I am a Registered Psychologist (#866) in Vancouver, British Columbia, who worked at BC Children’s Hospital for almost three decades. Eleven years were spent as Clinical Director of the hospital’s Provincial Specialized Eating Disorders Program for Children & Adolescents.
I grew up in Toronto, and knew from an early age that I wanted to be a psychologist. However, music was also an important part of my life, and in addition to psychology I was interested in the broader issues of consciousness and human potential, and I completed an Honours Bachelor of Science degree.
I was initially interested in pursuing sleep research but worked initially on aspects of amnesic memory, and then completed my Ph.D. thesis on smoking cessation. This involved looking at multiple strategies for ensuring relapse prevention. On my academic journey, I obtained an M.A. degree, a Diploma in Clinical Psychology, and proceeded to the doctorate in clinical psychology.
Over the years I pursued an interest in working with athletes with disordered eating or eating disorders, and completed the BC Recreation and Parks Association and American Council on Exercise courses and exams as a registered personal trainer. I also completed registration as a Weight Training Instructor and Yoga Instructor, and registered with Yoga Alliance as a 200 hour instructor (I am no longer registered in these areas.)
Over the past few years I have become very interested in how to treat aspects of mild to moderate trauma in my clients, which often seemed to include experiences of bullying and betrayals in personal relationships. This has involved training in Self Regulation Therapy (SRT), a somatically-oriented psychotherapy that aims to help the individual to discharge excessive activation in their nervous system resulting from traumatic experiences. More recently, I have completed an immersion course in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, an approach that has helped to further integrate and extend my work.
This work has been coupled with integrating research from a diverse body of literature, including the neurosciences, developmental psychology, interpersonal neurobiology, mindfulness and spirituality, Eastern traditions in psychology, the field of non-duality, and the positive psychology movement and the impetus towards human potential rather than diagnostic labeling and the development of pathologizing narratives about people. I immensely enjoy the work that I do.