The process towards positive change can be challenging and the vulnerability can feel uncomfortable. It can also be enlightening and present unique and unexpected opportunities to grow. I offer warmth, compassion, non-judgement, humour, and transparency through this process.
I appreciate each person’s unique personality, experiences, motivations, and senses of gender and sexual orientation. With compassion, I can support you in the sometimes-challenging process towards positive change.
I have experience working with straight and queer, cis-gendered and transgendered clients and with clients who may practice monogamy, and/or other relationship configurations. This gives me a unique, open, and non-judgemental perspective towards each individual and their sense of themselves on the spectrums of gender and sexual orientation in addition to themselves as partners, lovers, parents, friends, and children.
I offer a safe space for you to explore
your relationships with the different parts of yourself, your partner(s), lovers, family members, children, friends, and colleagues; your vulnerabilities, hurts, and past traumas; and how you may wish to move forward to create positive change not only for yourself but also for those important others in your present and future.
Experience
My counseling experience and training includes working with people on a variety of issues including relationship issues, loss and grief, caregiver fatigue, depression, anxiety, issues around being queer and/or transitioning, questioning your sexual orientation and gender, abuse in intimate relationships, childhood trauma, war trauma, and immigrant and refugee settlement. I have been working in the counseling field since 2003.
Therapeutic Approach
My approach starts with what you bring to the room. We go at a pace that is comfortable for you and I strive to create a safe space in which you can explore what may feel vulnerable and painful.
I work from an anti-oppression and client-centred perspective. This means that:
* I respect the goals, perspectives, and pace that you bring to therapy.
* I work to understand you and your experiences in the context of your past and present relationships and the society in which we live
* I work towards understanding the role and impacts that power, privilege, discrimination, and oppression have in our lives.
My therapeutic approach draws primarily from Attachment Theory, Internal Family Systems (Certified in IFS and Somatic IFS and Level 2 trained), Brainspotting (Trained to Level 3), Relational Therapy, Mindfulness, and includes learnings from Interpersonal Neurobiology, Polyvagal Theory, Sensorimotor therapy and how our nervous systems are affected by trauma.
Areas of Focus
Depression
Anxiety
Relationships and Attachment
Trauma/Vicarious Trauma
Compassion Fatigue/Burnout
Bereavement/Loss
Gender & Sexuality
Education
I completed my B.A. in Psychology in 1998 and my Masters in Social Work in 2005 both at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.
Professional Affiliation
I am registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) and the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW).