Specialties at Aegle Therapy

  • Substance Use Concerns

    Explore your relationship with substances, find healthier coping strategies, and build a life worth living again.

  • Support for Caregivers & Families

    Rediscover your own identity, set healthy boundaries, and learn how to love with limits without losing yourself.

  • Couples Counselling

    Rebuild trust, strengthen communication, and navigate challenges that arise around substance use, anxiety, or emotional distance.

  • Mental Health Support

    Address anxiety, depression, stress, and life transitions with person-centered therapy that restores balance and self-worth.

Substance Use Concerns

Aegle Stages of Change

At Aegle Therapy, we have extended the traditional model of Six Stages of Change, which are:

  • Pre-contemplation – not yet seeing use as a problem

  • Contemplation – beginning to recognize concerns

  • Preparation – getting ready to make changes

  • Action – taking concrete steps toward change

  • Maintenance – working to sustain new patterns

  • Relapse / Termination – setbacks or revisiting earlier stages (part of the process, not failure)

Based on our expertise, we recognize there’s another important stage — Lapse — that sits just outside of Action and Maintenance. This stage represents those very human moments of struggle, where someone takes a step back but continues forward again. A lapse is different from relapse: it’s not starting over, it’s part of the process of growth.

We recognize that it’s normal for youth to experiment. But substance use can become a concern when it begins to affect daily life, relationships, or mental health. That’s why it’s important to understand the different stages of substance use and to pay close attention to how someone is coping — both physically and emotionally.

The stages of substance use include:

  • Non-Use – not using substances at all

  • Beneficial Use - using substances as prescribed or under medical supervision

  • Experimental Use – trying substances for the first few times

  • Social or Recreational Use – seeking and using for social occasion

  • Regular Use – substance use that’s become a regular part of a person’s life

  • Problematic Use – use has a negative impact on a person’s daily life and may be affecting physical or mental health

Stages of Substance Use

It can be hard to notice when substance use shifts from social to stressful. Therapy gives you a safe place to explore what’s happening without judgment.

How we help:

  • Work from a harm reduction approach — your goals set the direction (abstinence, safer use, or medical support)

  • Use Motivational Interviewing to support progress through the Stages of Change at your own pace

  • Learn how to navigate lapses without shame, building resilience after setbacks

  • Apply Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to break the cycle of thoughts, feelings, and actions tied to use

  • Explore past experiences shaping your present patterns

  • Build a life worth living again — not just less use, but more meaning

Support for Caregivers & Families

When someone you love struggles with substances, it’s easy to lose yourself while trying to help them. Therapy can help you reclaim your own identity and peace of mind.

How we help:

  • Rediscover who you are outside of your loved one’s use

  • Learn to love with limits — supporting without self-sacrificing

  • Build healthier boundaries that protect your well-being

  • Reconnect with joy, purpose, and self-worth

  • Create a balanced life where you can care for them and yourself

Couples Counselling

When relationships carry the weight of life’s challenges, it can be hard to stay connected — especially when one partner is navigating substance use, recovery, or the stress of anxiety and depression. Therapy provides a supportive space to rebuild trust, strengthen communication, and restore balance in your relationship.

How we help:

  • Rebuild trust and emotional safety in your relationship

  • Improve communication and reduce conflict

  • Navigate the impact of substance use or mental health concerns on connection and intimacy

  • Support one another with empathy and clear boundaries

  • Find balance between individual healing and shared growth

Mental Health Support

Anxiety, depression, stress, or life transitions can make daily living heavy. Everyone’s experience is different, which is why therapy is tailored to you.

How we help:

  • Address anxiety, depression, stress, and major life transitions

  • Take a person-centered approach — your story guides the plan

  • Develop awareness to better tolerate difficult feelings

  • Learn strategies to ease symptoms and restore balance

  • Explore values to reduce inner conflict (cognitive dissonance)

  • Rebuild self-worth so your needs are recognized and honoured

With Our Help You Can Feel

More balanced and steady through ups and downs

FAQs

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