brianna@simplysocialwork.ca

ORCID ID

Brianna is a registered social worker who combines her lived experience as a chronically ill ADHDer 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 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).

Brianna is also currently the Project Coordinator for the Learning Access research project at the University of Waterloo, which is investigating female students' experiences of ADHD-related accommodations at Ontario universities. She is also a research assistant (RA) on the Reimagining Care/Work Policies project, and was previously an RA for Neurodiversity Matters. You can find out more about her publications here or visit our research page for an overview.

Education & Experience

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.

Brianna completed a health-focused Master’s of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Waterloo, and 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 (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

As a therapist, Brianna has been described as warm, understanding, and supportive. She takes an empowering, strengths-based approach, which means she helps you identify and build upon the strengths you already have. She tries to bring lightness and humour whenever possible, but will be right there in the trenches with you when things get heavy. Sessions are a place where stimming and special interests are not just welcome, but truly encouraged.

As someone with ADHD (who didn’t realize it until her early twenties) and endometriosis (who wasn’t believed until her late twenties), Brianna is dedicated to neurodiversity frameworks and disability justice. She knows how broken the healthcare system is and how painful navigating it can be, because she’s doing it, too. She knows how confusing, overwhelming, and frustrating it can be growing up in a society that wasn’t built for your bodymind. And she isn’t afraid to call out ableism or neurotypical normativity (internalized or external) when she sees it, in order to help you recognize how these harmful ideas might be impacting how you think and feel.

As a human, Brianna describes herself as a bookworm and gamer who tries to honour her inner theatre kid as much as possible. She’s a cat mom to her unicorn rescue tabby, Pandora, and still navigating the grief of losing her soul dog, Angel. who many enjoyed seeing in the background over the years.

Methods

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to life. Everyone’s mental health, supports, strengths, and challenges are all different. Your therapy should reflect that. Some strategies and even entire methods do not work for every neurotype or every situation. That’s why Brianna integrates and incorporates a variety of techniques, strategies, and tools from different therapeutic approaches based on your brain, body, needs, and specific sitaution. These methods include:

• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)

• Dialectical-Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

• Mindfulness & somatic strategies

• Adaptive Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)*