About Allison

I received my five-year training as a psychotherapist from the Gestalt Institute of Toronto (after my MA in Adult Education and decade long career in teaching, coaching, and instructional design). While my basic approach to therapy comes from the Gestalt tradition of working in the here and now, I am more influenced by existential, Jungian, and spiritually integrated approaches today. I am an ACPE certified spiritually integrated psychotherapist and participate in communities of practice supporting this work.

Much of the work I do centers on people asking very big questions about life (and death) that are not often addressed in regular psychotherapy training. Because of that, I’ve taken a somewhat eclectic path in my continued development. I have had extensive training in death and dying, including hospice and as a death doula, in spiritually transformative and anomalous experiences like near-death experiences, and in culturally comparative practices in death and dying.

In 2024, I embarked on my second master’s degree through the University of Wales and will spend 3 years researching spiritual experience through an anthropology of religion lens. I also spent a summer at the University of Amsterdam studying western esotericism. I’ve taken too many courses and workshops to list in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, Jungian psychoanalysis, dreamwork through many lenses, and Internal Family Systems. Of course, I combine all of this with up-to-date, evidence-based practices in psychotherapy, neuroscience, and consciousness studies.

As more and more people are working with psychedelic substances to treat mental health issues and for psycho-spiritual growth, I am happy to support clients on that journey. I take a harm-reduction approach to substance use and support therapeutic integration work for pre and post-psychedelic experiences.

My life has unfolded in an eclectic and unexpected way which enabled me to live and work in four different countries and spend significant chunks of time in many others. I raised a multilingual kid in an intercultural marriage and went through all the strains and stresses that immigration and new languages bring. For these reasons, I’m particularly attuned to working with issues related to cross-cultural transitions, relationships, identity, immigration, and homesickness.

And finally, I am deeply dedicated to supporting human diversity in all forms and want clients to feel welcome to be who they are, love who they want, and how they want, and be able to bring forward any issue without fear of judgement or being missed. I’m committed to continually working at uncovering and addressing biases that arise from my social positioning. This includes exploring ways in which power and privilege are experienced between me and those I work with.