My Approach
I’m a Registered Social Worker with over ten years of advocacy and mental health work across education, child welfare, healthcare, justice, and trauma-exposed sectors. My MA (in Interdisciplinary Humanities) explored trauma narratives, while my undergraduate and graduate Social Work degrees focused on community-based mental health. I’ve worked closely with relational, developmental, and sanctuary trauma, as well as with loss, grief, and shame.
I work primarily from Decolonial, Trauma and Attachment-focused frameworks, and am trained in a variety of evidence-based modalities including EMDR, ACT, CBT and DBT. In other words, we’ll be co-creators, weaving in skills and strategies with your birthrights of culture and sovereignty, and we’ll do it all at your pace. Ultimately, my approach centers on humour, compassion and connection – we’re wired for safety in relationships and community, even when this is where our pain is sometimes rooted!
Regardless of my training and approaches, please know that what matters most to me, is you. My focus is on getting to know and understand you. That comes first and foremost, regardless of therapeutic models or research-backed strategies.
What To Expect
While you can expect our conversations to feel casual and collaborative, please know that the my goal isn’t to simply affirm you or make you feel good about yourself, but to pursue true understanding, change, and healing. This means that I’ll ask questions in order to know you and the context of your experiences, may offer to share alternate perspectives, and will check in to ensure we’re on the right track in addressing the things that brought you here. We’ll build on your existing strengths and knowledge to confront and understand the difficult and often painful realities you may be contending with. Ultimately, our goal will be to gently pursue understanding and connection, rather than to pathologize you or any aspect of your life.
A Reminder: Therapy Can…
- Create room to be your full self, without any judgement from me.
- Help you cope through hard times, process trauma and multiple layers of wounding.
- Allow you to grieve the losses in your life, both big and small.
- Help you feel unstuck in areas you feel chronically challenged by.
- Clarify how your professional and personal worlds impact you.
- Familiarize you with your emotions so you’re less intimidated by them and have greater self-understanding.
- Be an opportunity to unpack anything. Therapy isn’t just for when you’re struggling or going through “rough patches”, but also for when things are going well. It’s always beneficial to pause, reflect, and take stock.