Your emotions feel like a runaway train. One moment you’re fine, the next you’re overwhelmed by rage, despair, or panic so intense it feels like you might die. People call you “too sensitive,” “dramatic,” or “unstable,” but what they don’t understand is that your emotional intensity isn’t a choice—it’s how your brain is wired.
This isn’t about becoming emotionally numb or “fixing” your sensitivity. It’s about learning skills that let you experience your full emotional range without being destroyed by it.
At Ontario Therapy, located at 101 King Road in the heart of King City, we specialize in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)—a powerful approach specifically designed for people who experience emotions more intensely than others. DBT doesn’t try to make you feel less—it teaches you to feel deeply while staying in control of your actions.
At 35, she desperately wants stable relationships but finds herself pushing people away when they get too close, then panicking when they actually leave. She oscillates between idealizing new friends and partners, then devaluing them when they inevitably disappoint her. She's been told she has "trust issues," but what she really has is a nervous system that interprets normal relationship ups and downs as life-or-death emergencies.
He's a 28-year-old accountant in Richmond Hill who appears successful on the outside, but inside he's drowning. When his boss gives feedback, he either explodes in anger or shuts down completely. He's been through three jobs in two years because his emotional reactions are "unprofessional." His relationships end when partners get tired of walking on eggshells around his mood swings. He's starting to believe he's just fundamentally flawed.
She's 19 and living in Vaughan, but every day feels like an emotional emergency. A friend doesn't text back and she spirals into abandonment panic. Her boyfriend mentions being tired, and she's convinced he's going to leave her. She's cut herself to cope with the intensity, which terrifies her parents and makes her feel even more ashamed. She googles "emotional regulation help" at 3 AM, wondering if she'll ever feel normal.
They're 22 and feel like they don't have a stable sense of who they are. Their mood determines their entire identity—when happy, they feel capable and lovable; when depressed, they feel worthless and hopeless. They've experimented with different friend groups, styles, values, and goals, but nothing feels authentic or lasting. They wonder if they have a "real self" underneath all the emotional chaos.
She's the mother of a 16-year-old in Nobleton who's been struggling with self-harm, eating disorders, and explosive emotions. The family has tried traditional therapy, medications, and even residential treatment, but nothing seems to help her daughter regulate her emotions. The whole family feels like they're walking on eggshells, and Lisa wonders if they're enabling or helping.
Sound familiar? Your emotional intensity is not a character flaw—it’s a trait that can be channeled into incredible strength.
Start with a comprehensive 90-minute assessment where we evaluate whether DBT is right for you and create a personalized treatment plan.
If you experience self-harm impulses or suicidal thoughts:
Most people experience emotions like gentle waves—they rise, peak, and naturally recede. But for some people, emotions feel more like tsunamis—overwhelming, unpredictable, and devastating in their intensity.
What Emotional Dysregulation Looks Like:
Emotional Intensity: Your emotions are turned up to volume 11 when others experience them at volume 5. Joy feels euphoric, sadness feels devastating, anger feels explosive, and fear feels life-threatening.
Emotional Reactivity: You go from 0 to 100 instantly. Small triggers create big reactions. A minor criticism feels like a personal attack, a cancelled plan feels like abandonment, and disappointment feels like the end of the world.
Slow Return to Baseline: While others bounce back from emotions quickly, yours linger for hours or days. A fight with a friend ruins your entire week. A rejection at work affects your self-worth for months.
Emotion-Driven Behaviors: When emotions spike, you act impulsively to escape the intensity. This might include self-harm, substance use, reckless driving, sexual acting out, spending sprees, or explosive outbursts you later regret.
Emotional Vulnerability: Stress, lack of sleep, hunger, or hormonal changes make your emotional thermostat even more sensitive. What you could handle yesterday becomes overwhelming today.
Identity Disturbance: Your sense of self changes with your emotions. You’re not sure who you “really” are because it depends on how you’re feeling in the moment.
Most therapy approaches assume that people have basic emotional regulation skills. They focus on insight, processing past experiences, or changing thought patterns. But for emotionally intense people, these approaches often fall short because they don’t address the fundamental skill deficit: how to manage overwhelming emotions in real-time.
Where Traditional Therapy Struggles:
Talking About Emotions vs. Managing Them: Traditional therapy involves discussing feelings, but when your emotions are at level 9 intensity, talking about them can actually make them worse rather than better.
Insight Doesn’t Equal Control: Understanding why you feel a certain way doesn’t automatically give you the ability to regulate those feelings. You might have perfect insight into your abandonment fears but still panic when someone doesn’t text back.
