Book an Appointment at Hamilton Location - Virtual & In Person
Welcome to Vital Minds Psychotherapy! Our compassionate therapists provide both online and in-person therapy, utilizing a holistic and collaborative approach to treatment. We are dedicated to fostering a secure and nurturing environment that promotes healing and encourages personal growth.
If you cannot find an ideal time or date for you, please feel free to email us at info@vitalminds.ca or give us a call during normal business hours at 905-618-7777 and we will see what we can do!
We recommend booking multiple sessions to confirm your slots in advance!
Vanessa Gear
Vanessa is a warm and knowledgeable therapist who works with children, teens, adults, and families navigating anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, learning disabilities, school challenges, and life transitions.
Vanessa is a warm and knowledgeable therapist who works with children, teens, adults, and familie... Read More
Mrs. Stacey Ramsay-Bawden (Virtual Only) Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
With over 25 years of experience supporting individuals through life’s personal, academic, and professional challenges, Stacey provides practical, compassionate, and evidence-based care to help people navigate stress, build resilience, and perform at their best. Her background in education, combined with advanced psychotherapy training, gives her a unique understanding of how anxiety, burnout, ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and life transitions can impact both personal well-being and workplace performance.
Stacey works collaboratively with clients experiencing workplace stress, burnout, anxiety, depression, OCD, health anxiety, ADHD, Autism, chronic illness, grief, trauma, and major life transitions. She also provides coaching for professionals seeking to improve executive functioning skills such as organization, time management, focus, emotional regulation, decision-making, and work-life balance.
Using an integrative, evidence-based approach, Stacey draws from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Narrative Therapy, and Strengths-Based Therapy. Her goal is to provide practical strategies that help clients overcome immediate challenges while building the confidence and skills needed for long-term success and well-being.
Known for her warm, encouraging, and collaborative style, Stacey creates a supportive environment where clients feel understood, empowered, and equipped to make meaningful, lasting change.
With over 25 years of experience supporting individuals through life’s personal, academic, and pr... Read More
Amanda Spallacci Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Amanda is dedicated to helping individuals, couples, and families navigate life’s challenges with compassion and understanding. Her journey into therapy began with a PhD where she explored women’s memoirs to understand how personal and cultural narratives shape our understanding of trauma, identity, and relationships. She spent years teaching university courses on gender, race, trauma, and memory, deepening my understanding of how societal structures and lived experiences shape self-esteem, coping mechanisms, and interpersonal relationships. This foundation, along with specialized training in Counselling Psychology, inspired her to shift from the academic context to working directly with clients. She uses this comprehensive knowledge to support individuals, couples, and families as they navigate trauma, identity struggles, healing, and connection in their lives.
Therapy with Amanda is warm, collaborative, and rooted in respect for each client’s unique experiences. She believes true healing happens in a space where you feel heard, understood, and supported. Her approach is integrative and person-centred, drawing from trauma-focused therapy, emotionally focused therapy (EFT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). She also incorporates culturally sensitive and feminist perspectives, recognizing the ways systemic factors influence mental health. Whether you are navigating addiction, trauma, relationship struggles, postpartum challenges, infertility, or anxiety, Amanda tailors each session to meet you where you are, so you can work together on the path toward the change you seek.
Amanda is trained in supporting survivors of emotional abuse and gaslighting, as well as those navigating anxiety, depression, addiction, self-esteem challenges, and women’s health concerns, including postpartum mental health and infertility. Her goal is to help you let go from the patterns that no longer serve you, cultivate emotional resilience, and build a stronger connection with yourself and others. You don’t have to navigate this alone, Amanda is here to offer you validation, guidance, and practical tools to support your healing.
Amanda is dedicated to helping individuals, couples, and families navigate life’s challenges with... Read More
Amanda Lazenis
Working with Amanda is a supportive and collaborative experience where you are invited to slow down, reflect, and reconnect with yourself. Her goal is for you to leave each session feeling seen, validated, and equipped with meaningful tools to navigate life’s challenges. Amanda’s approach is centered on creating a safe and encouraging space where you can explore your thoughts, emotions, and relationship dynamics without judgment. She believes therapy should feel both grounding and empowering, a place where genuine growth and healing can truly begin.
Amanda takes an integrative, client-centered approach that draws on CBT, SFBT, Strengths-Based Therapy, and EFT for couples. With a strong trauma-informed background and a commitment to cultural sensitivity, her sessions are collaborative and practical, focusing on identifying patterns that may be holding you back and developing strategies to foster resilience, emotional regulation, and self-compassion. Her experience supporting women from diverse cultural backgrounds has strengthened her dedication to creating an inclusive space where every client feels understood and valued. She works with clients to set meaningful goals that reflect their values, guiding them toward greater awareness, confidence, and connection.
