Carmen Jelly
Registered Psychotherapist – Clinical Supervisor – Owner & Practice Director
Helping You Return To Yourself
Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, carrying the weight of past experiences, navigating grief or a life transition, or simply feeling disconnected from yourself, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Therapy can be a place to slow down, become curious about your experience, and begin to understand yourself in a different way.
Meet Carmen
Welcome!
Honestly, I wish I had known how to express my emotions during the first twenty years of my life.
Over the years, I’ve met so many people who, like me, grew up feeling unseen or unheard, with emotions buried deep inside. Everyday struggles can get minimized or ignored because we were never taught how to talk about what we were feeling — or even that our emotional experiences mattered.
You don’t need to have a tragic past to feel that your emotional world has been overlooked.
For more than 30 years, I have been studying emotions, perceptions, relationships, and personal transformation. What began as a profession has become much more than that — it has become my passion and life’s work.
I believe our thoughts, emotions, beliefs, bodies, and experiences are deeply connected. My work is about helping people develop that understanding with curiosity and compassion so they can create lives that feel more meaningful, authentic, and fulfilling.
My Approach – Therapy That Fits the Person, Not a Formula
I don’t believe therapy should be a one-size-fits-all process.
Your story is unique, and the ways you’ve learned to cope have often developed for good reasons. Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?”, I’m curious about what has happened in your life, what you’ve learned from those experiences, and how they may still be shaping the way you think, feel, relate and respond today.
Together, we’ll explore thoughts, emotions, beliefs, body sensations and nervous-system responses with curiosity rather than judgment.
My approach is holistic, compassionate, trauma-informed and collaborative. I draw from a range of therapeutic approaches and integrate them according to your individual needs, goals and readiness.
Approaches I Integrate
Compassionate Inquiry
Explore the emotions, beliefs, body sensations and protective patterns that may lie beneath your experiences, with curiosity rather than judgment.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Understand the different “parts” of yourself that may worry, overachieve, withdraw, please others or become self-critical — and the protective roles they may have taken on.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
A trauma-focused approach that may help process distressing experiences and memories without requiring you to repeatedly recount every detail.
ACT & DBT
Approaches that can support emotional regulation, mindfulness, psychological flexibility, values-based choices and more effective ways of navigating difficult experiences.
I may also draw from Positive Psychology, mindfulness and mind-body approaches according to your needs and goals.
Depth, Curiosity and Practical Support
I bring both depth and practicality to therapy.
We may spend time exploring where a pattern came from while also finding concrete ways to navigate what you’re experiencing today. I’ll invite curiosity rather than judgment and encourage you to understand yourself more deeply rather than simply trying to “fix” what feels difficult.
My hope is that you leave therapy with greater self-awareness, practical tools, emotional resilience and a stronger connection to yourself.
Why This Work Matters to Me
This work is deeply personal.
Throughout my own life, I’ve experienced challenges that have shaped both my perspective and my compassion. Those experiences have taught me that healing isn’t about becoming someone different.
It’s about returning to who we’ve always been underneath the protective layers we’ve developed along the way.
Sometimes the parts of us that we wish we could change are the very parts that worked hard to help us cope.
One shift in perception can truly change the way we understand ourselves, our experiences and what feels possible moving forward.
If you’re ready to reconnect with yourself, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.
Areas of Focus
Stress, Anxiety & Emotional Well-Being
- Chronic stress and burnout
- Anxiety and depression
- Performance anxiety, particularly with athletes
- Emotional overwhelm
Trauma, Grief & Healing
- Childhood trauma
- Grief and loss
- Adult children of parents with addiction
- Addiction recovery and supporting loved ones
- Narcissistic abuse recovery
Relationships & Life Transitions
- Divorce and separation
- People-pleasing and perfectionism
- Self-worth and self-compassion
- Personal growth and healthy boundaries
- Women’s life transitions
No two journeys are alike.
Every therapeutic relationship is tailored to your individual strengths, goals, and lived experiences.
Education and Professional Training
Education
- Bachelor of Arts – Psychology & Sociology, University of Guelph
- Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, Yorkville University
Advanced Specialized Training
- Certified Practitioner – Compassionate Inquiry®
- Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Janina Fisher Advanced Trauma Training
- ADHD & Neurodiversity
- Grief Care Professional Certification
Professional Memberships
- College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO)
- Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals (OAMHP)
A Little More About Me
Beyond The Office
Outside of my role as a therapist and clinical supervisor, I’m a wife, mother of three adult daughters and proud grandmother of four.
Life has given me experiences that have deepened my understanding of relationships, transitions, resilience and the unexpected turns life can take. Those experiences continue to shape the way I listen, connect and sit with people in their own stories.
Writing is another passion of mine. I’m proud to be a co-author of four bestselling collaborative books, including Returning To Real: Embracing the WE in Me.
The idea of Returning To Real reflects much of what I believe about healing: you don’t need to become someone else. Sometimes the work is about reconnecting with parts of yourself that have become buried beneath expectations, experiences, roles and protective patterns.
When I’m not working with clients, you’ll often find me running, curling, writing, travelling or spending time with my family.
Let’s Begin The Journey
If you’re ready to begin—or begin again—I would be honoured to walk alongside you.
Whether you’re seeking support for a specific challenge or simply longing to feel more like yourself again, therapy offers a place to pause, reflect, understand, heal and grow.
Healing isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about returning to yourself — with greater self-compassion, clarity, courage and connection.
60-minute psychotherapy sessions: $175
In-person therapy is available in North Bay, with secure virtual therapy available throughout Ontario.
Book a Complimentary Consultation