Cindy is a Perinatal Mental Health Specialist and a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. She has worked with moms, babies and children for 24 years. She loves supporting moms with PPD, PPA, birth trauma, NICU moms, moms with neurodiversity, and those who have experienced pregnancy loss.

What is unique about Cindy’s background is that she can support both parent and baby/child; helping the whole family to function better. She has lots of experience in the areas of breastfeeding, bottle feeding, introduction to solids, picky eating, toilet training, sensory and emotional regulation, neurodiversity.

An Occupational Therapist helps people of any age and ability to do the things that matter to them. If you are struggling to engage in your life in the way you want to I would love to walk alongside you to support you in that.

An OT’s approach is holistic knowing how interconnected our mind, body, and spirit are! Therefore, part of her assessment and treatment will include asking questions about your physical health (sleep, movement, nutrition, digestion, pain), mental health, relationships, and spirituality (values, purpose, what brings meaning to your life). Your journey working alongside Cindy will always be focused on achieving YOUR goals; you are in the driver’s seat.

Cindy has advanced training in Perinatal Mental Health through Postpartum Support International, as well as in Sensory Regulation, Internal Family Systems, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Mindfulness. 

Cindy was interested in working with RPTC because of her personal experiences with pregnancy loss, trauma, and postpartum depression and anxiety, as well as her passion for supporting women in the areas of perinatal mental health, birth trauma, and pregnancy loss.  She wants women and men to feel seen, heard and intimately supported as they navigate such difficult and isolating symptoms and feelings. 

Cindy’s background as an OT enables her to:

1. Assess and provide accommodations for sensory overload, sensory seeking, and poor interoception (understanding your body’s signals including emotions). Interoception is affected when we experience trauma. 

2. Identify what part of a task is most difficult for mom or child in order to target that skill for success.

3. Provide ideas or tools for modifying an activity so the individual can be successful in doing it.

4. Educate and provide treatment for nervous system regulation – helping a client to understand what is happening in their brain and body when they are experiencing anxiety or the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response and what they can do to signal safety to their brain and body

5. Skill development i.e. stress management, awareness of body sensation

6. Help individuals establish healthy habits and helpful routines

7. Know the value of getting back to the activities and roles that are MOST important to you.

Cindy hopes to provide a safe space for individuals to heal and feel more like themselves. Using a holistic, client centred approach to provide wrap around support for both mom and baby/child. Book a free connection call to see if we are a good fit.

Cindy is a Perinatal Mental Health Specialist and a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. She has wor... Read More

Tamara is a Registered Psychologist closing in on twenty years of practice in the mental health field. She brings warmth, compassion, and her authentic self to her clinical work. She strives to provide a safe space to support, encourage and be with her clients on their counselling journeys. She is excited to further her interest and skills in perinatal mental health.

Tamara has taken the Maternal Mental Health Intensive: Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (Seleni, 2020), Perinatal Grief and Loss – Seleni Institute (Dec 2021) and Assessing Perinatal Mental Health – PAA (2022) trainings to name a few. She is set to take the Postpartum Support International Components of Care and Advanced Psychotherapy in March of 2024 to pursue her PMHC.

Tamara understands firsthand the challenges, heartbreak, and high hopes that infertility can bring to one’s identity, relationships, and day-to-day life. She also has experience with the physical and emotional devastation that endometriosis can cause. She easily grasps the sense of isolation and judgement that can result from navigating a complex health system and how self-advocacy often becomes an exhaustive necessity.

Tamara looks forward to empowering clients at the Reproductive & Perinatal Trauma Centre on their journeys to move through loss, grief, trauma, mood or anxiety issues and move forward with emotional growth as an individual or as a couple. Tamara works from a client-centred perspective, emphasizing self-compassion and pulling from several modalities in her work, including Mindfulness, ACT, EMDR, and the Gottman Method.

Tamara can support those who are struggling with; fertility, pregnancy loss, birth trauma, paternal mental health, IUD trauma, endometriosis and PCOS. She works Tuesdays in person and Wednesdays online.

Tamara is a Registered Psychologist closing in on twenty years of practice in the mental health f... Read More

Teela is a Registered Provisional Psychologist through the College of Alberta Psychologists and is a Doctor of Psychology (PSYD). Her Doctoral research was recently completed and was a qualitative study utilizing semi-structured interviews with therapists’ experiences supporting birth trauma, the fawn trauma response and mistreatment by providers. Teela is also excited to share she will be part of the BirthPlace Lab research team in British Columbia.

Teela has been a counsellor since 2005, supporting those with sexual assault, domestic violence, tragic losses and addiction concerns before becoming a registered provisional psychologist in 2021. For the last few years, Teela has specialized in birth trauma and identifies as a birth trauma survivor of midwifery violence and an excessive hemorrhage that threatened her life.

Teela works from a trauma-informed lens and believes in client-centered therapy. She walks alongside her clients, and her approach sets out to empower those she works with while providing a warm, safe, compassionate space. Teela has also acquired her Perinatal Mental Health training through Postpartum Support International. She has also sought out additional training on fertility struggles, endometriosis, PCOS, pregnancy and infant loss.

Her primary modality is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), she is also trained in Advanced EMDR, which means she can offer the Recent Events Protocol, Group EMDR and Couples EMDR. She also recently completed another EMDR training on Integrating Somatic Approaches in Trauma work.

However, she shares that her heart will always be with Narrative Therapy, which views “the problem is the problem, the person is not the problem.” The social justice lens that often shows up in Teela’s works is Narrative Therapy. Her other primary modality is Compassion-Focused Therapy, which she believes is central to working with trauma.

Teela is an international conference speaker and has offered workshops to providers in-person and online on incorporating trauma-informed care into their roles and systems. She is also a published author, and chapters on birth trauma from both books she was asked to write will be released this year (stay tuned!). You can also see her as a keynote speaker at the Museum of Motherhood Conference in March in Florida and the PSI Conference in Washington, DC in July of 2024!

Teela offers support to those struggling with fertility, IUD trauma, pregnancy and infant loss, paternal mental health, endometriosis, PCOS, and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. She receives direct supervision from a primary and secondary supervisor. Also, she consults with a Registered Psychologist who specializes in these areas to continue to grow her knowledge and understanding. She offers individual therapy in person and online support for all of Alberta.

You can follow her @theteaonbirthtrauma, where she has worked hard to build a safe community for over 27,000 birth trauma survivors.

Teela is a Registered Provisional Psychologist through the College of Alberta Psychologists and i... Read More