My Journey to Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy

More than 26 years of understanding children. A new depth of listening.

My journey to becoming a child and adolescent psychotherapist did not begin when I entered clinical training. It has been developing throughout more than 26 years of working closely with children and families.

My professional foundation began in Early Childhood Studies, where I developed an understanding of how children's earliest experiences, relationships, environments, and developmental stages shape who they become. I continued my education through a Bachelor of Education and spent more than two decades as an educator, working alongside children and their families through the many complexities of childhood—learning, friendships, behaviour, emotional regulation, transitions, family changes, loss, anxiety, belonging, and growth.

Over the years, I found myself becoming increasingly curious about something deeper.

I wasn't only interested in what a child was doing. I wanted to understand why.

What might be happening beneath the behaviour? What was the child communicating that they could not yet put into words? How were their earliest relationships and experiences shaping the way they understood themselves and others? Why did some patterns continue even when everyone around the child was working hard to help?

Those questions eventually led me to complete a Master's degree focused on Developmental Psychology in Education, deepening my understanding of children's social, emotional, cognitive, and psychological development.

But I wanted to go further still.

I wanted to move from understanding children's development to being clinically trained to sit alongside children and adolescents in their emotional struggles—to listen differently, understand their inner worlds, and help create the conditions in which meaningful psychological change can occur.

Why Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy?

That search ultimately led me to the Canadian Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (CICAPP), where I am completing advanced clinical training in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy resonated deeply with me because it asks us to look beneath what is immediately visible.

A child's anxiety, anger, withdrawal, perfectionism, difficulties at school, relationship struggles, or challenging behaviour may be the outward expression of an inner experience that has not yet found words.

In therapy, I use play, conversation, careful observation, curiosity, and the therapeutic relationship to gradually understand the child's emotional world. Rather than focusing only on eliminating a symptom or changing a behaviour, we become curious about its meaning and what the child may be communicating through it.

At the heart of my approach is curiosity, not simply asking, “How do we change this behaviour?” but wondering, “What might this child be trying to communicate?”

My Training at CICAPP

CICAPP provides specialized training in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy, integrating psychoanalytic theory with child development, infant and toddler observation, ethics, clinical assessment, and supervised psychotherapy.

An essential part of my training is ongoing clinical supervision with experienced psychoanalytic clinicians. As a clinical trainee, my therapeutic work is therefore accompanied by regular supervision, reflection, and consultation.

I see this as an important strength for families who choose to work with me. Your child's therapy is approached thoughtfully and reflectively, while my clinical development is supported by experienced professionals within my training program.

Why Work With Me as a Clinical Trainee?

While I am continuing to develop as a psychotherapist, I am not beginning my journey with children.

I bring more than 26 years of experience observing children closely, building trusting relationships with them, listening to families, understanding development, recognizing individual differences, and appreciating that behaviour often communicates something much deeper.

Clinical training has given me a new way of listening.

Where my educational background taught me to understand how children grow and develop, my psychoanalytic training is teaching me to listen for the emotional meaning beneath what I see, in a child's words, play, relationships, patterns, silences, behaviours, and ways of relating.

I believe the combination of these two worlds is one of the greatest strengths I bring to my clinical work: the developmental knowledge of an experienced educator together with the curiosity, depth, reflection, and relational understanding of a developing psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Most importantly, I approach each child without assuming that I already know their story. I want to discover it with them.

At the heart of my work is a simple belief:

When we become curious about what lies beneath a child's behaviour, we create the possibility for understanding, connection, and meaningful change.

Learn more about CICAPP https://capct.ca/training-and-professional-development/cicapp/