My Background and Training

My foundation is psychosocial Occupational Therapy (OT). I currently work as an OT and Mental Health Clinician in a traditional treatment setting; I bring a stronger focus on Hakomi body-focused psychotherapy, and pacing, to my private practice. This site describes my private practice. I maintain psychosocial (mental health) OT as my focus. I will recommend names of other Occupational Therapists for any physical functioning assessments, educational/learning/cognitive assessment, specific medical-legal assessments or paediatrics or direct you to this list of OTs in Private Practice in Alberta.

My Occupational Therapy grounding guides clients towards meaningful engagement in the life they want to lead. My approach is both practical and soul inspiring.

Credentials and details:

  1. Occupational Therapy Degree from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON (1996).
  2. Over 20 years of experience as a Registered Occupational Therapist counselling individuals and leading groups, including grief groups.
  3. Post-professional Masters of Science (OT), Dalhousie U. Halifax, (2017)
  4. Registered with the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy (National, CAOT)
  5. A member of AB College of Occupational Therapists (Provincial Regulatory Body)
  6. A member of The Society of Alberta Occupational Therapists (Educational body)
  7. Certified Hakomi Therapist (C.H.T.)
  8. Graduate of the 2 yr Hakomi Body-focused Psychotherapy program/certification
  9. Assistant in the 2011-13, 2013-15, 2016-17, 2019-20 two-year Hakomi trainings
  10. Completion of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Level I (Pat Ogden)
  11. Cognitive Processing Therapy, experiential training (2013)
  12. Ongoing assisting/consultation with Hakomi Calgary ( -2022)

I help people succeed in changing troublesome and distressing behaviours. I strive to help people stay true to themselves as they work with me. I’ve experienced that people have much more about them that is as it should be and that is healthy (at any given moment) than parts that are “ill” or stuck.

I hold a specific interest in how mental health issues are so often pathologized and taken out of social and personal context. I have a humanistic approach that sees how people have survived and how their will to improve and their hope for wholeness is present even in illness and despair. Any “Fortress” we have built around us, has had a protective function. We can respect it, even as we may begin to want to let the walls down for brief spells of time… rather than stay locked inside.

In my personal life, I am in touch with nature, community, spirituality and art. I am practical, yet hold a reverence for mystery and stillness. I have held both sadness and joy. I value the people in my life, my profession, enjoy languages, have hobbies, and have traveled and lived in various cultures. I am fascinated by how people often manage to be the same and yet so very different, at the same time.

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