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I provide speaking, training and facilitated learning for social workers, human-service professionals, leaders and organizations.

My work draws on nearly two decades in child welfare, community-based social services and leadership. I have worked in frontline clinical practice and management, with experience that has also taken me into organizational change, amalgamation, corporate services, team development and organizational culture.

My undergraduate education is in commerce, with a focus that included human resources and organizational behaviour. I later trained as a social worker and am now completing a PhD in Social Work at McGill University.

Those backgrounds have given me different ways of looking at the same question: what happens when people have to work together inside organizations and systems?

Organizations are human systems.

Leadership style affects how a team functions. Organizational culture affects what people feel able to say and do. The way we understand risk affects our decisions. Power affects relationships. Our own preferences and ways of responding affect how we show up with colleagues and the people we lead.

Larger structures matter too.

Ideas such as capitalism, patriarchy and racism can sound theoretical until we look at how they operate in everyday working life. They influence how work is valued, who performs emotional labour, what organizations reward, whose knowledge carries authority, and what people are expected to tolerate in order to remain employed.

I am interested in making those connections practical.

My speaking and training has included leadership, anti-oppressive and decolonizing practice, unconscious bias, racism and microaggressions, professional judgment and decision-making.

I am particularly interested in how people understand and respond to risk, how cognitive biases influence judgment, and what happens when professional practice takes place within complicated organizational conditions.

My work in clinical supervision, psychotherapy and research adds another perspective. Each requires a different professional role, while still asking us to think about relationships, power, judgment and how we use ourselves in our work.

I am comfortable speaking in front of a room. I have taught at the university level, delivered professional training and presented research at national and international conferences.

What I enjoy most, though, is the conversation that develops in the room.

Social work, leadership and human services are relational work. I think learning about that work should make room for relationship too.

That doesn't mean expecting everyone to participate in the same way. Some people think by talking. Others want time to consider a question before responding. Some will readily speak to a large room and others will contribute much more in a conversation with two or three people.

I use different ways of working together so that participation does not depend on being the person most comfortable putting up their hand.

That becomes especially important when the subject itself is difficult. I have facilitated conversations about racism, unconscious bias, micro-aggressions, power and other topics where people may feel uncertain about what to say or concerned about getting it wrong.

My role is not to eliminate that discomfort. It is to help create the conditions in which people can stay in the conversation and think about what the subject means for their own practice.

I have provided professional training through the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies since 2022 and have worked with social work courses at the university undergraduate and graduate levels.

I have presented research and professional work at conferences in Canada and internationally and have facilitated learning with frontline practitioners, supervisors, managers and multidisciplinary groups.

My professional experience includes nearly two decades in child welfare and social services, including more than a decade in management and leadership, alongside my current work in psychotherapy, clinical supervision, research and teaching.

Speaking and training engagements begin with a consultation.

We’ll talk about your organization or event, who will be participating, and what you would like people to take away from the experience. From there, I can recommend an approach and provide a proposal outlining the scope of the work and the associated fee.

Engagements can range from conference presentations and guest lectures to facilitated professional learning and customized organizational training.

Fees vary depending on the length and format of the engagement, the level of customization required, and the development involved.

Contact Kristin for more details or schedule a consultation.