I am a psychologist in London, Ontario Canada (two hours southwest of Toronto). After six years of working at a university counselling centre, I have established a full-time private practice where I incorporate social therapeutics when providing individual and group psychotherapy to adults. I also provide consultation and training for institutions and agencies adopting brief therapy and single session approaches.

Helping others create and live meaningful lives has been important to me for a long time and over the course of my education, I’ve felt the tension of having to choose between working with individuals or groups. My B.A. is in Theology and Intercultural Studies and my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are from Counselling Psychology Programs. During my doctoral studies, my academic supervisor (Dr. Tom Strong) introduced me to Dr. Karl Tomm’s Calgary Family Therapy Centre, discursive approaches to therapy, and to the East Side Institute. In 2016 I attended the Performing The World Conference and a year later I became a member of the 2017-2018 International Class. The in-person and online environments created by the Institute faculty and my fellow international class members provided me with contexts where I could examine certain ideas and practices and choose to develop in new and significant ways. As I continue to grow personally and professionally, I hope to apply the principles of improv to my therapeutic and consulting/training work.

Other Information:
I have several academic publications and have given over twenty national and international conference presentations.

A journal article based upon my master’s thesis is:
French, J. R. & Domene, J. F. (2010). Sense of ‘calling’: An organizing principle for the lives and values of young women in university. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 44(1), 1-14.

Future goals:
I see strong connections between social therapeutics, perennial philosophy, mythology, and psychotherapy and hope to write on the utility of integrating these areas together.