A Little About Sylvie
Sylvie Smith, RP, CDWF*-Clinician
My desire to help people learn how to get through tough times in their lives and create a sense of mental health wellness started with my journey of struggles. Many years ago, I learned that when we have difficulty moving forward, asking for outside help is a brave and sometimes necessary process despite our reservations about vulnerability. Sometimes, we need an outside listening ear to help us amplify what is in our hearts and identify what is blocking the way to achieving our goals.
I have worked in various substance use, addiction, and mental health agencies for over twenty years. I have worked in inpatient treatment settings and, over a decade ago, returned to a community outpatient setting, providing individual and group counselling. The clientele I have been supporting are referred for their struggles with their use of substances, problematic gambling and technology overuse (such as video gaming, excessive use of various online sites and /or compulsive shopping). As part of this work, I have also supported loving family members in establishing a sense of wellness with a focus on taking care of themselves and learning how to support their loved ones in a healthy way.
Throughout my career, I have enjoyed presenting education sessions to clients, the community, and other health professionals. I also instruct a course named Addiction in the Family yearly, on-campus and online, at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Addiction Certificate Program.
I also enjoy mentoring those who have chosen the same career path. This mentoring helps me remember that I am forever a student and must continue learning the best-practice helping tools for my clients.
As for my credentials, here they are:
Registered Psychotherapist with the CRPO.
Diploma in Social Service Work and diploma in Drug and Alcohol Counselling
BA in Social Development Studies, University of Waterloo
Master of Education in Adult Education, Yorkville University
Member of The Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals
My therapeutic approaches and training:
Client-Centred Therapy
Solution-Focused Therapy
Strength-Based Therapy
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Beck Institute (CBT)
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, (DBT)
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Compassion Focused Therapy
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Training in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
Outside work, I love spending time with my husband, two children, dog and cat. We enjoy being active and spending time outside. I aim to return to triathlon training one day to spend more time outside and for my mental health wellness. Well, I’ve said it out loud, so I guess I am accountable!
CDWF-Clinician* = Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator(CDWF)
After two decades of working in the helping profession, I bravely travelled to Texas and took this wonderful training. Brené Brown’s work has always spoken to me as vulnerability, shame, and self-compassion have been common topics in my work, and I wanted to find a way to talk about these things outside of the addiction world. We all struggle with issues like perfectionism, scarcity and using ways to protect ourselves that may work for the short term (alcohol, drugs, shopping, binging on the internet, and even overworking); however, in the long term, these things prevent us from connecting to ourselves and our loved ones.