Amanda works with individuals and couples who are navigating anxiety, stress, relationship issues, and major life transitions. She helps clients manage anxious thoughts, strengthen communication, and create deeper, more fulfilling relationships. When working with couples, Amanda uses EFT to help partners understand each other’s emotional needs, repair disconnection, and build closeness. Her gentle, curious style encourages honest conversations and helps clients feel supported as they explore new ways of relating to themselves and others.
Working with Amanda is a supportive and collaborative experience where you are invited to slow do... Read More
Kasandra Lauzon (Virtual Only)
To work with Kasandra, means to feel respected, heard and validated in a non-judgemental, safe environment. Each session, the goal is to support and make you feel seen and supported. Kasandra values the courage it takes to open up and share your story, and she makes it a priority to acknowledge the strength, resilience and motivation you carry throughout life’s challenges.
Kasandra believes therapy is a collaborative journey. Together you will work together, with compassion, curiosity and teamwork to better understand experiences, patterns in order to grow and heal. Kasandra will create an environment that allows you to explore challenges from the past and possibilities ahead at your pace.
Kasandra’s professional philosophy is rooted in belief that healing occurs when one feels safe enough to explore internally, while being supported externally. She will strive to meet you where you are - whether that means to help understand emotions, transitions in life or reconnect you with your authentic self. Together, you will cultivate a space that is welcoming towards growth and strength.
Kasandra’s approach is integrative and person – centred, drawing from motivational interviewing, solution focused brief therapy and humanistic. She will tailor each session to your needs. Kasandra believes that integrating the mind and body can create change that lasts.
To work with Kasandra, means to feel respected, heard and validated in a non-judgemental, safe en... Read More
Diana Ostap Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Working with Diana feels relaxed, supportive, and genuine. She creates a calm, welcoming space where clients can take a deep breath and be themselves, free from judgement or shame. Her goal is for every person to leave each session feeling seen, understood, and a little lighter. Diana shows up as her authentic self in session, believing that real healing happens through genuine connection and mutual respect. She views the therapeutic relationship as a partnership built on trust and equality, where clients are the experts of their own experiences.
Diana’s professional philosophy is rooted in compassion and curiosity. She understands that each person’s story is layered and complex, and that therapy is not about fixing people but about creating space for understanding, acceptance, and change. She believes that everyone deserves to feel accepted as they are and supported as they grow, and she brings a steady, compassionate presence to help make that possible.Diana uses an integrative and flexible approach, thoughtfully drawing mindfulness-based, trauma-informed, emotion-focused, and cognitive-behavioral therapies. She collaborates with each client to tailor sessions to their unique goals, values, and pace. Whether exploring deep-rooted patterns, learning new coping tools, or developing emotional awareness, Diana creates space for clients to feel seen and empowered.
Diana works with teens and adults who are navigating mood disorders, personality disorders, and neurodivergent experiences. She is especially passionate about supporting people who have felt misunderstood, stigmatized, or disconnected. Diana is committed to providing affirming care for members of the LGBTQ+ community. She understands how important it is to have a therapist who welcomes your full identity and helps you feel comfortable being yourself. She also stands as an ally to sex workers and others whose voices are too often overlooked or judged.
Working with Diana feels relaxed, supportive, and genuine. She creates a calm, welcoming space wh... Read More
Ms. Arianna Velocci Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Arianna is committed to supporting you in gaining a deeper self-awareness, navigating life’s challenges with confidence, and developing self acceptance. With a strong emphasis on empathy, Arianna strives to create a safe, non-judgmental space where you feel truly seen and supported—wherever you are on your healing journey.
Arianna believes that everyone holds the capacity to heal and overcome their challenges with the right skills and tools to work through even the most difficult of circumstances. Healing is not meant to be a solitary process, and she is honoured to walk alongside her clients as they grow, heal, and work towards improving their mental health.
Arianna’s therapeutic approach is collaborative, integrative, and holistic, drawing from evidence-based modalities such as CBT, ACT, EFT, MBCT, the Gottman Method, person-centred, and somatic therapy. She will work closely with you to help you understand your unique needs and goals, and together develop a personalized treatment plan that aligns with your vision for growth.
Arianna has a special interest in areas such as boundary setting, perfectionism, people-pleasing, attachment styles, trauma recovery, narcissistic abuse, ADHD, and women’s mental health. She also supports you working through anxiety, depression, self-esteem concerns, and relationship challenges. Arianna is trained in the Gottman approach and works with couples struggling with trust, communication and conflict resolution.
