About Me and The Art of Heart Approach

About The Art of HEART

I am a Registered Social Worker located in Ontario, Canada. I work from a relational lens, recognizing the importance of being in 'right relationship' with our whole, creative selves, each other and the greater world. I enjoy working with a variety of needs, but have indepth skills and experience with complex trauma. I have had a variety of work and life experiences that have led me to be curious about human behaviour, what seems to be our innate desire for peace and connection, yet we continue to struggle with doing things that disconnect us from life and from others, especially those we care about.

The Art of HEART is what has evovled for me as a philosophy to guide my work and how I want to live my life. It is an ongoing learning process for me, full of mistakes and wrong turns, but the direction has always remained the same. It is a process of living, learning, growing, creating, falling down and getting back up again, and through all of it, trying my best to do the best I can at living with meaning.

I am currently working towards a PhD in Human Relationships, Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy through Wilfrid Laurier/Martin Luther University with research interest in relationality and embodied ethics in program development, training, regulation and practice within helping professions. This is a project of curiosity and creativity in seeking knowledge about what is important to me, and what humans seem to have been trying to figure out throughout history. Leading with HEART, Humility, Empathy, Accountability, Responsibility, and Truthfulness in professional endeavors, not as a list of rules to follow, but as a way of being.

My Approach to Relational Therapy

My perspective for therapy is to encourage rediscovery of the creative and authentic self that is inside all of us, and to offer support and guidance through wholisitc body-mind-soul integrative processes.

Counselling and psychotherapy are often spoken of as professions — defined by methods, frameworks, and measurable outcomes.

The Art of Heart means that I see them differently, that this work is not solely about applying technique for symptom reduction, but that technical training and skills work in partnership with presence. I see this as a craft — human, soulful practice that is shaped not by tools, but by being with, listening, intuition, and care.

As a craft, this grows through time, reflection, and experience. As a craft, it values attention over ambition, sensitivity over certainty. Each conversation is a unique creation — a moment where two people meet, listen, and begin to shape meaning together, and use this time to work towards living a more meaningful life.

Like any craftsperson, the therapist or counsellor learns by doing — not only in technical training or certifications, and not only through learning from the therapeutic relationship, but by committing to ongoing self-learning as well. The craft is never finished; it evolves with every encounter, every story, every shared moment of courage.

I believe that healing is less about fixing and more about creating — creating connection, understanding, and possibility.

Therapy is not a procedure, but a process; not a performance, but a practice.

At its heart, therapy is applying wisdom and the art of being human — together.

A woman with long brown hair wearing a black top smiles softly at the camera.

Land Acknowledgment

My practice is situated in Halton Hills, Ontario, on the traditional and treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, within the wider territories of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron Wendat peoples. This land has long been shaped by relationships of care, responsibility, and stewardship.

I offer this acknowledgment as an ongoing practice of situating myself in relationship to place, rather than as a fixed or complete statement.

As a settler of Celtic ancestry, my life and work are shaped by complex histories of movement, displacement, and survival — both those carried by my ancestors and those imposed through colonization. I recognize that my ability to live and practice on this land is inseparable from systems that have caused and continue to cause harm, and that acknowledgment alone does not address this reality.

My understanding of land and relationship has been shaped through living in different communities across Ontario, visiting other parts of Canada, and spending time as a visitor in places beyond these borders. This includes time spent growing up exploring the lakes and forests of Ontario, walking the Bruce Trail system with my family and learning land conservation through the work of my dad, working and living with land currently cared for by Three Rivers YMCA Camping and Outdoor Education programs, and in and around Dominical and San Isidro, Costa Rica, volunteering on an organic farm. Many of my work and travels offered a lived experience of land as reciprocal relationship — one shaped by labour, care, climate, and community. I also hold an ongoing relationship with Vancouver Island, where time spent as a visitor on the lands and waters of the Coast Salish peoples has deepened my understanding of land as teacher, witness, and relation.

In all of these places, I remain a visitor. I carry these experiences not as claims, but as responsibilities — informing how I approach healing, work, and relationship with humility and care.

This acknowledgment reflects a commitment to respecting Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge, and to continuing the work of learning how to live and practice in better relation — to land, to people, and to the histories that shape us.

More information about the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation

mncfn.ca

About Me and The Art of Heart Approach

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