ABOUT ME

A note on my approach.

My background is in the humanities, and that shapes how I think and listen. I’m attentive to context, history and meaning – the ways ideas, identities and responsibilities settle in people over time. I consider difficulty as something better worked through in relation rather than struggled with in isolation.

If you’re looking for information about how sessions work or practical details like fees, head over to Working Together. If you’re interested in the kind of therapist I am and how I think about my work, read on.

CONTEXT AND VALUES

How I think about this work.

My orientation is existential and relational. I’m interested in how people make sense of their lives and relationships over time, especially when things feel constrained, contradictory or difficult to name. I tend to work less with quick explanations and more with context, history and adaptation.

This approach is shaped by feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive ways of thinking. In practice, that means I’m cautious about pathologising distress that often arises in response to unequal, extractive or dehumanising conditions. I’m interested in how power, expectation and social context shape what becomes possible for someone, and in how those forces are frequently internalised as personal failure.

A young woman with long wavy hair that is brown at the roots and fades into lavender, sitting on a blue armchair in an indoor setting with a dark wall background.

Chelsea Larsson, MA

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

  • MA Counselling Psychology, Yorkville

    PhD History, University of Guelph

    BA & MA History, Dalhousie University

PACING AND PRESENCE

A note on expectations.

I approach the arc of therapy with slow movement and attention to pacing. I resist urgency, optimisation and productivity as default measures of psychological health. I don’t ask clients to perform progress, clarity or vulnerability; honesty and candor are central to how I practise.

I work entirely online for reasons related to access, disability justice and accommodating my own neurodivergence. Whether working with individuals or two people in a relationship, I bring the same care to pacing and presence in virtual sessions as I would in any other setting.

Some sessions will feel like an ordinary conversation. Others might feel heavier, illuminating or end with more questions than answers. None of that means that something has gone wrong or you’re not ‘doing therapy properly’. Change isn’t straightforward, and I don’t expect it to be.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

Meaning, relationship and experience.

My orientation is existential and relational. I’m interested in how people experience responsibility, choice, limitation and change, and in how meaning takes shape in relationship rather than in isolation.

I also wholeheartedly agree with research and wisdom that says the body is an important source of information. Sitting with emotions, exploring somatic sensations and working with these feelings in the moment are all important parts of my practice.