One-Size-Fits-All Coping Skills: Generic relaxation techniques or “just breathe” advice doesn’t work when your nervous system is in full crisis mode. You need specific, concrete tools designed for high-intensity emotions.
Pathologizing Emotional Intensity: Many approaches treat emotional sensitivity as something to be reduced or eliminated, rather than as a trait that can be channeled into strength when properly managed.
Crisis Reactivity: Traditional weekly therapy doesn’t help when you’re in emotional crisis at 2 AM on a Tuesday. You need skills that work in the moment, when you need them most.
This is where DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) revolutionizes treatment—it’s specifically designed for people whose emotions feel unmanageable.
DBT was originally developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan (who herself struggled with intense emotions) specifically for people who experience emotions more intensely.
DB’s Revolutionary Approach:
Skills-Based Learning: Instead of just talking about problems, DBT teaches you concrete, practical skills you can use immediately when emotions spike.
Emotion Regulation Focus: DBT assumes your emotions are valid and important—it just teaches you how to experience them without being destroyed by them.
Crisis Survival Tools: DBT provides specific techniques for surviving emotional crises without making them worse through destructive behaviors.
Mindfulness Integration: DBT teaches you to observe your emotions rather than being consumed by them, creating space between you and your feelings.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: DBT helps you navigate relationships while staying true to yourself and managing the intense emotions that relationships often trigger.
Distress Tolerance: Instead of trying to eliminate distress, DBT teaches you to tolerate difficult emotions without acting impulsively to escape them.
Are you ready to transform overwhelming emotions into a source of extraordinary strength? Reach out to us at Ontario Therapy to begin your journey. Call us today or visit us at 101 King Road, King City, to schedule your first session. Let us help you find balance amidst the emotional intensity.
Mindfulness in DBT isn’t about meditation or spiritual practice—it’s about learning to observe your emotions rather than being hijacked by them.
Core Mindfulness Skills:
Observe: Noticing emotions, thoughts, and sensations without judgment
Describe: Putting experiences into words without interpretation
Participate: Fully engaging in the present moment rather than being stuck in emotional reactivity
Non-judgmentally: Accepting emotions without labeling them as “good” or “bad”
One-mindfully: Focusing on one thing at a time instead of emotional multitasking
Effectively: Doing what works in the situation rather than what feels justified
What This Looks Like in Practice: Instead of saying, “I’m so angry I could scream and this is terrible and I can’t handle it,” you learn to think: “I’m noticing anger in my body. My jaw is tight, my heart is racing, and I have the urge to yell. This feeling is temporary and I can ride it out.”
When emotions reach crisis levels, your goal isn’t to feel better immediately—it’s to get through the crisis without doing something that will create more problems later.
Crisis Survival Skills:
TIPP (Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, Paired muscle relaxation): Rapid techniques to calm your nervous system in crisis
Distracting: Healthy ways to shift focus away from overwhelming emotions temporarily
Self-soothing: Using your five senses to comfort yourself during distress
Improving the moment: Making a bad situation slightly more tolerable
Radical Acceptance Skills:
Accepting reality: Learning to stop fighting against situations you can’t change
Distress tolerance: Building your capacity to sit with difficult emotions without acting impulsively
Willingness vs. willfulness: Choosing effective action over stubborn resistance
What This Prevents: Self-harm, substance use, explosive outbursts, reckless driving, impulsive purchases, sending angry texts, quitting jobs in anger, ending relationships during emotional storms.
This module teaches you the mechanics of emotions—how they work, why you have them, and how to influence them.
Emotion Regulation Skills:
Emotion identification: Learning to recognize and name emotions accurately
Function of emotions: Understanding what emotions are trying to tell you
Barriers to emotion regulation: Identifying what makes emotional control harder
Reducing vulnerability: Lifestyle changes that make you less emotionally reactive
Opposite action: Acting opposite to your emotional urges when the emotion isn’t effective
Mastery activities: Building confidence and positive emotions through accomplishment
Building Positive Emotions:
Pleasant activities: Scheduling enjoyable experiences to balance emotional intensity
Mastery experiences: Engaging in activities that build competence and self-esteem
Values-based living: Aligning actions with what matters most to you
What This Creates: Emotional predictability, faster recovery from upsets, ability to make decisions based on values rather than momentary feelings, improved relationships, increased self-respect.
Relationships are often the biggest trigger for intense emotions. This module teaches you how to navigate relationships effectively while managing your emotional responses.
