“By listening compassionately to yourself, you have started to come home to yourself.”
About Me
Originally from Winnipeg, I moved to Toronto to pursue graduate research on racialized sexual violence and the need to decolonize social service practices. Before becoming a therapist, I spent two decades working in the anti-violence and non-profit sectors as a sexual assault trauma counsellor, social justice educator, and restorative justice facilitator. Those roles inform my therapeutic approach, and offer me a lens in which I view trauma, harm and healing. I remain committed to exploring what it means to be a white settler and am continually trying to decolonize myself, my patterns, my spaces, and therapy itself.
Working in community is a core value, and I volunteer as an active listener for cultural events such as film screenings, plays, and workshops where there is sensitive material and participants may be activated. I also partner with aligned organizations, offering workshops, and facilitation services.
Working With Me
My Approach
I work in the moment, I work with the body, and I work in playful ways. I notice how our nervous systems orient within the space between us, and I incorporate mindful practices to ground the sessions. Using metaphor, humour, and creativity are helpful ways to explore deep emotions that can be challenging to face.
What to Expect
You can expect warmth, care, curiosity, kindness, non-judgment, and respect. I will hold the space in a way that is confidential, consistent, organized and professional. I work from a feminist, sex-positive, anti-oppressive, anti-racist approach that is queer and trans affirming.
Grounded in Compassion
Taking the lead from bell hooks, Tara Brach, Thich Nhat Hahn, Kristen Neff, Pema Chodron and Carl Rogers, our first steps together will involve the profound practice of self-compassion. I hold a vision of what’s possible for you, and your relationships. I can support you to see the underlying and unconscious patterns, as well as the multiple factors that have shaped you (social locations, family role, childhood experiences, trauma, loss etc.).
Relational Psychotherapy
This is a psychodynamic style that centers the relationship you have with yourself, your relationship with others, and the relationship between us. It is a style that attempts to flatten power and the historically hierarchical nature of practitioner and client. There is no one way to do therapy, however, and I borrow from many styles to find what works for you. I believe that we can heal through relationship.
My Training and Qualifications
Diploma, Toronto Institute for Relational Psychotherapy
Registered Psychotherapist
M.A. in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, OISE/UofT
Certificate in Creative Writing Non-Fiction, University of Toronto Continuing Studies (pending)
Certificate in Trauma Aware Breath Coaching, The Whole Health Project
Certificate in Restorative Justice, Simon Fraser University
Certificate in Dispute Resolution, York University
I am a lifelong learner and am committed to developing professionally by attending various workshops and webinars including in-person trainings with Terry Real, Esther Perel, Stan Tatkin and Sue Johnson.
The most valuable lessons I have learned come from working with clients, and doing my own therapeutic work.
My therapeutic training is in the following therapy modalities: Relational, Feminist, Emotion-Focused, Mindfulness, Breathwork, and Attachment-Based. I borrow from IFS, CBT, Somatic and Narrative Therapies.