Justin the Therapist

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Mississauga, ON
Justin the Therapist

Justin Michel, MA, MSc, RP. Individual/Couple/Family Therapy. Owner/manager of BBtherapy.ca

04/21/2026

Grief moves when you move toward it.

For a lot of people it's actually one of the hardest things to do because approaching grief means feeling it, and feeling it can feel like opening a door you're not sure you can close again.

So instead, people delay it and the effects just linger.

One of the most practical things I come back to with clients is this… Have you ever tried giving yourself permission to grieve on a timer? 👀

It sounds a little strange… but hear me out.

⏰ Pick a time on the weekend.
⏳ Set a timer for an hour.
💭 Let yourself actually think about the loss.

And if you cry, you cry. That's the whole point!

Just one hour in a safe, contained space where you're not pushing it away.

And then when the timer goes off, you're done for today.

A lot of people are surprised by what happens. Sometimes it doesn't even last the full hour. But either way, something shifts.

Because you stopped running from it, even just for a moment.

The only way to get through grief is to go through it. And sometimes that starts with just giving yourself an hour. 💙

04/20/2026

I don’t make therapists, I make space for them to grow 💙☺️

At .ca we focus on creating the conditions where therapists can build confidence, strengthen their skills, and do the best work possible for their clients.

Interested in supervision? Click the link in bio to find out more 🔗 or visit our website:

www.bbtherapy.ca ➡️ services ➡️ clinical supervision

Ontario Therapist | Clinical Supervision | Therapy

04/15/2026

I consider myself to be a systemic therapist.

And you may be wondering… “Justin… what does that even mean???”

It means I don’t just look at what’s happening inside someone’s mind.

I look at what’s happening around them too.

What happens inside the therapy room is always connected to what’s happening outside of it.

Because the world people live in, the systems, the politics, the layers of context, all of it shapes mental health in ways that can’t be ignored.

I can’t truly support someone without caring about what’s creating and sustaining their pain in the first place.

That’s what it means to be a systemic therapist.

That’s why I’ll never believe that therapy is purely apolitical. 🙅‍♂️

Ontario Therapy | Therapist | Psychotherapist | Mental Health Support | Systemic Therapy

04/14/2026

If you think we stop thinking about you after supervision, we don’t!!

These are real thoughts I have often when I’m going about my day. 💭❤️🤝

Clinical Supervision | Therapist | Ontario Therapy

04/10/2026

A few weeks ago I got to speak to hundreds of first year psych students at and it was a full circle moment I didn't see coming.

The professor who invited me, Dr. Alicia Salerno, was actually my classmate and old friend. We did our first master's together at York. She went on to her PhD, I left and did a second master's in therapy, and somehow we ended up back in the same room years later.

Pretty cool 🙌🙌

I shared a bit about my own path into this work. It definitely wasn’t a straight line from first year student to therapist. A lot of people think there’s one “right” way to get here. There isn’t. Where some take 6 years of post-secondary to become a therapist, it took me 11 years.

We also got into what the industry actually looks like now. The good parts, the hard parts, the stuff nobody tells you upfront.

And then the questions just kept coming!!

🙋 AI and therapy
🙋 How to handle burnout
🙋 Cultural competence
🙋 How to help someone in your life who refuses to go to therapy.

They had 50+ questions submitted on alone and we barely got to them because hands kept going up.

That’s exactly the kind of energy and curiosity that reminds me why I love doing this.

And if I can show up for future therapists the way I wished someone had shown up for me early on, that's always going to be worth it. 💙

04/02/2026

Have you ever put a lot of work into a presentation… Nice slides, interactive questions, the whole thing.

And then right before you go on… it just stops working.

That is exactly what happened to me. 😅

So I did what any therapist would do. I put the laptop away and just talked.

And I think it might have been better that way!!

Nothing between me and the room, just a real conversation with a group of young professionals who actually wanted to dig into the messy, complicated parts of relationships.

And we did NOT hold back. 👏👏👏

We got into the pressure some people feel to move fast once they start dating. The weight of being in a relationship when your parents don't approve. And addiction, specifically what it does to a relationship and how you even begin to navigate that.

Every topic opened up into something deeper. There were debates, some laughs, and a lot of moments where I could tell something genuinely landed.

That's the kind of conversation I never get tired of having.

Thank you to for having me!! Grateful for the room and the people in it. 💙

03/31/2026

We need to talk about AI transcription in therapy. 👀

Welcome to my three part series because there was genuinely no way this was fitting into one video.

Today, consent.

A lot of therapists are probably asking their clients. But a lot probably aren’t.

Even the ones who are, there’s a real difference between slipping it into a consent form and actually making sure your client genuinely understands what they’re agreeing to.

Especially in a space where trust is literally everything.

Drop your thoughts below, I’m curious where people land on this one.

Ontario Therapy | Psychotherapist | AI In Therapy | AI Transcriptions

03/30/2026

The manosphere doesn’t just spread harmful ideas, it gives struggling men and boys something they’re not getting elsewhere:

Identity, direction, and a sense of power.

That’s the part people don’t talk about.

As male therapists, this means something!! We can’t just critique, we must model another way.

Therapist Hot Takes | Ontario Therapy | Manosphere Documentary

03/27/2026

Hey therapists, listen up!!

I know it can feel like a lot, especially at the start of this journey. These are the things I wished I’d heard at the start of mine. 💙

New Therapist | Ontario Therapist | Psychotherapy

03/26/2026

When life gets loud, most couples don’t fall apart because they stop loving each other.

They fall into “stress mode.”

You’re both tired, both stretched, both trying to keep everything moving… and without meaning to, you start treating each other like the problem instead of the person you’re doing life with.

That’s the shift Sarah and I focused on with

Your partner is your teammate in stress.

A lot of the time, the stress isn’t coming from them.

It’s coming from the season you’re in, a newborn, grief, work pressure, family stuff, money stress, the endless to-do list.

The relationship just starts feeling the impact, and suddenly you’re arguing about dishes when the real issue is that you’re both running on fumes.

When you can name what’s actually happening, something softens.

🤝 You stop blaming.
🤝 You start sharing the load.
🤝 You remember you’re on the same side.

And in the middle of all of it, don’t underestimate the “unproductive” moments.

Those tiny pockets of connection remind you that the relationship isn’t another job to manage, it’s the place you’re meant to land. 💙

Address

52 Village Centre Place
Mississauga, ON
L4Z1V9

Telephone

+13653005056

Website

http://justinthetherapist.com/

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