Ayah Norris is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), Embodiment Practitioner, and
Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher
Education
Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology with Honours, Yorkville University
Bachelor of Commerce with Honours, Queen’s University
Trainings
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Informed
Mothercentered IFS-informed Holistic Maternal Mental Health Training
Compassionate Inquiry Informed
Certified Hatha Yoga and Meditation Teacher
Certified Reiki Master and Holistic Healer
New Leaf Yoga Anti-Oppression and Trauma-Informed Yoga and Mindfulness Training
Katonah Intensive Yoga Training
Welcome!
If you are looking for a gentle, compassionate, insightful space to support your healing and growth, you are in the right place.
My approach
I bring warmth, compassion, and a grounded presence to support you toward healing and transformation. First and foremost, I offer you a safe space to land where you can be seen and heard without judgment. In this trusting relational space, calm, clarity, and connection often ensue. From there, we will explore the areas of your life where things may feel stuck, including navigating past and present challenges, and work together to help you access the guidance and empowerment within you to support your therapeutic goals.
I believe in working from the inside out, helping you connect with your inner strength and guidance to foster the internal and external changes you seek. I create a nurturing, non-judgmental space for exploration where insight and understanding can grow. With a holistic and inclusive approach, I tailor therapy to your unique needs and life experiences. Incorporating somatic, mindful, emotionally-focused, and parts-work therapies, I can support you in regulating your emotions, grounding in your body, calming your mind, and finding more ease in your heart. With a heart-centred, spiritually integrated approach, I support you in connecting with your personal beliefs and values to guide you along your healing and growth paths.
I bring over a decade of experience supporting clients in their healing journeys, including working with clients navigating anxiety, depression, emotional regulation challenges, ADHD, stress, grief, trauma, life transitions, relationship concerns, fertility, pregnancy and postpartum wellbeing, parenthood, physical illness, eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image concerns. Clients often remark on my warmth, presence, grounding, insight, and ability to help gently guide them towards healing and transformation.
My story
I graduated from business school and worked for years in sales and marketing across corporate, creative, and start-up environments. I turned to yoga, meditation, psychotherapy, and holistic healing modalities to help balance the stress of an often-demanding career. After a decade of practice, I made the leap out of my corporate path and followed my heart to study yoga, meditation, and holistic healing in depth in India. After several trainings in these fields, I returned to Canada to share yoga, meditation, and holistic healing practices with individual clients and with groups through yoga and meditation studies, corporate wellness initiatives, and retreats. I also began sharing my work with clients in recovery from eating disorders at an eating disorder recovery centre.
Around this time, I also embarked on more in-depth somatic-focused psychotherapy to support my own healing. My experiences supporting clients with their mental health and my own transformative experience in psychotherapy inspired me to embark on my Master’s of Arts in Counselling Psychology degree to support clients at a deeper level of healing. While my career has had some twists and turns, every step helped me learn, grow, and lead me right to where I am now. Each step also helped me build an understanding and empathy for people from many walks of life, which serves me well in supporting a diverse range of clients.
On a personal note, in-depth somatic and relational psychotherapy has been a great support to my inner healing and outer growth, and I know how life-changing it can be. I remember reading this Rumi quote in my newly chosen therapist’s bio:
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
While the work wasn’t always easy, psychotherapy truly allowed me to do this, supporting me to heal maladaptive patterns and access and embody more love, trust, ease, joy, and peace, within and around me. I credit psychotherapy and my spiritual practice for supporting me to welcome a life I always dreamed of, including a meaningful career helping others, a loving husband, and, most recently, becoming a mama to my sweet son (and a fur-mama to my pup Otis, who has been a grounding force by my side for many life transitions!)
Having walked the therapeutic path myself, I am honoured to be a compassionate guide to walk beside you on your journey toward healing and transformation. You don’t have to do this alone. Together, we can work towards the change you seek and open doors to new possibilities.
That’s my story — if you’re called, I would love to learn more about yours and see if we might be a good fit to work together. Use the contact form below to schedule a free consultation or session.
I look forward to connecting soon!
Let’s connect!
Reach out for a free consultation, session, or other inquiries: