About Me

I have always been fascinated by people. I am passionate about understanding how others make sense of their lives and the world around them. I have known since I was a child that my work was supporting others.

I am a Master's level social worker and psychotherapist with 20 years of experience in the field of mental health and addictions. I have worked in numerous interdisciplinary clinic settings with adult and child psychiatrists, family physicians and midwives.

I have training, supervision and competency in the following models:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (AHS, 2018-19)
Grief Support (AHS, 2019)
Narrative Therapy (Narrative Collective, 2019)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (Linehan, 2020)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Harris, 2020)
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (Rosensweig, 2020)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Trauma (Harris, 2022)
Emotion Focused Therapy (Johnson, 2023)
Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (Dr. Taktin, 2024)

I believe:

Pain is an inevitable part of the human experience. Suffering is not.
People are incredibly resilient. It is often an attempt to avoid or manage pain that creates more suffering in our lives. We can change.
Change is a process and not an outcome. Our lives can improve simply by taking aim and finding direction.
There is no separation between mind and body. Emotions are involuntary automatic responses in our bodies. Trauma lives in our bodies and healing takes place in our bodies.
Trauma takes place in the context of relationship and can be healed through relationship.

My work in this field began with counselling youth in group homes. I continued with the same organization as a social worker in the school system. Working in an interdisciplinary setting helped me understand the importance of collaborative, client-centered care.

My passion for supporting families in a holistic way ultimately led me to birth work and teaching yoga. For over ten years, I supported more than 400 families in their journey to parenthood. Over a decade of watching bodies and witnessing birth has influenced my belief that mind and body are one. Healing requires integration and connection.

My experience as a doula and yoga teacher informed my therapy practice in a myriad of ways. I know how to hold space for overwhelming joy and pain without trying to fix it. I know how to facilitate a deep sense of trust in one's self. I know that there is a brilliant inner wisdom that emerges if we are patient, if we give it space.

My own lived experiences also informs my practice. I am privileged in many ways, I am a white, English speaking, heterosexual person, with access to higher education. My basic needs have always been met. However, I have also been a single mother for most of my adult life, having my son (pictured below) at a young age. Further, I identify as neurodivergent in a world that is not set up for different brains. Most profoundly, I have experienced the loss of a close family member to the opioid crisis. Navigating many of these challenges has directly informed how I perceive and treat clients and has enabled a type of empathy and understanding that I wouldn't otherwise be able to access.

My most recent passion in treating couples is also inspired by my lived experience. Since age 40, I have had the privilege of being in a secure functioning relationship. This was quite the revelation having been involved in less well functioning relationships most of my adult life. I am intimately familiar with the pain and suffering of being caught in the anxious-avoidant dance and truly believe that we can learn how to do things differently, with the right type of support.

My two most influential guides are my children Aidan and Ivy. Aim was actually my daughter's idea - she spelled out our initials together in her alphabet cereal one morning. Catchy, simple and a brilliant metaphor for the therapeutic process, I went with it. Every time I see the name, it grounds me in what matters most.