Board of directors

I am a Palestinian Canadian whose life was greatly impacted by the experience of childhood immigration and political developments in the Middle East. In my spare time, I fight injustice and inequality as a human rights activist and community organizer. I have also worked with immigrants and refugees, providing settlement services and group counselling sessions. My passion for psychotherapy stems from my conviction that a better world is possible.
As hard as change was for me in my own life transitions, it would be change that would drive me forward; the desire to understand myself and improve, to do the work that would be necessary to become the person I am today.
I hope to bring my passion for change to the OSRP as we continue to grow and inspire.

Contact Hammam: president@psychotherapyontario.org
Contact Hammam: osrp_crpo@psychotherapyontario.org

I am a registered psychotherapist with 15 years of experience supporting adults as they navigate complex identities, trauma, and mental health challenges. My practice takes both a systemic and individual approach, centering racialized, queer, immigrant, and neurodivergent communities. I draw on psychodynamic, trauma-informed, multicultural, and decolonising frameworks.

My leadership journey spans healthcare, corporate and community mental health in Canada and India. I am a Young India Fellow and an alum of the Sangath Leadership in Mental Health program - both experiences that have honed my commitment to inclusive, community-driven care.

As Vice-Chair, I’m dedicated to fostering connection, transparency, and advocacy across Ontario’s community of psychotherapists. I believe meaningful change comes from listening, learning, and working together.

Contact Taysir: vice-chair@psychotherapyontario.org
Contact Taysir: ethics@psychotherapyontario.org

I joined the board because I noticed that it is made up of members who are passionate about the call of duty. Also, I discovered that, from the inception of the organization, there have been positive changes. That said, there is still much to do, which requires the help of everyone, especially psychotherapists. I know that I am motivated and possess diverse skills and global knowledge that can be of great use to this wonderful organization. I greatly admire that the organization is made up of leaders that have the best interest of all psychotherapists in Canada at heart. Additionally, I believe that I can best serve the organization as an active member of the board of directors.
I bring with me over 20 years of professional experience within diverse fields, and I have held senior active leadership positions. I have had the privilege to sit on local and global boards. With that said, I am zealous about the advancement of mental health locally and internationally. I am committed to continuing to work towards eradicating the stigma associated with obtaining professional mental health services. Also, I comprehend the urgency for more to be done globally, especially in Canada, to safeguard the field of psychotherapy. Such urgency also brings greater attention to the fact that psychotherapy, like its counterpart, psychology, has its own unique platform and is not second best to any approach.

I absolutely love being a registered psychotherapist, as it is the first of many careers in which I have felt that I can show up fully as myself, engage honestly and meaningfully with other people, and, when all goes well, get the sense that I am helping.
I am honoured to be a part of the OSRP, an organization which seeks to unite the shared goals, challenges, and hopes of our profession and to collectively work together to benefit the profession, its members, and, when all goes well, society at large. We are in a helping vocation, and I hope I can be helpful. I have worked in business for many years, managing multiple locations of a regional company, and have sat on a number of boards in a number of roles, and have been no stranger to the columns of a spreadsheet, the balancing of a budget, or the forecasting of a financial system. Hopefully my willingness to get lost in the details of a balance sheet proves useful within the OSRP. I hope to help propel the organization forward, through membership growth commensurate with the growth of our industry, and through adapting our profession to the changing world around us, helping to maintain our place, as an organization with a long and proud history of speaking on behalf of psychotherapists.

Contact Mat: treasurer@psychotherapyontario.org

Nalwanga Musisi is a Registered Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor based in Tkaronto, with over seven years of clinical experience. She is also the founder of Karibu Mental Health Network, a BIPOC initiative focused on addressing systemic inequities in mental health care and advancing accessible, culturally responsive services. Through this work, she has built several successful partnerships across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to help make mental health care more available to those who need it. She has also supported organizations in building mental health programs guided by integrity and care, with a focus on turning values like equity into real, practical changes in how services are designed, delivered, and sustained.
In addition to her formal training in counselling psychology, Nalwanga has studied bioethics, organizational behaviour, and communication. She brings a thoughtful, forward-looking approach to both her clinical and supervisory work, and carries this perspective into her role on the OSRP Board. With Board experience from abroad, she supports strong, accountable governance grounded in clarity and a steady commitment to continuous improvement, ensuring that systems remain responsive to the communities they serve.
Nalwanga is honoured to serve as Secretary on the OSRP Board and looks forward to working alongside the membership to ensure that OSRP continues to grow as a professional home where legacy and innovation can coexist and collective wisdom is carried forward with intention.

