Instructors

Françoise is a certified mental health counsellor and compassion fatigue specialist. Her experience stems from many years (15+) as a crisis counsellor, working in a hospital emergency ward, university counselling service and community mental health environments. Françoise is director of WHP-Workshops for the Helping Professions whose aim is to offer counselling, consulting and training to helpers on topics related to self care, wellness, burnout and compassion fatigue. Since 2001, Françoise has given hundreds of seminars on compassion fatigue and self care across Canada to thousands of helping professionals in the health care fields. She is the author of The Compassion Fatigue Train the Trainer Workbook and The Compassion Fatigue Workbook and the ebooklet: Designing and Marketing a Compassion Fatigue Workshop in 10 Key Steps. For more information on her work: www.compassionfatigue.ca

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Françoise also runs a successful private practice.

Harjit Aulakh, M.A. is psychology doctoral student at McGill University and currently works as a clinician with Saanich Child and Youth Community Mental Health Centre providing therapeutic services for youth of all ages. She has been developing and providing group therapy for NSSI teens for three years with Dr. Nixon, and is one of the co-authors of the chapter on psycho-social interventions with youth who self-injure in the book titled: Self-Injury in Youth: The Essential Guide to Assessment and Intervention.

Rachael Brubacher works in the SprOUT Program at the Griffin Centre. sprOUT is all about connecting lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender and questioning people labelled with intellectual disabilities across Ontario.

Griffin Centre is a non-profit charitable mental health agency providing flexible and accessible services to youth, adults and their families. Our mission is to promote positive change for vulnerable youth and adults with mental health challenges and/or developmental disabilities and their families. They are dedicated to delivering innovative services and developing creative partnerships that enhance lives and communities.

Regional Eating Disorder Program (REDP), Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Geraldine is an internationally recognized expert in the assessment and treatment of child sexual abuse and has developed protocols for trauma assessment and treatment of sexualized behaviour in children. She serves as a faculty member of the C.O. Bick Police College, Metropolitan Toronto Police and the R.C.M.P and is qualified as an expert witness in criminal court in the areas of sexual abuse. Geri provides ongoing training, supervision and consultation through Crisci & Mayer, Consultation, Counseling and Training to a number of sexual abuse treatment programs and children’s mental health centers.

Dr. Dubord is the Director of the Toronto Center for Cognitive Therapy. He was the first Canadian Fellow of the Beck Institute, and the Founding Director of the University of Toronto Psychiatry's Department of Intermediate and Advanced Cognitive Therapy Courses. His relentlessly-practical teachings are grounded in almost 20 years of a diverse and humbling therapy practice. Dr. Dubord is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and has been recognized by the University of Toronto with several major teaching awards. See also www.cbt.ca

Michael H. Epstein, Ed.D., is the Director of the Center for At- Risk Children’s Services and William E. Barkley Professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska. He received his doctoral degree in special education from the University of Virginia. He has been employed as a teacher of children with behavior and learning problems, a director of educational programs for students with disabilities, and a university professor. Dr. Epstein has received over 16 million dollars in external grants, has published over 220 professional papers, has served as a consultant to various state and federal agencies and foundations, has served as a reviewer for numerous professional journals, and is the founding editor of the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. He is the author of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: A Strength Based Approach to Assessment and the Scale Assessing Emotional Disturbance. He is the co author of Outcomes for Children and Youth with Emotional

Jim Hall has done presentations from Vancouver to Kingston and as far north as Baffin Island. A full time therapist at Toronto’s Shoniker Clinic, Jim also coordinates the group therapy program there.

Nominated four times since 1992 for the Krista Sepp Memorial Award for his work with children, Jim is also the senior therapist of the Men’s Group Trauma Program at Centenary Health Centre, celebrating its fifteenth year in 2009.

Jim is the author of Creating Courage: Search & Rescue, a 300-page treatment manual for professionals working with Trauma based Anxiety.
Jim is also president of Wolfwood Canada, a company which offers training and consultation across the country.

Regional Eating Disorder Program (REDP), Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Richard Heresniak, is the Lead Crisis Counselor at the Astor Home for Children, a 75-bed residential facility for severely emotionally disturbed children, ages 5-13,located in Rhinebeck, NY. He handles crisis intervention work and is the primary
TCI trainer for the facility. Mr. Heresniak worked his way up to this position,starting out as a Teacher Assistant in the Astor Learning Center, followed by Crisis Intervention and childcare worker in the RTC and RTF units. He has been trained in TCI since 1989.

