I live and work in Toronto, Ontario. My counselling practice occurs on Treaty 13 lands (Williams Treaty 1923). As a white settler Canadian, I acknowledge with gravity the systemic and systematic violence and injustice by which this has come to be.

A considerable amount of my training to-date has been to learn to face and sit with the discomfort of reckoning with privilege and the harm of oppression – to not dash into narratives of fragility or feigned innocence. I can’t undo what has been done. I can work to undo what continues to be done. I value, respect, and advocating for many ways of being, knowing, and doing. I commit to increasing the integrity of my accountability structures. I am also committed to ongoing study, conversation, relationship-building, and relationship-strengthening to find and take up my place in this healing journey with respect, love, and honesty.

This land that supports this writing, my breathing, and life as I know it is the traditional land of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, as well as the Anishinabek Nation, including the Chippewa people, as well as the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat. The treaties have not been honoured and I endeavour to align myself with truth and in reconciliation with Indigenous people and peoples – First Nations, Métis, and Inuit – whose sovereign home the nation of Canada now occupies.

The reality is that colonization is a present and ongoing process and I am included in complex historical, socio-political, and transnational power relations – as are we all. I seek to honour my connections with and accountability to Indigenous peoples and the land, in both relational and self-reflective ways. I am committed to ongoing learning and education, and to being open to – and creating opportunities for – continued dialogue and conversation.

I support the adoption of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the framework for reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people, as per the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015).

I also support the Land Back movement. This video series, thoughtfully produced by the David Suzuki Foundation, is a fabulous resource for learning about Land Back: Click here to see the website with videos

And I am excited to share news of Mno Aki Land Trust, a land trust guided by a group of Indigenous grandmothers. Click here to go their website – they accept charitable donations.

It really is all about the land.

[the above image is a series of drawings I created of bears, deer, a rock, and cordage – the result of a reflective exercise inspired by A Treaty Guide for Torontonians]

*A note on the terminology: At the time of putting this website together I was/am in the process of reading Decolonizing Therapy by Dr. Jennifer Mullan, PsyD. (2023.) It’s a beautiful work. I’m also currently participating in the Decolonizing Education Certificate through Wilfrid Laurier University, a deeply generous offering from the Centre for Indigegogy.