Finding the right therapist is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. It's also, frankly, one of the most exhausting.
You need someone who gets it — who understands the complexity of trauma, the way neurodivergence shapes your experience, the particular grief of displacement or cultural in-betweenness. Someone whose training is solid, whose approach is warm, and who you can actually imagine sitting across from (or appearing on a screen with) without your walls going straight up.
That's the kind of practice we've tried to build at Théla.
This post is an introduction — to our clinic, to our clinicians, and to how virtual therapy has made it possible for us to work with people across Ontario, wherever they are.
What Is Théla Psychotherapy Clinic?
Théla Psychotherapy Clinic is a trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming, trilingual private practice located in Markham, Ontario. We offer psychotherapy for individuals and couples navigating trauma, anxiety, ADHD, autism, relationship challenges, grief, identity, and more.
Our name, Théla, is rooted in the idea of wholeness — of coming back to yourself after experiences that have fragmented, diminished, or displaced you. That philosophy shapes everything we do: how we greet you, how we plan your care, how we understand the symptoms and struggles that bring you to therapy.
We are not a one-size-fits-all practice. Our team brings a wide range of clinical modalities, specializations, and lived experiences. We serve clients who are neurodivergent, cross-cultural, multilingual, and who have often felt unseen or misunderstood in mental health spaces — and we take that responsibility seriously.
Virtual Therapy at Théla: Ontario-Wide Care
One of the most meaningful things we offer is the ability to reach people who aren't in our backyard.
All of our clinicians offer virtual psychotherapy to clients anywhere in Ontario — including:
- Toronto and North York
- Kingston and Eastern Ontario
- Ottawa and the National Capital Region
- Hamilton, Burlington, and the Niagara Region
- London, Windsor, and Southwestern Ontario
- Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Northern Ontario
- Smaller towns, rural areas, and communities with limited local access
This matters because access to trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming, or culturally competent therapy is deeply uneven across the province. If you live in a smaller city, a rural area, or a community where the local options don't reflect your background or needs — virtual therapy with Théla means geography no longer has to be a barrier.
Virtual sessions are conducted via a secure, PHIPA-compliant video platform. They're private, convenient, and — for many clients — actually more comfortable than in-person sessions. You get to be in your own space. Your nervous system often has an easier time regulating when you're in a familiar environment. And for clients with ADHD, chronic illness, sensory sensitivities, or demanding schedules, removing the commute can make consistent therapy genuinely possible.
Our Clinicians
Bonny Li, RP (Qualifying) — Founder & Clinical Director
Bonny founded Théla after more than a decade at the intersection of law and mental health — as a paralegal, immigration consultant, professor, and adjudicator, before completing her Master's in Counselling Psychology and building a clinical practice focused on the clients who often fall through the cracks.
Her specializations include complex trauma and C-PTSD, EMDR therapy, ADHD and autism, couples therapy, immigration and refugee trauma, and cross-cultural identity. She holds advanced training as an EMDRIA-trained EMDR therapist, Gottman Levels 1 & 2 certified couples therapist, DBT certified clinician, and Certified Complex Trauma Professional (CCTP). She holds a Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies through the Trauma Research Foundation, and specialization certifications in both ADHD (ADHD-CCSP) and Autism Spectrum (ASDCS). She is currently completing her Doctorate in Education.
Bonny offers therapy in English, Mandarin (普通話), and Cantonese (廣東話) — a rare and meaningful capacity for Chinese-speaking clients in Ontario who have historically had few options for therapy in their first language.
Her background in immigration law gives her a uniquely informed lens when working with refugee claimants, newcomers, and people navigating the psychological weight of legal processes, status uncertainty, and systemic barriers. She also brings a deeply neurodivergent-affirming perspective, grounded in her understanding that much of what gets labelled as "dysfunction" is actually an adaptive response to a world that wasn't designed for everyone.
Renata Roma, PhD (in Child and Youth), RP (Qualifying)
Renata brings a rare combination of rigorous academic training and warm, relational clinical practice. Holding a doctorate alongside her psychotherapy credentials, she offers a depth of theoretical grounding that enriches her work with clients in meaningful ways.
Renata specializes in anxiety, OCD, grief and loss, and trauma. She works with adults navigating the relentless pressure of anxiety disorders, the exhausting loops of obsessive thinking, and the profound disorientation of loss — whether that's the loss of a person, a relationship, an identity, or a version of life you'd imagined for yourself.
She offers therapy in English and Portuguese, making her an important resource for Portuguese-speaking clients in Ontario who are seeking culturally attuned care.
Caroline Lao, RP (Qualifying)
Caroline has a particular passion for the intersection of ADHD and trauma — a connection that is clinically significant but frequently overlooked. Many people who arrive in therapy with an ADHD diagnosis are carrying years of accumulated wounds: the shame of chronic underperformance, the pain of being misunderstood by teachers and parents, the exhaustion of masking, the relational ruptures that untreated ADHD can create.
Caroline works with young adults and adults, and her primary modality is Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) — an approach that helps clients identify and work through the deep emotional patterns driving their struggles, rather than just managing symptoms at the surface.
Her training background includes Pezy external training, and she brings a thoughtful, collaborative style to her work. She currently has availability for new clients and is actively building her caseload.
Jennifer Gibbons, MA, RP (Qualifying)
Jennifer came to psychotherapy by a longer, less conventional road than most — and that path is one of her greatest clinical assets.
