Ilmar Simanovskis | Student Therapist
I am a student in psychotherapy training, practicing with clinical supervision in the Gestalt Institute of Toronto. This website shares educational information and reflections. Services are offered only through the Gestalt student clinic setting.
A session is usually conversational, but not only in the sense of telling the story of your week. We begin by noticing what feels most present for you that day. That might be a situation, a feeling, a conflict, a sense of pressure, or even something harder to name, like numbness, restlessness, tension, or a feeling of being stuck.
From there, we stay close to your actual experience in the moment. That can include your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, breathing, tone of voice, pace, or the way you pull back, push forward, protect yourself, or reach for contact. Rather than rushing to explain or fix things, we slow down and get curious about how your experience is unfolding right now.
At times I may invite you to notice something more closely. This could be as simple as staying with a feeling a little longer, finding words for what is happening in your body, or exploring the difference between what you think and what you sense. Sometimes we may use a gentle experiment, such as speaking to one part of yourself, imagining a difficult conversation, noticing a gesture or posture, or exploring what happens when you say something out loud rather than only thinking it. These are always invitations, not demands, and we move at a pace that feels workable.
My approach is relational and collaborative. I am not sitting back as a distant expert analyzing you from afar. I am with you in paying attention to what is happening between us, within you, and around you. Often the work is not only about understanding a problem intellectually, but also about feeling it more clearly, finding language for it, and discovering a different way of being with it.
Toward the end of the session, we may pause to notice what stands out, what feels newly clear, or what wants ongoing attention. Sometimes that leads to a small next step in daily life. Sometimes it simply means leaving with a deeper awareness of yourself, your needs, your limits, or a pattern that is beginning to shift.
In simple terms, a typical session with me is a place to slow down, notice more, and make more honest contact with what is happening in you and in your life.