Therapy for Relational Trauma in Ottawa & Online Across Ontario
Healing from Past Relational Harm: Relational Trauma Therapy in Ottawa
Whether you are looking for relational trauma therapy in Ottawa or seeking online relationship trauma support in Ontario, I provide specialized, trauma-informed support to help you heal the patterns that keep you feeling unsafe in closeness.
Relational trauma forms when harm occurs within a relationship that was meant to provide safety, care, or trust. Because the injury happens in relationship, it can deeply shape how safe closeness feels in your body and how you relate to others. Relational trauma can occur in any significant relationship, including early caregiving relationships, romantic partnerships, friendships, or other significant connections.
My approach to relational trauma treatment in Ottawa focuses on processing repeated experiences of emotional neglect, betrayal, or invalidation, allowing your nervous system to move out of survival mode and back into grounded connection.
In my Ontario-wide virtual psychotherapy practice, I helps clients recognize that relational trauma lives on as automatic nervous system responses. These adaptive survival strategies were developed to protect you in relationships that felt unsafe.
Common signs can include:
Hyper-vigilance: Scanning for signs of rejection or disconnection in relationships
Trust Issues: Difficulty trusting others or your own internal cues
The Closeness Paradox: A simultaneous fear of intimacy and a deep fear of abandonment
Emotional Shutdown: Numbing or "freezing" during conflict as a protective response
Repeating Dynamics: Finding yourself in similar patterns of invalidation or instability
Signs of Relational Trauma in Adults: Support for Ontario Residents
Understanding the Roots of Relational Trauma: Psychotherapy in Ontario
Relational trauma can develop through repeated experiences:
Emotional neglect or unavailability
Criticism or invalidation
Betrayal, infidelity, or abandonment
Inconsistent or unpredictable caregiving
Repeated relational instability
While early childhood experiences play a significant role, relational trauma can also form in adulthood. Painful experiences with partners, friends, or family later in life can be just as impactful and shape how safe connection feels moving forward.
Gal Zohar, Ottawa Psychotherapist Specializing in Relational Trauma
As a licensed psychotherapist, I have witnessed that healing goes beyond insight alone—it happens through safe, consistent, and attuned relational experiences.
My approach is relational, attachment-based, and trauma-informed. Therapy becomes a space where your nervous system can experience emotional safety, consistency, and connection—allowing patterns shaped by past relational harm to soften over time.
In therapy, we can focus on:
Creating emotional safety and attunement within the therapeutic relationship
Understanding trauma responses
Processing relational wounds at a nervous system level
Developing emotional regulation and self-trust
Building new relational experiences that feel grounded and safe
Strengthening a compassionate relationship with yourself
This work is about restoring your capacity to feel safe, grounded, and connected—in relationship with yourself and others.
Heal Relationship Trauma Online Anywhere in Ontario
If you’re noticing patterns shaped by relational trauma or attachment wounds, virtual therapy in Ontario can offer a space to slow down and feel safe in connection again.