A committed life-long learner, Debra has degrees in philosophy, public relations and education. She is currently in the thesis writing portion of her PhD in Education, specializing in Adult Learning. She distracts herself from this work with trash television, vintage clothing hunts, and by reading cozy British mystery novels.

Debra lives in downtown Dartmouth with her husband and two cats, one of which rules the house with an iron paw. She is somewhat honoured to bow to his every feline whim. She has two adult children, one of whom lives in the Caribbean. It is questionable as to whether he misses her as much as she misses him, as palm trees and sky blue seas seem to dull the feelings of homesickness apparently.

Debra has personal experience with disordered eating, treatment, and recovery. She understands that eating disorders can be lonely, and that recovery is a deeply personal journey that is aided by surrounding oneself with a community that acts as a support, a sounding board, and a soft place to just “be”.

Scott is a survivor of anorexia nervosa and, since recovering himself, has worked to advocate for others. He currently lives in the North End of Halifax with his partner Brogan and enjoys spending time outside, reading a good book, or exploring Nova Scotia. He believes in making our world more compassionate and kind and is thrilled to be joining the team at Eating Disorders Nova Scotia working on creating a better future for those currently impacted.

She has lived experience with eating disorders. Throughout her search for effective, timely support within and outside Canada, she recognized the vast gaps in eating disorder treatment: out-of-date systems and transitional, long-term support for sufferers, their families, and clinicians.

She has been a public speaker and writer for various media outlets and universities. Her journey, combined with the inspiration from others she met along the way, sparked a burning, lifelong passion for advocacy for eating disorders.

She has a unique interest in neuroscience, prevention among children and youth, and support for those with severe and enduring, late-onset, and those considered complex or chronic. She fully believes in compassionate, individualized, inclusive care and lived experience as an asset.

Rebecca brings her skill set of digital media coordination, social media management, copywriting, and public speaking to the communications role at EDNS.

You can find Rebecca near the water—on an island or coast—chasing the sunsets. The beach and mountains are her meditative places. She loves to create art and strives to surround herself with kind people, beautiful places, and interesting things!

Sarah lives on Toronto Island with her husband, 18-year-old stepdaughter Aislin, and several beasts including Smokey the livestock guardian dog, who you will often hear in the background of zoom meetings and Merlin the magic cat that rules the roost. She loves new challenges and supporting folks in the creation of projects in the mental health community.

Sarah is proud to be a member of this amazing, creative team, and devoted to peer support, harm reduction and recovery!

Rania draws upon evidence-based approaches with a holistic and anti-oppressive lens, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solution Focused, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. Rania has worked as a Clinical Therapist with the North End Health Centre, Nova Centre for Woman, the YMCA, and Phoenix Youth Programs.

Her passion is helping people understand their behaviours, thoughts and emotions, and to create a life they love.

We all come from unique cultural backgrounds and have our own story to tell, Rania incorporates the use of multi-cultural counselling when working with clients.

Prior to beginning her career at a counsellor, she worked as a peer supporter, a public-school teacher, and a Disney princess. She also has lived with an eating disorder since early adolescence, receiving treatment and starting her recovery journey in her early 20s.

Alyssa’s approach is holistic, relational, trauma-informed, and feminist. Her first priority is building a trusting and supportive therapeutic relationship with each client or unique family unit. She draws from a number of modalities, including Narrative Therapy, Family-Based Treatment, Somatic Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, and art- and play-based methods. She adjusts her approach to best fit the needs of the people she works with for a person-centred approach that sees each individual as the expert in their own life and healing. Alyssa knows the courage it takes to seek help and is regularly awed by the strength young people possess when it comes to overcoming the challenges they face. She has seen the transformative power of love and non-judgment in the face of disordered eating and is passionate about being one of many supports in a person’s journey to recovery.

Currently living and working in her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Alyssa is also a Counsellor and System Navigator with the St. John’s Women’s Centre. She is a dog lover, musician, and wannabe plant enthusiast who is happiest near the ocean and/or the people she loves the most.

She has over 15 years’ experience working with adolescents, adults, and families in various outpatient mental health settings, providing assessments, crisis counselling, and intervention.

Angela’s areas of practice include parent/child relationships, anxiety, mood, adjustment, trauma, substance abuse and eating disorders. Angela’s practice and therapeutic approach draws on evidence-based modalities, including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF)-CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Ten (CBT-T) for eating disorders and Family Based Therapy (FBT) for eating disorders, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Solution Focused Therapy.