Arianna is committed to supporting you in gaining a deeper self-awareness, navigating life’s chal... Read More
Bianca Amendola (Virtual Only)
Bianca is a compassionate and collaborative therapist who supports teens and adults navigating anxiety, depression, OCD, phobias, stress, burnout, and life transitions. She understands how exhausting it can feel to live with constant overthinking, intrusive thoughts, perfectionism, or the pressure to keep functioning when you’re emotionally drained. Whether you’re struggling with workplace stress, balancing competing responsibilities, or feeling stuck in unhelpful patterns, Bianca provides a grounded, supportive space where you can slow down, gain clarity, and begin moving forward.
Bianca also has a special interest in women’s mental health, supporting individuals experiencing the emotional impact of hormonal changes, PMS, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, infertility, and other significant life transitions. She believes that mental health is influenced by many aspects of life, including relationships, work, health, and personal expectations, and tailors treatment to each individual’s unique experiences and goals.
Her clinical approach is grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with advanced training in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, panic disorder, social anxiety, health anxiety, and phobias. She also integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Solution-Focused Therapy, and person-centred approaches to help clients develop practical coping strategies, build emotional resilience, and create meaningful, lasting change.
Bianca’s goal is to help you feel more confident, balanced, and equipped to navigate life’s challenges. Whether you’re managing anxiety, overcoming intrusive thoughts, recovering from burnout, adjusting to a major life change, or simply looking to improve your overall well-being, she works collaboratively with you to develop practical tools that foster resilience, self-awareness, and long-term emotional health.
Bianca is a compassionate and collaborative therapist who supports teens and adults navigating an... Read More
Brianne Roy
Brianne is a relational and integrative therapist who helps individuals and couples with identity, life transitions, and relationship challenges. You may feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure how you got here, whether facing anxiety, grief, burnout, or disconnection from yourself or your partner.
Brianne is a relational and integrative therapist who helps individuals and couples with identity... Read More
Madison Hobson
Shawna Smigelski
Linette Sapper
Chelsea Appiah
Kaitlyn Phillips
Kelly Byrne Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Life’s challenges can leave even the strongest individuals feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, or disconnected. Whether someone is navigating parenting struggles, loss, health concerns, or major life transitions, Kelly believes each person deserve support and understanding. She offers a compassionate space where people can explore their experiences, rebuild confidence, and develop tools to create meaningful change. With her guidance, individuals can move toward greater balance, clarity, and fulfillment.
Drawing on her 30-year teaching career and diverse life experiences, Kelly supports individuals and families navigating ADHD, parenting, addiction, grief, peri/menopause, and significant life changes. Her approach integrates mindfulness with CBT, ACT, DBT, and SFT, providing practical strategies grounded in empathy and respect.
Kelly meets each person where they are and gently guides them toward greater resilience, balance, and self-awareness. Through collaboration and mindfulness, she helps remove barriers that may be keeping them stuck. She believes everyone can build a life that reflects their values and strengths and she is committed to supporting them every step of the way.
Life’s challenges can leave even the strongest individuals feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, or dis... Read More
Melora Andrews (Virtual Only) Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Melora understands how vital it is to feel safe, heard, and supported when being vulnerable and exploring personal experiences. Her goal is to foster a trusting therapeutic relationship with her clients where they feel empowered to explore their personal experiences at a pace that is comfortable for them. Her hope to support her clients in working through navigating life’s transitions, challenges, and emotional well-being. Her goal is to help build confidence, develop strategies and tools and empower her clients to make lasting change.
Your session with Melora will be a safe space for you to share, and will consist of a collaborative and client-centred approach. She utilizes a tailored approach to support you in recognizing the root cause of the challenges that you are facing and the patterns that are impacting your quality of life.
Her main areas of focus include anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, life transitions and self-esteem, women’s issues, relationship issues and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). She utilizes a collaborative and client-centred approach drawing from different therapeutic modalities tailored to fit your unique needs. These may include ACT, DBT, CBT, SFBT and EFT.
Melora understands how vital it is to feel safe, heard, and supported when being vulnerable and e... Read More
Sarah Morrone
(She/Her/Hers)
Working with Sarah is an empowering process, centered on fostering trust and genuine connection. Her goal is to help clients navigate challenges, achieve personal growth, gain self-awareness, and develop effective tools to create lasting change. Sarah’s previous work was with children & families as a Registered Early Childhood Educator (RECE) and family support worker. Through this experience, she gained a deep understanding of human development, family systems, and the importance of co-regulation. Sarah has since shifted her focus on cognition and psychology, helping individuals understand the relationship between their brain and body; how their thoughts, behaviours, and beliefs affect their nervous system; and how these experiences ultimately impact their well being. Utilizing a holistic approach Sarah integrates practical evidence-based techniques such CBT, ACT, Somatic therapy, and mindfulness with humanistic approaches such as psychodynamic therapy.
