Biography

Hello friends

I am a white, cis gendered, feminist activist, passionate about antiracism and anti-oppression. I have a chronic health condition known as Rheumatoid Arthritis. I reside on Turtle Island specifically on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi and is colonially known as Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I share my home with my husband and our pup.

I identify as a trauma survivor with a dissociative system. Like many of us, I have studied just about every approach to dissociation: structural dissociation, ego state, parts work with Nancy Napier (Gloria Steinem’s therapist), Fraser’s Dissociative Table Technique, Schema Therapy and so on. I use all of these approaches with caution and realize each of them has some real limitations that would require folx to retrofit themselves into a prescribed model (ie dissociate). As such, I prefer to learn about each individual’s parts system rather than prescribe any one approach. I am eternally grateful to ICM and Dr. Jamie Marich for liberating me from the limiting often pathologizing beliefs that lead therapists to pathologize, dismiss and sometimes vilify and fear folx with dissociative systems.

I try to make therapy and consultation FUN! I spend lots of time in Phases 1 and 2 where I introduce expressive arts and “parts work/parts mapping” into the therapy process.

ABOUT ME:

I am committed to equity, healing and social justice. I have over 25 years experience working with folx that experience: chronic stress, PTSD and C-PTSD, childhood abuse, sexual violence, development trauma, and have dissociative identities. I was first trained in EMDR in 2001 and have used it successfully since then. My success is likely due to my lifelong commitment to professional development and all forms of consultation (individual, group and peer). I attend monthly individual consultation, monthly group consultation with various consultants, two monthly peer consultation meetings. I love providing and receiving regular EMDR consultation.

I am passionate about my own therapy and healing as well as achieving equity and healing for the world around me. My approach combines: EMDR with ego state therapy, expressive arts, attachment theory, polyvagal theory, somatic psychology and an intersectional feminist lens. I am also a yoga and mindfulness student and teacher.

I have completed workshops under the direction of: Dr. Jamie Marich, Amy Wagner, Gary Brothers, Resmaa Menakem, Peter Levine, Frank Anderson, Nedra Tawaab, Selam Debs, Pat Ogden, Alison Danby, Loretta J Ross, Dr. Arielle Schwartz, Nkem Ndefo, Dr. Scott Lyons, Terrence Real, Esther Perel, Dr. Lissa Rankin, Dr. Richard Schwartz, Dr. Aimee Apigian, Marzia Hassan, Jan Winhall, Juliane Taylor Shore, Diane Poole Heller, John and Julie Gottman, Deb Dana, Jen Savage, Melissa Benintendi, Bridger Falkenstein, Caleb Boston, Dr. Stephen Porges, Mark Grant, Philip Mansfield, Kathy Steele, Dolores Mosquera, Roger Solomon, Kathleen Martin, Cindy Shrigley, Mark Nickerson, Jill Davey, Molly Swan, Norman Feldman, Wendy Behary, Michael Stone, Judith Hanson Lasiter, Janina Fisher, Dr. Ameet Kumar, Leslie Kaminoff, Bessel van der Kolk, Jon Kabat Zinn, Saki Santorelli, Dr. Gabor Mate, Trudy Goodman, Pat Enkyo O’Hara and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Dr. Akua Benjamin, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Judith Myers Avis, Lisa Dion, Nancy Napier, Kai Cheng Thom, David Archer, and many more.

I have been an intersectional, anti-racist activist for over forty years and continue to explore how my location in the world affects how I see myself and others and how our lived experiences vary depending on ability, gender, race, age, class, size. I put conscious effort in providing an approach that is intersectional and 2LGBTQA+

My goals in life and in work are to embody the journey that I passionately encourage people to take with me. I have an almost daily mindful meditation and yoga practice, I try to eat responsibly (I have an autoimmune disease and see food as a major part of my healing journey), and I take several breaks throughout the day to breathe, be silent and/or walk my “still in training since October 2010” therapy dog named Molly.