Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Kimberly Sogge PhD CPsych, Psychologist, 14 Chamberlain Suite 202, Ottawa, ON.
Kimberly Sogge PhD CPsych Psychologist, Author of THRIVE After Trauma program, Creator of the Art & Science of Thriving Podcast
*SM does not = a professional relationship* I offer my clinical services as an experienced registered clinical health psychologist through Ottawa River Psychology/Ottawa River Integrative Mental Health, a group of registered health care professionals specializing in the
family of Third Wave clinical health psychology and evidence-informed psychotherapies. Third Wave approaches in psychology and psychotherapy are grounded in contextual behavioural science, and take a process oriented perspective on suffering, emphasizing cultivation of psychological flexibility and de-identification of one's self from symptoms concomitant with a re-orientation towards processes that build vitality and committed actions towards values-based living. The Third Wave of psychology and psychotherapy is a big conceptual umbrella, and includes mindfulness and compassion-based interventions such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Process-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Radically Open Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and Internal Family Systems Therapy among others. I am a dedicated Buddhist practitioner with experience working with high performance athletes, military, front line responders and health care workers particularly physicians. I bring a Trauma Sensitive and Somatic emphasis to sessions integrating Third Wave processes from CBT, DBT, ERP, Compassion-Focused Therapy, Systems Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness-Integrated CBT, and Somatic Experiencing/Somatic IFS as indicated, to co-create an individualized plan for developing well-being and growth with you.
04/13/2026
Guilty pleasure: As a sailor I find barnacle scraping videos sooo satisfying!
Remember that you cannot sail fast with barnacles on your racing boat; so whatever old stuff is holding you back - scrape it off and feel the wind catching your sails as you slice through the water. Sail on my friends!
275.4K likes, 3491 comments. “Barnacle scraping! I was able to get a video of the marina scraping the live barnacles off of this boat that has been sitting in the water at this marina for 8+ years! This boat was getting crushes in the landfill less than an hour later after I removed anything (not ...
04/12/2026
I am excited to welcome my SE colleague and fellow McGill alum to Ottawa River this April 2026. Please share with anyone who may benefit. Call 613-656-3331 or see more at https://ottawariverintegrative.com
Understanding what constitutes a good life is central to psychological research, yet wellbeing models remain contested with respect to their structure and borders. We employ a network approach to i...
04/11/2026
Spring is here and the heart is ready to bloom. 🌷🌷🌷
We’re delighted to be a sponsor for the online IFS Canadian Community Conference happening June 5-6, 2026. It will feature keynote speakers, workshops, talks, and community-building events highlighting the diversity of IFS practice in Canada.
This is a beautiful opportunity to come together in learning, connection, and shared exploration of Internal Family Systems. We encourage you to check it out at https://hubs.ly/Q049VzGK0.
04/04/2026
The buddhist path to wellbeing aka the Four Noble Truths:
One of my most beloved teachers is a German born, Sri-Lankan trained Theravada monk named Bikkhu Analayo. I am on my third round of a deep course he teaches on Compassion and Emptiness. As abstract as this topic might sound, it is very grounding for me as a health care professional and supervisor of other health care professionals. As a healer and teacher of healers, it is not uncommon that out of compassion I have to say things that others egos do not like to hear. It is tempting to just want the sweet side of compassion and not the fierce, but then our relationships would not be guided by compassion, but would instead be very unhelpful patterns that perpetuate co-dependency and self illusions. Here is a phrase from Bikkhu Analayo's book on Compassion and Emptiness that really spoke to me today:
"to express compassion
verbally does not mean that one only says what others find
pleasing and agreeable. Of course, an effort should always be made
to avoid hurting others. But at times it may be necessary to say
something displeasing, if it is true and beneficial. In other words, the
compassionate vision that informs one’s verbal activities does not
consider only harmony in the present moment. Instead it evaluates a
situation in the light of both short-term and long-term repercussions.
Motivated by the wish to help others emerge from the conditions
that cause their unhappiness, such compassion has the courage to
do what is temporarily unpleasant, whenever this is required. In this
way verbal activity can become the fitting expression of a mind that
is filled with compassion." - Ven. Bikkhu Analayo
Photos from my last trip to Barre Center For Buddhist Studies where I first discovered Analayo's teachings.
04/02/2026
04/02/2026
03/29/2026
When Dr. Juliet Turner announced that she had successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford — the globally acclaimed number one ranked university — she simply aimed to celebrate a monumental achievement after four years of hard work.
"I passed my viva exam," she wrote. "You can call me Doctor."
But what happened next was something she never anticipated.
A self-proclaimed life coach, boasting a significant online following, shared her photo with a derogatory caption: "'Just look at the degree on that chick' — said no man ever." His post quickly went viral, igniting a torrent of sexist remarks. Some told her she should have been busy starting a family instead. Others labeled her a "cat lady," while many questioned whether her research was even worth anything.
However, Dr. Turner's response stunned her critics — it was full of grace, not rage:
"I'm sure having my photo shared in such a condescending way would be upsetting if my goal in earning a PhD was to impress this man and his misogynistic followers. Luckily, that wasn't the case. So, I can just laugh about it instead."
And what was Dr. Turner occupied with while these men were spewing insults from their couches?
