About

I consider it both an honour and a privilege to be held in a position of trust and to listen and respond to my clients’ unique, rich life stories. There is little more professionally and personally rewarding for me than accompanying my clients through the therapeutic process. I especially enjoy helping them develop the necessary tools that will allow them to exercise agency over the repetitive depressive and anxious thoughts that impede their living more enriching and enjoyable lives.

  In addition to studying psychotherapy and training as a psychotherapist, I have accumulated two decades of experience working in higher education. From 1998 through 2021, I studied and taught the history of ideas at various colleges, universities, and seminaries in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Since 2004, I have been an adjunct professor at Trinity College, University Toronto, where, until April 2021, I taught History of Ideas and Ecclesiastical History. In January 2022, I began long-term teaching Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and other forthcoming psychotherapy courses to candidates preparing to become psychotherapists in the Master of Pastoral Studies in Spirituality and Psychotherapy offered through Emmanuel College and Knox College, University of Toronto.

Throughout my years of psychotherapy training, I have been very fortunate to work with a remarkably diverse adult population at various institutions and private practice settings, who struggled with various psychological, emotional, and spiritual challenges: primary and co-morbid depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, phobias, borderline personality disorder, grief and loss, trauma, suicide ideation, substance addictions, and relationship problems. Although my general therapeutic approach and training have been integrative, I have a particular interest in using Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy to treat:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Various phobias

  • Chronic pain

  • Substance addictions

  • Stage-of-life issues (twenties through fifties)

  • Relationship challenges (particularly couples)

  • Career issues (especially career transitions)

  • Higher education mental health issues (college and university)

  • Spiritual/existential issues

 The treatment goal of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy is to:

  • Monitor negative thoughts.

  • Evaluate the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and actions.

  • Carefully evaluate the evidence for and against distorted or maladaptive thoughts.

  • Generate alternative thoughts and to substitute them for the negative ones.

  • Identify and modify underlying dysfunctional assumptions and beliefs which predispose one to negative thoughts.

    (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979)  

(For further information about CBT: “Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy”, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. https://camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/cognitive-behavioural-therapy)

      Irrespective of my therapeutic approach—cognitive behavioural and/or relational, person-centred—and the presenting issue, I place the highest priority on creating a warm and empathic, safe, and non-judgmental space where my clients and I can collaborate to come up with workable short- and long-term solutions. These will address the various negative thought patterns and schemas that often cause or contribute to feelings of low self-worth, hopelessness, and anxiousness about the future.  

  Credentials

Registered Psychotherapist, College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario/ Registration # 008979

Registered Member, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy/ Registration # 387353

 

M.Ed. Psychotherapy and Counselling (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto) /2019

Th.M. Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy (Trinity College, University of Toronto) /2016

M.Div. (Trinity College, University of Toronto) /2014

M.Litt. Theology (Oxford) /2004

M.St. Theology (Oxford) /1999

B.A. History (University of Toronto) /1996

 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Specialization for Anxiety (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)/ 2017

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Specialization for Complex Disorders (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)/2016

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Fundamental Skills (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)/2016

Pastoral Counselling Education, Basic Unit 2 /2015-2016

Pastoral Counselling Education, Basic Unit 1 /2014-2015

All PCE units accredited by the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC)