I have been honoured to practice for the past several years in community-based settings with people who are systematically marginalized in mainstream health and mental health services. The lived experiences of my clients, who have invariably found brilliant ways to survive injustice, are central to how I approach this work.

While I continue to draw upon therapeutic modalities that inform my social work training, including narrative, solution-focused and cognitive therapies, much of my more recent training has centred on trauma-focused therapy. Since joining Umbrella, my practice is increasingly focused on the intersections of gender identity and trauma recovery. I recently completed Level 1 training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a form of trauma therapy that pays particular attention to how the body is impacted by and recovers from traumatic experience. My approach to trauma work forefronts collaboration, respect, safety, and choice.

 

In the use of any clinical approach or tool, I aim to be consistently guided by my deep affinity to liberatory politics – anti-racism, anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism, queer and trans liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, and disability justice – and an accompanying sense of humility, compassion, and solidarity.