I’m glad you’ve decided to look into counselling and have landed on my website. If you are here, there is probably a good chance you are at the point where you are trying to find a therapist who you feel might be the best fit for you. I hope that as you read on you will get a better sense of who I am and my perspective on therapy.
I really view the counselling relationship as the most important consideration in therapy. The counselling relationship (or therapeutic alliance) is a term we often use in therapy and refers to how the client and therapist “get along.” Like any relationship in our lives, sometimes people “click” and sometimes people don’t. What I hope to offer you in therapy with me is a safe and non-judgemental space to explore the current issues in your life that led you to search for outside support. I very much view therapy as a collaborative process and I am happy to talk with you to see if we might be a good fit for one another and to determine what you’d like your focus of therapy to be. To help figure out if we might be a good fit, I offer a free 15-minute consultation if you would like to connect to ask any questions you might have and get to know how I operate in therapy.
I think we all know that life can be confusing and difficult at times, but I find therapy can be a great tool to help us explore our lives, thoughts, and feelings (…but maybe I’m a little biased being a psychotherapist…). Through this self-exploration we can start to improve our quality of life by determining how best to serve ourselves and developing ways to do so. I strive to help you develop the tools and insights necessary to get closer to your goals and addressing the concerns which are impacting you at this time and which brought you here.
I am what is called a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. I’ve been practising psychotherapy for about the past 8 years working with individuals 18 years and older and I earned my Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from Western University.
I am also Certified in Thanatology (which is the study of death and dying, grief and loss) through the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Often, when we think about grief and bereavement, we tend to only think about death related losses (such as the death of someone close to us). These types of losses can be very trying and challenging. We also experience other types of losses in life which sometimes get missed. These losses can be called non-death losses and can include things like a transition from the home, ending of relationships, change of school or city, kids leaving home for the first time to go to school, change in health status, etc., and come with their own set of challenges. My training in thanatology helps me appreciate the losses that might be impacting you in different ways.
Outside of counselling, I also teach part-time at King’s University College at Western University. I have taught in the Thanatology program since 2016 and within the Psychology department since 2017. Because of my teaching “hat,” I also incorporate a lot of psychoeducational pieces within my work as a therapist. I find if we learn more about the issue that is impacting us it can help us create more awareness, understanding, compassion, and insight.