Relationship Skills:
DEAR MAN: A structured approach to asking for what you need or saying no effectively
GIVE: Maintaining relationships while advocating for yourself
FAST: Staying true to your values and self-respect in interpersonal situations
Validation: Understanding and communicating emotional understanding with others
Conflict Navigation:
Managing relationship triggers: Identifying what sets off your emotional intensity in relationships
Boundaries: Setting limits without creating wars
Repairing relationships: Healing damage caused by emotional reactivity
Building secure connections: Creating relationships that support rather than destabilize you
What This Improves: Reduced relationship drama, clearer communication, stronger friendships, healthier romantic relationships, better family dynamics, improved work relationships.
I didn’t choose to specialize in DBT by accident—I sought out this training because I witnessed too many emotionally intense people being misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and inadequately treated by traditional approaches.
Real-World DBT Experience:
Adolescent residential treatment – intensive DBT with teens in crisis
Addiction treatment centers – DBT for emotional regulation and substance use
Crisis intervention – using DBT skills in emergency mental health situations
Eating disorder programs – DBT for emotional eating and body image struggles
Private practice specialization
I understand emotional intensity not just professionally, but personally. I know what it’s like to feel emotions so intensely they seem to take over your entire being. This lived experience, combined with rigorous DBT training, allows me to teach these skills with both expertise and genuine empathy.
Located at the heart of King City, our therapy space is a serene and supportive environment for learning DBT skills—easily accessible, comfortable, and perfectly nestled in this charming community.
Why Our Location Supports DBT Learning:
Calm, consistent environment – important for emotional regulation practice
Multiple seating options – comfortable chairs, ability to move around during sessions
Natural lighting – supports mood regulation and circadian rhythms
Soundproof privacy – safe space to express intense emotions without judgment
Easy accessibility – no additional stress from difficult parking or navigation
Convenient for Emotionally Intense Individuals:
Close to public transit with convenient access from King City GO Station
Plentiful parking options – street parking and nearby lots
Ground floor access – no stairs to manage when feeling overwhelmed
Nearby amenities – cafes for post-session reflection and garden parks like King City Trails for mindfulness practice
From Aurora: 10 minutes southeast – direct route via King Road
From Richmond Hill: 15 minutes southeast, providing access to those in need
From Vaughan: 20 minutes south – easy reach for residents in urban surroundings
From Schomberg: 15 minutes northwest, catering to the western York region
DBT skills can be effectively learned through virtual sessions, and for many in King City and beyond, online DBT offers unique advantages for practicing emotional regulation in their natural environment.
Virtual DBT Benefits:
Practice in real environment – learn skills in the space where you’ll use them most
No travel stress – avoid triggers that might destabilize you before sessions
Immediate skill application – use your own comfort items and familiar surroundings
Flexible positioning – move around, lie down, or pace during sessions as needed
Privacy protection – no one sees you coming/going from therapy
DBT-Specific Virtual Adaptations:
Digital skills worksheets – downloadable DBT handouts and homework
Crisis skills accessible – techniques you can use immediately in your environment
Video skills demonstrations – watching and practicing DBT skills together online
Real-time coaching – text or call support between sessions for skill application
Group sessions available – virtual DBT skills groups with other participants
Technology for Emotional Intensity:
Simple platform – easy to use when you’re emotionally overwhelmed
Multiple contact options – video, phone, or text based on your current emotional state
Recording options – (with consent) review DBT skills explanations later
Crisis protocols – clear procedures for virtual emotional emergencies
Backup communication – alternative ways to connect if technology fails during crisis
Initial Assessment and Safety Planning (Sessions 1-3)
DBT begins with understanding your specific emotional patterns, triggers, and current coping strategies—both healthy and destructive.
DBT Assessment Includes:
Emotional intensity patterns: When, where, and how your emotions spike
Current coping strategies: What you currently do when overwhelmed (including harmful behaviors)
Trigger identification: Specific situations, people, or thoughts that set off emotional storms
Interpersonal patterns: How emotional intensity affects your relationships
Goals and motivation: What you want to be different about your emotional life
Safety planning: Immediate strategies for managing self-harm urges or suicidal thoughts
Safety and Crisis Planning:
Crisis survival kit: Personalized list of DBT skills for emotional emergencies
Support network activation: Who to call and when during emotional crises
Behavioral chain analysis: Understanding the sequence that leads to destructive behaviors
Commitment to treatment: Agreeing to learn skills rather than just talking about problems
This is the heart of DBT—systematic learning of the four skills modules, with extensive practice and real-world application.
