has obvious social difficulties, dislikes change, and has intense interests in things like trains, numbers, or technology. While this presentation can be true for some autistic people, it does not capture the full range of autistic experience. In particular, autism in women and girls is frequently missed, misunderstood, or diagnosed much later in life (Kreiser & White, 2014

When people think about ADHD, they often think about difficulty focusing, forgetfulness, procrastination, or hyperactivity. What gets talked about far less is the emotional side of ADHD, the part many people quietly carry for years without fully understanding. For many individuals, ADHD is not just about attention. It is also about shame. Frustration. Emotional overwhelm. Feeling deeply affected by criticism. Feeling “too much” in relationships, but somehow also feeling like

Many people describe overthinking as feeling trapped inside their own mind. A conversation is replayed again and again. A small decision becomes exhausting. A text message is analyzed from every possible angle. A mistake from the past suddenly feels impossible to let go of. Even when part of you knows that thinking more is not helping, your mind keeps returning to the same questions: What if I made the wrong choice? What if they are upset with me? Why did I say that? What doe

For many military members, veterans, first responders, and public safety personnel, psychological distress does not come from a single “bad day.” It can build over time through repeated exposure to danger, loss, high-stakes decisions, traumatic events, and situations where a person is required to keep functioning even when their nervous system is overwhelmed. The term operational stress injury, often shortened to OSI, was developed in Canadian military and public safety conte

Walking into a therapy session for the first time can feel surprisingly intimidating. Many people assume they should arrive with a perfectly organized explanation of their problems — a clear timeline, a polished narrative, or a complete understanding of why they feel the way they do. Some even worry they need to “prove” that their struggles are serious enough to deserve support. In reality, therapy rarely begins with certainty. As therapists, we often meet people at moments w

Over the past several years, virtual therapy has shifted from being viewed as a temporary alternative to becoming a well-established form of mental health care. What has surprised many clinicians, however, is not simply that therapy can work online, it is that some people appear to open up more in virtual sessions than they do in traditional face-to-face therapy. Research on telepsychology increasingly suggests that therapeutic alliance, the sense of trust, collaboration, and

When people search for support from ptsd therapists ottawa, one of the most common questions they ask is: “How do I know whether I have PTSD, complex PTSD, or anxiety?” These terms are often used interchangeably online, but clinically, they are not the same thing. While there can be overlap in symptoms, such as difficulty sleeping, irritability, racing thoughts, hypervigilance, or avoidance, the underlying mechanisms, causes, and treatment approaches can differ significantly.

One of the most common misconceptions about autism is the idea that special interests are simply “obsessions.” From a clinical perspective, that framing is often inaccurate—and at times harmful. While autistic special interests can be intense, deeply focused, and emotionally significant, they are frequently sources of joy, regulation, identity, learning, and connection rather than symptoms that need to be eliminated. For many autistic individuals, special interests are not ju

Trauma is often misunderstood as simply “something bad that happened.” Clinically, trauma refers to experiences that overwhelm a person’s ability to cope, leaving the nervous system reacting as though danger may still be present long after the event has ended. Many people living with trauma describe: feeling constantly on edge struggling to relax, even in safe situations emotional numbness during conflict feeling disconnected from their body intense anxiety without knowing wh

Many adults do not begin to question whether they may have ADHD until years of struggling with burnout, chronic overwhelm, anxiety, work instability, relationship stress, or a persistent sense that everyday life feels harder for them than it appears to for other people. In clinical practice, this is increasingly common. What is often described as “late-onset ADHD” is usually better understood as late recognition. The symptoms were frequently present all along, but they were o

Therapy for Level 1 autism often focuses on challenges that may not always be obvious from the outside. Many individuals with Level 1 autism are able to manage school, work, relationships, or independent living while still struggling internally with anxiety, sensory overload, masking, burnout, executive functioning difficulties, emotional exhaustion, or chronic stress. Because of this, therapy for Level 1 autism is usually less about teaching basic life skills and more about