Jack C. Holden, Ph.D., is President of Mueller Holden and Associates in Ithaca, NY, and a TCI Instructor. Since 1986, Mr. Holden has been a full-time consultant/trainer traveling nationally and internationally to develop and deliver training programs in the human service field. Mr. Holden consults with Cornell University and co-developed the following curricula: Recovery for Staff-TCI, Cornell University, 1995, and Connecting: Essential Elements of Residential Child Care Practice.

The instructors for the Train the Trainer program are members of the Freedom From Harm Working Committee, Community Living Ontario. The team includes: Jim McLean, Larry Collard, Lee-Anne Dupuis and Peggy Corrigan Dench.

Colleen has been working in the helping field for over twenty five years. Over the past fourteen years she has specialized in assessment and treatment of children who have been sexually abused, children who have witnessed violence, and children with sexual behaviour problems, through the T.A.L.K. Program. She co-developed an assessment tool for children with sexual behaviour problems. . Colleen is also a faculty member of Centennial College in the Child & Youth Worker Program and also trains and consults with several treatment programs, child welfare agencies, and children's mental health treatment residencies Prior to the specialization in child abuse, Colleen has worked extensively in the area of child welfare, education, residential services, and youth outreach.

Steven traces his ancestry to the Mohawks of the Six Nations and is of the Turtle Clan. He is a graduate student at OISE completing a Masters of Education in the area of Community Development. Steven has over 25 years of community healing work in Canadian First Nations, both urban and remote reserve communities. His work on land claims, mental health, addictions, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and youth engagement have led to a strong commitment to change the trajectory of especially First Nations youth. Steven is active in consultations around reconciliation of colonial injustices and preparations to inform the Canadian public on the tragic legacies of Canadian Indian Residential Schools which all Canadians have been victims. Steve hopes to use his advanced education from OISE to participate in the de-colonization across Canada and the globe.

Franklin Kuhn, Jr., Ph.D, a clinical psychologist, has worked in clinical and administrative positions with child welfare organizations for 20 years. He has served as medical school faculty and has provided consultation and training to agencies
across the U.S. Dr. Kuhn has been a consultant to the RCCP since 1985.

Annette Kussin, M.S.W., R.S.W. is a Registered Social Worker and Registered Marriage and Family Therapist. Annette has over thirty years of experience in children and adult mental health in clinical, supervisory and management positions. She has been the Clinical Director of the Creche Child and Family Centre, the Director of Clinical Services at Oolagen Community Services and Head of the Family Therapy Program at the Hincks/Dellcrest Centre. For 5 years Annette was a partner in Crisci, Kussin & Mayer, Counselling, Consultation and Training. She presently has an independent private practice.

For over 25 years Annette has specialized in couple and family therapy offering training, supervision and consultation. Over the past 15 years she has developed an interest and expertise in Attachment Theory, Trauma and Brain Development. She provides training in this area for many organizations in Toronto and Ontario.

In her present private practice Annette offers counselling services to th

Ed is a Special Education Resource Teacher with the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic School Board whose role it is to support students and teachers in the classroom. He is also an Instructor at Mohawk College in Hamilton and an Associate Faculty Instructor with Conestoga College in Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Stratford where he teaches a course entitled Approaches to Autism as part of the Educational Assistant Program. Ed speaks at various workshops and seminars and runs a summer camps and respite programs for individuals with high needs Autism.

Sheila has been a registered psychologist since 1997. She previously worked as a researcher for the Abuse and Disability Project and co-authored and published research articles and presented papers at conferences in Canada, the USA, Israel, and Europe. In 2001 she co-authored a book with Dr. Dick Sobsey published by National Association for the Dually Diagnosed titled Counselling People with Developmental Disabilities Who Have Been Sexually Abused. She works as a private practitioner and provides specialized sexuality, mental health and behavioural assessments for clients with developmental disabilities and dual diagnosis. She provides training workshops to caregivers and professionals and is a consulting psychologist to the Arnika Centre for Dual Diagnosis in Calgary, a clinical consultant, and consults to the multidisciplinary team for Family Supports for Children with Disabilities

Zack Marshall works in the ReachOUT and SprOUT Program of the Griffin Centre. sprOUT is all about connecting lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender and questioning people labelled with intellectual disabilities across Ontario.

ReachOUT is a creative, inclusive & accessible program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer youth and adults in the Greater Toronto Area. Activities include drop-in groups, community outreach, counselling, consultation, art & skills exchange. They offer safe spaces that reflect the diversity of queer and trans communities.

Griffin Centre is a non-profit charitable mental health agency providing flexible and accessible services to youth, adults and their families. Our mission is to promote positive change for vulnerable youth and adults with mental health challenges and/or developmental disabilities and their families. They are dedicated to delivering innovative services and developing creative partnerships that enhance lives and communities.

Debra Mayer, MA, is Director for SpeciaLink, the National Centre for Child Care Inclusion and offers training in assessing inclusion quality and transforming programs across Canada. She is a lifelong advocate for children with disabilities and for the adults who care so much about our children. In Manitoba, Debra teaches in the inclusion and management streams for the University of Winnipeg’s ECE degree program and serves as the early childhood consultant for Community Living Manitoba.

Nancy is an integral part of the group practice of Crisci & Mayer, Consultation Counseling and Training. For over 25 years, she has worked as a clinician, supervisor, manager, consultant and trainer in the areas of child sexual abuse, adult survivors of trauma, effects of secondary trauma on workers, clergy and professional misconduct, workplace issues and organizational change. She has worked for a variety of child welfare, children's mental health and medical and private organizations. As part of the group Crisci & Mayer, she offers therapy and provides clinical supervision and consultation to clinicians and social services organizations.

Rick has extensive experience providing front-line clinical services to children, adolescents and their families, including clinical and psychological assessments, psycho-educational assessments, and therapeutic interventions. He has both provided psychological services and consultation to residential, educational (day treatment), home-based and outpatient services. As well, he has been extensively involved in development and delivery of social skills and anger management programs for both parents and children; conducting research on skills training, program evaluation, and providing clinical training and supervision. In addition, he has conducted over 100 two-day training workshops for the public, mental health and school professionals on various topics related to anger control, treatment planning and externalizing and internalizing disorders. Dr. McCendie is a member of the College of Psychologists of Ontario and the Canadian Psychological Association.

Kim Meawasige (Consultant) is a FASD Policy Analyst at the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres in Toronto, and formerly worked with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto for ten years. Kim is a co-chair of Toronto’s “Aboriginal FASD Task Force” committee, and board member of FAS World Canada. Kim has developed and implemented several community support programs for parents and children who are affected by FASD including an Aboriginal Children’s FASD Camp that is in it’s fourth season. Kim has also provided over one hundred workshops to different communities in Canada. She brings a professional and personnel commitment to this issue. She is a Mother of seven and Grandmother of one, with four of her children diagnosed with FAS. Kim has been in the field of FASD for over ten years. She provides assistance with FASD resources available to urban Aboriginal people, shares approaches–both traditional and contemporary to dealing with FASD, conducts on-site training and

Michelle Moran is a social worker who has been working with youth in the field of violence prevention for over fourteen years. During that time, Michelle has co-authored several manuals for educators as well as created an interactive CD Rom, web site and video with youth on the issue of youth violence prevention. Currently, Michelle is working at East Metro Youth Services, an accredited children’s mental health centre, supervising the RISE (Respect in Schools Everywhere) Program. The RISE Program is a school-based youth engagement program that supports youth in becoming leaders of peace and safety. Michelle also works as a part-time faculty member at Centennial College in the Child and Youth Worker Program.

Dr. Nixon is the Network Leader for the Interdisciplinary National Self Injury in Youth Network Canada (INSYNC) and has recently co-edited a book with Dr. Nancy Heath entitled “Self Injury in Youth: The Essential Guide to Assessment and Intervention, Routledge, NY.

Dr. Nixon is a child and adolescent psychiatrist practicing in Victoria, British Columbia. She previously worked at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa where she was Director of Psychiatry Research and Head of the Mood and Anxiety Clinic. She was the founding Editor of the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and a member of the board of the CACAP for 7 years.

Dr. Nixon is a Research Associate at the Center for Youth and Society at the University of Victoria and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UBC. She is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Sciences at the U of V. Her area of research includes population based studies

Ashley Quinn, M.S.W., is a social work doctoral student at the University of Toronto and currently works as a course instructor at Ryerson University teaching anti-oppressive and transformative approaches to social work practice. Ashley is grounded in her commitment to advocate for Aboriginal children, youth and their families. Ashley is an experienced practitioner in the fields of children and youth mental health, juvenile justice, child welfare and education. She is a leader in her community where she was recently a research assistant for the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Survey, the first Canada wide study designed by and for urban Aboriginal community members. Ashley has published peer-reviewed articles and has presented at local, national and international conferences. Ashley is a recipient of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) scholarship for her research on resiliency among First Nations children and youth involved in the child welfare system.

Regional Eating Disorder Program (REDP), Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Mary Ruberti, M.S.W., is a TCI Instructor and an independent training consultant with many years of experience working with emotionally disabled and mentally ill children and youth in both residential and community-based settings. This work has included the utilization of adventure-based counseling in this population in a variety of settings. Ms. Ruberti has received training from Project Adventure, Inc., a nationally recognized ABC training provider.

