Presence Therapy – Ajax Harwood Clinic
A different way of relating to thoughts, stress, and experience.
Presence Therapy is an experiential approach to thoughts, stress, and awareness offered through Ajax Harwood Clinic. Learn how it works and how to explore it.
Rather than trying to control thoughts, suppress symptoms, or force relaxation, the work begins by observing how attention, sensation, and thinking are already moving.
This often leads to a different relationship with stress, thought patterns, and emotional experience.
A different starting point
Many approaches begin with the question:
How do we fix this?
Presence Therapy begins somewhere else:
What is actually happening right now?
This shift matters.
When experience is observed more directly, patterns that once felt overwhelming often become more visible, and visibility itself can begin to change the relationship.
What this work includes
Presence Therapy may include:
group-based experiential sessions
ear acupuncture as a supportive setting
simple awareness-based observation
noticing thoughts, sensations, and reactions as they arise
learning from direct experience rather than from effort alone
This is not about doing more.
It is about noticing more clearly.
What people often discover
People often come expecting that the mind will become quiet right away.
Instead, many first notice:
more thoughts
more restlessness
more movement of attention
more awareness of internal tension
This is not a failure.
This is the mind becoming more visible.
Over time, that visibility can lead to a different kind of ease — not because experience is being forced to change, but because the relationship to it begins to shift.
Who it may be for
Presence Therapy may be helpful for people who are:
feeling caught in cycles of overthinking or stress
curious about attention, reactivity, or emotional patterns
looking for a non-directive, experiential approach
interested in exploring awareness in a group setting
open to observing rather than immediately fixing
There is no single “ideal patient.”
What matters most is openness to showing up and noticing what unfolds.
What it is not
Presence Therapy does not replace:
medical assessment
psychotherapy
medication
structured supports
It can exist alongside them.
For some people, it becomes a helpful complement to other forms of care.
Some people first encounter this through overthinking or stress, while others through attention or ADHD.
These are different entry points into the same experience.
This also shows up in experiences of overthinking and stress:
👉 https://ajaxharwoodclinic.com/overthinking-stress-presence-therapy/
Ways to explore
If you’d like to explore this work further, here are a few ways in:
Learn through short reflections and explainers:
Join the weekly online session:
If you are a physician, provider, or patient looking for referral guidance: