My Approach / Philosophy
My Approach
As a therapist I offer a balance between being with you, knowing when to listen and when to offer some support or practical tools to move you forward in life. Learning to be with our feelings and our experiences, to understand them, and express them can give us a new sense of strength with an enhanced capacity to be in and meet the world.
I am non-directive in my approach which means you bring to the session what is important to you and, though I ask gentle questions in order to clarify and to understand the impact of your experience, I leave it to you and trust the process of your psyche to inform us of what is important. I believe we all possess within us a life-giving source of inner wisdom.
Buddhist prayer stone of the first part of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum.
My Philosophy
My philosophy is based on my own training which I acquired through a combination of education, seven years in Jungian analysis, subsequent psychodynamic psychotherapy and my experience in the field and in life.
In 1991 I moved to California to begin a program in psychology that embraced both the educational aspects of psychological training and the in-depth experiential aspects which included an appreciation of the transpersonal or spiritual aspects of our lives. I spent five years at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto, California graduating with a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology (1994) and a Doctorate in Philosophy in Transpersonal Psychology (1996) (now Sophia University). ITP, as it was known back then, offered a diverse range of courses including Eastern as well as Western Religions as well as traditional psychology, transpersonal psychology, and parapsychology. It also included an appreciation for the importance of body therapies, creative expression and Akido. Our own inner work and in-depth process was an integral part of this program. All these influences have impacted me deeply and influence the way I relate to myself, to others and to the world.
As a student I worked in mental health at short-term crisis facilities and long-term chronic care homes. I continued to work in mental health for several years after graduating before moving down to Los Angeles to begin work with children and juvenile offenders. I moved back to Canada in 2003. I have worked in mental health for 27 years; I have worked as a Trauma and Spiritual Care Worker for a small agency in Toronto and, for the last 5 plus years, have worked on a Community Withdrawal Team specifically for alcohol and drug use.
I am a long-time student of Buddhism and I have a keen interest in neuroscience.
I am a Member of the Canadian Humanistic and Transpersonal Association in Canada.