I am a Registered Social Worker who works with individual adults (aged 18-65 years). I primarily work with concerns such as disordered eating, anxiety, depression, and grief/loss. I am based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia) but am licensed to practice with individuals living in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Ontario. I provide services including: individual therapy, WPATH assessments, Professional Consultation, and Clinical Supervision for RSWs pursuing their Clinical Specialist registration.
I am a white, anglophone, able-bodied, mid-sized, Queer (she/her), neurodivergent, cis-gender femme of settler background. It’s my own lived experience of mental health challenges and recovery that brought me to the fields of psychology and social work and influence my professional practice.
My eating disorder approach is comprised of: harm reduction, intuitive eating, and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). I value and practice harm reduction in effort to meet people where they’re at and empower them to make changes that feel most doable and important for them. This means providing education on strategies to minimize the harms associated with different eating disorder behaviours instead of just expecting you to “stop behaviours”. Where appropriate, as a Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor, I integrate Intuitive Eating principles, helping clients to improve interoceptionskills or to remove barriers to interoception. Regardless of what brings clients to session with me, ACT is my therapeutic home base. In short, that means helping clients to have a more flexible relationship to painful emotions and thoughts through mindfulness practices and acting in a way that aligns with one’s core values.
I also have training using approaches such as Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy modalities including Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and Exposure Therapy for phobia and anxiety related disorders. My background is in community mental health services and have worked for agencies across provincial governmental, federal governmental, public health, non-profit, and university settings. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree with a Psychology major from St Thomas University, a Bachelor of Social Work degree from St Thomas University, and a Masters of Social Work degree from Dalhousie University.
I’m a member of the Queer and Trans Therapist Network of Nova Scotia, co-founding member of The Aleo Collective, a Certified Affiliate with the National Farmer Mental Health Alliance as an Agriculture-Informed Therapist, and I serve as a volunteer on the board of directors of my local food bank. I’ve provided eating disorder consultation and/or have collaborated on projects for community organizations including: The New Brunswick Multicultural Council, the National Eating Disorder Information Centre, Sheena’s Place, Hopewell Eating Disorder Support Centre of Ottawa, Eating Disorders Nova Scotia, and TransCare+.
Affirming Psychology 