Contact Nalwanga: secretary@psychotherapyontario.org
Contact Nalwanga: ethics@psychotherapyontario.org
Contact Nalwanga: nomination@psychotherapyontario.org

I am currently practising as a Relational Therapist in Tkaronto (Toronto), supporting both individuals and couples. I recently trained at the Toronto Institute for Relational Psychotherapy while I concurrently studied feminist and decolonial psychoanalysis in the University of Toronto’s Gender Studies department. This has helped me bring together systems-level and psychodynamic lenses, working collaboratively with clients to understand how their mental health is embedded in social and relational contexts.
Before training in psychotherapy, I worked in community mental health settings doing program management, policy development, and program evaluation work. My organizational work was grounded in anti-oppressive values and peer support practices.
I previously obtained an MSc in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychology from University College London. The distance between what I was taught and what I experienced in community work inspired me to return to school, completing an MA in Sociology in which I examined the colonial and patriarchal roots of contemporary neuropsychology research. This work has shown me the value of integrating social justice and scientific lenses when understanding mental health.
Outside of work, I’m active in community organizing, sing in a protest choir, and play softball. I feel very privileged to join this Board. I’m excited to keep building spaces for psychotherapists to connect, learn, and support one another as we make our work more socially responsive, inclusive, and sustainable.

Contact Franklynn: connect@psychotherapyontario.org

Kaushiki Rao initially trained in India as a mental health counsellor in 2017 and has been practicing there since. She recently completed further training at the Toronto Institute for Relational Psychotherapy and currently practices as a Therapist in Ontario.
Kaushiki primarily works from an intersubjective and self-psychology lens. She is particularly interested in how relational (social) structures such as caste, gender, race, class generate and inform intrapsychic dynamics. Since moving to Tkaronto/Toronto in late 2021, Kaushiki has become interested in Turtle Island’s Indigenous ways of knowing and thinking about relationality and intrapsychic well-being.
Kaushiki has a B.A. in Anthropology from Amherst College, and a M.A. in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago

Contact Kaushiki: edi@psychotherapyontario.org
Contact Kaushiki: nomination@psychotherapyontario.org

Contact Alethia: edi@psychotherapyontario.org

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I am a Registered Psychotherapist currently practising in Tkaronto/Toronto and I received my training at the Toronto Institute for Relational Psychotherapy (TIRP).
I currently combine seeing clients in private practice with almost two decades of teaching/lecturing in the Department of Sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University. These complementary but distinct types of work have sensitized me to the complex and impactful relationship between structural forms of power on the one hand and intrapsychic dynamics and processes on the other, as well as the ways in which economic, political, socio-cultural, and relational contexts are implicated in mental health struggles.
As a relational therapist grounded in the psychodynamic and self-psychology tradition, I take a trauma-informed, intersubjective, systemic, and anti-oppression approach to mental health difficulties. As a Board member of OSRP, I am interested in strengthening OSRP’s advocacy and values as well as building spaces and opportunities to support, learn from, and connect with each other as we improve our profession.
When not teaching or seeing clients, I am active in community, social justice, and labour organizing, singing in a protest choir, writing, moving my body at the gym and in nature, and wondering if I should try to join/start a band.

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I have been working as a health care professional for almost 40 years.
Initially, I became interested in what happens to the human body when communication is impeded. This curiosity launched my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist. Then I began to explore the psychological issues involved in communication. I discovered the use of art to facilitate internal expression and communication. This led to my second career as a Psychotherapist and Expressive Arts Therapist combined with my clinical work as a Speech Pathologist.
I am deeply interested in interpersonal communication. I completed my studies at the Toronto Institute of Human Relations where the focus was on knowledge of self as a pre-requisite to developing effective skills as a psychotherapist. My work now centers on supervision of students, psychotherapy with youth and children, families and adults.
I was a member (and former president) of the OSRP board 15 years ago. I choose to let my name stand to be on the OSRP board for 2025. I look forward to meeting and working with the next generation of psychotherapists and discovering the links and connections we can make to enhance our profession.

The Board of the OSRP is the heart of this organization, of which I am honoured to now be part. It plays a crucial role in advocating for psychotherapists, with the potential to positively impact mental health across Ontario. As a Board member, I’m committed to supporting the mission of the OSRP and advancing the best interests of both our members and the public.
I came to this profession as a second career, graduating with an MACP in 2022. My practice focuses on clients who feel overwhelmed, burned out, or anxious — often parents and often dealing with physical pain. I work with individuals who identify as Highly Sensitive People, as described by Elaine Aron, helping them make sense of their experiences and struggle to contextualize their lived experience within the world they encounter. My approach to treating chronic pain and discomfort is grounded in neuroplasticity and evidence-based pain research, including my training in Pain Reprocessing Therapy. I aim to help clients find the delicate and teeteringly unsatisfying balance between caring for self and navigating a world that doesn’t always accommodate differences.
Where did I learn this? My personal journey has shaped my perspective. Leaving and later reflecting on a religious belief system, along with my undergraduate studies led me to value ethics and integrity in my work. I’m particularly grateful for courses on informal argumentation, ethics, and epistemology that help me understand complex issues. As a mother of four who homeschooled for many years, and through years of volunteer work (including sitting on a local ratepayers’ executive board), I’ve also gained firsthand insight into how idealistic and academic ideas translate into the messy realness of everyday life (spoiler: it’s often as hard as it seems).