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Fatina Elkurdi, MSW, RSW

Clinical Social Worker

Fatina participates in several trauma-specific and mindfulness-based consultation and training groups and works with the clinical supervision of a registered psychologist, if required for treatment.

Fatina has 19 years of practice in agency and hospital environments and understands the important step each of her clients is taking when seeking the services of a therapist. The evidence tells us that it is your relationship with your therapist, more than anything else, that will determine the success of your treatment. Fatina is known for her ability to create safety in the therapeutic relationship, integrating proven methods for healing and personal growth. You will work together to determine the best path towards your goals, starting with where you are today.

As a leader in applying research to practice, Fatina teaches her clients innovative skills to treat depression and mood disorders, emotion regulation, anxiety disorders, interpersonal problems, substance dependence, chronic pain and medical conditions, often co-occurring. She has special expertise in complex PTSD and other trauma related conditions including Dissociative Disorders and attachment-based traumas. Early in her career, she partnered with police on a mental health mobile crisis team to respond to psychiatric emergencies in the community. She currently works with members of police, Canadian Forces, veterans, victims of sexual abuse and childhood trauma. For many years, Fatina was a clinical lead within an interdisciplinary team of psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational and recreational therapists, teachers and nurses working to stabilize those who were acutely ill in an inpatient setting.

Fatina completed a Bachelor of Science degree with an Advanced Major in Psychology in1999 and followed this with a Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2001, at Dalhousie University's Maritime School of Social Work. She began her career in Kingston, ON, where she assessed, trained and supported foster parents caring for children impacted by developmental trauma, abuse and neglect. She returned to Dalhousie to complete her Master of Social Work degree in 2006. She became skilled in the assessment of psychiatric problems in a hospital setting, working in emergency departments and on crisis teams and developed her understanding of the path that leads people to emotional crisis. Following graduate studies, Fatina continued to train in Canada and the United States with leading experts in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT,) Trauma-Focused CBT, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, DBT, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Ego State Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR.) See below for further information about some of what these therapies could offer.

Fatina began her CBT training at the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, PA, USA. For more information about CBT and its contribution to modern psychotherapy, click here: https://www.beckinstitute.org/

Fatina is currently enrolled in the Certificate Program at the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy (expected completion June 2020) studying under some the highest regarded faculty in North America on the application of mindfulness and meditation in psychotherapy. She trained in advanced mindfulness practice with esteemed teachers Ron Siegel, Psy.D, Bill Morgan, Psy.D., and Susan Morgan MSN, RN, CS, in a retreat setting for mental health professionals in Vallecitos, NM, USA. For more information about her teachers, click here: 

http://www.meditationandpsychotherapyg/

http://www.mindfulness-solution.com/

http://billandsusan.net/home-sweet-home/the-meditators-dilemma/ and 

For further information about EMDR click the following link from the EMDR International Association of which Fatina is a member.  Fatina obtained her initial EMDR training with the Niagara Stress and Trauma Clinic in Toronto, ON, in 2014 and has since completed advanced EMDR training. She is a Certified EMDR clinician and plans to become an EMDRIA approved consultant in the future. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDd7_asUP0kI0WCRnl2ELw/featured

Fatina endeavours to create a therapeutic space that reflects and welcomes the diversity of the community she serves. She is currently accepting new referrals to her practice. 

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