You are not broken.

Meet Alicia

Alicia Hinger

Registered Psychologist · Founder, Core Elements

I don’t believe people are broken. I believe every behaviour, every conflict, every anxious thought, and every protective pattern makes sense once we understand the story the nervous system has been carrying.

I’ve spent more than 26 years helping people uncover those stories. I began my career in forensic psychology, where I learned to look beyond behaviour and understand the deeper systems driving it. That way of seeing has never left me. Today, I help individuals and couples recognize the patterns they’ve been living inside, often for years, and gently find a different way forward.

My curiosity began long before my career. As a child, I was always asking why. I noticed what wasn’t being said. I watched people’s faces, their bodies, the spaces between their words. I was fascinated by what makes us human, why we protect ourselves the way we do, and what helps us truly change. Decades later, I’m still asking those same questions.

My work is grounded in neuroscience, attachment science, trauma, and evidence-based therapies, but it has been shaped just as much by life itself. I’ve been married for nearly three decades, raised two remarkable children into adulthood, learned countless lessons from horses, nature, and my own relationships, and discovered that healing doesn’t come from trying harder. It comes from understanding ourselves differently.

Clients often tell me they appreciate that I make complex ideas feel simple. I’m warm, direct, curious, and yes, sometimes a little bit of a smartass. We laugh a lot in my office, because healing doesn’t have to be heavy all the time. Some of the most meaningful breakthroughs begin the moment shame loosens its grip and curiosity takes its place.

I don’t have your answers. But I know how to help you find them. My hope isn’t that you leave our work together as someone new. It’s that you remember who you’ve been underneath survival all along.