MEET MELISSA
I'm a social worker and psychotherapist with over two decades of experience specializing in supporting children, adolescents, young adults, and their families through the challenges of interpersonal violence, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. With a particular focus and commitment to helping families navigate intrafamilial sexual abuse (specifically, sibling sexual abuse), adolescent sexually harmful behaviours, and problematic sexual behaviours with children under 12 years, I have honed my skills in both assessment and treatment in these critical areas. I am the proud recipient of the Jim Shea Memorial Award 2024 for outstanding contributions to the growth and well-being of clients, staff and service providers. Over the past 16 years, I have also made substantial contributions to professional education, creating content and leading both brief and intensive training sessions to support organizations and regions develop clinical specialization. My trainings cater to professionals and adult learners across Canada and internationally, with an aim of fostering passion and deepening expertise in my areas of specialization. I enjoy supporting professionals who are developing their clinical skills via consultation and clinical supervision and I am very fond of supporting milieu settings such as foster homes and live-in treatment settings develop trauma informed and relational approaches to intervention. I have a bachelor degree of Social Work from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) and a Master of Social Work degree from The University of Toronto. I hold professional affiliations: - Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers - Ontario Association of Social Workers - Canadian Association of Social Workers - New Brunswick Association of Social Workers - Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse I am also certified and specialize in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics and the Neurosequential Model of Reflection and Supervision. I have further training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Schema Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Emotion Focused Family Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, Sensory Processing, as well as many other therapeutic modalities which enhance my eclectic approach to therapy and clinical supervision.