McKinnon Psychotherapy and Counselling

12/10/2025

Let’s talk about the therapeutic alliance! the real engine behind good therapy.

It’s the working relationship between you and your therapist:

✔️ Feeling understood
✔️ Clear goals
✔️ A sense of teamwork
✔️ Open communication

When the alliance is strong, therapy moves. When it’s shaky, everything feels a bit uphill.
How do you build it?

By being honest about what you need, asking questions, giving feedback, and letting your therapist know when something isn’t landing. On our end, it’s about staying curious, collaborative, and attuned to where you want to go.

And if there’s a rupture? Totally normal.

A rupture is simply a moment where the connection feels off, a misunderstanding, a missed cue, or something that didn’t sit right. It doesn’t mean therapy “isn’t working.” It means something important showed up.

The key is naming it.

When you bring it forward, the relationship usually gets stronger, not weaker.

Therapy isn’t about being perfect it’s about staying in the work together.

12/05/2025

12/05/2025

12/04/2025

One last nod to fall before winter takes the lead ❄️

12/01/2025

10/29/2025

I wonder if these little ghosts have followed us to our new clinic at 42 front st?!?!?!?

Has anyone else had a sighting of these little ghosts floating around the new clinic? 👻
(We promise they’re friendly—probably just looking for a good therapist.)

10/09/2025

We’re officially in the final stage of the build… the “we’re fully in and functioning, but there’s still trim, curtains, and about 400 tiny details left” stage. You know the one. The kind where the space is alive and working, but you still find yourself thinking, “does anyone else notice this tiny thing that’s not quite finished?” (Spoiler: probably not. But we do.)

We reached out to to share how we used some of their pieces in our new mental health clinic, and they were so kind and supportive of the idea. Their cabinets, desks, and office chairs have been part of making this space both functional and calming. The kind of design that quietly supports the work happening here every day.

We were intentional about where to invest and where we could be more budget-conscious but one thing we refused to compromise on was how the space feels.

Our brains are wired to constantly scan for safety, comfort, and belonging. The spaces we step into can either calm our nervous system or keep it on alert. The light, the colours, the textures, they all send subtle cues that tell us, “you can settle here.”

That’s why every detail in the clinic was chosen with intention, to create an environment that feels safe, grounded, and restorative from the moment you walk through the door.

And it’s not just about our clients, our clinicians’ experience matters just as much. These pieces were chosen to support their work too: a desk to think and write, a place to store what’s important, a seat that feels good to spend time in. We wanted the people who hold space for others to feel cared for by theirs.

Therapy starts there…in that sense of calm before the conversation even begins. ✨