About me
I am a registered psychologist who is passionate about supporting people to rewire their brains and nervous systems to experience optimal well-being.
I work with children, adolescents, and adults experiencing
- stress,
- anxiety,
- depression,
- grief and loss,
- difficulties with emotion regulation,
- trauma and dissociation,
- life transitions,
- parenting struggles,
- performance blocks, and
- sports injury and concussion.
I work collaboratively with my people to increase their felt sense of safety and connection to self and others, to process shock, stress and reactive patterns, and to increase integration. This work promotes clients’ well-being and supports new possibilities - at home, work, in relationships, as parents, in performance, and sport.
I use an integrative approach that is grounded in science. I endeavour to provide the optimal conditions - attunement, curiosity, openness, non-judgment - to harness the wisdom and healing orientation of our embodied brains.
I have in-depth knowledge and training in the following evidence-based approaches:
Interpersonal Neurobiology (Dr. Daniel J. Siegel)
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR, Level 1 & 2)
Approved Brainspotting Consultant & Certified Brainspotting Practitioner (Phases 1 through 4; Master Class; Expansion; BSP & Integrative Sport Medicine; BSP for Addiction; BSP Intensive with Roby Abeles; Canadian Consultant Training)
F.L.O.W. Model Master Program (Brainspotting specialty training to enhance performance with Ruth Chiles and Dr. Alessia Bruno)
Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT, Phase 1; completing Phase 2)
Rhythms of Regulation: Polyvagal Theory & Applications in Therapy (Deb Dana)
Emotion-Focused Therapy (Levels 1 & 2 with Dr. Leslie Greenberg)
Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P)
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
Attachment, Regulation, Competency (ARC) framework for complex trauma
Structural Model of Dissociation
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Mindfulness meditation
I completed a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Counselling Psychology at McGill University in 2003, and then worked for several years in community, not-for-profit settings. I went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa in 2016. My graduate research focused on trajectories of symptoms following developmental trauma, predictors of placement stability in the child welfare system, and program evaluation of trauma-focused treatment groups for men.
I have worked extensively with complex developmental trauma, and the many ways it both impacts a person and required adaptations (e.g., dissociation, addictions) to the environment that were brilliant and lifesaving, but no longer fit current realities, or cause ongoing suffering.
I regularly provide supervision and consultation to psychology trainees, clinicians, and community agencies. As a Brainspotting Consultant, I provide guidance to therapists completing Brainspotting training and certification.
I stay current through ongoing reading, training, and conference attendance. I also engage in regular consultation with several peer groups, and with experts in the fields of complex trauma/ dissociation and performance.
I acknowledge that I live and work in Ottawa, on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial. In my life’s work, I am committed to contributing to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together.
