About Alyssa Herzig, M.A., PhD

Integrative coaching at the intersection of psychology, embodiment and consciousness.

The questions behind my work

What do we want most, and how do we create or receive it deliberately, across every part of life? And what are the spiritual and energetic laws of the universe, and how do we live in alignment with them? How do we experience optimal health and wellness?

These questions have guided my personal life, my academic path and my professional work for decades. I study, I experiment, I apply, I teach and I learn, all iteratively.

Why I do this work

Most of us were never taught how the mind and body work, or the best ways to get our needs met. Instead, many of us were taught ways of dealing with emotions that actually increase our challenges over the long term. So our emotions stay stuck inside, where they’re continually triggered, fearfully avoided, fiercely protected against, or suppressed so deeply that we lose touch with our desires and with our own experience.

This should be taught in school, and it’s not.

Many of the strategies we pick up unknowingly create inner violence and pain. They keep us suffering inside, and they limit our ability to get our needs met, achieve our goals and receive our desires. They also shape how we affect the world around us: what we’re able to give, through our gifts, our love, our heart and our mind, to our loved ones, our communities and our world.

Learning this has been my life’s journey, and I’ve learned it by living it: through a master’s and a PhD in clinical psychology, somatics, meditation and the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah, each one tested in my own life and refined through years of working with people.

Now I’m making it my life’s work to educate and help humanity deeply understand how to care for themselves and others. I believe creating inner peace and alignment should become a widely understood skill and capacity, so people can be their best and contribute to the world, especially in the century ahead, with so many changes and unknowns.

I grew up in Ottawa. Around the age of 15, I became passionate about finding the power to rise above my circumstances and create the life I wanted. That grew into a lifelong inquiry. I tested many models, and I became more and more interested in how consciousness, beliefs, internal stories and posture shape what we experience and create.

My training

I am an integrative thinker, and no single framework contains everything.

I completed a bachelor’s degree, a master’s and a PhD in research and clinical psychology at Concordia University in Montreal. Through about 15 practicum, internship and residency placements, I received rigorous, supervised training in many approaches, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based approaches such as mindfulness-based CBT, emotion-focused therapy (EFT), internal family systems (IFS), Gestalt and humanistic psychology, and Jungian and psychodynamic perspectives. I was particularly drawn to people living with relational trauma, especially from emotional needs that went chronically unmet in childhood. I learned what works, what doesn’t, and why.

My graduate research explored the placebo and expectancy effect, the mechanisms of hypnosis, and the influence of mind and emotion on the body.

After my PhD, I trained in somatic and body-based work and in psychedelic integration. I’ve studied and practiced meditation extensively, and I guide it. I’ve also explored energy work, relationship dynamics, conscious sexuality, and tantric and shamanic approaches. I’ve been deeply studying and practicing Kabbalah for the last three years, which I find profoundly clear, precise, heart-opening and empowering.

What I believe

Our lives are largely shaped by our consciousness: how we perceive, interpret, react and choose. Meaning matters. Beliefs matter, especially the ones we don’t know we hold. How we relate to our body, feelings, needs and fears matters.

There are also metaphysical dimensions to life, laws of cause and effect, and it’s more effective to work with them consciously than to ignore them.

My work exists to help people become radically empowered creators of their own lives, rather than remaining victims of past or present circumstances.

How I work with people

People are different. I attune to each person, meet you where you are, and get very precise.

Even when I help you see blind spots or unmet needs, my focus is always on your empowerment. I don’t create dependency. From the beginning, I teach you how to work with your own inner experience. In many ways, I’m offering you the tools to do my job for yourself.

I’m direct, and I’m kind. I’ll tell you the truth, and I’ll ask before I push.

Why I’m a coach

Although I hold a PhD in Clinical Psychology, as an anglophone in Quebec I am not registered with the professional order, so I work under the title of coach. This lets me integrate the full range of practices I’ve studied, tested, lived and taught, outside a strictly medical model. In my experience, that can be more empowering for clients.

I work online with clients in Canada, the United States, Australia, Thailand and Europe.

Sessions are in English. French-speaking clients are welcome, and we can work together in a mix of French and English.

Outside of sessions

Outside of sessions, I love to spend time with people I love. I love rock climbing, surfing, hiking, being in nature, music, dancing, travel, reading, health and wellness. I also make macramé wall hangings and gemstone jewelry.