Amaranie Goonetilleke

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), MDiv , CRPO #22229

Meet Amaranie

Trauma-Informed Therapy for Healing and Growth

Amaranie believes that the patterns we develop often make sense in the context of what we have experienced. Therapy can be a place to slow down, understand those patterns, and develop new ways of responding.

She works with adults experiencing trauma, grief, difficult life experiences, relational challenges, and major life transitions. She is especially interested in helping clients understand the connection between their past experiences, present emotions, behaviours, and relationships.

Her approach is warm, compassionate, and collaborative. Rather than following a one-size-fits-all model, she draws from several therapeutic approaches and adapts her work to each client’s needs and goals.

You don’t have to understand everything about your past before you begin. Therapy can be a place to start making sense of it together.

Counselling for Immigrants and Newcomers

Moving to a new country can bring hope, opportunity, and a sense of possibility. It can also bring grief, cultural adjustment, questions of identity, and the challenge of building a sense of belonging in a new place.

Belonging & Identity

Navigating cultural identity, belonging, and life between cultures.

Family & Cultural Expectations

Exploring family relationships, expectations, values, and changing roles.

Grief & Adjustment

Making space for what you’ve left behind while building a meaningful life here.

As a South Asian immigrant to Canada, Amaranie brings her own lived experience of navigating cultural adjustment, loss, and the complexities of building a life between cultures. She is particularly mindful of the ways cultural and family expectations can shape how people understand themselves, their relationships, and their mental health.

Explore the emotional side of immigration:
Beyond Settlement: The Emotional Side of Immigration

Online Therapy Across Ontario

Amaranie provides secure online psychotherapy for adults across Ontario, so you can access support from wherever you live.

Trauma, Grief & Life Transitions

Sometimes the ways we respond to life today make more sense when we understand what we have experienced in the past.

Grief & TransitionTrauma & Healing

Complex trauma
Childhood experiences
Attachment wounds
Trauma-related shame

Grief & Transition

Grief & loss
Major life transitions
Identity changes
Emotional adjustment

Relationships & Emotional Wellbeing

Relational patterns
Anxiety & depression
Emotional regulation
Connection with others

Amaranie’s approach is trauma-informed and attachment-focused. She is interested not only in what is happening now, but also in understanding what may be underneath the emotions, behaviours, and relationship patterns that bring you to therapy.

The goal is not simply to cope better. It is to develop a deeper understanding of yourself and your patterns so that you can move toward greater emotional flexibility, healthier relationships, and a stronger sense of self.

Complex Trauma

Complex trauma can affect much more than the memories of what happened. It can shape the way you see yourself, relate to other people, respond to stress, and experience your emotions and body.

You may know that something from your past is affecting you without fully understanding why certain situations continue to trigger such strong reactions.

Amaranie uses a trauma-informed approach to help clients understand these patterns with curiosity and compassion. She draws on psychoeducation and an understanding of the nervous system to help make sense of how experiences of adversity can continue to affect the present.

Her work may include exploring:

emotional and relational patterns that developed in response to past experiences
shame, self-blame, or a negative sense of self
difficulty feeling safe or trusting others
becoming overwhelmed, shutting down, or disconnecting
the ways trauma can affect the body and nervous system
attachment wounds and difficulties in close relationships

Therapy provides an opportunity to understand these responses rather than simply judging or trying to suppress them. With greater understanding can come new choices, greater self-compassion, and a stronger sense of agency.

An Integrative Approach

Amaranie believes therapy should be responsive to the individual rather than following a one-size-fits-all model. Her flexible approach allows her to tailor therapy to each client’s unique personality, experiences, and needs.

Her clinical approach draws from:

Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) – An attachment-based approach that helps clients understand emotional patterns and develop new ways of relating to themselves and others.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) – A model that helps clients explore different parts of themselves with curiosity and compassion.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy – A body-oriented approach that recognizes the ways trauma can be held and expressed through the body.
Grief & Trauma Therapy – Supporting clients as they process loss, trauma, and the experiences that continue to shape their lives.

Amaranie also incorporates neuroscience and psychoeducation, helping clients understand what happens in the brain and nervous system in response to adversity and trauma.

If requested by the client, biblical counselling can also be incorporated into the therapeutic process.

Christian Counselling

For clients who want their Christian faith to be part of therapy, Amaranie can integrate faith into the therapeutic process in a way that respects both your clinical and spiritual needs.

Depending on what is meaningful to you, therapy may include exploring how your faith, values, relationship with God, and understanding of yourself intersect with the challenges you are facing.

Faith integration is always client-directed. You do not need to have faith as part of your therapy, and you can choose how much or how little you would like it to be incorporated into your work together.

Education & Specialized Training

Master of Arts in Clinical Counselling
Post-Graduate Training in Trauma-Informed Care
Training in Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT)
Training in Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Training in Grief and Trauma Therapy

A Little More About Amaranie

Before transitioning to clinical counselling, Amaranie worked for many years in TV and radio broadcasting. Her background in communication continues to inform the way she connects with people and listens to their stories.

Outside of her clinical practice, she enjoys writing and working as a freelance English editor.