Toronto & Vancouver Online Therapy
Specialized therapy for founders, executives, and high-achieving people navigating perfectionism, burnout, overcontrol, and the hidden costs of success.
Background
My name is Hala. I work with founders, executives, and high-achieving people who are used to solving their own problems, and who come to therapy not because they're falling apart, but because a pattern that used to work for them has stopped.
The themes I see most often: burnout that doesn't respond to time off, difficulty delegating or trusting a team, standards that have started slowing execution down instead of driving it, and the tension between staying driven and staying present with the people who matter most. I have a particular interest in perfectionism and overcontrol specifically — more on that pattern here.
My own path of building a life and a career across different countries, largely from the ground up shaped how I work. I understand ambition from the inside, not just from a textbook.
In parallel, my work is informed in culturally sensitive, trauma informed practice.
I work with curiosity and candour. We can take seriously both the strengths that brought you this far and the costs of relying on them in every situation. My perspective is relational and attentive to attachment, lived experience and cultural context. I will not offer a quick fix or simply agree with a pattern that is keeping you stuck.
Credentials
I hold a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Adler University, and I'm dually registered as a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) and a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC).
My clinical training includes:
Radically Open DBT (RO-DBT) developed specifically for overcontrolled coping styles: perfectionism, rigidity, difficulty trusting others, and emotional restraint that's stopped serving the person underneath it. This is often the most directly relevant training I bring to founders and executives.
ADHD Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP) many founders and executives carry undiagnosed or overlooked ADHD underneath what looks like drive or "just being wired that way.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) for processing specific formative experiences, ruptures, or patterns tied to achievement and control.
Motivational Interviewing for the specific kind of ambivalence high-achievers often bring: knowing something isn't working, without yet being ready to change it.
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy for partners navigating the impact of one or both people's drive on the relationship.
I also incorporate dreamwork for clients who want to go deeper, you can read more about that here →.
Those approaches inform how I work, but sessions begin with your experience rather than a predetermined method. I continue to develop my practice through further clinical training and consultation.
