Hi, I’m Ari!
As a therapist, I bring warmth, curiosity, and a very human presence into the room. I want this to feel like a space where you can finally exhale - where you don’t have to perform, explain yourself, or defend who you are. Your story is met here with respect, softness, and deep, unhurried listening.
I’m here to walk alongside you as you make sense of your experiences, rediscover what truly matters to you, and gently reconnect with the parts of yourself that may have been quieted under the weight of pain, shame, or others’ expectations. To do this is an honour - it is truly a privilege to accompany someone on their journey.
My practice is rooted in existential and feminist phenomenological traditions and informed by somatic approaches. In therapy, we turn toward what is alive in your body, emotions, and relationships. We listen carefully to what your experience is inviting, finding the courage to stay with it, and allowing new awareness, vitality, meaning, and self-compassion to emerge - without hurrying to “fix” anything. I also tailor therapy to your unique story, culture, and worldview, and often bring in myth, symbol, and storytelling, because I believe the stories we carry - those we inherit and those we create - shape how we move through the world.
I am committed to a practice that is inclusive, affirming, and grounded in consent and collaboration. I welcome queer, transgender, non-binary, LGB, ace, and poly individuals. I affirm all bodies and draw from Health at Every Size (HAES) principles, honouring each person’s inherent dignity and wisdom.
My name is Sebastian Wingfield and I am a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC #10006435) and a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC #22622).
Beyond my master’s degree in counselling psychology, I have extensive training as an existential therapist and integrate elements of humanistic, psychodynamic, and contemporary cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques in my work to form an individualized treatment plan that is co-authored with the client.
What does existential therapy look like?
When most people hear the term “existential therapist,” they might think about different ideas like “existential dread or crisis” and someone in a scratchy turtleneck who just wants to talk about death and meaning. And yes, these are technically existential concepts, but my approach is a little different. Without getting into too many details, what’s essential is this: My aim each session is to help clients become more of who they really are, rather than who they should be. The more experience I’ve gained as a counsellor, the more I have become convinced that when clients can expand their ability to be who they really are, the more meaningful life can be.
This process will look different for each client, as my approach is non-prescriptive; but it is guided heavily by principles of therapy that are collaborative, person-centered, trauma-informed, and attachment-informed.
>“To be human means to be constantly questioned by life, and in the existential understanding, it is the job of the human being to respond to life’s questions with the best possible answer in a particular situation; through these answers, the human being becomes responsible for his/her life. ”
