I am a Registered Clinical Social Worker and advanced trauma clinician with more than 25 years of experience in the mental health field. I am also the founder and owner of East Coast Psychotherapy and Trauma Clinic, with locations in Sydney and Halifax. At this stage of my career, I maintain a small, intentionally focused clinical practice centred on the areas where my experience and commitment run deepest.

My practice focuses on complex trauma, dissociative disorders, and attachment trauma. This includes working with adults raised in harmful family systems or by emotionally unavailable parents and parents with borderline or narcissistic traits. I also work with Indigenous survivors of residential and day schools and their descendants; and people healing from the psychological effects of war, occupation, displacement, dispossession, political violence, and the disruption of cultural identity and belonging. Other specialized areas of my practice include birth trauma; perinatal, reproductive, and women’s sexual health concerns; and Functional Neurological Disorder.

As a clinical social worker, I view psychological distress within the context of each person’s relationships, history, culture, community, and material circumstances. My work is informed by anti-oppressive, feminist, and social justice frameworks. These perspectives are especially important when trauma is connected to colonization, institutional harm, gender-based inequity, war, displacement, or other abuses of power. I do not assume that all distress originates within the individual, nor do I believe that a diagnosis tells the whole story.

My primary therapeutic approaches are Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, Somatic Experiencing (SE), and Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST). Many of the people who come to me have already tried therapy and developed considerable insight into their experiences but continue to live with the psychological, physical, or relational effects. Our work may involve stabilization, trauma processing, or identifying patterns that are no longer serving them.

My style is steady, direct, and collaborative. I listen with curiosity and without judgment, and I am willing to address difficult material plainly. I work best with people whose needs align closely with my areas of experience and who are willing to look honestly at their lives, relationships, and patterns. They do not need to have everything figured out, but they do need to recognize that something is not working and be prepared to face difficult realities, consider their own role in what needs to change, and engage actively in the work of therapy.