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Background

Audrey Batterham

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I create kind, brave spaces in which individuals and groups make meaningful change.  As psychotherapist, facilitator and educator, my strengths are to ask thought-provoking questions, provide sharp insights, offer analyses of power and the bigger picture, and to encourage people to tell stories about themselves that are healing and confidence-building. 

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My current work builds on twenty years of experience in the non-profit sector as project manager, support worker, group facilitator, educator, training coordinator, and curriculum designer. In particular, I draw from my experience facilitating feminist group support for women who have survived abuse and running leadership trainings for young people. I have moved multiple health promotion and anti-violence projects from early development through to the evaluation and reporting stage, and consistently demonstrated the positive effects of my efforts. I mentored young people to build self esteem and manage anxiety, depression and anger in order to be more effective community leaders.


I have been facilitating peer-to-peer and youth engagement models for the bulk of my career. My additional subject matter expertise includes gender equity, anti-violence, mental health, homelessness, harm reduction, HIV/Hep C, poverty, leadership development, anti-oppression, group process, and community- and resilience-building. More recently, my interests have shifted into burnout prevention and intervention, healing relational trauma and insecure attachment, nervous system regulation, and building self-esteem, self-worth, and self-compassion.

 

As an integrative psychotherapist in individual sessions with teens and adults, I draw from psychodynamic, narrative, humanist, and cognitive-behavioural (CBT) modalities. My clients are dealing with burnout, rejection sensitivity, ADHD, people-pleasing, oppression, anxiety, depression, and childhood traumas.

The frameworks and approaches I integrate into my work are the social determinants of health, anti-oppressive practice, intersectional feminism, and community development. I am strengths-based and trauma-informed. As an educator, I incorporate art, theatre games, discussion, presentation and experiential learning.​​
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Nice Comments from Participants
Feedback from my burnout prevention workshops

 

“I am so glad that [our manager] found you. It’s like you’re reading my mind and saying things I couldn’t find words for.” - TRINA

 

“Thank you – so relevant, so on point for many!”

 

“I really resonated with what you said about not setting boundaries because of feeling guilty about privilege. I started thinking about some of the things I do. It’s helpful.”

 

"Audrey's workshops were truly an amazing and informative experience! After delving deep with each topic of conversation, this allowed me to process my emotions with every situation I had previously dealt with. The workshops also gave me a better understanding of moving forward with a clearer mindset and focus on doing the best work I can do, without burning out while still nourishing my soul."- SIDNEY

 

 

Feedback from burnout intervention reader/client:

"I just wanted you to know that reading one of your articles set me on a path of self-reflection that has now given me the language I was missing. I have read and will continue to read every article that you write. . . The work you're doing is the answer in so many ways." - Reader/client


Other comments from co-facilitated workshops (from evaluation forms)


"Audrey listens attentively. She offers solutions based on the problem and based on her experience with other women. She also cares and follows up regularly."

"Caring. Kind. Supportive. Friendly. Knowledgeable. Active. Energetic. Respectful."

"Warmth, friendliness, helpful, flexible and fit curriculum to participants."

 
"They facilitate a warm and welcoming environment where people feel like they want to socialize and share."

"They are knowledgeable and concerned."
 
"[I appreciate her] unconditional support and encouragement."

"They were able to provide good tools and interactive learning."

Qualifications

  • Master's in Counselling Psychology (2024) - Yorkville University

  • Master's of Education, Adult Education and Community Development (2012) - OISE, University of Toronto

  • BA in English and Women's Studies (2002) - University of Victoria

Qualifications

Land Acknowledgement and Decolonizing Ethics

I am based in Tkaronto (Toronto). My work takes place in the territories of the Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee / Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation Treaty Territory/ Dish With One Spoon Treaty Territory.

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I reflect upon what it means to be a white settler occupying treaty territory, and to be doing "helping" work in the context of white saviour culture and a violent "charity" history in Toronto. As both educator and counsellor, I decentralize myself as an expert knower and respect the diverse knowledges of workshop/group participants and counselling clients. I also intend for my particular set of skills, knowledge and experiences to be placed in the service of justice, decolonization and social change.

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