Before entering the therapy room, she spent years living and working across four continents: teaching, building community, and witnessing up close how resilient people can be under the most unpredictable circumstances. That experience gave her something no training program alone can provide — a genuinely embodied understanding of diversity, displacement, and the remarkable range of ways people find meaning and survive.
Jennifer works from a humanistic, strengths-based framework, grounded in the belief that every person carries within them a capacity for change — even when that capacity feels completely out of reach. Her role, as she sees it, is to help you find and trust that capacity again.
Her primary specialization is substance use and addiction recovery. Jennifer understands addiction not as a moral failure or a matter of willpower, but as a pathway that is deeply — and often developmentally — connected to trauma. Her clinical training, including a master's practicum completed in a specialized intensive treatment setting for adults in addiction recovery, has given her the skills to hold the full complexity of this work: the ambivalence, the setbacks, the grief, and the remarkable courage it takes to choose change. She meets clients at every stage — from early exploration through to relapse prevention and building a sustainable life in recovery — with patience, honesty, and genuine respect for wherever they are.
Beyond addiction, Jennifer works with clients navigating trauma (using Janina Fisher's parts-based, narrative approach), life transitions (new cities, relationship endings, identity shifts, loss), depression and low mood, and anxiety and emotional overwhelm.
Her modalities include Motivational Interviewing (MI), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), person-centred therapy, existential therapy, relapse prevention planning, and psychopharmacology-informed practice — meaning she has specialized training in the medications commonly used alongside therapy and can engage with that dimension of a client's care with genuine fluency, even though she does not prescribe.
Jennifer's natural warmth and gentle humour make the therapeutic relationship itself a powerful part of the work — and for many clients, that quality of genuine, non-judgmental presence is exactly what they've been looking for.
Emma & Evee: Our Therapy Dogs
No introduction to Théla would be complete without mentioning Emma (our Bernese Mountain Dog) and Evee (our Bernedoodle), who are formal members of our clinical team.
Research consistently supports the therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted therapy: reduced cortisol levels, increased sense of safety, greater nervous system regulation, and a lower threshold for engaging with difficult emotional material. For clients who find human eye contact or direct verbal processing activating, the presence of a calm, non-judgmental animal can make a meaningful difference.
Emma and Evee are available to support clients who would benefit from their presence during in-person sessions at our Markham office. (They are also, admittedly, very good at accepting compliments.)
What We Treat
Our team collectively offers support for a wide range of concerns, including:
- Trauma and PTSD — single-incident and complex/developmental trauma
- Anxiety — generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic, health anxiety
- OCD and intrusive thoughts
- ADHD — diagnosis support, skills building, and trauma-informed treatment
- Autism and neurodivergent identity
- Depression and mood concerns
- Grief and loss
- Relationship difficulties and couples therapy
- Immigration, refugee, and displacement trauma
- Cross-cultural identity and belonging
- Substance use and addiction recovery — including harm reduction, relapse prevention, and the trauma-to-addiction pathway
- Burnout and professional stress
- Life transitions and identity disruption
Our Approach: What "Trauma-Informed and Neurodivergent-Affirming" Actually Means
These phrases get used a lot. Here's what they mean at Théla.
Trauma-informed means we understand that many of the things that bring people to therapy — the anxiety, the relationship struggles, the emotional dysregulation, the self-criticism, the sense of being fundamentally broken — are responses to overwhelming experiences, not character flaws. Our job is never to pathologize what was once adaptive. It's to understand the whole person and support healing at a pace that feels safe.
Neurodivergent-affirming means we do not treat ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or other forms of neurological difference as deficits to be corrected. We work with your neurology, not against it. We know that many neurodivergent adults arrive in therapy after decades of being told they're too much, not enough, lazy, dramatic, or difficult — and a significant part of our work together may involve unraveling those narratives and building a more accurate, compassionate understanding of who you are.
It also means we adapt our approach for you. Longer intake processes when needed. More flexibility around session structure. Explicit check-ins about sensory comfort and communication preferences. We've thought about this carefully, and we keep thinking about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you offer a free consultation? Yes. We offer a complimentary initial consultation so you can get a sense of the clinic, ask questions, and determine if Théla is the right fit before committing to a full session.
How do virtual sessions work? Virtual sessions are conducted via a secure, encrypted video platform that is PHIPA-compliant. You'll receive a link before your appointment. All you need is a private space, a device with a camera, and a reasonable internet connection.
Do you offer sliding scale fees? Fees vary by clinician. We are committed to access and will do our best to work with you. We also direct clients who require subsidized care to local communities.
Is therapy covered by insurance? Many extended health benefit plans cover services from a Registered Psychotherapist (RP or RP Qualifying). We recommend confirming your coverage before your first session. We provide receipts for all sessions for insurance reimbursement purposes.
Can I see a therapist who speaks Mandarin or Cantonese? Yes. Bonny offers therapy in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. We are one of the few practices in Ontario offering trilingual trauma-informed psychotherapy.
I'm in Toronto / Kingston / North York — can I still work with you? Absolutely. All of our clinicians are registered in Ontario and offer virtual sessions to clients anywhere in the province. Many of our clients are outside the Markham area.
What if I'm not sure which therapist is right for me? Reach out and we'll help. Our intake process is designed to match you thoughtfully with the clinician whose specialization, style, and availability best fits your needs.
We'd Love to Meet You
Whether you're in Markham or Mississauga, Kingston or North York, Thunder Bay or somewhere in between — if you're looking for a therapist who takes trauma seriously, respects your neurology, and brings real depth of training to the work, we hope you'll reach out.
Bonny Li
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