Therapists who train with me seek to deepen their clinical and personal understanding of how to work with a psyche and body that has been impacted by trauma, particularly relational trauma. As an educator, I strive to bring complex and diverse clinical theory alive and make it applicable for clinical practice, helping clinicians broaden their understanding of not only how to recognize and work with insecure attachment that is transmitted across generations, but how do that in a context of working with and through the body. A nuanced and sophisticated understanding of attachment theory, relational psychodynamic practice, and somatic therapy is foundational to my clinical orientation, which I call, Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy.
“Where Somatic Psychotherapy, Attachment Theory &
Relational Psychodynamic Practice meet”
On a more personal note, I am passionate about my work, I aspire to engage with life as deeply as possible in each moment, and I am deeply connected to nature. I believe in the value of activism and community participation, life-long learning, and engaging with our creative selves. I live and work on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen peoples, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ Nations whose relationships with this land continue to this day.
I have a PhD in Leadership Studies and an MA in Counselling Psychology both from the University of Victoria. My doctoral program focused on social justice and social change and my doctoral research explored how embodied knowledges (the body) informs and is affected by women’s eco-activism and looked at the body and earth as living sites of knowledge. My master’s thesis explored the lived experience of women who choose not to have children.
I am involved in multiple learning communities and believe that ongoing personal/professional development and consultation is integral to ethical practice. I have studied extensively, and continue to do so, in the fields of: trauma, attachment, relational/interpersonal practice, psychoanalytic studies, emergent neuroscience, embodiment, and somatic therapies. I have had the privilege to study with Dr. Allan Schore for many years in the neuroscience of human development, trauma, dissociation and attachment with a psychoanalytic focus on brain-body connection. In my exploration of somatic psychotherapy, I trained with Dr. Peter Levine and for over a decade trained and was mentored by Dr. Sharon Stanley. I have also trained with Dr. Mary Main and Dr. Erik Hesse in the Adult Attachment Interview and trained in Interpersonal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy through the William Alanson White Institute.