Clinical Director & Founder, Clinic Altera

Introduction

Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to get to know me and Clinic Altera a bit better! I am a trauma-informed social worker and psychotherapist licensed in both Quebec and Ontario, as well as an advocate, teacher, partner, mother, and friend. These identities shape how I approach my work and how I lead Clinic Altera. As Clinical Director, I guide a collective of clinicians in Montreal and virtually who are dedicated to relational, evidence-informed, and compassionate care.

The personal and professional are never separate for me; the same qualities I bring to family, friendship, and advocacy are those I bring to my clients, colleagues, and community.

I believe that suffering is part of being human, a natural response to the complexities of life. Discomfort can lead us toward clarity, resilience, and growth. But when suffering exceeds our capacity, it can become immobilizing. In those moments, people don’t need fixing; they need presence, curiosity, and connection. My role is to be both a collaborative partner and a gentle witness in that space.

My Early Career

I began my career in 2012, working in campus sexual violence advocacy, intervention, and education, work that changed the course of my life. In those early years, I served as a leadership educator, curriculum developer, speaker, and workshop facilitator, designing and leading programs that addressed topics such as consent, sex and sexuality, relational health, leadership, and social change.

My work extended beyond the classroom and into community action. I helped organize campus protests, awareness events, and survivor-centred productions, including Take Back the Night and other early initiatives that would later align with the MeToo movement. I also developed and facilitated corporate wellness and leadership trainings, bridging trauma-informed approaches with organizational development and emotional intelligence.

Through this work, I learned that collaboration and genuine connection could help people feel safe even in acute stress states and during objectively challenging seasons of their lives. That understanding, that safety and change emerge through relationship, has guided me ever since.

I continue to work in these spaces today and deeply value opportunities to consult, teach, or speak about leadership development and trauma-informed care across fields, including therapy, medicine, and the corporate world. These engagements allow me to bring the relational and systemic principles that guide my clinical work into broader contexts where safety, empathy, and integrity are essential to sustainable leadership and organizational health.

My Clinical Practice

Today, as a licensed psychotherapist and social worker, I continue to build on those foundations. My practice is rooted in relational, trauma-informed psychotherapy, grounded in psychodynamic theory approached through the lens of its psychoanalytic roots.

I view psychodynamic work not as a technique but as a way of thinking and witnessing, a perspective that shapes how I listen, understand, and engage with clients. My orientation is deeply informed by my training in ISTDP (Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy). It is not an intervention or a set of interventions, but a framework that guides how I make sense of experiences, relationships, and meaning. This orientation allows me to explore how unconscious processes, attachment patterns, and internalized relationships to self and others shape who we are and how we relate.

From this foundation, I integrate complementary modalities such as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Brainspotting, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which I approach as tools that deepen and extend the work rather than define it. These modalities can help facilitate access to implicit memory and emotional processing while maintaining the relational attunement central to psychodynamic practice.

These approaches support the regulation and safety needed for deeper psychotherapeutic work, helping clients reconnect with their capacity for self-regulation and embodied presence. They are integrated within the broader context of psychodynamic and relational exploration, not as standalone techniques but as ways of supporting access, integration, and repair at a nervous-system level.

Beyond individual therapy, I have developed several specialized offerings that reflect my integrative and experiential philosophy:

• Trauma Therapy Intensives, focused, multi-day sessions designed to help clients process trauma and regulate the nervous system through intensive, experiential work followed by structured integration.

• EFT Couples Therapy Intensives, immersive sessions for couples on the brink of disconnection or transition, blending attachment theory, trauma-informed practice, and emotionally focused therapy.

• Relational Leadership Coaching, a high-touch, experiential process for high performers and leaders navigating burnout, emotional exhaustion, and relational strain; integrating coaching psychology, somatic tools, and trauma-informed insight.

Each of these offerings represents a different entry point into healing and growth for individuals, couples, and professionals seeking deeper change.

My Training and Education

I hold an MSW from the University of Central Florida (2014) and have undertaken advanced clinical training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and modalities such as Brainspotting, EMDR, and Yoga (YTT-200).

My work has also been shaped by contributions in higher education and leadership at institutions such as McGill Medical School and Harvard Medical School, where I specialized in physician wellness, education, and medical leadership. I also worked in violence prevention and response at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of Central Florida, where I served as a Victims Advocate and later as a professor and mentor in the LEAD Scholars Academy, a leadership development program.

Currently, I supervise master‘s-level clinical interns in partnership with two Canadian universities and serve as an approved psychotherapist with Game Plan, supporting the mental health and performance optimization of Team Canada athletes.

Licenses and Credentials

Licensed Psychotherapist (Ordre des psychologues du Québec, OPQ)
Licensed Social Worker (Ordre des travailleurs sociaux et des thérapeutes conjugaux et familiaux du Québec, OTSTCFQ)
Registered Social Worker (Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, OCSWSSW)

Advanced Trainings

• Three-Year Core Training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)
• Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) Provider
• Brainspotting, Levels 1 and 2
• EMDR, Levels 1 and 2
• Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Level 1
• IFS Circle Program and IFS Trauma Foundations Training
• EFT Couples Therapy Training and Supervision
• Essential Skills and Ethical Strategies in Clinical Supervision
• Multiculturalism, Intersectionality, and Identity in Clinical Supervision
• Group Supervision Success: The Ultimate Guide for Ethical, Effective, and Supportive Group Leadership
• Trauma-Informed Approaches in Clinical Supervision
• The Ultimate Supervision Toolkit: Practical Tools for Every Step of the Supervisory Journey
• Telehealth: Legal and Ethical Implications for Mental Health Professionals
• Boundaries and Dual Relationships in Clinical Practice: Ethical and Risk Management Challenges
• Essentials of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Beck Institute
• CBT for Depression, Beck Institute
• Crisis Intervention and Response Training, CTRI
• 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, Down Under School of Yoga, Boston
• Applied Coaching Psychology (PSYC E-1771), Harvard Extension School

These experiences have shaped my specialty in working at the intersection of trauma, identity, perfectionism, and performance, with particular attention to how belonging, attachment, and nervous system regulation shape both clinical outcomes and leadership.

My Vision for Clinic Altera

Clinic Altera is a clinic with purpose. Our work is grounded in relational, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive values. By integrating psychodynamic theory, humanistic and relational approaches, and strategic coaching, we serve children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families navigating burnout, identity, perfectionism, and recovery from complex trauma.

The inspiration for Clinic Altera also comes from my own journey. Powerful mentorship, therapeutic supervision, and high-value training were pivotal in my development as a clinician and leader. Those experiences taught me that clinicians, like clients, need strong, safe, and attuned containers to grow and thrive.

Clinic Altera was born from that belief, a collective that offers both high-quality care for clients and a collaborative, supportive environment for clinicians. Through supervision, consultation, and collaboration, we nurture a clinical community grounded in curiosity, accountability, and co-regulation.

Whether you are seeking therapy, leadership coaching, or professional supervision, Clinic Altera offers a space for meaningful, transformational work grounded in compassion, integrity, and excellence.

Building Clinic Altera has long been a dream of mine, and I feel deeply honoured to be here now, leading a clinic that reflects the values I hold most dear.

Warmly,

Amanda