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Alexandra Gaffney

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Registered Social Worker
She/Her
Sessions start at
$160.00

Alex is here to support you with life transitions, challenging your inner critic, depression, and stress management.

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Alex is here to help challenge your inner critic so that you can live the life you want. Together, you can build on your strengths, increase your resilience, and enhance your coping skills. Alex supports people who are going through personal and professional life transitions. These changes may bring anxiety, depression, and stress. Alex can help you adjust to these transitions. Alex is also here to support you with personal development. She will take the lead from you: with warmth, compassion, and even humour, she will support you to meet your personal goals.

Alex provides counselling in a collaborative and non-judgmental space. She works from an anti-oppressive, intersectional, and trauma-informed framework. Her practice is grounded in critical social work, which recognizes the connection between individual mental health, societal systems, and power structures.

Alex has years of experience in community mental health settings and hospitals, and is a former teacher of public education. Alex has supported individuals with diverse cultural, sexual, and gender identities.

Alex enjoys her weekends outdoors and is a dog lover, an avid reader, and a home chef in training.

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More about

Alexandra

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Q&A

What would you say to a friend struggling with a mental health issue?
Mental health and wellness is a continuous journey that we’re all on. What you’re feeling right now is valid, and where you are right now is not where you’ll remain. With support, you can explore and process what you’re experiencing and feeling, learn coping strategies, be empowered to take action, and build resilience.
What do you do to take care of your own mental health?
I embrace the therapeutic process myself as I view it as a lifelong journey of growth and self-development. I employ the same tools of self-care that I advise my clients to follow. This begins with self-evaluating my own feelings, beliefs, and actions. No matter how busy I am, I set aside time to nurture my own needs and engage in things that make me feel balanced, happy, and whole as a person.
How do you describe therapy?
Therapy engages you in a process of self-examination of your thoughts, feelings, fears, and beliefs which have been grounded in your unique life experiences. With the assistance of a skilled therapist, therapy can be a powerful catalyst for change and growth at any age or stage of life. It affords you a safe time and space to work through challenges, consider different perspectives, and build the confidence to chart new directions in your life.

Master of Social Work, York University (2019)

Master of Teaching, University of Toronto (2012)

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Queen's University (2007)

Narrative Therapy (York University)

Family Mediation (York University)

Emotionally-Focused Therapy: The Transformative Power of Emotion (Les Greenberg, University of Toronto)

Connecting with People – Suicide Response (4 Mental Health)

Skills for Safer Living: A Psychosocial/Psychoeducational Intervention for People with Recurrent Suicide Attempts Group Facilitation Training (St. Michael’s Hospital)

Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Services Workers

Ontario Association of Social Workers

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