Mike (he/him)

Hello! I’m Dr. Mike, and I work with teenagers, adults, and families.

Please note, I am only accepting new clients for assessment at the present time.

My approach to assessment

I have been working in psychological assessment for 15+ years now. I've taught graduate courses in assessment, I supervise provisional psychologists in assessment, and in my attempt to help build a better understanding of assessment in psychologists in general, I developed a 40-hour Professional Development course in assessment for the Psychologists' Association of Alberta.

I'm a firm believer that assessment can have a profound and positive impact on people's lives - when it's done well. My goal is to work with you on the answers you want an assessment to provide, whether that's for yourself or for your child.

Together, we identify the questions the assessment will need to ask. Then it's my job to gather information, through testing, interviews, and observations. My goal is to get as complete a picture of my clients' history, cultural identity, needs, strengths and challenges as possible. I put all that information together into a thorough report that walks you through all the information in a clear but comprehensive way. When the report is done, I meet with you to go over it in detail, so that you leave with a clear understanding of the information we found. And even after that, if you have questions later on, you can always reach out to get any additional clarity you may need.

I also recognize that assessment can be stressful for some folks. My goal is to work with you at the pace that you're most comfortable with, and to make myself available to answer any questions you may have at any time during and after the process.

Learn more by visiting our assessment page!

My approach to therapy

The most important part of my work is hearing and listening to the unique things that make you “you” - from the things that bring you joy and energy, to the things that bring you sadness and anxiety. I aim to respect your unique individuality, with your own experiences of culture, gender, sexual orientation, celebration, and distress.

My goal is to listen to your experience of where you are in your life right now, and where you want to be. In our work together, I work with you to figure out how you can get from your own point A to point B, by encouraging you to explore the ways you think, feel, and interact with the world.

Whether I’m working with you as an individual or a family, I aim to make therapy a safe and welcoming environment where we can work together to figure things out!

For my adolescent clients: This can be a hard period in our lives. It’s the time when we're figuring out who we are, what we want, and how to manage the challenges life can throw at us. Sometimes that can be a difficult process, and we can feel overwhelmed with sadness, stress, anxiety, or other concerns. Sometimes we manage these things in unhealthy ways that can hurt ourselves or the people we care about. On the other hand, confronting those feelings and habits early in life can be an incredibly powerful experience - one that can help us to build ourselves into healthy, capable, confident adults.

For my adult clients: No matter who you are or what you’ve been through, everyone experiences struggle and distress. Whether it’s a pattern of thoughts, feelings, and/or actions that you’ve been grappling with for a long time, or whether something unexpected has come along and completely rocked your world, sometimes we just need help.

I often find my work with adult clients focuses on life transitions, such as job stress/job change; divorce; or grief and loss. I work with my clients to help make sense of what you’re feeling and thinking so that you can detach from harmful thoughts and feelings and try to move toward whatever version of life you want to live.

Other times, adult clients want help to navigate recent or historical trauma that you may have experienced. I have training in trauma-informed practice, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help my clients navigate the impacts that trauma can have on our day-to-day lives.

And for my family clients: Tension, stress, and anxiety in the family can have huge impacts on everyone involved. When I’m working with families, my goal is to understand how the family dynamic works, including what’s working well, and what changes everyone would like to see.

In this work, we often focus on communication - what’s not being heard, why not, and how we can work together better to understand each other and work together. I do my best to respect the individuality (e.g., unique needs, wants, opinions, sensitivities) of each person in the family, as well as the relationships between everybody.

Client age range: 12+

Rate: $220 per 60-minute session

Sliding Scale: no sliding scale slots currently available

Payment: Cash, debit card, credit card, Interac e-transfer

Please note: if you will be using insurance benefits while seeing Mike, make sure to check in advance that your benefits cover services by a Registered Psychologist.