Between the Lines

Apr 16

Where Healing Often Lives

There’s something I’ve been sitting with lately—something I often come back to in my work with clients, students, and fellow community workers:

Not everything that matters most in therapy fits neatly into a model.
Not everything healing lives in a manual.

In fact, some of the most important moments in therapy happen in the spaces between things. Between diagnoses. Between roles. Between the “right” answers and the deeper, more personal questions.

I’ve always been more drawn to questions than to conclusions. I’m curious about the quiet, often-unspoken stories that shape our lives. The ones that get lost under labels or overlooked in systems that weren’t built with everyone in mind.

As a narrative therapist, I don’t see people as problems to be fixed. I see people as meaning-makers. Story-holders. Wisdom-carriers. Even in the thick of grief, trauma, or disconnection, there’s knowledge in how you’ve survived. There’s beauty in what you still long for. There’s power in the values you hold close—even when they’ve been challenged or forgotten for a time.

I bring this lens to my work not only because of my training, but because of my lived experience. I’m a Latina immigrant, shaped by stories of migration, resistance, and community. I’ve witnessed firsthand how people resist, rebuild, and remember who they are—especially when their voices have been silenced or misunderstood.

Therapy, for me, is a space to honour all of this.

A space where we don’t rush to simplify things.
Where your contradictions are welcome.
Where we get curious together about what’s been lost, what’s still alive, and what might be possible.

Whether you’re navigating a transition, facing a rupture in a relationship, processing trauma, or just trying to make sense of who you are right now—therapy can be a space where your story is treated with care, respect, and openness. A space where we co-create new meaning. Where we listen closely for what matters most to you.

If any of this resonates, I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s make room for the parts of your story that haven’t had space to breathe.

By Maria-Eugenia Ricote, M.Ed., RP, CCC

Registered Psychotherapist & Canadian Certified Counsellor

Maria-Eugenia Ricote

I work with individuals, couples and families who are looking for support with issues of an emotional, interpersonal, well-being and mental health nature. I use Narrative Therapy as my approach. You may be wondering, what is Narrative Therapy? It is therapeutic modality that consists in a respectful, non-judgmental, non-medicalized approach to psychotherapy, where the focus is on the creation of spaces that allow growth and restoration. As a narrative therapist, I am inherently curious about the stories people have. I foster a safe environment where stories unfold to open pathways to the discovery and creation of new meanings.

Narrative Therapy uses therapeutic questions to help explore the stories of your life and relationships, including the influences, and context in which they have been authored. Narrative Therapy helps you to re-author your story and to use it to become the expert in your own life, to live in a way that reflects your goals, preferred life and values.

It is through compassion and empathy that I create a space that honours people's stories, ensuring that they feel listened, validated and respected. Many stories have been obscured by the problem. By bringing those stories to the light, is that people discover many of their skills and knowledges that allow them to re-write their story.

http://HOLDINGHOPE-COUNSELLINGSERVICES.CA