Instructors

Harjit Aulakh, M.A. is psychology doctoral student at McGill University and currently works as a clinician with Saanich Child and Youth Community Mental Health Centre providing therapeutic services for youth of all ages. She has been developing and providing group therapy for NSSI teens for three years with Dr. Nixon, and is one of the co-authors of the chapter on psycho-social interventions with youth who self-injure in the book titled: Self-Injury in Youth: The Essential Guide to Assessment and Intervention.

Geraldine is an internationally recognized expert in the assessment and treatment of child sexual abuse and has developed protocols for trauma assessment and treatment of sexualized behaviour in children. She serves as a faculty member of the C.O. Bick Police College, Metropolitan Toronto Police and the R.C.M.P and is qualified as an expert witness in criminal court in the areas of sexual abuse. Geri provides ongoing training, supervision and consultation through Crisci & Mayer, Consultation, Counseling and Training to a number of sexual abuse treatment programs and children’s mental health centers.

Dr. Dubord is the Director of the Toronto Center for Cognitive Therapy. He was the first Canadian Fellow of the Beck Institute, and the Founding Director of the University of Toronto Psychiatry's Department of Intermediate and Advanced Cognitive Therapy Courses. His relentlessly-practical teachings are grounded in almost 20 years of a diverse and humbling therapy practice. Dr. Dubord is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and has been recognized by the University of Toronto with several major teaching awards. See also www.cbt.ca

Michael H. Epstein, Ed.D., is the Director of the Center for At- Risk Children’s Services and William E. Barkley Professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska. He received his doctoral degree in special education from the University of Virginia. He has been employed as a teacher of children with behavior and learning problems, a director of educational programs for students with disabilities, and a university professor. Dr. Epstein has received over 16 million dollars in external grants, has published over 220 professional papers, has served as a consultant to various state and federal agencies and foundations, has served as a reviewer for numerous professional journals, and is the founding editor of the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. He is the author of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: A Strength Based Approach to Assessment and the Scale Assessing Emotional Disturbance. He is the co author of Outcomes for Children and Youth with Emotional

Jim Hall is a child and adolescent therapist and the Group Program Coordinator at the Shoniker Clinic in Toronto. Since 1986 Jim has worked with street kids, youth in trouble with the law, children in treatment classrooms and for the past 14 years he has been refining his therapeutic skills and expertise in the areas of early childhood trauma, anxiety, and sexual abuse treatment for children, adolescents and adults at the Shoniker Clinic.

Nominated four times since 1992 by his colleagues for the Krista Sepp Memorial Award for his work with children, Jim has presented workshops for professionals across Ontario and as far north as Baffin Island. In 2005 Jim released Creating Courage: Search & Rescue, a 300-page manual for professionals working with trauma based anxiety.

Richard Heresniak, is the Lead Crisis Counselor at the Astor Home for Children, a 75-bed residential facility for severely emotionally disturbed children, ages 5-13,located in Rhinebeck, NY. He handles crisis intervention work and is the primary
TCI trainer for the facility. Mr. Heresniak worked his way up to this position,starting out as a Teacher Assistant in the Astor Learning Center, followed by Crisis Intervention and childcare worker in the RTC and RTF units. He has been trained in TCI since 1989.

Jack C. Holden, Ph.D., is President of Mueller Holden and Associates in Ithaca, NY, and a TCI Instructor. Since 1986, Mr. Holden has been a full-time consultant/trainer traveling nationally and internationally to develop and deliver training programs in the human service field. Mr. Holden consults with Cornell University and co-developed the following curricula: Recovery for Staff-TCI, Cornell University, 1995, and Connecting: Essential Elements of Residential Child Care Practice.

The instructors for the Train the Trainer program are members of the Freedom From Harm Working Committee, Community Living Ontario. The team includes: Jim McLean, Larry Collard, Lee-Anne Dupuis and Peggy Corrigan Dench.