She was solving one of the greatest mysteries of evolution: why certain insect species exhibit exceptional social structures while others do not. Her research applies sophisticated comparative methods to study the behavior of ant colonies as superorganisms — where each individual sacrifices its personal reproduction for the collective survival. Her work offers insights that extend well beyond the insect world, helping to explain how complex life forms, including humans, evolved from single-celled organisms to the advanced species we are today.
Now, Dr. Turner continues her pioneering research while also teaching evolutionary biology at Oxford and contributing as an ecological researcher.
But perhaps the most inspiring result of the online backlash was the wave of support that followed. Thousands of women from around the globe began sharing their own academic achievements and degrees in solidarity, giving birth to the viral movement "Degree on That Chick" — turning what was meant to be an insult into a global celebration of women in academia.
Dr. Turner didn’t just defend her thesis. She reminded us all that brilliance doesn’t require anyone’s validation.
Congratulations, Dr. Turner. The ants — and all of us — are fortunate to have you.
03/29/2026
Historian and Canadian professor defines freedom in positive terms, as a freedom TO not in negative terms as freedom FROM. This subtle difference makes all the difference in the trajectory of an individual, a community and a society. Taking Snyder’s definition of freedom one can see how some societies fundamentally misunderstand and cannot comprehend the actions of others who do not share their same definition of freedom. He gives the example of how many American military strategists misunderstood and gave inaccurate predictions of what would happen when Ru$$ia invaded Ukr4ine: because they had a negative definition of freedom they did not predict the fierce and effective Ukrainian resistance or the president’s determination to stay in Kyiv with his people. One could take this framework of positive vs negative definitions of freedom to understand and find solutions to many conflicts ranging from individual to organizational to international in scope. One of the conditions of positive freedom, as I understand Snyder to argue, is sovereignty of being, not just of body but of corporeal being known in relationship. With our bodies in relationship we both know how things are and how things should be. Snyder says “the body enacts way between the world of things as they are and the world of things as they might be…the is and the ought. To be sovereign means to have a sense of what ought to be and how to get there”.
So…in a simple personal and political translation… don’t buy the BS when someone, whether an individual, a partner, friend, colleague, a government official, or an influencer from your latest detour in the internet algorithm tries to lie, manipulate or gaslight you.
Go with what you know in your body, what you know in relationship, and act on what you know about how things should be when what is presented to you does not align.
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Dr. Kimberly Sogge C.Psych. Registered Clinical Health Psychologist, IMTA certified mindfulness teacher, CMSC certified MSC teacher.
I specialize in evidence based psychological treatments for health and performance that integrate mindfulness and compassion. ACT, CFT, CBT-E, MiCBT, MSC, MBCT, Maudsley FBT.
I hold a Ph.D. from the APA accredited program in Psychology from Texas A&M University, and my doctoral residency was at the University of Texas at Austin’s Student Health Center Behavioral Medicine Unit. My post doctoral work was in the Medical Simulation program and the Olin B. Teague V.A. Hospital PTSD Unit within the Texas A&M College of Medicine.
I have 25+ years of professional experience in mental health, healthcare, medical education, research, academics and hospital leadership. I have been honoured to hold positions as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, Health Psychologist at Alberta Children’s Hospital, Chief of Psychology Professional Practice at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, and Director of Child, Adolescent and Families Mental Health at the Clara Martin Center in Vermont. Inspired by what I have learned from the best organizations in health and mental health, I founded my own private practice in psychology.
My original solo practice has grown into the Ottawa River Psychology Group, a group of psychologists and registered psychotherapists who share a commitment to evidence based practice, diversity, inclusion, collaboration, and the integration of mindfulness and compassion into clinical interventions in the Third Wave of the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy tradition. Interventions that belong to the Third Wave include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Mindfulness Integrated CBT, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindful Self Compassion training, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and others.
My mindfulness practice began as a child when I spent many unstructured summers with horses on the vast open prairies in Western Canada. In graduate school I became very interested in mind-body health health, the role of emotions in physical wellbeing, and the emotional patterns that influenced physicians’ clinical reasoning with patients. My research naturally led me towards Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and I was able to complete my first training in MBSR with the “father of Western mindfulness” himself, Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn, who came to Austin, Texas where I was in my doctoral residency to teach a 9 day course for health professionals with Dr. Saki Santorelli. Since that time I have trained and taught many Mindfulness Based Interventions as a registered psychologist (MBSR, MBCT, MBRP, MiCBT, MSC) and have pursued further training as a mindfulness teacher (MYMT Spirit Rock 2 Year program, Awake in the Wild 2 Year program), Mindful Self Compassion certified teacher, and RYT200 yoga teacher with the intention of allowing mindful awareness and compassion to suffuse and transform all spheres of my life.
Three core elements of my own insight meditation practice are: inhabiting awareness in the body, expanding and deepening the heart of compassion, and softening attachment to a separate self through connecting with the vastness and generosity of the living natural world. My living contemporary dharma teachers include but are not limited to: David Loy, Mark Coleman, Jack Kornfeld, Phillip Moffitt, Pema Chodron, Ajahn Achalo, Ajahn Viradhammo, Thannissara, and Kittisarro.