Regional Eating Disorder Program (REDP), Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

John Strang, Ph.D., C. Psych. is a clinical neuropsychologist with over 25 years experience in learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, children’s mental health, and acquired brain injury in children and adults. He is the founding Director of the Ozad Institute, Windsor Regional Children’s Centre (WRCC), which is devoted to research and education in neurodevelopmental disabilities; a staff neuropsychologist at WRCC; and a consulting pediatric neuropsychologist at the John McGivney Children’s Centre for children with physical and neurological disorders. His private practice is currently focused on the neuropsychological assessment of adults and children who have sustained head injuries. Dr. Strang has over 20 publications in clinical neuropsychology. Adjunct faculty appointments are held in Psychology at the University of Windsor, and Psychiatry at the University of Western Ontario: SWOMEN (Windsor). He has completed over 100 presentations at conferences and community-based ve

Regional Eating Disorder Program (REDP), Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Elsbeth Tupker, M.S.W., has 26 years of experience working with youth at the former Addiction Research Foundation and more recently at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Her work
has focused on treatment of young drug users,including program development, program management, research, and professional training. She has coauthored a number of publications: Youth & Drugs and Mental Health: A Resource for Professionals; Let
'Em Go: How to Support Youth in Creating Their Own Solutions, and First Contact: A Brief Treatment for Young Substance Users with Mental Health Problems; and an online course: Introduction to Concurrent Disorders.

Tess Vo works in the ReachOUT Program, Griffin Centre
ReachOUT is a creative, inclusive & accessible program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer youth and adults in the Greater Toronto Area. Activities include drop-in groups, community outreach, counselling, consultation, art & skills exchange. They offer safe spaces that reflect the diversity of queer and trans communities.

Griffin Centre is a non-profit charitable mental health agency providing flexible and accessible services to youth, adults and their families. Our mission is to promote positive change for vulnerable youth and adults with mental health challenges and/or developmental disabilities and their families. They are dedicated to delivering innovative services and developing creative partnerships that enhance lives and communities.

Rebecca has been a Child and Youth Care Professional since 1998. She has worked in numerous practice contexts including; the young offender system, family preservation, early intervention, child protection, youth substance abuse and children’s mental health. She is currently a Program Manager of Intensive Residential and Day Treatment Services in the Thunder Bay area. This curriculum was derived out of an evaluative research project. These findings have been presented at several International conferences. Dr. Anglin’s (2002) model of residential treatment serves as the framework with other developmental, behavioural change, and crisis intervention theories serving as supporting clinical perspectives.

Jessica received her doctorate from the Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Department at OISE/UT in May of 2005. Jessica brings a plethora of experience working in the field of anti-oppression and education. She is a published author, has presented her work at several local and international conferences, has been interviewed for various print and television media, has been a guest lecturer at OISE/UT, and has spent the last several years working in youth violence prevention. After spending many years as a program director for a national youth violence prevention organization, Jessica joined the Violence Intervention Project at East Metro Youth Services. Currently, Jessica runs a school-based violence prevention project for “at-risk” youth while continuing to author various studies.

Greg Wise, M.A., who formerly worked as a residential child care supervisor and with the developmentally disadvantaged and mentally ill, is an extension associate with the FLDC. He delivers TCI training and updates nationally and provides technical
assistance to residential facilities throughout New York State.

Dr. Wolfe’s training and experience as a psychiatric nurse and sociologist have informed her 18 years of clinical practice. She was trained as a psychiatric nurse in Manitoba, and received her MA and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral thesis focused on the reciprocity between maternal depression and children’s psychological and behavior problems. She has lectured in various subject areas at the community college and university level.

Dr. Wolfe has worked with adults in in-patient hospital settings and provided group therapy to adolescents in day treatment programs in Winnipeg. Currently, in addition to having a private practice, Dr. Wolfe is employed both as a mental health therapist providing individual and group psychotherapy to adults in an out-patient setting and as a crisis intervention specialist in an emergency department.

Dr. Wolfe specializes in the treatment of depression, relationship problems, work-related stress and codependency.

Wende Wood is the Drug Information and Drug Use Evaluation Pharmacist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She graduated from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan in 1992, and then moved to Toronto where she completed an Industrial Pharmacy Specialty Residency in Drug Information with The Upjohn Company of Canada and the University of Toronto. She then worked as a staff pharmacist in general hospital, psychiatric hospital and community pharmacy settings in Ontario and Saskatchewan. She joined the pharmacy staff at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in January of 1999. In December of 2002 she became the first person in Ontario (10th in Canada) to achieve the designation of Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist. Wende speaks frequently to a wide variety of groups, from community organizations, allied health professionals, the media and university students, on topics including psychopharmacology, drug interactions and reducing the s