As a clinical social worker, Angela places a strong focus on the importance of attachment and relationships. She takes a psychosocial approach to overall physical and emotional well-being to empower individuals to reach their optimal growth. Angela’s strengths lie in her ability to genuinely connect with clients and work collaboratively with them to help each unique individual achieve their own optimal growth and development.

After graduating from Mount St. Vincent University with a BSc in Applied Human Nutrition in 2012, she began her career in Windsor, Ontario working in a community-based health agency as a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator primarily with the adult population.

Since 2016, she has supporting adolescents aged 12–25 living with eating disorders and disordered eating. She quickly became passionate about working alongside those experiencing disordered eating to assist them in harmoniously repairing their relationship with food and themselves.

Breanne has experience providing individualized nutrition therapy for those, and their supports, living with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders and disordered eating patterns by using evidence-based approaches to care.

Breanne has recently relocated back to Halifax with her family and is excited to give back to her home community with Eating Disorders Nova Scotia, helping to increase access and address barriers to services for those who are affected by eating disorders. She looks forward to connecting with you to support wherever you are in your recovery journey.

As someone who has recovered from an eating disorder, Kathryn brings their own personal experience to their work and is familiar with the complexities that recovery entails. Kathryn has a passion for helping people expand their worlds by recognizing and healing challenging relationships with food and bodies. They draw upon a trauma-informed, anti-diet, inclusive and body-liberating lens of evidence-based care. Kathryn recognizes the complicated social systems of oppression in which we live and believes that everyone should be able to find a kind, non-judgemental ear as they move through recovery.

In their off-time, Kathryn can be found knitting, attempting to learn how to spin, weave, and dye fabric. They also enjoy examining plants in the wild, reading, listening to music and podcasts, and learning new fermentation recipes (giving a special shout-out to kimchi for being one of the best foods of all time!). Kathryn also likes to pretend that they are good a baking bread.

Nicky worked primarily in an intensive outpatient eating disorders service in Ontario before moving to the East Coast.

She opened her own private practice, where she offers virtual nutritional counselling to help individuals rebuild their relationship with food as well as other areas of nutrition.

She believes in a non-diet, non-fad, all- foods-fit approach to improving your health and nutrition, one bite at a time. She has a love for the outdoors, getting together with friends and family, rock climbing and her pets

Nora has an advanced understanding of peer support models and mentorship programs for youth. She owes everything she knows to the many people she has been privileged to encounter and walk alongside throughout her work to date. Nora is working on (almost finished!) a Master of Social Work from Dalhousie University, which was motivated by her interest in redefining wellness and creating opportunities for people to find their own measures of wellbeing for themselves.

Inspired by lived experience with disordered eating and exercise, this work is close to her heart.

Nora loves hosting dinner parties for her friends with lots of candles and tasty things. She also loves swimming in lakes and oceans, looking for treasures at thrift stores, and baking things with chocolate in them.

Isaac pursued social work as a career after recovering from disordered eating, and they are passionate about improving access to gender-affirming care for trans folks living with eating disorders. During their studies at Dalhousie University and social work placement at Laing House, they formed an approach to practice which is anti-oppressive and person-centered, and this practice continues to evolve throughout their current work. Currently, they are also working at the University of King’s College, where they work with students to coordinate and improve mental health care on campus.

When they aren’t working, Isaac loves to hang out with their dog, watch reality dating shows, and read anything they can get their hands on.

Nikki has extensive experience providing crisis support as well as over six years of experience supporting children and youth within distinct mental health settings. She holds an anti-oppressive perspective, implementing a compassionate, collaborative, and non-judgemental approach.

In navigating an eating disorder at a young age, she became and continues to be passionate about children and youth mental health and recognizes the importance of early intervention when it comes to eating disorders.

She enjoys reading and writing, meeting new people, hanging out with her dogs and is always on the look out to learn something new!

She holds a Bachelors degree in Social Psychology from McMaster University, where she minored in Mental Health, Addictions, and Society, as well as a graduate certificate in Concurrent Disorders from Mohawk College. Jaime has years of experience in peer-focused roles, where she developed a non-judgmental and person-centered approach to supporting others, and brings this combination of knowledge and lived experience into her current work.

When she’s not working, Jaime enjoys true crime podcasts, video games, reading, and any activity where she can spend time with the people she loves.