Caring, Compassionate, and Personalized Psychotherapy and Counselling with Alan Ackerly

• Registered Psychotherapist- The College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario
• Clinical Member- Ontario Society of Registered Psychotherapists
• MSc., Ed.S. in Counselling University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA
• M.A., in International Human Rights at the University of Essex, Colchester, UK
• B.A., in Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, my primary professional goal has been to help and support others. With that in mind, I became a high school teacher after completing my undergraduate studies. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and especially enjoyed working with and speaking with students individually. I quickly realized that many of my students were often dealing with so much outside of school including issues at home, issues with their peers, emotions, trauma, and anxiety.  This made achieving their academic and/or personal goals increasingly difficult. They needed support beyond the academic.

After a few years of teaching, I became an assistant principal where my primary responsibility was to work with teachers individually to help them improve their instruction. Similar to my experience with students, it became clear that many teachers needed support beyond pedagogy and instructional feedback. They needed someone to listen and support them in all their needs both professional and personal before they could truly flourish professionally.

Wanting to further my understanding and effectiveness in helping others, I decided to change careers and become a professional psychotherapist. My training at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro provided me with the clinical skills necessary to support others in how they most need it.  This program is consistently ranked as one of the top counselling programs nationally.  I am happy to be continuing my practice in Canada, since moving here in 2018.  As your psychotherapist, I will be a  present and active listener, empathetic, caring, and focused on whatever you would like to focus.

In the years I’ve been practising as a psychotherapist, I’ve learned the importance of developing a deep understanding of my clients and their struggles. I have eventually come to understand that this means I should strictly limit the number of clients I support. Rather than seek out as many clients as possible, I focus on a few clients in a deep and meaningful way. I am able to recall important details to make impactful connections across sessions because my focus is on a relatively small group of clients.