Carol McDowell

Get to know me

Meet Carol

Begin where you are

Psychotherapy is a way to tell your story

Psychotherapy becomes a lot less daunting when you realize it’s actually just a way to tell your story.

I remember hiding under the covers with a flashlight as a child, reading or writing. It turns out I knew something many famous psychologists understood long before I was even born — the truth heals us, and brings resolution. Especially when we are heard, and have room to discover how to make meaning out of our experiences.

Why I became a psychotherapist

From journalist to therapist

I was a journalist for almost 30 years, and that’s one of the reasons I changed careers. Even though I discovered many injustices and gave many people the opportunity to be heard, there was no mechanism to help them — or myself — create meaning out of our shared experience.

That’s the reason I love being a psychotherapist.

My approach

Grounded in the humanist tradition

Different types of psychology have evolved over the last 100 years — from Freud and Jung’s psychodynamic era, through the behaviourists, to the humanist period of the 1960s. The humanists believed that a strong therapeutic relationship, built through deep reflection of the client’s perceptions and experiences, helps each person find and become their most authentic self. That’s the lineage I feel most aligned to.

From that foundation, I draw on Internal Family Systems (IFS), Rogerian, CBT (including CBT trauma processing), Narrative therapy, Somatic, Mindfulness, and trauma therapy in my work with clients.

Modalities I draw on

Couples and family specialty

Attachment, patterns, and the people we love most

I also specialize in couples and family therapy. I begin by helping clients understand attachment disorders — and how this type of wounding creates disruptive patterns that disconnect us from the people we love most.

I’m a graduate of The Developmental Model of Couples Therapy Training under Ellyn Bader, Ph.D. at The Couples Institute — a structured, attachment-informed approach to couples work that integrates beautifully with the rest of my practice.

What I bring to the work

Grassroots experience, lived understanding

I worked as a volunteer and mentor with people who experienced substance use disorders for many years before becoming a psychotherapist. That work — alongside individuals and families in grassroots organizations and treatment centres — is one of the foundations I rely on in every session.

What I found there is what I still believe now: once a person has told all of their story — and what they had come to believe about themselves because of it — they are free, and ready to learn new ways to be in the world. This is the best part. Every story can have a new ending.