Colleen has been working in the helping field for over twenty five years. Over the past fourteen years she has specialized in assessment and treatment of children who have been sexually abused, children who have witnessed violence, and children with sexual behaviour problems, through the T.A.L.K. Program. She co-developed an assessment tool for children with sexual behaviour problems. . Colleen is also a faculty member of Centennial College in the Child & Youth Worker Program and also trains and consults with several treatment programs, child welfare agencies, and children's mental health treatment residencies Prior to the specialization in child abuse, Colleen has worked extensively in the area of child welfare, education, residential services, and youth outreach.

Franklin Kuhn, Jr., Ph.D, a clinical psychologist, has worked in clinical and administrative positions with child welfare organizations for 20 years. He has served as medical school faculty and has provided consultation and training to agencies
across the U.S. Dr. Kuhn has been a consultant to the RCCP since 1985.

Ed is a Special Education Resource Teacher with the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic School Board whose role it is to support students and teachers in the classroom. He is also an Instructor at Mohawk College in Hamilton and an Associate Faculty Instructor with Conestoga College in Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Stratford where he teaches a course entitled Approaches to Autism as part of the Educational Assistant Program. Ed speaks at various workshops and seminars and runs a summer camps and respite programs for individuals with high needs Autism.

Sheila has been a registered psychologist since 1997. She previously worked as a researcher for the Abuse and Disability Project and co-authored and published research articles and presented papers at conferences in Canada, the USA, Israel, and Europe. In 2001 she co-authored a book with Dr. Dick Sobsey published by National Association for the Dually Diagnosed titled Counselling People with Developmental Disabilities Who Have Been Sexually Abused. She works as a private practitioner and provides specialized sexuality, mental health and behavioural assessments for clients with developmental disabilities and dual diagnosis. She provides training workshops to caregivers and professionals and is a consulting psychologist to the Arnika Centre for Dual Diagnosis in Calgary, a clinical consultant, and consults to the multidisciplinary team for Family Supports for Children with Disabilities

Nancy is an integral part of the group practice of Crisci & Mayer, Consultation Counseling and Training. For over 25 years, she has worked as a clinician, supervisor, manager, consultant and trainer in the areas of child sexual abuse, adult survivors of trauma, effects of secondary trauma on workers, clergy and professional misconduct, workplace issues and organizational change. She has worked for a variety of child welfare, children's mental health and medical and private organizations. As part of the group Crisci & Mayer, she offers therapy and provides clinical supervision and consultation to clinicians and social services organizations.

Rick has extensive experience providing front-line clinical services to children, adolescents and their families, including clinical and psychological assessments, psycho-educational assessments, and therapeutic interventions. He has both provided psychological services and consultation to residential, educational (day treatment), home-based and outpatient services. As well, he has been extensively involved in development and delivery of social skills and anger management programs for both parents and children; conducting research on skills training, program evaluation, and providing clinical training and supervision. In addition, he has conducted over 100 two-day training workshops for the public, mental health and school professionals on various topics related to anger control, treatment planning and externalizing and internalizing disorders. Dr. McCendie is a member of the College of Psychologists of Ontario and the Canadian Psychological Association.

Kim Meawasige (Consultant) is a FASD Policy Analyst at the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres in Toronto, and formerly worked with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto for ten years. Kim is a co-chair of Toronto’s “Aboriginal FASD Task Force” committee, and board member of FAS World Canada. Kim has developed and implemented several community support programs for parents and children who are affected by FASD including an Aboriginal Children’s FASD Camp that is in it’s fourth season. Kim has also provided over one hundred workshops to different communities in Canada. She brings a professional and personnel commitment to this issue. She is a Mother of seven and Grandmother of one, with four of her children diagnosed with FAS. Kim has been in the field of FASD for over ten years. She provides assistance with FASD resources available to urban Aboriginal people, shares approaches–both traditional and contemporary to dealing with FASD, conducts on-site training and

Michelle Moran is a social worker who has been working with youth in the field of violence prevention for over fourteen years. During that time, Michelle has co-authored several manuals for educators as well as created an interactive CD Rom, web site and video with youth on the issue of youth violence prevention. Currently, Michelle is working at East Metro Youth Services, an accredited children’s mental health centre, supervising the RISE (Respect in Schools Everywhere) Program. The RISE Program is a school-based youth engagement program that supports youth in becoming leaders of peace and safety. Michelle also works as a part-time faculty member at Centennial College in the Child and Youth Worker Program.

