Individual Therapy | We Are Always Gardening

You are always influencing.

The question isn’t whether you matter, but how to tend to what you’re cultivating consciously.

Influence isn’t something you acquire. It’s something you already have. You’re shaping conditions through your responses, your attention, your way of being. This isn’t about being the cause of everything you have experienced. It’s about recognizing the influence you naturally have and learning to use it with intention in ways that are helpful and wise.

I’m Tracy Riley, a registered psychologist with over 20 years of experience. My work is grounded in a simple recognition: we are always gardening whether we realize it or not. Some people work with me individually to heal old patterns, develop greater self-awareness, or navigate life transitions with more wisdom. Others engage through guided practices, reflection tools, or explorations of what it means to live consciously. Many discover that personal growth and thoughtful contribution aren’t separate – they’re deeply connected.

This is influence work.

→ Work with Tracy (Individual therapy) → Store (Meditation practices, reflection guides, and mindful resources) → Read & Reflect (Blog wisdom for conscious living)

Upcoming Autumn Retreats

Book now for some quiet sanctuary and reflection time this autumn in a peaceful, lakeside setting near Sydenham, Ontario. Day retreats include a ~ 3-hour guided experience portion, as well as optional extended sanctuary time. Led by Tracy Riley, registered psychologist.

Upcoming Dates
– Friday, October 3, 2025 | Structured portion scheduled from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
– Saturday, October 4, 2025 | Structured portion scheduled from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
– Sunday, October 5, 2025 | Structured portion scheduled from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Small groups can also book the guided autumn retreat at a custom time. While retreats are designed for up to 4 participants, slightly larger groups can be accommodated (please reach out to me to discuss).

Meeting Yourself with Listening and Friendship in Autumn

As we move through late August, September, October, November, and December, you’ll notice the qualities of daylight, dark night, and outdoor colours and temperatures shifting. What else do you notice moves and shifts? Things in the external world? Things in your inner landscape? Is now a time in your life when things feel like they are speeding up or slowing down? Is it a particularly painful time for you? An apprehensive kind of time? Or is it energetic, exciting, encouraging, or mixed?

The Autumn Intentions: A Seasonal Reflection Guide is a resource I designed to help you meet yourself with listening and friendship in the season(s) you are in — whatever and all that that may entail — and specifically as you go through the months of late August through to the last day of fall.

August 27th 2025

What internal radio station are you listening to right now?

I will begin by asking, what internal radio station are you listening to right now? Is it the All Anxious Messaging All The Time Station (W-O-R-Y – where the worry never stops)? The Greatest Hits of All Times from the Bullies and Self-Critics? Or maybe it’s Endless To Do Lists FM, or, potentially, Mentorship at its Finest?

You will have your own particular radio stations and perhaps your own particular names for them. Whatever they are and whatever the particulars, the radio station that you are listening to matters.

August 17th 2025

A journey is a web, a collage, a choose your own adventure series you did and didn’t write

A journey is a web, a collage, a choose your own adventure series you did and didn’t write.

You build pieces of the web, strand it out. Not bad. Oh. Someone just walked through your web as they went out the door (or arrived) – as they crossed a threshold, now wearing your web. Okay. No matter. Memory lives inside – the learning, the skill, the growth. Maybe you decide to build a bit differently, just a strand here or there, or, waaaaay over there. You realize certain configurations are no longer working or needed. (You may realize also that no longer working and no longer needed are not necessarily the same thing.)