Ary Maharaj

(he/him)

Education: MEd, RP

Background: When making the decision to devote his life to supporting people’s mental health, Ary wanted to ground his clinical practice in community- and systems-level perspectives. Hence, in addition to providing individual psychotherapy through Hard Feelings, he provides group-based support for racialized communities through non-profit community organizations, and works full-time in a role that gives him the opportunity to help prevent mental health issues from happening. Ary champions prevention through facilitating community education to youth, teachers, parents, and healthcare providers, and contributing to research and policy aimed at changing the structures of our society. He believes that the personal experiences he hears every week in his clinical and community work, sown together with his experience navigating his own mental health journey, tunes his compass when orienting larger systems towards freedom and liberation.

Specialty: 

• Navigate important life transitions
• Explore values and identities
• Unpack coping mechanisms that are no longer helpful
• Learn to hold space for waves of messy emotions like anger, guilt, shame, and grief

Approach: 

• Emotion-focused therapy (EFT)
• Internal family systems (IFS)
• Narrative therapy
• Positive psychotherapy (PPT)

Perspective: Ary fundamentally trusts you as the knowledge-keeper of your own experience, and views therapy as a journey. He is honoured to walk alongside you to elicit insight that can help you reach your goals. He is invested in co-creating a relationship that values authenticity, compassion, honesty, and respect – where you can share without judgment and be curious together. He is immensely passionate about practicing therapy from a place of cultural humility and aims to balance recognizing the impact of systemic injustices on mental health with creating spaces with the breathing room that allows people to experience healing.