Our Team
Valérie Larocque, BSW, MSW, RSW, FM Acc.
Registered Social Worker
I am a Registered Social Worker registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers and a member of the Canadian Association of Social Workers. I graduated from Laurentian University with both an undergrad and a Master’s degree in Social Work. I have a diploma from the Child and Youth Worker Program at Cambrian College which has broadened my clinical skills in behavioural therapy and parenting.I have 20 yrs of clinical experience and continue to learn the most up-to-date approaches and therapies by attending workshops, training and conferences that are offered throughout our community and province. I have completed a certificate in Family Mediation from York University to help families with unresolved conflict find ways to a healthier solution. I’ve also attended workshops and participated in intensive training in several psychotherapy treatments including cognitive behavioural therapy, motivational interviewing, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Autism Spectrum Disorders, as well as Solution Focus and Brief Intervention Therapy to name a few.My primary goal is to provide quality counselling services to individuals and families who are struggling with a situational crisis or seeking short-term or long-term counselling. I believe in a person-centered approach where the individual has the potential and ability to make the right choices for themselves, when they are offered a warm, genuine and understanding climate. I also understand the value of expressing our needs in our own language. I can offer services in both official languages. I have extensive experience in a variety of settings including school, hospital and community based with diverse clients including both long-term and brief interventions.
For my Methods & Expertises Click Here.
My primary goal is to provide quality counselling services to individuals and families who are struggling with a situational crisis or seeking short-term or long-term counselling. I believe in a person-centered approach where the individual has the potential and ability to make the right choices for themselves, when they are offered a warm, genuine and understanding climate. I also understand the value of expressing our needs in our own language. I can offer services in both official languages. I have extensive experience in a variety of settings including school, hospital and community based with diverse clients including both long-term and brief interventions.
For my Methods & Expertises Click Here.
Dr. Ousmane Bakary Bâ, MSW-(RSW), MPsy., PhD
Registered Social Worker
I am a bilingual Registered Social Worker. I hold a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work, a Master’s Degree in Psychopathology, a PhD in Sociology-Anthropology and two Postdoctorates in the area of Mental Health. Such interdisciplinary knowledge and expertise provide me with diverse skills and abilities to approach and to better address mental health issues from different clinical perspectives.
I have more than three decades of extensive experience, working as a clinical Social Worker and a Psychopathologist in diverse mental health’s societal and multicultural settings, such as in Psychiatry, Psychology as well as in different communities at the national and international levels. In addition to my many years of practicing clinical counselling and psychotherapy in different provinces of Canada, I have been leading social and psychological support missions for the victims of genocides in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Bosnia and Cambodia. I am a scholar, professor, researcher and author who has been teaching in different Canadian Universities where I have been implementing Clinical Social Work and Mental Health programs at the Bachelor and Master’s level and publishing relevant books in mental health including the traumatic genocidal experiences lived by war refugees and survivors. I remain an Affiliated Professor at the Mauro Centre for Peace and Social Justice (University of Manitoba).
Throughout my counselling and psychotherapy practice and career, my work includes (but not limited to) clients such as individuals, couples and families experiencing psychosocial issues and psychological distresses due to conflict, trauma, separation, anxiety, depression, suicide, loss and grief. My other areas of counselling and psychotherapy cover, among other issues, war refugees and immigrants’ trauma, separations, multiple losses of their families, their loved ones, their psycho-socio-affective relations, their societies and cultures, their countries in addition to their individual and collective cultural bereavement, their post-traumatic stress disorders and their social integration stress in their new host countries. These areas also include, among others, intergenerational trauma, psychological distress of jail inmates, suicide, addictions, different forms of anxieties and phobias concurrent mental health disorders.
The Counselling and Psychotherapy approaches and techniques that I apply are founded on the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion for a just therapy. Those approaches and techniques, in accordance with the mental issue at stake in the light of the screening and assessment processes, include among others, (but not limited to), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Cross-Cultural Therapy (CCT), Externalization Narrative Therapy (ENT), Eclectic Therapy (ET) and Trauma Exposure Therapy (TET). Through my professional and life experiences, I am committed to the healing of the person as a whole and not to the healing of just the person’s wound.
Leah Johnston, BSW, RSW
Registered Social Worker
My name is Leah, born and raised in Sudbury area. I started my academic journey at Cambrian College and completed the Social Services Worker program to then proceed to Laurentian University and obtain a Bachelor of Social Work. I am currently completing the post graduate MSW program at Laurentian University. I am passionate about helping people find healing and wholeness with whatever they may be struggling with.
Throughout my academic and work experience, I provided services to women, children, older adults, as well as individuals struggling with mental illnesses as well as dementias. I specialize in self-discovery, purpose and identity, life transition, boundaries, self-esteem, depression and anxiety as well as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. I focus on the whole person of who we are, my counselling style is a bit eclectic. The therapeutic methods I commonly use are Client -Focused, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing and Narrative Therapy. Furthermore, I am passionate about helping individual struggling with mental health disorder(s) and improving individual well-being. My goal in every session is to provide open and transparent communication as I believe those are the pillars of life improvement
Kayla Cornthwaite, BSW, RSW
Registered Social Worker
Hello! My name is Kayla and I am Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW). I am a graduate of the Indigenous Social Work program at Laurentian University and have completed a level 2 Expressive Arts Therapy Training at Prairie Institute of Expressive Arts in Calgary.
In my personal life I am a nature, art and adventure lover. In my professional life I am interested in incorporating creativity in the therapeutic process. I am an advocate for the power of accessing our own inner wisdom as a source to begin the process of change.
My goal is to remain present to support individuals in excavating meaning and understanding of their unique personal experiences. My learnings and lived experience guide the therapeutic approaches I tend to use and I believe in providing clients the autonomy to decide the methods we use in session. I am flexible and open to working in the ways that allow those I support to feel most comfortable.
I am focused on keeping sight on the bio-psycho-social-spiritual perspective when approaching concerns because we are all living in relationship with our inner selves, others, the natural environment, as well as social systems. My therapeutic interests include the Expressive Arts Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Brief Narrative Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Nature Based Therapies, Cognitive & Dialectical Behaviour Therapies and Peer Support.
It is my mission and commitment to provide a non-judgemental and person-centered service in a safe, and comfortable environment that caters to the unique and individual needs of clients.
I look forward to working, learning, and growing with you!
Melissa Cheff, BSW, RSW
Registered Social Worker
Passion for the human mind to not only heal but to thrive amongst the tough stuff is what brought me to Social Work.I have experience working with mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, along with other difficulties such as PTSD and trauma. I will support you along the way to work through the daily challenges and obstacles you face. You do not have to bear it alone.
I have a strong desire to work with women and their partners who struggle with prenatal and perinatal mental health concerns. Making sure all the members of the family are healthy and thriving.
I will use compassion and mindfulness skills to work with you to explore your thoughts and behaviors in meaningful ways. I use a goal-oriented and solution-focused approach to address the problems you are facing. I use evidence-based therapies to help you gain the skills needed to manage your mental health and well-being.
I look forward to meeting you!