Meet Ashley Davidson - Mindfulness and EMDR Therapist

This interview was originally published in our July 2021 newsletter which can be found here.

What drew you to mindfulness practice and how has it informed both your personal and professional life?
What drew me to mindfulness was probably the experiential nature of this modality and the fact that it was quite different from some of the other types of therapy I have encountered both personally and professionally. I had heard a lot of buzz about it when I entered grad school but it wasn't until I had the opportunity to be part of a training program with the Centre for Mindfulness Studies that I really began appreciating the benefits of it: learning how to slow down when you're stressed, learning how to manage and sit with difficult moments, and how being present can shift how you experience life - especially the good times ! I use it all the time when I'm feeling anxious and stressed and need to 'take a breather'. I also use it when I go hiking to embrace nature with all my senses.

Could you tell us a bit more about what sparked interest in the specific areas of mental health that you specialize in and how it is meaningful to you?
What sparked my interest in mental health generally was my curiosity for human psychology: how the mind works and why we do the things we do and are the way we are. I've always been interested in understanding people but also helping them. Probably not so coincidentally, I was the friend growing up who others would come to for support or advice. I suppose there was a natural affinity to help others. My own mental health journey was what I believe propelled me towards the mental health field: it combined my interest in psychology and helping nature. I am so grateful for those who supported me and want to pay it forward, knowing what it's like to be on the client side of things.

What areas or approaches are you passionate about?
I really love doing Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, essentially CBT +++.  Not only are there cognitive aspects of the work (working with thoughts, beliefs, assumptions) but especially important is the focus on emotions. I am very passionate about emotion work and tackling this complex aspect of human experience. Emotions are complicated, often misunderstood but definitely useful. This is some of the stuff I really love tackling with clients. 

I've recently done training in EMDR, which I am really excited about! It's another therapy technique that deviates from traditional talk therapy, which is part of what drew me to it. It also tackles deeper aspects, such as brain level aspects, of human experiences that are not always easy to access or process. This method definitely intersects with my interest in understanding the human mind and how exactly it works on the neural level. 

Finally, if you weren't in your current line of work as a therapist, what do you think you'd be doing?
That's a good question, I'm not entirely sure! I had tinkered with the idea of being a probation or parole officer - there is certainly a lot of supporting and mental health related aspects to this work. Either that or possibly being a teacher, this was my dream job as a kid, but I'm not sure how that might go given my fear of presentations! I suppose it would be a form of exposure therapy!