My Story
In my life, people have been very forthcoming with all the ways I was not good enough in comparison to those around me. So to protect myself I spent years trying to contort to fit expectations, or I would hide away so people couldn’t see that I wasn’t good enough.
After travelling the world, seeing different perspectives, and experiencing some very big losses in my personal life, my perspective shifted. I saw the cost of contorting and hiding; I was disconnected from myself, those around me and life in general. I saw that life is too short to not be true to yourself, and to not connect with what is important to you. Life is too short not to live it.
I was lucky that when I was grieving the loss of my mother, I had a supervisor who introduced me to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT provided me with a framework to navigate my grief and build on the internal shift I was experiencing. It wasn’t and still isn’t easy. It is scary. It is vulnerable. It can be painful and at times it sure as hell isn’t pretty. But I wouldn’t trade it, because openness to experience, curiosity, adventure, and connection are important to me. All the things that I have done come from this curiosity and zest for life- whether it is on wheels with roller derby, up in the air with aerial silks and trapeze, playing with fire in circus arts, traveling the world to see different cultures, connecting with people through story telling or tasting all weird and wonderful food and beverages. This is me living true to my values. I am different, and my differences are no longer things that I want to hide in order to fit a mold, but rather they are things I cherish. I love being me. And I want you to love being you.
My Training and Professional Experience
I am clinical psychologist. I completed my training in Australia (Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and Australian Catholic University). My PhD was on anorexia nervosa, and involved asking people who had recovered from the disorder what they thought were key contributors to the onset, maintenance and recovery from the disorder. While completing my degrees I worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor in Melbourne, and a community mental health psychologist in Tasmania.
In 2008 I moved to Newfoundland, Canada where I provided individual and group therapy, as well as program development and evaluation, at an outpatient eating disorder program. I have since moved into private practice, seeing people with a variety of struggles and diagnoses, including eating disorders, body image issues, anxiety, and trauma.
I am also passionate about supervising and training other health professionals, and have provided supervision, consultation and a variety of workshops for over 10years. In recent years I have been increasingly connected to the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), and in 2022 became an ACT Peer Reviewed Trainer.
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