About James

My two brothers and I grew up in a loving family with two soulful parents – our dad was a minister and our mom became a counselor after we were all into middle school. As far back as I can remember, I always appreciated that my parents’ work in the world was helping people.

Before my own call to serve others became clear to me, I spent a lot of my teenage years rather lost. I had a deep yearning to escape many of my life circumstances (even if they weren’t that bad), and a strong drive to understand the nature of my struggles. I eventually came to recognize these impulses as the urge for freedom and the desire to know my own heart and mind – impulses common to many of us.

In the roughly twelve years between my undergrad and my return to school for a master’s degree, I spent the bulk of my time on the road. Before my traveling began in earnest, I worked for two years at a private boarding school (a member of the associate faculty and an assistant housemaster). After about a year bouncing around Australia, I moved to Montreal to help my younger brother and a cousin start a family restaurant. I then spent a couple of years exploring all around Europe (beginning with a seven-month cycling trip), alongside a bit of North Africa and Turkey.

I traveled and lived in South America for about a year and explored India and Nepal for several months, along with various extended excursions throughout the United States. The thrust of much of my traveling over these years was a search for myself – I was seeking the peace and presence I grew up surrounded by but had lost touch with.

I worked various odd jobs as I traveled, painting houses, cleaning schools and offices, teaching English, living and working on a farm with dozens of animals, hosting yoga retreats, leading tour groups, and occasionally facilitating meditation circles. I even once gave a lecture on ethical waste management to a delegation of Bangladeshi government officials (on behalf of the Austrian Green Party).

As I traveled, I was routinely soaking up self-help books, ancient spiritual texts, new age mysticism, classic novels, and I began exploring yoga and meditation with great interest and dedication. At some point, life began opening up and flowing for me in a very natural way, events and encounters leading effortlessly into the next adventure. I also discovered an innate inclination to be of service to others, my heart seeming to grow by leaps and bounds.

It was amidst this season that I found myself going back to school and working at a church alongside my studies. I never would have guessed that I would end up working there eight years, becoming the pastoral care ministry lead, hosting meditation circles twice weekly, and even preaching periodically throughout the year.

Both through my work at the church and my placements at U of T’s Multifaith Centre and the Ecumenical Chaplaincy at U of T, I designed and hosted several overnight spiritual retreats, finding deep nourishment and purpose in the process.

Upon graduating in May of 2025, my partner and I moved north to Thornbury and we welcomed our first child in September of 2025.

I see therapy as a collaborative process where we can become gently attentive to your inner world and deeper intuition. It’s a space where we can slow down together and notice the patterns, wounds, strengths, and longings that shape your inner and outer life.

In our work, we make room not only for thoughts and memories, but also for feelings, the body, and subtler layers of experience that can be more difficult to identify. We can explore current challenges like anxiety, relationship struggles, or life transitions, while also tending to earlier experiences that continue to live on in your nervous system and sense of self.

Working from a relational and trauma-informed lens, I trust that healing happens in large part through safe and attuned connection. Our therapeutic relationship is a place where you can be met with care, curiosity, and respect, especially in places where you may earlier have felt alone, overwhelmed, or misunderstood.

Depending on your needs and preferences, we can incorporate approaches that help you build internal resources, deepen self-awareness, and relate differently to difficult thoughts, emotions, or parts of yourself. We move at a pace that feels manageable for you, keeping in touch with your sense of agency.

At heart, psychotherapy is not about fixing you. It is about supporting you in coming into a more grounded, compassionate, and integrated relationship with yourself and your life – trusting that healing unfolds best in an atmosphere of patience, presence, and authentic connection.

Leaning generally toward humanistic theories, my approach to our work together incorporates aspects of person-centred, existential, and relational therapies, Internal Family Systems, Self psychology, attachment theory, and openness to a wide range of spiritual perspectives, generally filtered through a somatic and trauma-informed lens. As I continue learning and growing in the field of psychotherapy, exploring more of the modalities being employed (and those that are yet unfolding), I am confident this list will evolve.

Honours Bachelor of Arts (English Major with Philosophy & Political Science Minors), University of Toronto, 2006

Master of Divinity, Emmanuel College (University of Toronto), 2021

Master of Psychospiritual Studies, Emmanuel College (University of Toronto), 2025