The Most Powerful Therapeutic Stance Is Not Knowing

In this engaging and heartfelt conversation, Janina Fisher, PhD is joined by Tiff Kopp and Clayre Sessoms, senior facilitators of Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST) in Vancouver. Together, they explore what it really means to meet trauma with curiosity instead of control — and how TIST helps clients build safety, connection, and self-compassion without retraumatization.From their roots in victim services to their current work as art therapists and supervisors, Tiff and Clayre share how TIST weaves together neuroscience, mindfulness, and relational repair. They discuss how the model honors every part of the self — including those born from oppression, fear, or survival — and how humor, play, and the willingness to “know nothing” open the door to genuine healing.With warmth and laughter, this conversation reminds us that stabilization isn’t the opposite of depth — it’s the foundation that allows deeper work, creativity, and love for all our parts to unfold.

Key Takeaways:

✨ What makes TIST a safe, non-pathologizing approach for complex trauma

✨ How relationship and context restore dignity for marginalized clients

✨ Why curiosity and play are essential to healing and integration

✨ How therapists can unlearn “fixing” and embrace presence instead

✨ The role of humor, creativity, and repetition in building safety

✨ How true healing begins when we can care for even our most difficult parts

Clayre Sessoms, RP, CCC, ATR-BCPronouns: she/theyClayre Sessoms is a relational and experiential psychotherapist, art therapist, and senior facilitator of Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST). Based in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish lands, she works at the intersections of parts, power, and belonging, offering care grounded in curiosity, embodied presence, and social justice.As a trans, queer, and disabled human, Clayre brings lived understanding to her collaborations and mentorships, centering safety, dignity, and connection over performing calm or competency, or fixing. She invites you to move from self-management toward self-relationship, and from surviving within oppressive systems to cultivating inner and collective belonging. She is the founder of Clayre Sessoms Psychotherapy, a practice dedicated to relational, creative, and justice-oriented care, and co-host of The Living Practice Podcast, where she and Laura Hoge, RSW explore what it means to live the practices that matter most to each of them.clayresessoms.comThe Living Practice Podcast.

Tiff Kopp, RCC, BCATR (she/they) is a trauma therapist and Certified Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST) Facilitator who integrates somatic and art therapy with parts work. With more than fifteen years in the anti-violence and advocacy field, Tiff now focuses on supporting people living with complex trauma and providing consultation for therapists developing somatic and parts-based approaches. A queer clinician, Tiff brings an intersectional, relational lens to her work. Outside of sessions, she finds joy in photography, music, dance and time in nature.

Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST): https://janinafisher.com/tist