My approach is collaborative and person-centered. You will always be treated as the expert and authority on your own experience. My intention will be to use my education, and knowledge of various techniques, strategies, and interventions to help you figure out where you would like to go and how you would like to get there. Ultimately we will work as a team. Together, we will decide on a treatment plan, your treatment goals, and what your therapy process will look like.
What will our first sessions be like?
Our time together would start by completing a detailed intake form. Essentially, this form will allow me to get a general picture of you, your history, your job, your health, and your goals. I prefer to go over this form together so that you can be sure the impression I am forming is accurate and complete, and also so that you can address anything you think needs to be added or clarified. However, if you would prefer to receive the form in advance and have me review it before we meet, I would be happy to do it that way as well. You will notice in the booking option I offer both 50 and 80-minute sessions. I strongly encourage clients to select the 80-minute session if it is our first session together. Often, a 50 minute intake session is only enough time to complete an assessment with little time left over to begin the work. With an 80 minute session, you will have ample time to tell your story in full, we can begin some of our work together, and I can provide you with some strategies/resources immediately.
We will then work together to try to gain some awareness around your behavioral and thought patterns, what their function is, what is going on in your environment when they occur, and when and how you learned them. After we both feel I have a fairly clear picture of you, we will review the goals you have for therapy, prioritize them and create a treatment plan.
Importantly, the treatment plan will be quite flexible, based on your perception, and also your results on brief assessment measures, we will constantly be evaluating if our present treatment plan is working, and to what degree it needs to be adapted.
What will I need to do?
Clients who practice what they learn in therapy between sessions in some form tend to enjoy the greatest improvements in the shortest time frame. However, homework is not mandatory- the decision will always be yours. If you choose to, we will decide together what might be most valuable to you as a homework assignment, and purposefully choose something that feels completely doable to you and important for you. A homework assignment might be as simple as purposefully keeping a particular topic or question on your mind, and discussing what thoughts and insights came up throughout the week. Or, it may be practicing something discussed in session, or conducting a behavioral experiment. There will never be any consequences for failing to complete therapy homework. At most, if we feel it is relevant to your identified struggles, we might discuss what got in the way.
What’s the point?
Your commitment to this process can provide you with a deeper understanding of yourself and those around you. This creates greater peace of mind, more effective coping strategies, and behaviors that are generally more in line with who you want to be, and what you want your life to be about. Over time, practicing this commitment can feel a lot like waking up.
Formal Education
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
Laurentian University| 2011
Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology
Yorkville University | 2018
Registration & Professional Membership
Nova Scotia College of Counselling Therapists (NSCCT)
Registered Counselling Therapist (RCT) | 2018
Additional Training
Peter Levin’s Somatic Experiencing
Online | 01/2019 | Dr. Peter Levin
Treating Trauma Masters Series
Online | 02/2019 | National Institute for the Behavioural Application of Clinical Medicine
How to Work with Shame
Online | 02/2019 | National Institute for the Behavioural Application of Clinical Medicine