Registered Psychotherapist
EMDR Therapy for performance anxiety and trauma

Are you feeling overwhelmed by performance pressure, stuck in unresolved trauma, navigating identity challenges, or grieving a loss?

Hi I’m Debby!

As a Registered Psychotherapist at Christina Janiga Psychotherapy clinic I provide individual therapy for teens and adults using evidence-based approaches like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.

Whether you’re a student facing test anxiety, navigating educational and career challenges, an adult working through trauma, or someone exploring your identity or coping with grief, I offer a compassionate space to support your healing and growth.

Psychotherapy Tailored to You – With EMDR Therapy at the Core

I primarily focus on supporting individuals with:

• Performance Anxiety (or Test Anxiety) – including academic stress, fear of failure, and perfectionism
• Trauma – from childhood experiences to recent events, including emotional, physical, or relational trauma
• Identity Challenges – including sexual, gender, cultural, or neurodivergent identity exploration
• Grief and Loss – including the death of a loved one, anticipatory grief, and life transitions

As a queer therapist, I’m passionate about providing inclusive, trauma-informed care for individuals from all walks of life, including LGBTQIA+ folks, neurodivergent individuals, and those who have experienced discrimination, loss, or disconnection.

What to Expect in our Psychotherapy Sessions for Performance Anxiety and Trauma

Perhaps you’ve never tried therapy, or you’ve taken a break and now feels like the right time to get support. I use a number of different types of therapy modalities to provide care for performance anxiety, trauma, or grief and loss, but fundamentally I work from a client-centred and EMDR Therapy perspective. This means who you are influences how our therapy sessions go and which approaches I may use to support your healing and growth.

You can expect to:

• Explore your current challenges in a safe, judgment-free space
• Clarify your goals and values
• Learn strategies to manage symptoms and emotional overwhelm
• Identify and process memories that may be keeping you stuck
• Begin building a more grounded, empowered relationship with yourself

 I’ll be there for you as you explore and grow toward a more peaceful, sustainable, and satisfying day-to-day life.

Why I Became a Therapist: From Tutoring to Trauma Work

Before beginning my studies to become a therapist, I worked one-on-one with students of all ages as a private tutor and mentor. Aside from sharing my educational knowledge, I also helped my clients as they made the important decisions regarding which subject(s) to study, and which university or college to attend. Many students talked about their struggles with important tests, big life decisions, and family-related issues. Witnessing the deep anxiety that these students experience and helping them through these challenges pushed me to learn more about mental health – like anxiety and trauma. This was a driving force for why I started my journey to becoming a therapist.

A Therapist Who Gets It: My Lived Experience Matters

Therapy isn’t just something I offer – it’s something that has helped shape who I am. I’ve been through many life experiences that have deeply shaped how I connect with others. As a queer woman, I know what it’s like to face discrimination and feel alienated, at times from strangers, and sometimes, more painfully, from people close to me. I’ve also experienced grief, loss, and the emotional impact of family illness. I lost a parent to cancer at a young age, and I’ve witnessed the toll that dementia and terminal illness can take, not just on the person who is sick, but on the entire family. Grief has touched my life in powerful ways, and I understand how it can shift your entire sense of the world. 

Therapy has played a huge role in helping me move through those experiences, to make sense of complicated emotions, navigate hard relationships, and find my footing again. That personal journey is part of what I bring into my work with clients: real empathy, a deep respect for resilience, and a belief that healing is possible.

Therapy Approaches I Use

I draw from a variety of evidenced-based and integrative therapeutic modalities, including:

• Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy  – to process trauma, anxiety, and stuck emotional patterns
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – to challenge unhelpful thought patterns
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – to help you align with your values
• Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) (Informed) – for emotional regulation and mindfulness
• Ego state/parts work (informed) – to explore and integrate different aspects of self
• Humanistic Therapeutic Approach– to honour your lived experience and personal growth

This eclectic, flexible approach allows me to meet you where you are and adjust our work to fit your unique needs.

Therapy for Performance Anxiety and Trauma Can Be the Start of Something New

You might be on the fence about seeing a psychotherapist for your anxiety and/or past trauma. Part of you may want to try something new, but another part may worry that therapy will require a lot of time and energy. Therapy at its core is a new path to self-discovery. It can bring up different emotions (including joy and laughter) and it can be described as self-work.

I provide both in person (at our Burlington, Ontario office) and virtual psychotherapy sessions, I am accepting new clients, and I look forward to working with you.