By creating a non-judgmental space designed to spark deep self-exploration and trust, her aim is to foster a connection that feels human and relatable, allowing you to explore your emotions and experiences openly. Sarah specializes in helping individuals navigating challenges like stress, worry, anxiety, or depression, seeking support in finding balance and clarity. As a member of and ally to the LGBTQIA2S+ community, Sarah understands the unique challenges faced by this population. She also works with parents managing the stress of raising young children, women facing life transitions, and neurodivergent individuals seeking to thrive in a world that often feels overwhelming.
Working with Sarah is an empowering process, centered on fostering trust and genuine connection. ... Read More
Cassandra DeLorenzis
(She/Her/Hers)
Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Working with Cassandra is a collaborative and empowering experience. Her goal is for you to feel heard, supported, and more confident in your ability to navigate life’s challenges. She creates a warm, safe space where you can explore your challenges and strengths, using a mix of reflection, skill-building, and meaningful conversation. Using a combination of evidence-based techniques, Cassandra will help you foster emotional growth and self-awareness. Her holistic healing approach integrates CBT, EFT, and psychoanalysis to support your emotional growth and healing from all angles through a nonjudgmental, and collaborative lens, allowing you to feel comfortable exploring your thoughts and emotions at your own pace. Cassandra wants you to leave each session feeling resilient, with practical tools and insights to support your healing journey. Her top areas of interest include relationship issues, anxiety, and emotional regulation. She will help you explore your emotions, break free from unhelpful patterns, and foster healthier connections!
Cassandra also helps individuals and couples navigate challenges related to managing stress, overcoming negative self-beliefs, and improving communication within relationships.
Working with Cassandra is a collaborative and empowering experience. Her goal is for you to feel ... Read More
Mary Vuksanovic Registered Psychotherapist
Mary Vuksanovic is a Registered Psychotherapist, Clinic Owner, and Clinical Director with advanced expertise in anxiety-related disorders, trauma, and post-traumatic stress (PTSD). She specializes in health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, panic, trauma-related conditions, and nervous system dysregulation. Her work integrates science-based, psychodynamic, and somatic approaches to address maladaptive thinking patterns, intrusive symptoms, compulsive behaviours, and chronic fight-or-flight activation.
As the Founder and Clinical Director of Vital Minds Psychotherapy, Mary oversees clinical standards, supervision, and treatment excellence across the practice. She is deeply committed to delivering evidence-based care while integrating depth-oriented and nervous system-informed approaches to create meaningful, lasting change.
Mary helps clients restructure unhelpful thought patterns, engage in corrective behavioural experiences, and regulate physiological stress responses. Her work emphasizes nervous system stabilization, reduction of hypervigilance, and restoration of emotional balance. Clients learn how to self-regulate, decrease physiological arousal, improve stress hormone regulation, and enhance overall functioning.
Her primary clinical foundation is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with advanced specialization in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD, health anxiety, panic, phobias, and trauma-related shock that can result in cognitive shifts and nervous system disorientation. She integrates somatic therapy, psychodynamic exploration, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to process complex trauma, attachment wounds, and underlying emotional patterns that sustain anxiety-based disorders.
In addition to ongoing therapy, Mary offers structured 3- and 6-hour Psychotherapy Intensives. These focused, high-impact sessions are designed to provide the depth of weeks or even months of therapy within one carefully planned experience. Intensives are evidence-based and particularly effective for individuals seeking accelerated trauma processing, OCD treatment, or targeted anxiety work.
Through experiential learning within session, Mary supports clients in developing resilience, reducing intrusive symptoms, and creating sustainable, insight-driven change that allows them to live more fully and confidently.
Mary Vuksanovic is a Registered Psychotherapist, Clinic Owner, and Clinical Director with advance... Read More
Alexis Banyai
(She/Her)
Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Julie Desjardins
As an experienced Clinical Supervisor and Registered Psychotherapist, I am deeply committed to fostering the next generation of competent, ethical, and reflective mental health professionals. My approach to supervision is grounded in a commitment to coaching, mentoring, and professional consultation. My general philosophy is that supervision is a collaborative, supportive, and growth-oriented relationship, where I strive to support clinicians in their learning, growth, and development of a personal and ethical style of psychotherapy and counselling.