Mary Ruberti, M.S.W., is a TCI Instructor and an independent training consultant with many years of experience working with emotionally disabled and mentally ill children and youth in both residential and community-based settings. This work has included the utilization of adventure-based counseling in this population in a variety of settings. Ms. Ruberti has received training from Project Adventure, Inc., a nationally recognized ABC training provider.

John Strang, Ph.D., C. Psych. is a clinical neuropsychologist with over 25 years experience in learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, children’s mental health, and acquired brain injury in children and adults. He is the founding Director of the Ozad Institute, Windsor Regional Children’s Centre (WRCC), which is devoted to research and education in neurodevelopmental disabilities; a staff neuropsychologist at WRCC; and a consulting pediatric neuropsychologist at the John McGivney Children’s Centre for children with physical and neurological disorders. His private practice is currently focused on the neuropsychological assessment of adults and children who have sustained head injuries. Dr. Strang has over 20 publications in clinical neuropsychology. Adjunct faculty appointments are held in Psychology at the University of Windsor, and Psychiatry at the University of Western Ontario: SWOMEN (Windsor). He has completed over 100 presentations at conferences and community-based ve

B.J. is the owner of the London Ontario branch of S.A.F.E. In Canada. She has been presenting professional workshops in Canada for seven years to help front line staff and counselors focus on the harmful effects of S.I. B.J. has become renowned in the field of working with children who struggle with S.I. issues on a regular basis. She is a Life Skills Coach, independent consultant on S.I. behaviour and facilitates local support groups for adults, teens and children. After many years, she was able to "Overcome" her own problems of self abuse with the S.A.F.E. In Canada program and would like others to experience the freedom from such destructive and habitual behaviours hopefully earlier in life than was possible for her. As a result, she brings with her a wealth of personal and professional knowledge to her goal of giving hope, help and support to the community.

Elsbeth Tupker, M.S.W., has 26 years of experience working with youth at the former Addiction Research Foundation and more recently at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Her work
has focused on treatment of young drug users,including program development, program management, research, and professional training. She has coauthored a number of publications: Youth & Drugs and Mental Health: A Resource for Professionals; Let
'Em Go: How to Support Youth in Creating Their Own Solutions, and First Contact: A Brief Treatment for Young Substance Users with Mental Health Problems; and an online course: Introduction to Concurrent Disorders.

Rebecca has been a Child and Youth Care Professional since 1998. She has worked in numerous practice contexts including; the young offender system, family preservation, early intervention, child protection, youth substance abuse and children’s mental health. She is currently a Program Manager of Intensive Residential and Day Treatment Services in the Thunder Bay area. This curriculum was derived out of an evaluative research project. These findings have been presented at several International conferences. Dr. Anglin’s (2002) model of residential treatment serves as the framework with other developmental, behavioural change, and crisis intervention theories serving as supporting clinical perspectives.

Jessica received her doctorate from the Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Department at OISE/UT in May of 2005. Jessica brings a plethora of experience working in the field of anti-oppression and education. She is a published author, has presented her work at several local and international conferences, has been interviewed for various print and television media, has been a guest lecturer at OISE/UT, and has spent the last several years working in youth violence prevention. After spending many years as a program director for a national youth violence prevention organization, Jessica joined the Violence Intervention Project at East Metro Youth Services. Currently, Jessica runs a school-based violence prevention project for “at-risk” youth while continuing to author various studies.

Greg Wise, M.A., who formerly worked as a residential child care supervisor and with the developmentally disadvantaged and mentally ill, is an extension associate with the FLDC. He delivers TCI training and updates nationally and provides technical
assistance to residential facilities throughout New York State.