EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION

LIVED, PROFESSIONAL, & COMMUNITY-BASED
EXPERIENCE

My ways of being, relating, and healing are shaped by my liminal, intersectional experiences as a biracial (South Asian and British), second generation immigrant and settler with white‑passing privilege; queer, non‑binary, crip woman and person; (once adolescent and single) mother and kinship guardian; cyclebreaker of complex and intergenerational trauma; and survivor of sexual and gender‑based violence.

I am tenderly, vigilantly reflexive about the ways in which my embodied experiences, interwoven with the power inherent in the role of ‘therapist’, co‑construct the therapeutic dynamic. My work begins with a living, breathing praxis of justice not as some abstract, static concept ‘out there’ — but as an iterative unfolding of regenerative attunement, insurrectionary hope, transformative vulnerability, fluid solidarity, (un)yielding accountability, and revolutionary love that starts right here: as a promise born through healing relationship into self, family, community, culture, knowledge, structures, and systems…and back again.

And so my labour for radical healing takes and has taken diffuse, diffracted forms: parent and partner, family- and community-member, professional singer‑songwriter, published critical gender and sexuality activist‑scholar, poet, palliative and grief support worker, mentor and mentee, co‑learner and educator, program and curriculum developer, EDIA specialist, case and crisis worker, speaker, non‑violent mediator and debriefer, facilitator, counsellor, service user and client, and therapist. I draw from 45 years of living relationally; 29 years of revolutionary mothering; and 25 years of combined experience in anti‑oppressive organisational development; BIPOC-, 2SLGBTQIA+-, womxn-, and student‑driven movement‑building; and transformative carework, art, pedagogy, research, and knowledge mobilisation.

Travelling a long, winding path to meaningful, sustainable paid work, I re‑turned to institutionalised education to requisitely credentialise key aspects of my calling in 2018, finishing my Master of Social Work in the shocking, stagnant thick of the pandemic. The faculty hired me out of my degree to continue my (to then unpaid) community‑organising, EDIA, counselling, and (co‑)curricular development work. I took on a contract to develop a research project on sexual racism and erotic justice with my beloved mentor at the SHiFT Lab. And (again) I stilled, I yearned, surrendered, re‑membered, and learned — launching this facet of my interdependent practice in 2024, driven by my abiding commitment to contributing insistently ethical, fractal, abundant, co‑creative care.

If you feel moved to, you can read (much) more about my personal, political, and spiritual life on the About me page.

“It seems that one of my functions is to go in and out of various worlds.”

— Gloria Anzaldúa

REGISTRATION, CERTIFICATION, & MEMBERSHIP

Registered Social Worker (RSW #836340), Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW)
You can confirm my registration by searching for my name or member number in the Online Register.

Member #18702, Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW)

Certification in Progress, Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice™
Integrative Somatic Studies Institute

Certification in Progress, Focusing Trainer & Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ Facilitator
Polyvagal Institute

Member, The Rooted Global Village
Decolonial, anti‑racist communal space dedicated to new culture co‑creation, (re)generating embodied ways of knowing and being in right relationship with self, others, and the more‑than‑human world.

Member (& former Research Coordinator), Sexuality Hub: Integrating Feminist Theory (SHiFT) Lab
The SHiFT Lab critically examines gender and sexuality through queer, feminist, and discursive knowledge (re)making, translation, and mobilisation.

Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL #114180), Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA)

“A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives — our skin colour, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings — all fuse to create a politic born of necessity.”

— Cherríe L. Moraga

FORMAL EDUCATION

Master of Social Work (MSW) with specialisation in Social Justice & Diversity — University of Toronto

MSW Practicum I: Family Service Toronto, David Kelley Services, LGBTT2SQQIA+ & HIV/AIDS Counselling Team

MSW Practicum II: Jessie’s: The June Callwood Centre for Young Women, Counselling & Case Management Team (serving pregnant and parenting youth)

Honours Bachelor of Psychology — Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University)

Graduate Certificate, Human Resources Management — Seneca College

“…I came to theory because I was hurting — the pain within me was so intense that I could not go on living. I came to theory desperate, wanting to comprehend — to grasp what was happening around and within me. Most importantly, I wanted to make the hurt go away. I saw in theory then a location for healing.”

