Daniela Junas

Practicum Student

She/Her

Daniela is a student counsellor who works with youth (ages 12+), young adults, and adults. Her graduate research sharpened a principle that runs through her work: emotional regulation is not something we produce by force of will. It becomes possible when we change the physical conditions underneath it. You cannot reason your way into calm; the body settles when its conditions change, not when it’s told to.

This changes the method. Rather than approaching anxiety or overwhelm as a problem to argue your way out of, she helps clients notice what the body is already signalling, slow the moment down, and build tools that hold up under real stress rather than only in the counselling room. Before counselling she was a teacher, where she first learned to read those cues in children who did not yet have words for what they were feeling.

Daniela draws from Body Psychotherapy, Hakomi, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and harm reduction, and she does not apply them by formula. Some people need to start with the body and let the thinking follow; others need to work through the thoughts before the body will loosen. The client’s own responses show which way to go; she follows them rather than a protocol. She works alongside them, without judgment, and makes no assumptions about their story before they have told it.

She has a particular interest in anxiety, stress, emotional overwhelm, life transitions, self-esteem, identity, the aftermath of difficult or traumatic experience, and substance use and addiction.

Daniela holds a Master of Science specializing in Body Psychotherapy and Body Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She is a Student Member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) and has additional training in Crisis Intervention and De-escalation, ACT, CBT, and Harm Reduction.