​After a traumatic event at age 20, I developed a kind of  PTSD called dissociative amnesia – for almost 30 years, I lost my memories and connection to who I’d been before the traumatic event. My journey back to myself has often been long and complicated but ultimately led to joy and creativity.​ I share the story of my search for trauma-informed mental health services and  discuss the burdens we put on people living with trauma. ​

 

Topics for media, speaking engagements, and university lectures can include:

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• Self-care for writers: caring for yourself & your reader when writing about difficult things

• Trauma-informed writing

• “You don’t look sick to me”: Women, Masking, and Mental Health

• Trauma-Informed Workplaces: More than saying ‘Let’s Talk’ ​

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The History of Social Work & Social Policy in Canada

 

My book, Enriched By Catastrophe: Social Work and Social Conflict after the Halifax Explosion, describes how social work and social policy developed after the worst human-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb – in the Atlantic Canada port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1917. I've spoken to national and international media and conferences about how policy decisions made over a century ago still shape Halifax, disaster relief, public health, and the profession of social work.​

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Topics for media, speaking engagements, and university lectures can include:

 

• The development of social work and public health as a result of the Halifax Explosion

• How racist and classist policy decisions made in 1917 still impact Nova Scotia today

• The lessons of the 1917 Explosion for current disaster response

• Women's roles in developing social work in Canada

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Have other ideas about how we can work together? Contact me!