Hi, I’m Meaghan.

I am a queer Toronto-based trauma therapist. I have been working with individuals and families since 2007, beginning my career as a Child and Youth Counsellor in the Child and Youth Mental Health sector. I completed my Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto in 2013, and completed trauma training through the Trauma Therapy Program at Women’s College Hospital. I have been working in private practice for five years, most recently leaving my position as Trauma Therapist in the Trauma Therapy Program at Women’s College Hospital to work full-time in private practice. I am committed to professional development and learning to ensure I am always a competent and inclusive therapist. I have completed additional trainings in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Training (Level I and II), Emotion-Focused Therapy (Level I), Narrative Therapy for Trauma, Internal Family Systems, Healing from Collective Trauma, Relational Life Therapy, EMDR (Level I), Sexuality, Gender and Relationship Diversity training, Maternal Support Practitioner training (doula), and many more. In addition to my role as a therapist, I hold an Adjunct Lecturer position with the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, and I provide Clinical Supervision to psychotherapists working in private practice.

The focus of my work with client is in trauma processing and healing. I have breadth of experience working with folks who have experienced childhood (developmental) and adulthood trauma, sexual violence, racism, oppression, and marginalization, and who experience concerns related to mood, anxiety, executive functioning, relationship challenges, self-esteem and identity, sexuality, life transitions, such as new parenthood, and boundaries. Many of my clients are folks who identify as LGBTQ2SI+. I work with people who are in late adolescence/early adulthood through the lifespan, providing individual and couples therapy.

My therapeutic approach is client-centred, strength-based, and collaborative, and rooted in relational-cultural therapy, anti-oppression, anti-racism, intersectional feminism, attachment theory, and sex-positivity. I utilize various modalities to support you in your healing. I pay particular attention to how early life experiences shape who we are today. I take a curious stance, encouraging you to look inward for answers and to explore patterns in your life.

I aim to create a space that is warm, inviting and collaborative. I view you as the expert of your own life, and my role as one that witnesses and accompanies you on your journey towards making changes.

Work with me

EDUCATION & TRAINING


Masters of Social Work, University of Toronto, 2013
Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Care, Ryerson University, 2009
Diploma in Child and Youth Work, George Brown College, 2007


Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Level 2, in progress
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Level I, June 2021
Love, Trauma and Healing with Thomas Hubl and Terry Real, May 2021
Principles of Healing Collective Trauma with Thomas Hubl, January 2021
Relational Life Therapy: Level I with Terry Real, ongoing
Internal Family Systems (IFS) 3-Day Experiential Workshop with Frank Anderson, Jan 2020
Effective Clinical Supervision: Building and Maintaining the Supervisory Alliance with Lois Ehrmann (12 hours), May 2020
Clinical Supervision: Deepening Your Clinical Skills with Lois Ehrmann (18 hours), May 2020
Sexual, Gender, and Relationship Diversity: Tools for Health Professionals, University of Guelph, 2019
Emotionally Focused Therapy: Cracking the Code of Love in Couples and Families (12 hours), Sue Johnson, May 2018
Emotion Focused Therapy: Level I (40 hours), Les Greenberg, PhD, York University, August 2018
Shame and Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma with Janina Fisher, PhD(6 hours), Feb 2017
Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Practical, Integrative Approach, Kathy Steele (12 hours), May 2017
Treating the Invisible Wounds of Sociocultural Trauma with Dr. Kenneth V. Hardy (5 hours), Nov 2017
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level II, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, completed February 2016
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 1 (80 hours), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, completed June 2014
Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (10 hours), September 2013

Articles & Publications

Peckham, M. (2021). Grounding and Resourcing. In Hershler, A., Hughes, L., Nguyen, P., Wall, S. (Eds.), Looking at Trauma: A Toolkit for Clinicians (pp. 13-15). The Pennsylvania State University Press.


Peckham, M. (2009). Street-Involved Youths’ Constructs of God. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 22(2), 44-54.

‘Regulating Your Nervous System’ WEBINAR

This 1-hour webinar provides:

  • Comprehensive psycho-education about the neurobiology and neurophysiology of the nervous system, using the frameworks of Polyvagal Theory, the Triune Brain, and Window of Tolerance

  • An understanding of neurobiology to explain how past trauma, ongoing stress and uncertainty, and oppression impacts the nervous system’s optimal functioning, resulting in the diminished ability to function and cope.

  • Psycho-education about the importance of supporting the nervous system through stimulating the Vagus Nerve and other body based practices, and through self-care and self-nurturing practices, ensuring the ‘Window’ is wide as possible – increasing our capacity, and helping our amygdala’s interpret incoming information accurately and without being overwhelmed by it

  • Strategies to regulate hyperarousal (activated) and hypoarousal (shut down) states -- supporting the nervous system to reinstate balance.

Resources

 
Featured
Osteopathy Can Benefit You!
Osteopathy Can Benefit You!

If you are familiar with Osteopathy already, you likely relate Osteopathy to the treatment of physical ailments, such as back pain, joint pain, and digestive issues. Physical ailments, like these, are common reasons why we tend to reach out to manual therapists, like Osteopaths, to provide us relief from pain. However, Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (aka., Osteopathy) can provide us much, much more.

Our mind and body are an interconnected system, therefore, when we are experiencing emotional and psychological distress and/or dysfunction, we will also experience impacts to our system (body): sympathetic and parasympathetic tone (autonomic nervous system), heart rate variability, gut health and gut-brain communication, and structural functions – resulting in immobility, tension, and pain. In turn, if these functions and pathways in our body are not restored, they will continue to contribute to the persistence of dysfunction in our emotional and psychological health.

Window of Tolerance
Window of Tolerance

The “Window of Tolerance” is a model that I use very often in my work with clients, to provide an explanation for many common experiences such as, triggers, depression, anxiety, and the impacts of stress. The Window of Tolerance was originally developed by Dr. Dan Siegel (1999), and has been adapted many times by other trauma researchers and therapists since.

This model describes what happens when provides a way to understand how we organize and manage incoming information and what happens when it becomes unmanageable; another way to understand our nervous system responses to our environment and our lives.

Narrative therapy Tree of life exercise
Narrative therapy Tree of life exercise

This exercise was designed by Ncazelo Ncube (PHOLA) and David Denborough (Dulwich Centre Foundation). The purpose of this exercise is to reclaim your identity and the story of your life through identifying all the different aspects of your identity, including your past, future goals, strengths, and support system.