Our Mental Health Professionals

Amal Ahmed, MA, RP (Qualifying)

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Amal’s foremost focus is to provide a safe, warm, and validating therapeutic space where clients can feel heard and understood. She uses an integrated approach to help bring awareness and emotional processing and pulls from narrative and attachment family therapies with the hope of expanding on client’s strengths.

Amal has experience working with a variety of clinical issues, such as depression, anxiety, burnout, life-transitions, and relationship challenges. She has also worked with individuals struggling with anger, school difficulties, and strenuous family dynamics.

Amal is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and has completed a Master’s Degree in Counselling and Spirituality.

Florence Mak, M.A., C. Psych

Licensed Psychologist

Florence is a licenced Psychologist registered with the Ontario College of Psychologists. Her clinical practice is guided by cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) while integrating principles and tools from solution-focused therapy, motivational interviewing, dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness based cognitive therapy. Florence believes that each client is an expert of their own experience and therefore tailors her approach to meet their unique needs. She provides a non-judgmental, supportive, warm and empathetic environment. This setting allows for collaboration with clients to promote personal growth and help them reach their treatment goals

Florence has nearly ten years of experience treating those with a wide range of difficulties, from mild everyday stress to more complex conditions. Florence provides evidence-based treatment to adults with a wide range of presenting concerns. Florence has worked in counselling services in post-secondary institutions and a family health team providing individual and group psychotherapy. When Florence is not working, you will find her travelling, skiing, spending time with her family and dog.

Irene Salidis, MA, RP (Qualifying)

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Irene is a Registered Psychotherapist who speaks both English and Arabic. Irene completed her Master’s Degree of Arts in counselling psychology through Yorkville University.

Irene’s approach emphasizes the mutual development of goals for therapy and the provision of ongoing evaluation of the therapeutic approach. She believes in working in partnership with clients to utilize their strengths to help them sort out their challenges and achieve their goals. She also realizes how important it is to identify all aspects of an individual’s life that impact their well-being in this process, including their physical health, support systems (family, friends, etc.), work or school environment, and faith/spirituality.
Irene loves working with individuals, couples, and families from various cultural backgrounds. She believes everyone should have a safe and healing place to work through life’s difficulties.

Katherine Marr, MA, RP, CCC

Clinical Manager, Centre for Children, Youth, and Families

Katherine believes that we, as human beings, are beautifully complex and perfectly imperfect. In her work, she holds the intention of helping people reduce their sense of overwhelm, increase their sense of belonging, find freedom from their suffering, improve their relationships with self and others, and improve their overall quality of life.

Katherine has been working in the mental health and social service field for over twenty years, with most of that time focused within the child, youth, and family service sector. She began her career as a child and youth care worker and programs coordinator in schools, community agencies, youth mental health treatment centres, as well as detox and addiction recovery programs. She has now been practicing counselling and psychotherapy in Ottawa since 2011 and has grown her career to include working directly with adults of all ages, as well as managing mental health services and providing clinical supervision to other therapists. Katherine is equally experienced in working people who suffer from complex, unresolved traumas as she is in working with people who are seeking support in acute moments of suffering or when they simply can’t see the solutions to their problems clearly.

Katherine holds a master’s degree in counselling psychology from the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Vancouver, B.C. She is a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) and a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) with the Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association (CCPA). In addition, Katherine is a Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), a mindfulness and meditation teacher, and is nearing the end of her practitioner training in Somatic Experiencing with Somatic Experiencing International. In her work with children, youth, and their families, she relies on her foundational training in Adlerian psychology and incorporates a variety of other approaches in which she is trained, such as Systems Theory, Collaborative Problem Solving/ Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), Non-Violent Communication (NVC), Positive Discipline, and Positive Youth Development.

Samantha Ledon, MA, RP (Qualifying)

Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Samantha believes in creating a caring and non-judgmental space where people can explore their different emotions, sensations, and thoughts that may be causing discomfort. Samantha values preserving that space where people can express their own human experiences as well as journeying together alongside her clients toward a place of meaningful change.

Samantha utilizes an integrative approach that is informed mainly by Emotionally-Focused and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Narrative Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Samantha also integrates an attachment and culturally sensitive perspective while also incorporating self-compassion and somatic techniques into her therapeutic work with clients.

Samantha works collaboratively with her clients to meet their needs and goals. She has experience working with individuals, couples, and families. Her interests and experiences in providing counselling services include grief, interpersonal relationships, relational conflicts, self-esteem issues, trauma, anxiety, and depression.

Samantha offers psychotherapy in both English and Spanish. She is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and has completed a Master’s Degree in Counselling and Spirituality with a Concentration in Couple and Family Counselling at Saint Paul University. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, and graduated from Universidad de las Américas, A.C., in Mexico City.

Sarah Alderwick, MSW, RSW

Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist

Sarah provides counselling to individuals facing a wide variety of emotional and psychological challenges in their lives. With compassion, caring and acceptance, Sarah’s strength lies in building strong therapeutic relationships with her clients.  She strives to support clients to draw from their inner strength and wisdom to help foster positive change in their lives. Sarah creates a safe and open environment to assist with a variety of challenges including anxiety, depression, interpersonal issues, domestic violence, grief/loss, and postpartum difficulties. She welcomes opportunities to work with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures and is LGBTTIQQ+ positive.

Sarah collaborates with each client, tailoring her approach to meet their therapeutic needs. Her practice draws from Narrative, Attachment, Feminist, and Cognitive-Behavioural Theories, and is Trauma-Informed. She is passionate about social justice and poverty reduction. She has worked in a variety of community settings and has extensive experience assisting clients to navigate the different social services, housing, and welfare systems.

She completed her Master of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University, is a Registered Social Worker in good standing with the Ontario College of Social Worker and Social Service Workers and is a member of the Ontario Association of Social Workers.