Family Systems

I approach therapy and explore one's identities and relationships through a parts framework from family systems. In my studies and practicing clinical work, I facilitate and collaborate with the client throughout the process of connecting emotions, sensations, thoughts, and actions, which through exploration the client can find insight, understanding, or themes that pop up. What messages do internal voices, statements, and mirrors reflect on you, and where do they come from?

I trained in family systems (structural family systems) in my experience working with children and families and was part of the training program at CHA/Harvard Postdoctoral Fellowship. I use my experience with family system approaches to support clients to change and improve their relationships (with their spouse, family, friends), improve their parenting skills and make changes in other relationships such as with their medical team or colleagues at work.

As a marriage and family therapist my primary training and expertise is in family systems and working with relationship dynamics.

Family systems is extremely important work. I help you look at your family as a whole unit. By doing so, we can learn what areas need work and healing.

Whether it’s the family you grew up in, the family you created, or the family you chose - belonging is a critical survival experience for all humans. Understanding the role we play in our families and how we experience acceptance in community greatly enhances our wellbeing. This isn’t your pop psychology “have boundaries” type of approach. I take into account how our interrelationships define personality, preference, and perspective.

I've worked with families for the past 11 years and have experience with foster/adoptive, racial minority and LGBTQ families, adult children and families experiencing major life transitions.

As a trained Marriage and Family Therapist, I see the importance of understanding your familial context in understanding you as a whole. Primary relationships with parents/caregivers shape our attachment style and have the power to influence behaviour in current relationships. Investigating these primary relationships with parents/cargivers and siblings helps provide a deeper understanding of the self in relationship and can guide our therapeutic work together.

I consider various systems that each person experiences in order to see the bigger picture. Each person is influenced by their family, community, school, location, etc. We are all affected by the world around us, and often our family systems are templates we use for other relationships.

My background in recovery and work in a treatment setting has given me thorough knowledge and appreciation for using a family systems approach in therapy. This means I will understand you through the lens of the family you come from, how those roles, messages, rules, and experiences have helped to shape who you are, your relationships, and how to facilitate healing in these areas.

By using evidence-based approaches like The Gottman Method and Bowen Family Systems, I can help you create new ways of relating to one another. You’ll learn to reduce conflict, improve communication, and rebuild. You’ll reconnect. At the end of each session, my goal is for you to leave with something concrete to apply daily. It might be something new to try or think about, something to read, or a new tool to begin using. These small steps will add up to the big changes you need to repair, reb

My deep understanding of the family systems approach is born from comprehensive training and rich experience. I've explored intricate family dynamics and the profound impact of communication patterns. I guide individuals in grasping how familial interactions mold their lives. My nurturing focus lies in fostering insights into these dynamics, empowering clients to cultivate improved relationships and communication.

There are many different parts of you that protect you, that manage internal crises, and carry the emotional damage of our past traumas. I work with you to understand your full self, create an appreciation for yourself, and work to give yourself permission to be your true self.

My work focuses on building impactful relationships. Family Systems theory is a lens through which I view treatment. I have taught university graduate-level courses centered on the application of family systems theory. I received specialized training as a marriage and family therapist, received additional training in postgraduate school, presented at national conferences on family systems dynamics, and have over a decade of experience working with families in clinical settings.

I enjoy helping clients process how they impact and are impacted by systems. Spanning ancestral, societal, interpersonal and intrapersonal contexts, we can discuss how you relate. I acknowledge that compassionate relationships to the whole comes with building capacity for accountability, boundaries and acknowledgement of power differentials.

Systems Theory is not necessarily about doing therapy with an entire family (who has time for that?). A look at your family system is like seeing the inner workings of a clock. We have much more information about how and why you are the cog shaped the way you are shaped, when we look at the functioning of the entire clock. What's magical is, by changing how you are shaped, or how you behave, you can't help but affect the shape (behavior) of all the cogs in your family, workplace or community!

As a marriage and family therapist, I was trained to see symptoms not only in relation to the individual, but also within the context surrounding the individual. Our family, school, work, neighborhood, community, and even cultural attitudes all have an impact on the individual and my work takes into account all of these factors.