Skills Learning Structure:
Mindfulness foundation: 3-4 sessions establishing observing and describing skills
Distress tolerance: 4-5 sessions learning crisis survival and radical acceptance
Emotion regulation: 5-6 sessions understanding and managing emotional responses
Interpersonal effectiveness: 4-5 sessions improving relationship skills without emotional chaos
Between-Session Practice:
Daily diary cards: Tracking emotions, urges, and skill use
Homework assignments: Practicing specific skills in real-life situations
Crisis coaching: Brief check-ins when you’re struggling to apply skills
Skill generalization: Using DBT techniques in work, family, and social situations
Once you’ve learned the basic skills, DBT focuses on advanced applications and integrating skills into your daily life seamlessly.
Advanced DBT Focus:
Complex emotional situations: Using multiple DBT skills simultaneously
Relationship repair: Healing damage caused by past emotional reactivity
Values clarification: Aligning your life choices with what matters most to you
Trauma integration: Using DBT skills to process difficult past experiences safely
Identity development: Discovering who you are beyond your emotional intensity
Relapse prevention: Maintaining skills during stressful life periods
Ongoing DBT Maintenance and Growth
DBT isn’t typically a short-term treatment—most people benefit from ongoing skill refreshers and support as they navigate life’s challenges.
Long-term DBT Support:
Monthly check-ins: Skill tune-ups and troubleshooting new situations
Crisis refreshers: Returning for intensive support during difficult life periods
Relationship DBT: Couples or family sessions using DBT principles
Life transition support: Using DBT skills during major changes
Advanced mindfulness: Deepening mindfulness practice for ongoing emotional balance
DBT is fundamentally different from traditional talk therapy. Instead of focusing on insight or processing past experiences, DBT teaches concrete skills you can use immediately when emotions spike. Many people who haven’t responded to other therapies find DBT effective because it addresses the skill deficit rather than just the emotional content.
DBT doesn’t try to eliminate your emotions or change your sensitive nature. Instead, it teaches you to experience your full emotional range while staying in control of your actions. Many people find they actually feel emotions more fully once they’re not afraid of being overwhelmed by them.
DBT was specifically designed for people who feel “too emotional” for traditional therapy. The skills are taught gradually, with lots of practice and support. There’s no such thing as being too emotional for DBT—emotional intensity is exactly why DBT was created.
While DBT is often longer-term than some therapies, many people notice improvements in emotional control within the first few months. The skills you learn become part of your toolkit for life, so the investment pays dividends for years to come.
Family education is often part of DBT treatment. We can help your loved ones understand emotional dysregulation and how to support your skill development rather than inadvertently undermining it.
DBT is effective for many conditions that involve emotional dysregulation, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, and PTSD. DBT skills enhance other treatments rather than competing with them.
Some people benefit from medication to help with sleep, anxiety, or depression while learning DBT skills. DBT can be done with or without medication, and many people find they need less medication as their emotional regulation improves.
“I’m afraid people will judge me for needing help with emotions.”
Needing help with emotional regulation is incredibly common and nothing to be ashamed of. Some people are born with more sensitive nervous systems, just like some people are born with allergies or other differences. DBT is simply learning skills to work with your natural temperament.
DBT includes specific crisis survival skills and protocols for between-session support. We’ll establish clear plans for managing emotional emergencies, and you’ll have concrete skills to use during crisis moments.
If you experience emotions more intensely than others, struggle with impulsive behaviors when upset, have difficulty maintaining relationships due to emotional reactivity, or feel like your emotions control your life rather than the other way around, DBT is likely to be helpful.
Take the first step towards emotional empowerment. Reach out to us for a dedicated and knowledgeable psychotherapy solution, conveniently located a short drive from King City, in Newmarket. Call us at (647) 855-0530 or visit our website to schedule a consultation.
When emotions hit crisis level (8/10 or higher), this technique can bring you down to manageable levels within 5-10 minutes. TIPP works by rapidly changing your body chemistry to interrupt the emotional crisis state. It’s designed for emergencies when you need immediate relief and other skills aren’t accessible.
Temperature Change:
Intense Exercise:
Breath Awareness:
Paced Breathing:
Paired Muscle Relaxation:
Why TIPP works: These techniques rapidly activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which calms emotional intensity by changing your body chemistry. They work faster than breathing or mindfulness alone when you’re in crisis.
When to use TIPP: When emotions reach 8/10 or higher, when you have urges to self-harm, when you feel out of control, before important conversations during emotional spikes, or anytime you need rapid emotional regulation.
After using TIPP: Once your emotional intensity drops to 6/10 or below, you can use other DBT skills like mindfulness or distress tolerance more effectively.
DBT Individual Therapy Plus Skills Coaching
Intensive DBT combining individual therapy with between-session skills coaching for rapid skill acquisition.
Program Components:
Adolescent DBT Program
Specialized DBT for teenagers (ages 14-18) with emotional intensity, self-harm, or relationship difficulties.
