Nicole Staite | Founder + RP
I’m Nicole — therapist, educator, practice owner, and the human behind Root to Rise. I’m especially passionate about supporting first responders and healthcare workers, high-achieving young people and professionals, and women navigating fertility, motherhood, major life transitions.
Who I Work With
Areas of Focus
I tend to connect especially well with people who are used to carrying a lot.
You might be a first responder or healthcare professional who is very good at functioning through hard things; a student, athlete, or professional who puts enormous pressure on yourself; or someone navigating anxiety, trauma, relationships, fertility, motherhood, grief, or a major life transition.
You don’t need to be in crisis to come to therapy.
Sometimes you’re functioning well on the outside while your brain won’t shut off. Sometimes something has happened that you can’t quite shake. Sometimes you’re exhausted from holding everything together. And sometimes you simply know that the way you’ve been coping isn’t working anymore.
You don’t have to know exactly what you need before you get here. We can figure that part out together.
My Approach
what therapy with me looks/feels like...
I don’t believe therapy needs to feel clinical, scripted, or overly rigid to be meaningful. My approach is warm, relational, evidence-based, and deeply human.
We’ll make room for the hard stuff, but there’s also room for humour, honesty, curiosity, and conversations that feel like real conversations.
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I draw from trauma-informed, attachment-based, somatic, and mindfulness-based approaches, alongside modalities including Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and exposure-based work. But I care less about fitting you neatly into a therapy model and more about understanding you — what you’ve lived through, how you’ve learned to cope, what your nervous system needs, and what actually helps.
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Sometimes therapy means slowing down and making sense of what’s underneath. Sometimes it means learning tangible tools, challenging patterns, or having someone compassionately call you on your shit. Usually, it’s a combination.
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Meaningful therapy, to me, is less about rigidity and more about connection, collaboration, and creating enough safety to do the work that matters.
Registered Psychotherapist
College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario
CRPO #11281
Counselling Psychology
Master of Arts, Counselling Psychology
Yorkville University
Child & Youth Studies
Master of Arts + BA (Honours), Child & Youth Studies
Brock University
Trauma + PTSD
Advanced training in trauma-focused care, including Prolonged Exposure, with continued specialized training in supporting trauma-exposed professionals.
First Responder Mental Health
Specialized education + clinical experience supporting first responders, frontline professionals, and their families.
Workshops + Mental Health Education
Experience developing + facilitating mental health education for workplaces, schools, teams, athletes, and community organizations.
