Shannon Gagnon

Hi, I’m Shannon.

When one person in a family is struggling, it rarely exists in isolation. A child’s anxiety can leave parents worried and unsure of how to help. Differences in parenting can create tension between partners who both want what is best for their child but cannot agree on what that looks like. The demands of raising a family can leave couples feeling more like co-managers of a household than partners, while the person trying to hold everything together may quietly be struggling too.

I work with children, teens, adults, couples, and families, and I have a particular passion for understanding people within the context of their relationships and the systems around them. Whether I am meeting with a child who is struggling, parents who feel stuck, a couple who has lost their sense of connection, a family caught in repeated conflict, or an individual trying to understand their own patterns, I want therapy to be a place where we can slow things down and become curious about what is really happening underneath the surface.

My passion for children and family therapy is deeply rooted in both my professional training and my own life. I completed my Master of Social Work with a focus on children and families, and much of my professional work has centred around supporting children, parents, and family systems. As a mother of 3 and someone who understands the realities of maintaining a long-term relationship through different seasons of family life, I know that loving your family does not make family life easy. Parenting can be overwhelming. Partners can lose sight of each other while managing everything else. You can love your children deeply and still feel exhausted, frustrated, or unsure of what to do next.

Sometimes parents come to me because they are worried about their child. You may be noticing anxiety, emotional outbursts, withdrawal, changes in behaviour, difficulties with peers, low self-esteem, or reactions that seem much bigger than the situation in front of them. Children do not always have the words to explain what is happening internally, and behaviour is often one of the ways they communicate that something does not feel right.

I work with children as young as 3 and adapt therapy to the child’s age, personality, and needs. I incorporate creative and play-based interventions to help children express themselves and explore experiences in ways that feel natural and accessible to them. My work is not focused only on stopping a behaviour. I want to understand what the behaviour may be communicating, what need might be underneath it, and how the adults around the child can better understand and support them.

Other times, the concern is not one individual family member but the relationships between everyone. Family therapy can offer space to understand patterns of communication, repeated conflict, disconnection, and the different needs that may exist within the same family. Often, people are reacting to one another without fully understanding what is driving those reactions. My role is not to decide who is right or wrong, but to help families slow down the cycle, understand one another differently, and begin finding ways of relating that feel healthier and more sustainable.

I also work with couples at many different stages of their relationships. You may love each other and still feel stuck in the same arguments. You may disagree about parenting, feel disconnected after years of focusing on children or other responsibilities, or be trying to repair trust after hurt or infidelity. Sometimes couples arrive wondering whether their relationship can change. Therapy can offer space to understand the patterns you have fallen into, what each partner may be trying to communicate underneath the conflict, and what you both need moving forward.

My work with individuals is grounded in the same curiosity. So much of what we carry into individual therapy exists within the context of relationships, past and present. Anxiety, people-pleasing, difficulty with boundaries, emotional overwhelm, perfectionism, self-doubt, or feeling responsible for other people can all have histories worth understanding. I work with adults experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, panic attacks, intrusive thoughts, stress, and major life transitions, while making room to explore the relationships and experiences that may have shaped how you learned to cope.

Anxiety is a significant focus of my work across all ages. It can look like constant worry or panic, but it can also show up as irritability, avoidance, perfectionism, difficulty sleeping, reassurance seeking, intrusive thoughts, physical symptoms, emotional outbursts, or a need to control situations that feel uncertain. Whether I am working with a child, teen, or adult, I want to understand not only what anxiety looks like now, but what may be contributing to it and what it is trying to protect you from.

My approach is trauma-informed, strengths-based, and integrative. I do not believe that one type of therapy fits every person or every family. I draw from different approaches based on the client in front of me, including CBT, DBT, Trauma-Focused CBT, and increasingly, Internal Family Systems-informed work. I have found that exploring the different parts of ourselves can help clients relate with more curiosity and compassion to the reactions, coping patterns, or behaviours they have been trying hard to change.

I believe that our behaviours and coping strategies often make more sense when we understand where they came from. Therapy can include building practical tools and finding ways to cope differently, but I do not want to focus only on managing symptoms or breaking cycles without understanding them. Together, we can become curious about what is underneath a pattern, what purpose it may have served, and what needs to happen for something different to become possible.

Outside of private practice, I design and facilitate school-based mental health workshops for youth, parents, and educators across the GTA. This work continues to deepen my understanding of the pressures facing children, parents, and families, both at home and within their broader communities.

Whether you are a parent worried about your child, a couple struggling to find your way back to one another, a family feeling stuck in patterns that no longer work, or an individual trying to better understand yourself and your relationships, my goal is to meet you with warmth, curiosity, and respect. You do not need to know exactly what needs to change before coming to therapy. We can begin with what is happening now and work together to understand how you got here and what you need moving forward.