About Me

I have considerable experience working with children, youth and their families and a significant understanding of mental and emotional health struggles, assessment, treatment methodologies, intervention strategies, the change process, family, and cultural diversity.

I received a Master of Social Work degree from the University of British Columbia where I specialized in health, clinical counselling, and the research and practice of conventional and emergent approaches to therapy. Following university I received advanced training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Therapy for Adolescents (IPT-A), Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, and Expressive Therapies. I have also trained in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Dual Diagnosis (mental health & development disorders), Hakomi, and Indigenous approaches to healing.

I am currently working in a tertiary setting in public mental health with families who include children and youth who are having significant challenges in their daily functioning due to complex and/or chronic mental health concerns. I provide case management and therapeutic intervention services as required working in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team.

Prior to this I worked with Child and Youth Mental Health (CYMH) as a Mental Health Clinician. I was responsible for conducting assessments with provisional diagnoses, therapeutic counselling for children, teens and their families in individual, family, and group sessions, treatment planning, and case management. My experience there also includes specialized work in infant and early childhood mental health, multicultural outreach, Aboriginal outreach and work as an urgent response clinician responsible for the delivery of services to individuals in severe crisis including serious suicidal ideation and self-injury.

Prior to my employment at CYMH I worked as: a counsellor for an Aboriginal agency servicing on-reserve First Nations communities; a counsellor and group facilitator for women with substance use problems; a youth support worker in a forensic setting at a mandated residential rehabilitation program for adjudicated youth.