Deborah provides psychotherapy at the intersection of mental health & religion, spirituality, faith, and philosophy.

Welcome!

I’m Deborah (she/her).

If I have an archetype, it’s definitely Seeker. For me, figuring out my spiritual identity, and forging my own path toward the Divine, has been a lifelong project.

I was born and raised Baptist, but during my late teens and throughout my twenties, I was drawn to explore other possible paths. After a lengthy and complex period of study, reflection, and lived experience, I decided to convert to Islam. Through this process, I discovered a relentless desire to understand religion from every angle. My interest in questions of meaning, purpose, existence, and spirituality ultimately led me to undertake degrees in religious studies and theology. While I loved my previous careers as a writer, editor, publisher, and researcher, I came to recognize that I could make my strongest contribution as a psychotherapist. When I came across a program that integrated religion and spirituality into therapy, I knew it was for me.

I love working with adults who find themselves wrestling with spiritual and existential anxieties, who are struggling with life’s often unanswerable questions. I deeply understand what it is to agonize over these problems. I can’t give you answers on a silver platter—I wish I had them—but I can help you learn to love the questions. Together, we can find ways to respond to what feels unmanageable, to stand firm in the face of profound uncertainty, to find freedom from thoughts and beliefs that are making you suffer. Not everything can be fixed, but we can figure out how to carry what can’t be fixed.

I absolutely thrive at the busy, complex intersection of my interests, experiences, and education. I'm perennially drawn towards synthesis—making sense of and assembling diverse, sometimes even contradictory, information. In my mind, nothing is separate, nothing is unrelated to something else. The genesis of Sanctuary Psychotherapy is itself a reflection of this sacred intention to find what is common across religious, spiritual, cultural, psychological and philosophical schools of thought. My practice is a house with open doors in every direction, and I understand my work as an effort to find creative ways in which we can all live with ourselves—and each other—in peace.

I am humbled and grateful that I'm able to do this work, to be in a position to contribute in some small way toward the alleviation of human suffering. I am here, ready to listen generously to you.

I'm not going to tell you to get over it. I'm going to help you get through it.

    • Reading (primarily nonfiction, and especially memoirs).

    • Writing and editing (used to do it for a living).

    • Researching (anything and everything that captures my attention).

    • Swimming (as much as possible).

    • Going to bookshops, museums, art galleries, and films.

    • Gardening (particularly obsessed with coleus, hostas, and pollinator plants).

    • Since 2008, I have been the co-facilitator of a women’s interfaith film group that meets monthly.

    • I have a weakness for parenthetical comments and long sentences.

    • I was born in Ontario and have lived my whole life here.

    • I am a perfectionist, in perpetual recovery.

    • I am autistic, and I was only diagnosed extremely late in life. 

Listen to an interview with me on the Moral & Religious OCD Podcast

A Few of My Values

Curiosity

I am a naturally curious person, always searching for information and insight that can help me make more sense of the world and everyone in it. I am driven by a need to better understand, and not to settle for simplistic or nonsensical answers.

Efficiency

I see time as our most irreplaceable resource, and I can’t stand wasting it. I am mindful that therapy requires significant investments of time, money, and energy, and I am always thinking about how to provide my clients with the most value for all of these.

Collaboration

You are the expert on yourself and your own life experience. I bring professional expertise to add to your personal expertise. My role is that of a partner or a guide, more than a healer. I don’t heal you; I support you to heal yourself. 

Intellectual Honesty & Humility

I believe it’s critical to admit there are things we don’t know (that’s intellectual honesty) or which, for any number of reasons, we cannot know—perhaps ever (that’s intellectual humility). These are essential elements for being able to manage uncertainty and develop radical acceptance. 

  • My pursuit of understanding has resulted in:

    • An MA in Theology (Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy) from Martin Luther University College;

    • An MA in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University; and

    • An Honours BA from the University of Waterloo in Religious Studies.

    I completed Trauma Certification through the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University in early 2018. My internship was completed in the Spiritual Care Department at the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, where I spent the majority of my time in the Adult Mental Health Unit and the Withdrawal Management Unit. 

    I have training as a mediator: I hold an Advanced Certificate in Conflict Resolution for Faith Communities (2006) from Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo. I also have additional training in intercultural effectiveness. I am registered with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO).

    Prior to becoming a psychotherapist, I worked for many years as a freelance writer, editor, website publisher, and social science researcher. My research interests are extensive, and include Islam, Sufism/Islamic mysticism, gender, conversion (particularly conversion to Islam), religious identity, religious belonging, pluralism, popular culture, religious syncretism and hybridity, scrupulosity (religious and moral OCD), interfaith encounter/dialogue. I have written on all these topics.

    • Metacognitive Therapy (taught by Dr. Pia Callesen)

    • Hoarding Consultation Group (Offered by Dr. Michelle Massi through IOCDF)

    • Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (I-CBT) for OCD Intensive (OCD Lived Experience Collective) 

    • Intensive Workshop in Exposure and Ritual Prevention for OCD (Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, Perelman School of Medicine | University of Pennsylvania)

    • Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional training (PESI, in progress)

    • Motivational Interviewing (taught by Gary Stofle)

    • CBT for OCD and OCD: Foundations for Primary Care Providers (ECHO Ontario/CAMH)

    • CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy) for PTSD and Advanced CPT (both taught by CPT co-creator Dr. Kathleen Chard)

    • Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD (taught by Dr. Denise Sloan and Dr. Brian Marx)

    • Narrative Therapy Intensive (taught by Bonnie Miller, Hincks Dellcrest Institute)