Elephant in the Room Psychotherapy
Sessions available online
My name is Hammam Farah.
I am a psychotherapist, writer, activist and life coach.
I’m here to help you overcome anxiety, to empower you to understand yourself, to flourish in your relationships and to facilitate the healing and change you desire in a safe, confidential, creative and compassionate setting.
I am a trauma-informed clinician who specializes in self-esteem, anxiety, anger, addiction, depression, dissociation, loneliness, relationships and loss.
I believe change happens when we expand our self-awareness by understanding ourselves. But to understand ourselves, we first need to be understood. That’s why the therapeutic relationship—built on trust, honesty, empathy and vulnerability—lies at the heart of personal change.
Education and Approach
I am a Registered Psychotherapist. I received my B.A. (Hons) Double Major in Psychology and Political Science from York University. I then went on to graduate from the Toronto Centre for Training in Psychotherapy, which provides one of the most intensive and long-term psychotherapy programs in Canada. I am also a certified Life Coach, having obtained my certification from JRNI Coaching.
My clinical approach is psychodynamic, more commonly known as psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It is a deep form of therapy that tackles the root causes of psychological suffering by uncovering what lies outside (or beneath) the client’s awareness. This entails an exploration of thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, fantasies and behaviour patterns. In addition, the relationship between the client and the therapist provides insight into the client’s relationship patterns. This gives the client a chance to break unhealthy patterns and to work through repetitive unwanted behaviours.
“As hard as change was for me, it would be change that would drive me forward; the desire to understand myself and improve, to do the work that would be necessary to become the person I am today.”
— Hammam Farah
Life Experience
I am a Palestinian Canadian whose life was greatly impacted by the experience of childhood immigration and political developments in the Middle East. In my spare time, I fight injustice and inequality as a human rights activist and community organizer. I have also worked with immigrants and refugees, providing settlement services and group counselling sessions. My passion for psychotherapy stems from my conviction that a better world is possible.
As hard as change was for me in my own life transitions, it would be change that would drive me forward; the desire to understand myself and improve, to do the work that would be necessary to become the person I am today.
Nothing quite impacted me as much as my training in psychotherapy. It was there that I discovered a special kind of self-awareness. There was a point in my third year of training when I realized I was seeing a different side to life that I had been blinded from: that of relating to another person on a deep emotional level. I developed the capacity to listen deeply to another person and become attuned to them, to truly understand them. I felt that I had been living my life in black and white, and now someone had taken a paint brush and filled it with colour.
A confidential therapeutic relationship can facilitate the emotional insight and growth you need to move beyond limiting behaviours and reach a level of self-understanding, self-awareness, healing, relating, living and loving you would’ve never thought possible before.
“The focus on the past is not what makes the therapy psychoanalytic. It’s in realizing that the past is still being played out and repeated in the present. And so the present, the ‘here and now’ between therapist and client, is the pivotal moment when the chains of the past can finally be broken.”
— Hammam Farah