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THUNDER BAY -- Registered Practical Nurse Josee Wright took the big step of starting her own practice after a 13-year career in the healthcare system. As a nurse, she felt she wasn’t able to help heal emotional trauma as much as she wanted to. “My vision was to create a safe place,” Wright says. Josee Wright Nursing Professional Corporation opened on Arthur Street in September 2020.
As a psychotherapist, Wright offers talk therapy, or counselling, where she helps clients explore past issues that need to be addressed. As a therapist, she cannot diagnose or prescribe medication, but focuses more on unlocking unconscious feelings from early childhood, she explains.
“I truly believe trauma starts from the moment of conception to about six years of life. The trauma can be unconscious traumas, so if you haven’t healed it, it comes out later in your life,” she says.
“Diagnoses such as depression, anxiety or addiction are all coping mechanisms that we’ve learnt through life,” she adds. When the coping mechanisms don’t help anymore, or cause more problems, is when people need help.
The pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues for many, Wright says. “When you spend a lot of time alone, you’re isolated, you’re alone with your feelings, it’s worse. All the things you haven’t healed pop up.”
She assists clients by helping them find their “authentic” self. “As a child you want to be loved and accepted for who you are,” she explains. When children feel rejected or their needs are not met, they internalize that and start thinking that they are not lovable. To gain acceptance, children try to cater to their parents’ expectations and no longer act like themselves. “I want to help clients find that balance of being your authentic self,” she says.
Wright has a couple of rooms at Michael’s Hair Design and Day Spa; one for talk therapy and the other for Reiki sessions, which she also offers. The two don’t necessarily have to be booked together, but they naturally complement each other, she says, and clients may benefit from a talk therapy session followed by a Reiki session.
