My Story

I have always been fascinated with how the human mind works. In my undergraduate studies, I found nothing more interesting than learning about the reasons for our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. My perspective on development and motivation gradually expanded to truly appreciate the implications of being social beings. We are heavily influenced by the people around us, including our immediate family, friends, and culture.

I took my passion for the field of psychology further by enrolling in York University’s Social and Personality Psychology program to engage in research in the field of cultural psychology. I studied the reasons people get divorced in different cultures, as well as how certain “positive” cultural stereotypes can actually cause harm (i.e. model minority stereotypes). I successfully defended my thesis, which examined how children of divorce are stigmatized differently depending on culture.

Though I highly enjoyed my time as a psychology researcher, my heart was in the application of psychology. I knew that I was put on this earth to help people as a therapist. And thus, with an interest in relationships, divorce, families, and culture, I enrolled in the University of Guelph’s Couple and Family Therapy program. Accredited by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO), the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT), and the Canadian Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), this program provided me with the necessary knowledge, practical tools, and clinical experience to work with individuals, couples, and families. And with a prior research degree, I bring the latest research findings to my practice. Find out more about my clinical training.

In my first year of practicing, my practice grew rather quickly. At the one year anniversary of my private practice, I launched my group practice, Building Bridges Psychotherapy (also known as “bbtherapy” or even “BB”). We are now a team of over 30 therapists and a dozen staff members, all sharing the same core values, approaches to therapy, and dedication to offering high quality therapy for individuals, couples, and families. In addition to virutal therapy, we also proudly offer in-person therapy at our several offices across the Greater Toronto Area.

As a compliment to Building Bridges Psychotherapy, I have also launched a separate branch: Affordable Therapy Ontario (ATO). The goal of ATO is simple: to make therapy accessible to all. We do not want money to be a barrier to accessing therapy. While bbtherapy has always held this value, we found it necessary to have a branch of the practice that is specifically dedicated to working with clients that cannot afford typical private practice rates.

ATO is also an educational practice, as it is home to our in-house teaching program for therapist interns, named the Affordable Therapy Ontario Practicum Program (ATOPP). As a clinical supervisor, I have the privilege of mentoring the next generation of student therapists as their clinical supervisor, teaching them how to do therapy according to the values and approaches of BB that have helped thousands to date.