ABOUT ME

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I am white, first generation Polish Canadian. I identify as a cisgender hetero-normative female, in a long-term monogamous relationship approved by church and state. I am able-bodied. 

I am a birth-mother of three children. 

I am a lover of people and nature. I am a spiritual seeker and student.

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I am a writer, a musician, a compassionate presence.

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In my life I have had a number of pivotal experiences, which have come together to guide my understanding of the world, and in particular my vocation and responsibilities.

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As a social worker and a family therapist, I am first and foremost committed to being a listener, an encourager, a compassionate presence, and a co-creator of hope.

STORY OF ORIGINS

I am a first generation immigrant. My parents and all our ancestors were born and lived in the lands that are currently called Poland. We come from the Eastern European people called the Slavs. I was raised with stories of World War I and II, stories of poverty, hunger, oppression, and fear, as well as stories of incredible strength and endurance.

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In the late 1980's my parents chose to emigrate from Poland to leave behind the oppressive Communist regime that was controlling the country, and to escape the civil unrest and turbulence that was sweeping the country at that time. I was 12 when we left, my mom and two baby sisters travelling by bus, and my dad and I travelling by train to avoid suspicion from authorities. I lost much in that experience. I cannot speak of the loss even today without feeling sadness and hurt - the loss of my beloved grandparents and great grandparents, my extended family, all beloved and familiar places and things, the history and language, traditions and customs.

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I am a Settler on this Land. 

As a Settler, I am deeply grateful that I am able to live here and be blessed by the beauty and bounty, even though I am simultaneously fully aware that the Indigenous Peoples of this Land are suffering due to marginalization, institutionalized racism and segregation as part of Colonization. And so I gratefully and humbly acknowledge the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the People of the Treaty 7 Region in Southern Alberta, which include the Siksika, the Piikuni, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina, and the Stoney Nakoda First Nations.

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Though it was not my personal choice to come to this Land, I am deeply committed to living well here, with gratitude and respect. This Land is where my children were born and where I will likely die. This Land is where the idea of Canada has been enacted for the past 150 years, and I am continually and willingly participating in all the actions and ideas that make up Canada.

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My particular experience of emigrating, being a refugee as a young preteen, becoming an immigrant as a teenager, and eventually a citizen of Canada, all inform my identity as a person and as a social worker today. I believe all these elements contribute to my sense of justice, commitment to ethics, and desire to participate in hope-building as a social worker.

LIFE INFLUENCES AND VALUES

FAMILY

I am a mother of three children. I grew up as the eldest of three girls in our immediate family, and the eldest of multiple cousins on my mother's side. Leaving all the extended family behind in Poland left me with a profound sense of disconnection and isolation as an immigrant. Upon having my own children I struggled to know how to be a mother with so few people close to me here in Canada. I was diagnosed with severe postpartum depression in the first three months of my eldest daughter's life. This experience has deeply affected my understanding of what many new mothers' experience, who often suffer in secret and in isolation. (I wrote the story of my depression, The Most Beautiful Sorrow for a number of support communities.)

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During my MSW program, I took the opportunity to explore and deepen my understanding of how postpartum depression can be revisioned through a lens of social justice and Just Therapy approach to family therapy my paper.

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Finding ways to re-envision new motherhood - with all of its challenges, including potential physical and emotional health struggles - as a construct that can be talked about differently, is one way of engaging in active hope.