A Bit About My Roots & Journey
I've found self-discovery and a sense of belonging to be key guiding values. Part of that awareness and connection comes with a curiosity for learning about shared Indigenous teachings and understanding my role as benefactor of settler colonialism. My roots are French, Italian, Irish, English and Indigenous to Turtle Island (colonially Canada). On my Italian maternal side, forcibly immigrated to Toronto, Canada post-WWII in search of a better life, bringing passion for feeding others as well as recent and intergenerational trauma. On my French paternal side, I don't have much information beyond knowing that my father's family was raised in Alberton, PEI and in Southern Ontario. Unfortunately the death of my father and limited to no contact with extended family has been an ongoing barrier to learning more about my ancestry especially what Indigeneity exists in my lineage.
Growing up as a family we needed to access various forms of social and community supports as my mom did her best to raise us as a single parent. Youngest to an older brother, we grew up with a loving mother who modelled resilience, shared the importance of treating others with respect and caring for your community. Counselling services and no-cost community programming were fundamental to healing from experiences of loss/grief and sexual abuse by a priest from the Catholic Church. The impact of these experiences grew with me and added a lot of confusion and contributed to the existing culturally stemmed internalized homophobia around sexual diversity and relationships and challenges with my mental health as a youth and young adult.
Amongst my own healing journey I’ve re-authored my narrative by unlearning and relearning my values around purpose and rediscovering identities including experiences of belonging. This required acknowledgement and commitment to critically reflect on my journey and addressing my relationship with alcohol and smoking. Prioritizing self-growth and acceptance of my experiences has happened through talk therapy, being within community and ongoing learning. Growing up, I had challenges with speech, memory, processing information and focusing. Those experiences encouraged me as an adult to discover and self-realize my neurodiversity as an adult. Through understanding my processing, sensory and social needs better, I'm able to show up for myself and in many ways take off the mask that's been needed to exist.
My growth journey and intersecting identities have informed my decisions to contribute to the helping and collaborating in this way. As someone who lives with a passion for health equity, community and growth. I found purpose and gained skills by working in roles within mental health education, participatory research, knowledge mobilization, counselling and more recently therapy.
Formal Education & Informal Learning
As shared above my lived experience and identities have informed by journey into this profession of helping others. When living in Montreal, QC in 2012, I decided to pursue a diploma in Social Service work at Dawson College. Having been experiencing mental health challenges and financial insecurity, life lead me back to living in southern Ontario (GTA). While working in capitalism jobs for a few years I was noticing constant conflict with my values and the type of work and industries. I knew that I needed to revisit my passion for counselling and social service work. So I returned to completing my diploma at Humber College part-time while continuing to work full-time. By the summer of 2018, I graduated with honours and felt validated in my decision to further my education.
I learned more about working within the current social and health care system through my education including practicum experiences. I had decided that working within the status quo would only enhance conflict in my values in how I wanted to contribute to meaningful change and growth. While considering a community mental health program, I came across a new bachelor's degree being offered at Humber College focusing on community development. This program blended my counselling and system navigation knowledge and expanded into broader skillsets including program design and evaluation, participatory research and transformational leadership and advocacy to name a few areas of learning. This degree led me into professional experience that you'll see highlighted in my work experience in the next section.
While working in research, knowledge mobilizing and program design roles. I knew that I still had more experience and skill sets to offer. Amongst the awareness of impacts to mental health during the COVID-19 Pandemic, I learned more about the degree of barriers to accessible and identity affirming mental health care. This helped inform my decision to further my education and abilities by pursuing a Master's of Arts in Counselling Psychology starting in 2022 including a year and eight months of course work and eight months of a practicum. Excitingly at the end of April 2024, all program components were completed and graduation will be conferred in the coming weeks.
Registation, Membership & Certifications
Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association - Professional Member #10011163
College of Registered Psychotherapist of Ontario - RP (Qualifying) #14645
Intersectional Affirming Care
Mental Health First Aid: Supporting Youth
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training
Centering Black Youth Wellbeing A Certificate on Combatting Anti-Black Racism
Excelerator Essentials - Intro to Coaching Skills
Mental Health First Aid
Practical Experience
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
with Branch & Anchor Counselling
(CRPO #14645)
April 2024 - present
Providing in-person and virtual therapy/counselling services to individuals 18+. During this time group supervision will help inform this work.
Practicum Student with
Blueprint Counselling
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
(CRPO #14645)
September 2023 - April 2024
This eight month learning experience allowed for the delivery of supervised and evaluated psychotherapy and counselling services with individuals 18+ and couples in-person and virtually. The therapeutic approaches focused on included Person-centred, Narrative and Acceptance Commitment Therapy. For more information about this course, please click this link here.
July 2022 - August 2023
Counsellor with
Luc Grey Counselling
Registered Social Service Worker (OCSWSSW # 842596)
Provided in-person and virtual counselling services to individuals 18+. During this time peer support and supervisory consultative services helped inform this work.
January 2018 - June 2018
This role involved providing sexual health information to gender and sexually diverse community members in Peel Region (Brampton, Mississauga & Caledon, ON). This work predominately leveraged online dating platforms to meet individuals where they egaged to provide peer support, validation and resources to support their sexual and mental well-being.
Practicum Student with
Peel HIV/AIDS Network
Men's Health Outreach Assistant
September 2013 - October 2013
Worked and supervised students doing academic work. Faciliated workshops on anger management, responsibility and dealing with authority. Counselling support was provided with active listening, validating and empathy.
Internship with
YMCA Alternative Suspension Program
Student Support
January 2013 - April 2013
Internship with
The Open Door - Drop-in Centre
Community Support Worker
Supported clients one on one with individual needs; clothing, food supplies, laundry services and counselling. Directed volunteers and colleagues, organized social activities and a fundraiser at the centre.