Angelina Coccimiglio

Approach to Counselling

My path to counselling wasn't exactly straight. I've moved across the country four times. I've navigated a cancer diagnosis and everything that comes with it — the medical system, the fear, the recalibration of what actually matters. I've burned out on the digital world while also genuinely loving it. I've sat with a lot of uncertainty about what I was supposed to be doing with my life.

I tell you this not to make my bio about me, but because I believe that lived experience matters in this work. When you sit across from me (or on your own couch in a video call), I'm not theorizing about hard things from a distance. I've been in some version of that hard thing too.

There's no one-size-fits-all in therapy. (If someone tells you there is, that's a red flag worth noting.)

I'm an integrationist, which means I don't work from a single rigid framework. Instead, I weave together different theories and techniques based on what's most useful for you — your history, your goals, your brain, your life. Think of it less like following a recipe and more like cooking intuitively with a very well-stocked kitchen.

Some of the approaches I draw from:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I) — for reshaping thought patterns and behaviours that keep you stuck

• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills — practical tools for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and navigating relationships

• Mindfulness — both formal practice and the informal, "actually applicable to your Tuesday" kind

• Somatic awareness — because what's happening in your body is just as important as what's happening in your head

• Narrative therapy — helping you examine the stories you've been telling about yourself, and decide if they still fit

• Motivational Interviewing — for ambivalence, behaviour change, and figuring out what you actually want

• Trauma-informed, whole-person care — I consider the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of your experience. You are more than your symptoms.

• Radical acceptance and absurdism — for those moments when reality is genuinely hard and the only path forward is through it

I'm also a fan of psychoeducation — the "here's why your brain is doing that" part of therapy. Understanding whysomething is happening is often half the battle. I'll share the reasoning behind what we're doing, send you home with resources (podcasts, worksheets, audiobooks, the occasional meme), and sketch out a diagram if that's what it takes to make something click.

Specializations — What I Work With

Anxiety & Chronic Stress The kind that lives in your shoulders, interrupts your sleep, and shows up uninvited in your chest during meetings. Whether it's generalized anxiety, social anxiety, or stress that's compounded over years, we'll work on understanding what's driving it and building tools that actually help regulate your nervous system — not just manage symptoms.

Burnout & Neurodivergent Burnout Burnout isn't just being tired. It's the depletion that happens when you've been running on empty for so long that even rest doesn't restore you. I have particular experience with neurodivergent burnout — the specific exhaustion that comes from masking, over-adapting, and spending years trying to keep up in systems that weren't designed for your brain.

Major Life Transitions Moves. Job changes. Relationship shifts. Health crises. Becoming a parent or becoming an empty-nester. The end of something you thought would last. Transitions — even good ones — can be disorienting, grief-adjacent, and harder than anyone prepared you for. You don't have to navigate them without support.

Grief & Loss Grief isn't linear and it doesn't follow a timeline. Loss takes many forms — death, diagnosis, the end of a relationship, the life you thought you'd have by now. I hold space for all of it, without rushing you toward "better."

Identity & Self-Discovery Questions about who you are, what you want, and whether the life you're living actually fits you. This work can feel abstract, but it's some of the most meaningful therapy there is.

Digital Overload & Millennial/Gen Z Existential Distress Yes, this is a real thing. The pressure of the always-on digital world, doomscrolling, comparison culture, climate anxiety, the particular exhaustion of being a person right now — these are legitimate stressors and they deserve legitimate attention.

Cancer & Healthcare Navigation As a cancer survivor myself, I understand the fear, the medical system fatigue, the identity shift that comes with a serious diagnosis, and the complicated feelings about what comes after. I work with individuals navigating illness, survivorship, and everything in between.

Group Work & Skill-Based Therapy I have co-facilitation experience in MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy), DBT skills groups, and SMART Recovery addiction day treatment. If a group format might be useful for you, let's talk about it.

What Clients have said about Angelina

We regularly survey our clients and appreciate all who take the time to provide feedback to our counselors. The following are quotes from clients about their experience with Jackie. We do not use client’s names to protect client confidentiality.