brianna@simplysocialwork.ca

Brianna is a registered social worker who combines her lived experience as a ADHDer with chronic illnesses with professional knowledge and training in evidence-based methods to provide a safe and supportive therapy space that serves and empowers you. She specializes in caregiver support and providing accessible, neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed mental health services to people with disabilities and disabled folks, chronic illness, and neurodivergence (with a primary focus in ADHD and Autism).

As a family caregiver for over 20 years, Brianna understands the unique challenges of supporting someone you love through physical illness. Despite the intensity of the role, caregivers continue to have other roles and responsibilities - all alongside needing to meet your own needs. Many of us also have our own health concerns, whether that is the toll caregiving can take on your health (and overall life) or your own chronic illness. Her passion for supporting others who have been through similar challenges led to pursuing a career in mental health and the creation of this practice.

Before creating Simply Social Work, Brianna spent several years working alongside multidisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals in a variety of medical and community settings. She currently volunteers on the Board of Directors for the Brain Injury Association of Niagara (BIAN) and provides Accessibility Consulting to other non-profits and businesses in Hamilton and across Ontario. Brianna has experience in rehabilitation from traumatic and acquired brain injuries (TBIs/ ABIs), empowering adults with intellectual disabilities through meaningful community inclusion, and supporting parents at the Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre.

Education & Certifications

Brianna completed a health-focused Master’s of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Waterloo, an Hon. Bachelor’s Social Work & Disability Studies (BSW) with a focus in psychology from the University of Windsor. She also participated in a summer exchange learning program for European social work at the École Pratique de Service Social (EPSS) in France. She is in good standing with the Ontario College of Social Work and Social Service Work (OCSWSSW) and is a member of the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW), where she attends ongoing continuing education and trainings.

Brianna has completed additional certifications in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (most commonly just called ACT), including ACT for ADHD, Trauma-Focused ACT, and ACT for Perfectionism and People Pleasing by Dr. Russ Harris. Brianna has experience as a Certified Sex Therapy Informed Professional (CSTIP) with intensive training in inclusive sex therapy from Guelph University and the Integrated Sex Therapy Training Institute (ISTI). Brianna also has certificates from Harvard Medical School and Yale University, as well as introductory ASL from Fanshawe College.

What You Can Expect

Therapy sessions are a safe, confidential, judgement-free space that are neurodiversity-affirming and trauma-informed. Sessions are typically weekly or biweekly to start, and are taken at your own pace. You decide what you are comfortable talking about, what you want to focus on, and what is off-limits. Brianna’s role is to guide, support, and encourage as together you explore and process difficult thoughts and feelings. Together, you’ll identify the thoughts and behaviours that might be keeping you stuck, and create goals to help create healthier new patterns. You will have the opportunity to learn new coping strategies, modify them to suit your unique needs, and practice them together so that you can feel confident in applying them outside of the therapy session.

There is no 1-size-fits-all approach to therapy and counseling. Everyone’s mental health, supports, strengths, and challenges are all different — your therapy should reflect that. That’s why Brianna integrates and incorporates a variety of techniques and strategies from different therapeutic modalities, including:

• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)

• Dialectical-Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

• Mindfulness

• Motivational Interviewing (MI)