Life can be really painful. Our emotional lives can be intense and encouraging, or scary and out of control. Our relationships can be fun and supportive, or they can be depleting and even nightmarish. Each day that we face – in the time that we’ve each been given – can seem inviting and hopeful or full of despair. And each challenge and uncertainty that we face in life can become either a well-spring of multiplying unease or a challenge and invitation for us to reach towards our truest and clearest selves.
I strongly believe that human life is all these things, and much more. And I believe, most importantly, that we don’t have to do this alone. We don’t have to do this wonderfully difficult thing that we call living a human life, alone.
About Me
I am a cis-gendered, able-bodied, white, heterosexual male. I was born in Poland, to mixed Catholic and Jewish ancestry, and I am a white first-generation settler.
I grew up in a home that placed a high value on education, and have benefited from middle-class privileges, such as living in safe neighbourhoods and attending safe and well-resourced schools with rich extra-curricular programming.
My Grandparents “survived” the second world war in Europe. My maternal grandfather was a Holocaust survivor, while my maternal grandmother was a prisoner of war. My paternal grandfather was imprisoned and tortured for many years. Both my parents experienced significant challenges related to their difficult upbringings. For these reasons, both my brother and I experienced our own significant challenges. For me, it was psychotherapy – both individual and group psychotherapy – that has made a lasting positive difference in my life.
This is what brings me to this work: the knowledge that effective psychotherapy, in conjunction with meaningful community engagement, can effect positive and lasting change in our lives.