I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with a Master’s Degree in Educational/Counselling Psychology. I chose an educational approach because I was not comfortable with pathologizing or labelling people, nor with a problem-oriented focus. I was drawn toward teaching people what could help them become who they wanted to be in order to create the lives they wanted to have. In essence, I wanted to teach people how to be happy.  My advanced Bachelor of Arts degree included double majors in Psychology and Sociology because I believed one could not separate the individual from the profound influence of the family or society.

Since completing my Master’s Degree in 2000, I have continued with my training in a variety of areas including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (with David Burns), Positive Psychology, short term Solution-Focused Therapy, Clinical Hypnosis and Strategic Psychotherapy (with Michael Yapko),  Conscious Loving (with Kathlyn Hendricks), as well as Couples’ Imago Therapy.

The foundation of successful therapy, from my perspective, is Cognitive Behavioural principles: our thoughts create our feelings and our feelings create our mood. Our chronic moods can have a huge impact on our experience of life–particularly if we’re gathering evidence for our worthiness or what’s possible while in a low mood. Until we can relate differently to our thinking, our experience of our lives can be very conditional.

I have also enjoyed much formal experience outside the therapeutic realm while training with organizations such as Abraham-Hicks (the law of attraction) and Landmark Education. Big take home messages included: we decide and create  what’s possible for our lives, and the notion that what we focus on gets bigger.  Conversely, I have recently noted how New Age approaches can be surprisingly abusive and encourage a deep fear of engaging with What Is, as well as an extreme passivity.

Through all of my training, although my specialty has been treating depression and anxiety, my focus has been on personal growth. I teach people the perspectives, tools, skills and structures for them to become more peaceful, joyful, empowered versions of themselves– with which to create the best lives for themselves.