My Story

In some ways I stumbled into becoming a therapist. I was the kid who brought home stray animals and raised orphaned baby birds. The driving force (which drove my parents crazy) was the desire to save those creatures I considered forsaken and doomed. My fame grew among neighbourhood kids and some of the more enterprising ones saw a business opportunity here. I would be presented with a shoe box with some scruffy, shivering creature in it and told: pay ransom or we kill this baby pigeon. I was always happy to pay the ransom.

As I cared for discarded or orphaned animals, I saw the same vulnerability in many of the people around me. This led to an interest in the study of societal forces that leave all too many people feeling left out of the mainstream life – struggling to fit in, to fully develop their potential, to build meaningful connections with others.

I decided that it was my life’s mission to do something about it. So I enrolled in the social work program at Ryerson University in Toronto, with the goal of learning the ropes of community work and policy development to fight poverty and injustice.

Then something unexpected happened. I was in the 4th year of my Bachelor of Social Work program when a course was cancelled due to a professor’s illness. The faculty got a last-minute replacement: a family therapist who put together a course on troubled families.

The shift in my perspective was quick and profound. Suddenly I realized that the fiercest battles and the deepest wounds were happening behind closed doors of family homes. And, while those intimate bonds were often the source of lasting unhappiness and trauma, they also held the potential for healing and growth. With this new understanding, I finally knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life. Two years after taking the family therapy course I graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master of Social Work degree, specializing in practice with children and families.

Where I Am Today

These days I see clients in my private practice. I am a licensed psychotherapist with the Ordre des Psychologues du Quebec and a member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association.

My treatment philosophy is best summarized by the words of Elisabeth Kubler Ross:

“Beautiful people don’t just happen. The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths.”

I have always considered myself one of those people who have known adversity and always found their way out. Having survived (barely at times) my share of losses, hardships and reversals of fortune I thought I was ready for anything life can put in my way.

And then, the pandemic happened, and suddenly I found myself in a free fall. This really surprised me. Yes, the bottom fell out and the roof was blown away and the pillars of my nice, predictable life crumbled. I’ve been in this place before. More than once. And I’ve always landed on my feet. Picking myself up after a fall and reinventing my life was what I did. That’s what I was helping my clients to do. And yet, here I was in a free fall.

Eventually, I found my way out of the emotional swamp. I changed the way I live my daily life and the way I work. I started keeping Joy Catcher Journal. Slowly at first, things began to shift. This was to be expected.

When going through experiences that rock your world you do come out on the other side as someone different. You hope to come out as a better version of yourself; but it could go the other way. You could get mired in bitterness or hopelessness or fear. For me, the biggest surprise out of this passage through hell, was to come out more joyful and at ease. My life circumstances remained pretty much unchanged; the change that took place was on the inside.

The new habit of keeping the Joy Catcher Journal was in a large part responsible for this shift. I set out to share my discoveries, because I believe that it can do the same for you, regardless of your life situation.