Registered Psychotherapist

I am a registered psychotherapist and Canadian certified counsellor based in Toronto. In addition to my mental health work, I have volunteered at a local non-profit mental health organization on the front lines and on the board. Before COVID, for several years I provided Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and training in Suicide Alertness for Everyone. I am a pancreatic cancer peer support volunteer with Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation. I also have a son in university who I adore.

Transition from Law to Mental Health

For years, I practised as a lawyer at top tier law firms in Downtown Toronto and London (England). I gained a practical edge in a legal department at a financial institution in England. I followed this by working on the trading floor at a financial institution in the financial district of New York during 9/11 before moving back to Toronto to practice law. Then I decided to bring more of what I loved about the practice of law into my work days. In 2010, I began a series of changes with life-altering impact that continue today as I transitioned from practising law to practising psychotherapy, counselling and training.

Education

I earned a master of education in counselling psychology and a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Toronto as well as a bachelor of laws at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Since then, I completed post-graduate training in narrative therapy at The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre/Gail Appel Institutesuicide intervention and suicide alertness at LivingWorks Education and cybercounselling at the University of Toronto and Worldwide Therapy Online Inc., internal family systems therapy at Pesi, Inc., internal family systems skills and competencies with Derek Scott, IFS-informed EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) with Bruce Hersey, IFS Level 1 with IFS Institute, EMDR basic training approved by EMDR International Association, attachment-focussed EMDR with Laurel Parnell through Pesi, Inc., Philip Manfield’s memory reconsolidation, the flash technique and EMDR, clinical applications of the polyvagal theory with Stephen Porges, PhD: trauma, attachment, self-regulation and emotions through Pesi, Inc., polyvagal theory informed trauma assessment and interventions: an autonomic roadmap to safety, connection and healing with Deborah Dana through Pesi, Inc. and image transformation therapy with Robert Miller.

Compassionate and Client Focussed

I take an internal family systems-informed, strengths-based and collaboratively curious approach. If it makes sense, I may also suggest we bring in some cognitive behavioural therapy, image transformation therapy and EMDR to help you with your healing. Together we will consider how your behaviours, emotions and thoughts connect so you make more space for your own Self in your own life. This will mean exploring skills you want to grow or skills you lost touch with. We will consider what life might look like if the problem that brought you to therapy were gone. Of course, we will also talk about where you want to go and how you might get there.

“We can always take a different path, retrace our steps, go back, repeat a track, or stay on the same road for some time. At the beginning of the journey we are not sure where it will end, nor what will be discovered.” – Alice Morgan

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