Working in the Caribbean in the field of Psychosocial Recovery and Reconstruction, post hurricanes, has afforded me the discovery of a multitude of challenges and expansions as a psychotherapist.

Along with my private practice, in Grenada I am based primarily with the Legal Aid and Counseling Clinic and also with the National Children's Home. I work with the Queen Elizabeth Home for Children, and have had the privilege of contributing to several community training initiatives with the Agency for Reconstruction and Development. I’ve guest lectured in the Master of Public Health program at St. George’s University, and I work alongside a number of medical doctors in the provision of psychotherapeutic care. My first connection to Regional initiatives came in the form of a conference in Nassau, Bahamas, “Creating Partnerships to Confront Sexual Violence in the Caribbean”, in which I represented Grenada via the LACC.

This community work has brought new understandings of how the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing model intersects with the Mental Health model and other frameworks that can creatively be melded to serve the indigenous habits and needs of a particular populace, following a major crisis.

While my private practice continues to revolve around the principles of psychodynamic psychotherapy, aspects of Shamanic practice, Buddhist-based mindfulness approaches and the philosophies of yoga and the martial arts, I have necessarily expanded into the realms of Ecological or Environmental psychology. This provides a thorough foundation in a truly holistic philosophy of treatment for emotional and mental ills. Also, I have become strongly influenced by two new dynamics. One, the Psychosynthetic approach of Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli in which there is a strong measure of the mystical, and two, with traditional culture’s use of herbal medicines for the treatment of both psychological and physical imbalances.

I have not missed out on the opportunities for self-care that present in these parts. My love for hiking, kayaking and cycling in the tropical rain forests and beaches of the Caribbean have yielded new insights into the relationship between mental health and physical wellbeing. My phenomenological approach to client care encourages my incorporation of all these elements - my clients understand that my services may be provided on-line, by telephone, on-site in a clinical/studio setting, in a classroom environment, or just as likely out in the wild.

My very close relationship with Canada, where I studied and worked for 30 years, continues strongly via various media: Membership in the Canadian Association for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy; on-going apprenticeship to Heloisa Porto in her institute for Shamanic Psychotherapy; on-going studies in the Maitreya Seminary, and my new studies in the Institute of Traditional Medicine’s distance diploma program in Herbal Medicine.

While my private practice, integrated as “Wide River Psychotherapy, International”, now includes a distance-counseling component, I return frequently to Toronto to study and work in a variety of outlets. This includes my January, 2008 workshop series in Psychosocial Recovery, at Fanshawe College in London.

Two books are in the works, “Shaman in the City”, and “Six Months of South”.

For further information:

hazel@hazeldabreo.com,

416-628-2969.