A B O U T U S
Growth begins in the right environment.
Just as a plant cannot thrive without the right conditions, people need spaces where they feel safe, understood, and supported before meaningful growth can take root.
At Growth Psychotherapy, we believe therapy is more than a conversation. It is a relationship, an environment, and a process that creates the conditions for lasting change.
O U R S T O R Y
The practice began in an emergency department, unofficially, years before it had a name. Our founder, Gelica Tatarenko, spent years as a nurse at the shelter system and psychiatric emergency in downtown Toronto, where every shift was shaped by urgency and uncertainty.
What she kept noticing was that the moments that changed people were rarely the interventions themselves. They were the quiet moments when someone was simply allowed to be a person.
A conversation in the ambulance bay. A nurse sitting beside a hospital bed. Those unhurried minutes often carried more healing than the system had time to offer.
Those experiences led her to train as a psychotherapist and build a practice around what she believed people needed most: time, safety, and a relationship that stays steady enough for growth to unfold.
Today, Growth Psychotherapy welcomes healthcare workers and first responders, couples, Filipino-Canadians, and adults navigating trauma, burnout, grief, and life's many transitions.
We are not the heroes of your therapy. You are.
Our role is to tend the conditions where growth becomes possible.
A P P R O A C H & P H I L O S O P H Y
Accountability, honesty, and integrity
We are accountable to ourselves, our team, and our clients and we engage in courageous conversations and reflections on an ongoing basis.
Accountability, honesty, and integrity
We are accountable to ourselves, our team, and our clients and we engage in courageous conversations and reflections on an ongoing basis.
Accountability, honesty, and integrity
We are accountable to ourselves, our team, and our clients and we engage in courageous conversations and reflections on an ongoing basis.