My hope is to provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals and parents to explore the complexities of life and their own experiences. Feeling comfortable with being open and honest about the struggles you are facing will allow us to work together to learn how to both embrace and manage the feelings you experience everyday.

I work with people who are experiencing intense emotions, including grief, and loss. Often the goal is to come to understand these feelings as not only real, but also important, valid, and meaningful. Creating a safe space in which we can feel vulnerable, understood, and supported is an essential part of my practice. As someone who focuses on this area of feelings work, I have developed strong skills working with ADHD, anxiety, trauma, and grief. I often work with grief both in the sense of loss through death or with folks who have complex family systems. One area I focus on is complex or traumatic loss, which can often be misunderstood as it can present so differently from other types of loses. It is important to me to provide a safe, empathetic, and understanding space to explore these complexities including the despair, anger, and confusion that can come along with grief.

No matter the person I am meeting with, I always work from an emotionally focused lens, aiming to validate, understand, and support my clients first. I also have a strong background in DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) for individuals, focusing on skills that help you manage feelings and relationships effectively. In parenting support I use a combination of emotion coaching, to help parents understand how they can validate their child(ren), as well as teaching some foundational DBT skills parents can use to provide practical support to youth who may struggle with intense emotions. I also offer an IFS (Internal Family Systems) informed approach, especially for folks struggling with trauma, negative core beliefs, and those who are hoping to find more connectedness with themselves.

My educational background includes a Master of Social Work Degree from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Social Work Degree from Trent University. I am registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers and the Ontario Association of Social Workers. My professional background includes prior work at a public mental health agency in which I supported youth and their families with mental health struggles through individual, family, and group therapy. This included a strong focus on DBT both in individual counselling and through facilitating DBT skills groups.