I focus on creating a supportive space where you can confidently explore clinical challenges, process complex cases, and address any feelings of imposter syndrome or burnout. My goal is to move you from competence to confidence. Supervision is a vital part of professional development and requires a mutual willingness to learn and reflect.
With 18 years of practice in the mental health field (since 2007), I have worked in diverse clinical settings, including Youth Net Hamilton, a Montreal Women’s shelter, a Community Sexual Assault intervention centre, an EAP crisis support centre, and as Director/Supervisor of my group practice in Ottawa (since 2017). I have several years of experience supervising and training student therapists and early-career clinicians, averaging over hundreds of hours of direct supervision.
My clinical expertise is focused on treating:
Symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress/burnout. Life’s and parenting challenges, grief/loss, student performance, mental health crisis. Behavioural and emotional aspects of ADHD/ASD/neurodivergence. The impacts of relational challenges in couples, parents, and families. Domestic violence, partner abuse, and childhood abuse. Co-parenting and high-conflict separation.
I am formally trained and experienced in supervising the following modalities:
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical-Behavioural Therapy (DBT) Eco Therapy or Walk & Talk Therapy Trauma-informed, Solution-Focused, Strength-based, and Compassion-Focused Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT and EFiT), Attachment-theory, and Gottman Method
I hold a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University (2012). I am registered to practice in Ontario as a Registered Psychotherapist (Independent Practice) with the CRPO (#008983). I have been a Certified Canadian Counsellor and Supervisor (#14010) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) since 2016. I have also completed a 30-hour supervision coursework and meet CRPO’s requirements for clinical supervision.
As an experienced Clinical Supervisor and Registered Psychotherapist, I am deeply committed to fo... Read More
Katelyn Matias
Katelyn is a trauma-informed and relational therapist that works through an attachment-based lens. She recognizes how early experiences, relational injuries, and nervous system responses shape current patterns of behaviour, emotion, and connection. Her expertise is in helping individuals or couples navigate anxiety, childhood trauma, attachment wounds, infidelity, emotional distress, relational conflict, self esteem, identity, personality disorders and psychotic disorders. She also has a special interest in supporting women going through fertility challenges or postpartum depression. Her clinical approach is grounded in providing a safe, structured, and collaborative therapeutic environment where individuals and couples can explore their concerns with clarity and purpose.
Katelyn creates a specialized treatment plan tailored to your unique goals, values, and presenting concerns, with an emphasis on evidence-based practice and measurable change. She integrates Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based interventions, and person-centred approaches. With couples, therapy focuses on identifying and de-escalating negative interaction cycles, strengthening emotional safety, improving communication, and fostering secure attachment.
Using a collaborative therapeutic process, Katelyn ensures you feel supported in the therapeutic process by helping you increase self-awareness, process past traumas, develop emotional regulation skills, and building healthier relational patterns
Katelyn is a trauma-informed and relational therapist that works through an attachment-based lens... Read More
Sarah Fawaz Registered Psychotherapist, Qualifying
Sarah’s journey has been shaped by cultural shock, adaptation, and the search for belonging. Navigating a new environment pushed her to reflect deeply on identity, connection, and what it means to feel grounded. Through that process, she began to rediscover herself and find a sense of community, which informs the work she does today. She brings that lived experience into the therapeutic space, offering a safe place for you to explore your own path with curiosity and compassion.
Sarah’s goal is for clients to leave each session feeling lighter than when they came in. She believes that even small steps forward are meaningful progress. Sessions with her are warm, light, and grounded in safety. You’re welcome to show up as you are, whether that means laughter, reflection, seriousness, or all of the above. She takes a person-centred approach, allowing you to lead the way, while gently offering challenges when helpful. Whether we talk, sit in silence, or engage in mindfulness activities, the pace is always yours. Sarah notices the small things: your words, body language, and what’s left unsaid, and uses these insights to support deeper understanding.
She works from a humanistic and mindfulness-based framework that is compassionate, flexible, and client-centred. Her role is to walk alongside you, to hold space for your story, your emotions, and your process. She believes therapy should never feel pressured. With Sarah you can sit in silence, explore difficult thoughts or try different exercises, whatever feels right for you at the moment. While she will always follow your lead, she also gently offers insight and encouragement when it feels supportive. You are the expert of your experience and she is here to help you connect with it more deeply!
Sarah’s journey has been shaped by cultural shock, adaptation, and the search for belonging. Navi... Read More
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Located at: 849 Upper Wentworth St, 2nd Floor, Suite 209, Hamilton
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Need Help? 905-618-7777 info@vitalminds.ca