Madeleine Downey
Areas of Focus: relationships, codependency, sexuality and intimacy, desire and pleasure, boundaries, anxiety, self-discovery, and the impact of sexual and relational trauma.
Individual and Relationship Counselling
Works with: Adults, Youth, & Couples
Madeleine takes a llimited number of sliding scale clients
About Madeleine
Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here.
I’m a Registered Clinical Counsellor who works with individuals, couples, and groups. I offer a supportive, collaborative space where we can honestly meet your inner world and explore what’s asking to shift, so you can move toward greater alignment and more connected relationships with yourself and the people in your life.
Outside the therapy room, you’ll find me teaching and practicing vinyasa yoga (sometimes to progressive house) or tucked in at home playing chess or listening to records. I love writing and the kind of existential philosophy that invites us to hold the tension of opposites, to stay with the both/and of being human rather than rushing toward tidy answers.
Whether you’re arriving with a clear goal or simply a sense that something inside is stirring, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.
If you’d like a sense of how I think and work, you’re welcome to explore my writing on Substack: https://madeleinedowney.substack.com/
About the Work
I work with concerns related to relationship dynamics, codependency, sexuality and intimacy, desire and pleasure, boundaries, anxiety, self-discovery, and the impact of sexual and relational trauma. Much of my work sits at the intersection of sexuality and attachment, exploring how early relational patterns, nervous system responses, and learned strategies shape intimacy, desire, and self-trust. I take a feminist, shame-informed approach to sexuality, supporting clients in reconnecting with erotic self-connection, agency, and choice at a pace that feels safe and grounded.
My approach integrates narrative therapy with depth-oriented work. Together, we explore the stories that shape your life—the meanings, roles, and “shoulds” you’ve inherited—while also tending to what lives beneath those stories: body-held memory, protective parts, and intergenerational patterns. I’m especially drawn to depth and archetypal perspectives on sex, intimacy, and identity, where shadow, longing, and imagination are understood not as problems to eliminate, but as invitations into greater wholeness.
Whether you’re untangling a single stuck spot or tending a deeper pattern, we’ll work at your pace and in the direction of what matters most.
