Amelia Perri, RN, Psychotherapist – Clinic Director
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Amelia Perri is a RN, Psychotherapist and the owner and founder of Therapy Heals Psychotherapy and Counselling Services. She developed Therapy Heals in 2007 to offer people high quality counselling services that are respectful of each person as a unique individual.
Over the past 16 years, Amelia has provided therapy and counselling to individuals, couples, and families for a range of problems, for example, eating disorders, couples counselling, anger and stress management, anxiety, depression, addictions, grief, trauma, self esteem issues, relationship problems, and more. Amelia also provides supervision for therapists and meets the CRPO standards to provide supervision.
Amelia’s experience includes a combination of work in psychotherapy, counselling, and nursing, which allows her to provide her clients with a distinctive perspective. She has been a Registered Nurse for 25 years, and it was in her nursing role where she began to develop her counselling skills.
Amelia holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Ryerson University in Toronto, and a Master of Counselling Psychology degree from Athabasca University in Edmonton. Amelia has also received specific training in brainspotting, cognitive behavior therapy, narrative therapy, attachment therapy, the Gottman method, emotion-focused therapy, and more.
Amelia has been described as compassionate, warm, and easy to talk to. She practices a non-judgemental approach in which she believes that people have good reasons for acting as they do. Amelia feels truly honoured to work along side her clients and witness their evolution and growth.
Samantha Cohen, Registered Social Worker, MSW, RSW
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Samantha is a Registered Social Worker in Ontario. She holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from University of Toronto, after having completed her Bachelors of Social Work and Bachelors of Sociology through McMaster University.
Samantha has worked for the last 10 years with individuals, families, and groups in a variety of capacities. Her expertise is in anxiety, depression, trauma recovery, stress management, and parenting challenges. Samantha also specializes in child and youth mental health, and has worked primarily in children’s mental health for the last 7 years. Samantha has specific training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Trauma Informed Counselling, and Family Therapy.
Samantha is passionate about partnering with her clients as they journey towards discovering their inner potential and address the challenges they are currently experiencing. Samantha is a strong believer that her clients posses inner strength and resilience that can help them move through difficult life experiences, and is committed to joining with her clients to discover this.
Samantha believes in transparent practice with her clients and adopts a strength-based, non-judgemental approach that promotes a safe-space to explore both recent difficulties or long-standing challenges. Samantha often takes a “mixed bag” approach, and tailors her practice to fit the needs and best interests of the clients she works with.
Samantha believes that her clients are the experts in their lives and strives to join with them in gaining further insight into their challenges, while learning new ways of coping and promoting ongoing mental wellness.
Holly Gibbons, Registered Social Worker, MSW, RSW
Holly is a Registered Social Worker in Ontario. She holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto, a Bachelors Degree in Social Worker from York University, and a diploma from George Brown College in the Assaulted Women and Children’s Counsellor/Advocate Program.
Holly has worked for the last 10 years with children, youth, adults and families in a variety of settings who experience various challenges including anxiety, depression, grief and loss, relationship issues, self-esteem and trauma among others. She has significant experience supporting individuals who have been impacted by crime, violence and other tragic circumstances, while also specializing in children’s mental health and parenting challenges. She is trained in a variety of evidence-based treatment modalities, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Therapy.
Holly believes that each person’s story and reason for accessing therapy is unique to them, and so her approach is to meet her client’s where they are and draw on interventions that best fit their individual needs. She offers an integrative and non-judgemental approach that is strengths-based and aims to foster a sense of safety, trust and transparency with her clients, allowing them to remain the experts in their lives.
Holly feels very honoured to have the opportunity to be invited into people’s lives. She hopes to collaborate and join them on their journey of self-discovery and healing by supporting them to manage their lived experiences, uncover inner strengths, gain insight, build resiliency and find meaning. She is passionate about holding space for people to feel seen and heard because everyone matters and everyone’s story matters.
Agnes Kaufman, Registered Psychotherapist
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Agnes is a Registered Psychotherapist certified with the Canadian Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. She has obtained a Ph.D. in Public Health and a Ph.D. in Bioethics. She brings rich knowledge and skills having worked with patients and clients in a wide range of health care settings. She has been dedicated to extending help to those in need in all sectors of health care, business and mediating conflicts and disputes among family and work associates. As a psychotherapist she focuses on client-centered treatments, identifying everyone’s strengths, skills, passions and desires. Creating a welcoming and supportive environment, Agnes encourages clients to pursue their interests through the process of establishing a solid therapeutic and collaborative relationship.
Agnes incorporates an integrative approach to counselling utilizing a combination of approaches including (but not limited to) psychodynamic, narrative, somatic and solution-focused theories. Cognitive behaviour therapy techniques are often incorporated into the client-focused approach. Agnes’ confidence-building perspective and attention to each client’s needs creates the warmth and security motivating clients to gain self-confidence as they gradually refocus on their life’s goals and their personal dreams.
Agnes has substantial experience working with clients experiencing anger management concerns, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, cultural and boundary disputes and domestic violence as well as couple counselling and those with relationship challenges Agnes has worked with clients of all ages, starting as young as 9 years of age.
Agnes looks forward to journeying with you as you realize your life’s goals and dreams.
Sheena Chater, Registered Social Worker, RSW BSW CYW
Sheena is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW). Sheena holds a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Manitoba and a Child and Youth Worker Advanced Diploma from Humber College.
