
How I approach my work...
Originally from Montreal, I have lived in Stratford since 1987. After a 14 year acting career, living and working across the country, I made a career change and returned to university studies. My clinical training is grounded in cognitive behavioural therapy and I have taken specialized training in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy for Couples and Mindfulness-Based Cognitve Therapy. Other therapeutic tools include EMDR for stress, anxiety and trauma.
Yoga and and meditation have been an essential part of my health and well-being and I have participated in ongoing trainings and workshops over the past 25 years with inspiring local and international teachers. I integrate these teachings into my clinical work. Amy Weintraub's innovative work in Yoga For Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists led me to train with her and I am now a certified LifeForce Yoga®-Level 2 Practitioner, am on the Faculty of the LifeForce Healing Institute and a mentor and trainer. (see: yogafordepression.com) I have assisted and co-facilitated workshops and trainings with Amy in Arizona, Cape Cod, Ottawa and Toronto.
I am very grateful for being able to access wonderful resources and tools. Essential to mental health is acknowledging and engaging the body and spirit.. we cannot grow and change via the mind only - both the physical and subtle body are in a constant dance with our conscious and unconscious mind creating our lived experiences, hence this integrated approach to healing.
Credentials:
Masters of Social Work, MSW
Registered Social Worker, RSW with CCSWSSW
Certified Yoga Teacher-200hr
LifeForce Yoga® Practitioner, level 2, teacher and mentor
Advanced training in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for the Prevention of Depression Relapse
Mindfulness in Education, Thich Nhat Hahn
EMDR for trauma and anxiety
Yoga and meditation: over 500 hours of intensives and trainings in yoga and meditation
Member of the Ontario Association of Social Worker
Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other' doesn't make sense any more.
--Jelaluddin Rumi