— bell hooks

SELECTED FORMAL CONTINUING EDUCATION & TRAINING

Embodied Dialogue Series (Ongoing) — Felt Sense Polyvagal Approach to Trauma & Addiction Group, Polyvagal Institute Community (You can join this learning community, created by Jan Winhall, for free here and find a library of past events on YouTube)

Member, The Embody Lab (Ongoing) — Classes, workshops, and summits focused on embodied relational transformation and healing

Supervision Group for the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ (FSPM): Applying the Model in Your Practice (Ongoing) — Jan Winhall, MSW, FOT, Polyvagal Institute

Certificate in Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies (In progress) – Linda Thai, LMSW, ERYT-200, CLYL

Resting Your Nervous System: Opening Your Heart, Listening to Your Body, and Remembering the Sacred (In progress) – Matt Licata, PhD

Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice™ (ISTP), Level 2, Trauma, Emotions, and the Body (In progress) – Ratha Chek, MC, CYT, RCC, Integrative Somatic Studies Institute & Stefani Wilton BA, RMT, C-IAYT, ISTP, E-RYT-500, YACEP, Mandorla Yoga Institute

Self-Return: A Guided Living Death Reflection – Brooke Manning, Death Doula, Clinical Hypnotist, and Grief Worker, Length of a Candle

Integrative Somatic Therapy Practice™ (ISTP), Level 1, Fundamentals of Trauma Recovery: Trauma, Brain, and the Body – Ratha Chek, MC, CYT, RCC, Integrative Somatic Studies Institute

Being with Dying: Online Training Program — Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD; Anthony Back, MD; Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, FAAN; Wendy Dainin Lau, MD; & Mary Taylor; Upaya Zen Center

The Art of the Clinical Note — Anna Toth, MSC, RP, RMFT, Wilfred Laurier, Faculty of Social Work Professional Development

The Voice Keeps the Score: Sound as a Portal to Embodiment — Linda Thai, LMSW, ERYT-200, CLYL, Collectively Rooted

Where Do I Belong?: An Exploration of Identity and Belonging for Bicultural and Multicultural Bodies — Leticia Nieto, PsyD, LMFT, TEP; Karine Bell, MSc, SEP; Malia Wright-Merer; & Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LIMSW, SEP; The Rooted Global Village

The Alchemy in Edge-Play: Navigating Uncertainty, Desire, and the Risk Inherent in Liberation Work — Kai Cheng Thom, MSW, MSc, QMed, The Rooted Global Village

Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™: A Certificate for Treating Trauma and Addiction — Jan Winhall, MSW, FOT & Stephen Porges, PhD, Polyvagal Institute

Healing the Gender Wound: Somatic Practices for Gender Joy — Kai Cheng Thom, MSW, MSc, QMed, The Embody Lab

Suicide Intervention (for Weirdos, Freaks, and Queers) — Carly Boyce (You can watch this workshop in English, and read Carly’s incredible resource zine — ‘helping your friends who sometimes wanna die maybe not die’ — in English and French here)

Justice-Doing in Alternative Practice — Vikki Reynolds, PhD, RCC

Healing Somatic Wounds — Peter Levine, PhD, The Embody Lab

Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate — The Embody Lab

Revolutionising Trauma and Addiction Treatment with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ — Jan Winhall, MSW, FOT, Ontario Association of Social Workers

NeuroAffective Touch® Foundations Certificate, Module 1 — Dr. Aline LaPierre, NeuroAffective Touch Institute

Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy, Level 2 — Dr. Sue Johnson & Dr. Leanne Campbell, International Centre for Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)

Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy, Level 1 — Dr. Robert Allan & Yolanda Von Hockauf, M.Ed, RMFT, ICEEFT

Emotionally Focused Therapy Externship — Robin Williams Blake, RP & Robin Hellendoorn, RP, ICEEFT

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) Immersion — Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Praxis Continuing Education and Training

From Self to Systems — Berrett-Koehler Publishing

Motivational Interviewing Foundations — Laval Martin Consulting

Non-Violent Crisis Prevention Training — Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI)

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills (ASIST) Training — Toronto Hostels Training Centre

Person-centered, Solution-focused Counselling Skills Certificate — Bonnie Miller, MSW, RSW, The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre

Working with Emotions in Psychotherapy: A Trans-theoretical Approach (EFT, DBT, & Therapeutic Presence) — Dr. Les Greenberg, Dr. Shelley McMain, & Dr. Shari Geller, Centre for Mind-Body Health

Hospice Core Training — The Philip Aziz Centre for Hospice Care

Indigenous Cultural Competency Training — Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) for Direct Service Workers — The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre

“We recognise that all knowledge is mediated through the body and that feeling is a profound source of information about our lives.”

— Audre Lorde