Sheena has over 17 years experience working with children, youth and their families with various needs and struggles. She has experience working with individuals who are struggling with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, avoidance, emotional difficulties, and current life challenges. Sheena also has expertise working with children who may be experiencing behavioural disturbances, anger management, various diagnoses, including ADHD and communication within the family. She believes that everyone is unique in their struggles and that each person has a special story to tell. She appreciates the time that each client gives to share this story and the openness that they present.
The various settings throughout Sheena’s career include, schools, residential treatment, day treatment and hospitals. Within these settings Sheena utilized treatments such as, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, and a Trauma Informed practice. Within her personal practice, Sheena will pull on all modalities based on each client and their individual journey.
Sheena is described as caring, nurturing, and warm, she has a calmness about her that makes others feel comfortable and safe. Sheena believes in a partnership throughout the therapy journey and building a solid therapeutic relationship to ensure safety and trust for each client. A strength-based approach is essential to help foster growth and recognition of the hard work the clients are doing every day. She believes that every person has an inner strength and resources within their life and throughout the therapeutic process, her hope is to help clients discover these. Sheena looks forward to working with each client to develop a strategic plan, effective goals and strategies while using continuous reflection to acknowledge progress.
Emma Chapelle, Registered Social Worker, MSW, RSW
Emma is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW). She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Windsor and Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Sociology from the University of McMaster.
Emma has worked for the past 10 years with children, youth, young adults and their families, who experience a variety of challenges including, emotional regulation, anxiety, depression, relationship issues, self-esteem and trauma, among others. She has significant experience supporting families to work together as a cohesive unit, specializing in children’s mental health and parenting challenges.
Emma believes each client and family is unique in their own journey and it is important to meet her clients where they are. She develops goals that identify the area of need and build off of each individual’s strengths. Emma develops interventions that best fit each client by using an integrative approach drawing from a variety of theories including Attachment, Biopsychosocial, Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness, Solution Focused Therapy, Trauma informed care, Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy. Emma strives to create a sense of safety, trust and transparency in her sessions, providing a non-judgmental approach that is strengths based.
Christy Ogley-Bramer, Registered Social Worker RSW, MSW, BSW
Christy is a Registered Social Worker (RSW) and therapist, with a Bachelors (BSW) and Masters (MSW) in social work. She has been working in the field for about 15 years and loves the work that she does. She has worked in a wide variety of settings and roles, including work with victims/ survivors of violence, individuals facing criminal charges, and adults with disabilities.
As a therapist, Christy pulls from a variety of modalities, including CBT, DBT, CPT and MI, but generally takes a warm and pragmatic, skills-based approach. She uses a strengths-based, systemic framework – meaning she honours your unique strengths and acknowledge the various forms of oppression you may face. Christy enjoys helping people learn coping strategies for persistent mental illness. She also enjoys providing a safe space to explore stress, unhealthy relationships, difficult histories, make sense of things, and build a more hopeful and healthy future. Therapy is collaborative, and she’ll discuss what direction you want to go in, what you want to work on, what approaches work for you, and what doesn’t.
On a personal note, Christy shares that besides a general desire to help others, some of her own difficult life experiences led her into social work. She also learned to speak French in her 20s while working and living in France. The experience of being an outsider, learning a new language, and acclimatizing to a new culture helped her to grow as a person, and gave her an appreciation of what newcomers face arriving in Canada. Christy fell in love with French culture and became involved in the GTA’s diverse francophone community upon her return. She is a parent to an active toddler and identifies as queer.
Stephanie Schiraldi, Registered Psychotherapist, MACP, RP
Stephanie is a Registered Psychotherapist certified with the Canadian Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). She holds a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University, after having completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Family and Child Studies from the University of Guelph.
Stephanie worked for the last 7 years with adults to process and overcome the far-reaching impacts of trauma on the mind and body. She worked with those who experienced trauma from historical childhood abuse, unhealthy relationships, sexual abuse and sexual assault. Trauma can show up in many ways in the mind and body including anxiety, depression, nightmares, difficulty trusting others, among many other common symptoms. Stephanie uses a variety of evidence-based therapeutic approaches that are trauma focused to support you in processing your experiences and reaching your goals for therapy. Stephanie is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) trained, and draws from various other approaches including Internal Family Systems, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Somatic Experiencing and Emotion Focused Therapy.
Through such evidence-based therapeutic approaches Stephanie observed significant shifts with people she’s worked as she’s witnessed them become more empowered, self-compassionate, and calmer with a newly gained sense of peace when thinking of their past traumatic experiences.
Stephanie’s clients describe her as warm and easy to open up to. You can expect a non-judgmental space where she’ll work at a pace that you feel ready for because therapy doesn’t have to feel intimidating.
Stephanie aims to work with you to achieve the changes you want for yourself, identify the root of the problems or symptoms you are facing, and to learn more about yourself through the process.
The Therapy Heals counselling team provides psychotherapy and counselling services in York Region including Vaughan, Woodbridge, Concord, Maple, and near Kleinburg, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and Toronto areas. In addition the team provides psychotherapy and counselling services in New Tecumseth, including Tottenham, and near Alliston, Beeton and surrounding areas, including Nobleton, Orangeville, Schomberg, Bolton, and Newmarket. There are also office locations in Bradford, convenient for people residing in Bradford, Newmarket, Innisfil, Cookstown, Beeton, and Bondhead, and Cambridge, in Galt Cambridge, convenient for people residing in Cambridge, Paris, Brant, Kitchener, and Brantford. We are also happy to provide services at our newest location in Innisfil, conveniently located for clients residing in Innisfil, Barrie, Cookstown, Bradford, Thornton and surrounding areas.