Denise
Johnson
“Everything you desire is sitting on the other side of fear.”
-George Addair
Hi, my Name is Denise Johnson and I am a Black female therapist serving in the Ontario region, including Ottawa.
I am a Registered Social Worker with a Master of Social Work. I also have a Community Worker Diploma from George Brown college and a Certificate in Family Mediation from York University.
Choosing to heal or work through a life challenge, can be scary, but on the other side of that fear is the life you have always imagined for yourself, your family, and your community.
Will the process be easy? Not likely, but will it be worth it? I believe so. You CAN have the life you want.
I became a therapist in response to the responsibility I felt to use my knowledge, skills and lived experience to help individuals on their journey to achieving wellness and wholeness.
Many folks have never been given the space or had the opportunity to process childhood wounds or even acknowledge that their experiences were traumatic. In my work I provide the space for folks to talk about what has happened in the past and explore how those experiences are impacting their current life challenges.
In my practice I am also quite intentional about facilitating conversations with people around their values and creating boundaries based on these values. These conversations often come up when exploring some of my most passionate areas like that of family and intimate partner relationships. Other areas of strength include supporting folks living with anxiety, depression, workplace stress, racial trauma, ADHD, grief, low self-esteem, codependency, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and chronic illness.
I have a passion for skill teaching and successfully helping clients navigate everyday life stressors, current challenges, and past traumas while developing cognitive and emotional flexibility in responding to life’s challenges.
Who Denise Serves:
Individuals 18+.
What Denise Supports:
Family and intimate partner relationships, anxiety, workplace stress, racial trauma, grief, chronic illness, self-esteem, co-dependency, ADHD, and OCD.
How Denise Practices:
Trauma-informed, relational, culturally responsive, and anti-racist care, alongside CBT, ACT, SFBT, mindfulness, and attachment-based approaches.
Fun Facts:
I have a deep passion for and joy in my husband and my two young sons. I enjoy reading, scenic drives, watching historical films, and spending time with my closest family and friends.
Favourite Value:
My favourite Value at Agapé Lens is compassion. We believe everyone deserves to feel seen, heard and valued without judgement, and use compassion as a way to respond versus react to one's suffering. The world can be very hard and harsh and we also can become very hard and harsh with ourselves when we experience suffering; I believe compassion can be an anecdote to that.