Childhood Trauma & Attachment Therapy in Ottawa
Ottawa Centre for Resilience (OCFR) provides trauma-informed, attachment-focused therapy for children, teens, and families in Ottawa, Ontario. We support concerns related to complex developmental trauma, adoption and attachment disruptions, emotional dysregulation, anxiety, and relationship strain. Our approach is trauma-informed, evidence-based, and developmentally responsive.
We can help with
- Childhood trauma and complex developmental trauma
- Attachment disruptions and relational stress
- Adoption-related identity, grief, and transitions
- Emotional dysregulation, shutdowns, and intense behaviours
- Anxiety, school avoidance, and sleep difficulties
- Caregiver stress, burnout, and co-regulation challenges
Support is tailored to the child’s developmental stage, family context, and relational needs.
When appropriate, OCFR clinicians collaborate with caregivers, schools, physicians, and other community supports across Ottawa and Eastern Ontario.
What therapy looks like at OCFR
Therapy is tailored to the child’s developmental stage and nervous system needs, with caregivers involved whenever possible. Early work often focuses on safety, regulation, and strengthening relational patterns that support recovery.
Sessions may include play-based and creative approaches, skills-building, and caregiver coaching, alongside trauma-informed strategies that translate into everyday home and school life.
Families may also be referred for psychological or neuropsychological assessments when questions about learning, attention, or development are part of the clinical picture.
How do we help?
We offer a variety of clinical services to children, youth and their families/caregivers who have experienced trauma and are struggling with attachment and other related difficulties.
Trauma is part of the emotional terrain that many of us may have to navigate at some point in our lives. Trauma typically occurs when we experience an event, or multiple events, that overwhelm our capacity to cope. Trauma can range from a single traumatic incident to multiple or chronic exposures to adverse experiences. It can impact how we view ourselves and others, how we regulate our emotions, how we view the world, and our mental wellbeing.
We have expertise in treating complex developmental trauma, dissociation, attachment difficulties, disruptive behaviours, self-harm, and substance abuse in children in and from care (child welfare), survivors of human trafficking, refugees, as well as those living with FASD.
Assessment
- Trauma-informed psychodiagnostic assessment
- Trauma-informed psychoeducational assessment
- Trauma-informed comprehensive psychological assessment
- Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) assessment to direct treatment planning
Treatment
Our team provides evidence-based treatment to children, youth, and their families/ caregivers which recognizes that brain development follows a sequential pattern and the impact trauma and adverse experiences have on brain development. Our treatment approach is brain-based, grounded in neurobiology and attachment theory, and adheres to the 3 phases of trauma therapy: stabilization, processing and reconnection. Integrating play and other developmentally appropriate, especially somatic based, approaches our team utilizes a wide range of evidenced-based modalities such as:
- Attachment, Regulation and Competency Framework (ARC)
- Brainspotting (BSP)
- Circle of Security – Parenting (COS-P)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
- Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART)
- Somatic Experiencing (SE)
- Structural Dissociation Model
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)
Other:
- Expert Witness Testimony on attachment, trauma, & child and youth development
- Trauma-informed program consultation to child welfare agencies, outside placement resources (OPRs), schools and school boards, and other agencies serving children, youth, and families impacted by trauma.