About
Therapist. Music lover. Human first.
Hi, I'm Tonya.
I'm a Registered Psychotherapist and Accredited Music Therapist, but more importantly, I believe therapy works best when you feel like you're talking to a real person, not being analyzed by one.
My approach is collaborative, compassionate, interactive, and grounded in the belief that you deserve to be met exactly where you are.
The path here wasn't exactly linear.
Princess. Marine biologist.
Princess.
Marine biologist.
Big-rig truck driver.
Shepherd.
Those were a few of my earliest career aspirations.
Therapist wasn’t exactly on the list.
Music, however, had always been part of my life. I started with piano, moved on to clarinet, and eventually completed an Honours Bachelor of Music degree with plans to pursue a Master’s in performance.
After a year of practicing eight to ten hours a day, surviving three nerve-wracking auditions, and spending a small fortune on twice-weekly lessons, I got the news I had been waiting for: I’d been accepted into a Master’s of Chamber Music program.
There was just one problem.
I wasn’t excited.
The thought of another three years of practice rooms, tendonitis, and competition suddenly felt less like a dream and more like a very clear sign that I needed to reconsider where I was headed.
So, naturally, I had a minor career identity crisis.
I’ve lived some life, too.
Professional training shapes the therapist I am. Life has shaped me just as much.
I know what it means for life to look different from the version you imagined. My own experiences with family, mental health, caregiving, motherhood, relationships, loss, recovery, and starting over have influenced the way I understand and connect with the people I work with.
I’ve supported a parent through more than a decade of living with Alzheimer’s disease. I’ve experienced anxiety and recovery, divorce and the work of building a healthy co-parenting relationship, later-in-life motherhood, serious health scares involving both myself and my child, and the impact mental illness can have on an entire family.
There have also been experiences that challenged my sense of safety and changed the way I understand vulnerability, trust, and power.
I don’t share these things because our experiences need to be the same.
I share them because I know what it is to be human on the other side of the therapist’s chair.
The Plot Twist
Sometimes the right path
finds you first.
I headed to my university’s career counsellor and spent two days completing skills assessments, personality inventories, and just about every career test imaginable.
That same day, a colleague told me about a Music Therapy program at Wilfrid Laurier University. Psychology had always fascinated me, and suddenly there was a career that brought two of my greatest interests together.
This was before you could Google everything from your phone, so after tracking down the university’s number in the library—Ye Olden Times, for you young’uns—I called.
Within a week, I had applied, found an accompanist, auditioned, interviewed, and accepted an offer to the program.
When I returned to the career counsellor, the results of all those assessments were waiting.
THE RESULTS
01 — Psychologist
02 — Music Therapist
A career built around
understanding people.
That unexpected change in direction became a career dedicated to mental health, human connection, and helping people move through some of life’s most challenging experiences.
My early work focused on psychiatric music therapy and gave me the opportunity to work within several psychiatric and mental health settings, including Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
I later became a founding member and Team Lead with the Mississauga/Halton LHIN Mental Health and Addictions Detailed Action Planning Team and Systems Integrations Group.
Along the way, I became an Accredited Music Therapist, completed a Master’s in Public Health, and completed all coursework toward a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences, where my research explored compassion fatigue in social services.
Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.
The Experience Behind The Approach
Registered Psychotherapist
College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario
Accredited Music Therapist
Canadian Association of Music Therapists
Master’s in Public Health
PhD Coursework
Rehabilitation Sciences
BEYOND THE THERAPY ROOM
Learning, teaching &
sharing what I know.
Alongside my counselling work, I’ve developed and facilitated hundreds of training and educational programs for conferences, community organizations, and educational institutions.
My work has included programs for McMaster University, Charles Sturt University, the University of Toronto, the Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute, and Halton Geriatric Mental Health Outreach.
My additional training and certifications include Gentle Persuasive Approach Coaching, Compassion Fatigue Education, Our People Care Coaching, and Tobacco Cessation support.
For me, learning has never really stopped and I don’t think it should.
MY APPROACH
Clinical expertise,
without the clinical coldness.
I believe good therapy starts with a good relationship.
My approach is strengths-based, collaborative, compassionate, and grounded in genuine respect for the person sitting across from me. There isn’t one formula that works for everyone, so therapy is shaped around your needs, experiences, strengths, and goals.
I draw from evidence-based therapeutic approaches while creating a space where you can speak openly, ask questions, challenge ideas, laugh when you need to, and work through the difficult stuff without fear of judgment.
And as an Accredited Music Therapist, I’m always open to incorporating music into the therapeutic process when it feels meaningful and appropriate.
Strengths-Based · Client-Centred · Trauma-Informed · Collaborative · Non-Judgmental
WHY I SHARE THIS
Therapy should feel like a partnership.
WHY I DO THIS
Being able to combine my passion and my career is a wonderful gift.
After all the unexpected turns that brought me here, I can genuinely say I love what I do. It’s a privilege to be trusted with people’s stories and to walk alongside them through difficult seasons, big changes, new beginnings, and everything in between. And I wouldn’t trade the winding road that brought me here for anything.
You don’t need the perfect words, a perfectly defined goal, or everything figured out before reaching out.
We can start there together.
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All Rights Reserved.