Teen-Specific Features:
DBT for Families and Couples
Using DBT principles to improve family dynamics and romantic relationships affected by emotional intensity.
Relationship DBT Services:
Individual DBT Therapy:
Sliding Scale and Accessibility:
We understand that emotional dysregulation often impacts work stability and financial security:
DBT Investment Perspective:
Learning DBT skills is an investment that pays dividends for life. Most clients find that mastering emotional regulation:
Traditional therapy often focuses on insight and processing past experiences, while DBT teaches concrete skills for managing intense emotions in real-time. DBT assumes you need to learn emotion regulation skills before you can effectively process underlying issues.
Absolutely. While DBT was originally developed for BPD, it’s now used effectively for depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, ADHD, and any condition involving emotional dysregulation.
Most people notice some improvement within 2-3 months, with significant changes typically occurring within 6-12 months. However, DBT skills continue to deepen with practice over years.
While DBT skills groups are highly beneficial, individual DBT can be effective on its own. Groups provide peer support and additional practice opportunities, but they’re not mandatory.
We can start with individual DBT to build your skills and confidence before joining a group, or continue with individual work if group participation remains too challenging.
Yes, DBT was specifically developed to help people who engage in self-destructive behaviors. It provides alternative coping strategies and addresses the emotional intensity that often drives these behaviors.
DBT honors your sensitivity as a trait while teaching you to manage its intensity. Many people find they’re able to be even more authentically themselves once they’re not controlled by emotional overwhelm.
DBT includes mindfulness but goes far beyond it. DBT mindfulness is specifically adapted for people with intense emotions and includes concrete skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Yes, family DBT education is often helpful. When family members understand emotional dysregulation and learn some DBT skills themselves, it improves the entire family system.
We offer sliding scale fees, payment plans, and can help you prioritize which components of DBT would be most beneficial within your budget. Many extended health plans cover DBT as psychotherapy.
Southlake Regional Health Centre – crisis support and psychiatric coordination
York Region District School Board – school-based emotional support
Local family physicians – medication coordination when appropriate
Community mental health services – integrated care planning
Individual DBT Therapy:
DBT assessment and treatment planning (75 minutes): $200
Individual DBT sessions (60 minutes): $180-200
Crisis coaching sessions (30 minutes): $100
Family education sessions (60 minutes): $150
Comprehensive DBT skills training available via secure video sessions for emotionally intense individuals anywhere in the province who cannot access specialized DBT services locally.
Right now, your emotions might feel like a tornado that destroys everything in its path. You might believe that you’re just “too much” for other people, that you’ll never have stable relationships, or that you’re destined to live at the mercy of your emotional storms.
But what if that’s not true? What if your emotional intensity is actually a superpower that just needs the right training? What if the same sensitivity that causes you pain also gives you incredible empathy, creativity, and capacity for deep connection?
At Ontario Therapy in King City, we’ve watched hundreds of emotionally intense people transform their relationship with their feelings. Not by becoming emotionally numb, but by learning to ride the waves instead of being crashed by them.
Your emotional intensity means you feel life more deeply than others. This isn’t a flaw—it’s a gift that comes with great responsibility. DBT teaches you how to unwrap that gift safely.
The teenager who was cutting to cope with overwhelming emotions and now uses her sensitivity to help other teens through peer counseling. The man whose anger cost him three jobs who now channels that passion into advocacy work he loves. The woman whose relationship fears kept her isolated who now has the marriage she always dreamed of.
Their emotions didn’t disappear—they learned to work with them instead of against them. They discovered that the very intensity that once felt like a curse could become their greatest strength.
DBT isn’t about changing who you are—it’s about becoming who you’re meant to be when you’re not controlled by emotional chaos. It’s about keeping your sensitive heart while developing an emotionally intelligent mind.
Your emotions have been the weather, and you’ve been at their mercy. DBT teaches you to become the meteorologist—still experiencing all the storms and sunshine, but understanding the patterns and knowing how to prepare.
The comfortable chair in our King City office is ready for you. The secure virtual therapy space is available when you need it. And most importantly, someone who understands both the science of emotional regulation and the lived experience of emotional intensity is here to teach you skills that will serve you for the rest of your life.
contact
Take the brave step toward emotional mastery today:
Ontario Therapy – Newmarket
171 Main Street South
Newmarket, ON L3Y 4Z1
Providing expert DBT therapy to King City, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Aurora, Nobleton, Schomberg, Bolton, Thornhill, and communities throughout Ontario. Sliding scale fees, crisis support, and specialized emotional regulation training that honors your sensitivity while building your strength.
24/7 crisis support is available via text for enrolled clients.
