This year has brought some exciting changes in our counselling team at Shalem. Jennifer Bowen returned from her maternity leave, resuming her work as Clinical Director and therapist at the Hamilton Clinic.  The team was very happy that interim clinical director Susan Winter Fledderus chose to stay on at the Hamilton clinic as a therapist.

Susan brings a wealth of experience in many areas of counselling, and is an experienced trainer of therapists.  She will also be joining Betty Brouwer in our attachment-focused work, expanding Shalem’s ability to serve families in distress.

We are very excited to be offering several community workshops this fall – one of our favourite ways of partnering with local churches and community groups. Included in this is a training by Susan Winter Fledderus on Solution-Focused Therapy for therapists in Ontario. Susan is a both a strong instructor and brings a wealth of clinical experience to this very applicable model. Another exciting event taking shape is an attachment conference with Sue Johnson and Dan Hughes in early March, 2014 – a two-day joint training, combining EFT and Dan’s Attachment model. We are already getting feedback on this event as both needed and stimulating to our field.

Betty Brouwer, our therapist doing attachment-focused work with children and families, has completed her certification, and is training to be able to supervise new therapists in the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy model – a very exciting development for the clinic. On March 21, 2013 she presented to the Family and Children’s Services Niagara in St. Catharines on the topic of adoption and attachment to current and future adoptive parents.