Birrell Therapy

10/05/2026

Healing from spiritual or religious harm can include making room for grief, reconsidering belonging, and finding your own voice.

Registration is open for Holy Hurt, our online therapy group for people processing these experiences. Season Kam, OT, and I will use expressive arts therapy interventions, reflection, and re-storying, drawing on Dr. Hillary McBride’s book.

Whether you remain connected to a faith community, have stepped away, or are considering what comes next, we welcome you to join us.

Visit the link in my bio for details and registration, or DM me to connect.

09/29/2026

Holy Hurt Group Therapy
This fall, I’ll be offering our Holy Hurt therapy group again for people who have experienced hurt within spiritual or religious communities.

My colleague Season Kam, OT, and I first offered this group in the spring, and it became a meaningful space for people to explore experiences that can be difficult to talk about elsewhere.

Using Dr. Hillary McBride’s Holy Hurt as a guide, we’ll use conversation, expressive art therapy, and re-storying exercises to explore the impact of spiritual and religious hurt. We’ll look at experiences like self-abandonment in order to belong, changing relationships with faith and community, and grieving what we may have needed to leave behind in order to heal.

In many ways, this is also a grief group. Our last group included people who were still connected to faith or spiritual communities in some way, as well as people who had completely stepped away. There is no expectation that you arrive at any particular conclusion about faith, spirituality, or religion.

Season and I both recognize that spiritual communities can be places of deep joy, meaning, beauty, and belonging — and can also be places where people experience profound and complicated hurt. We want to create space for both realities, and for wherever you find yourself in your own journey.

Tuesdays | 10:00 AM–12:00 PM
October 20–November 24, 2026
Online via Zoom

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or would like more information. And if someone comes to mind who might connect with this group, I’d be grateful if you shared it with them. Learn more here: https://www.birrelltherapy.com/group-therapy.html

09/24/2026

We’ve been out around Toronto putting up Holy Hurt posters 🍂

Here’s what they’re about: Season and I are bringing people together to talk about experiences with religion that have been painful or confusing. We’ll draw on Dr. Hillary McBride’s Holy Hurt, with plenty of room for your own story and questions.

We’ll meet on Zoom for six Tuesdays, October 20–November 24, from 10 am to 12 noon EST. The full series is $600 and may be covered by insurance.

If you’re wondering whether the group is a good fit, email us at [email protected]. We’d be happy to connect 💛

09/13/2026

One of my core beliefs is that therapists need other therapists. We need community.

Today, that looked like learning about injured raptors 🦅, touring an animal farm 🐐, and hiking the Sugar Bush Trail together. 🌲

More days like this to come! ☀️

Conservation Halton

09/09/2026

🍂 Holy Hurt: Spiritual & Religious Trauma Process Group

Season Kam, OT Reg. (Ont.), Psychotherapist, and I will be facilitating another 6-week experiential process group for healing and making meaning after spiritual and religious trauma.
The group is based on Dr. Hillary McBride’s Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing and her research on spiritual and religious trauma.

6 weekly sessions via Zoom
📅 October 20 – November 24, 2026
⏰ Tuesdays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm ET
💻 Online via Zoom
💲 $600 ($100 per 2-hour session)

Registration requires a commitment to all six sessions and is claimable via most insurance plans under Registered Psychotherapy or Occupational Therapy.

For more information, visit https://www.birrelltherapy.com/group-therapy.html

📩 Email [email protected] to register.

Birrell Therapy

07/24/2026

lighthouse humans
are my favorite kind of humans.

07/09/2026

Big smiles to celebrate the end of our spring group therapy cohort of Holy Hurt. We went on a journey together and are grateful to have shared a season of processing, grieving, and dreaming together. We’ll be offering this group again this fall and would love to have you join us. Sign up here if you’d like to be kept in the loop: https://forms.gle/5HiH4EFrYSEk5ZAs6

06/16/2026

*Introduction to Psychodrama Interventions Professional Development*
Biweekly Wednesdays at 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm EST
September 9-November 18, 2026
via ZOOM

Participants can expect to learn how to utilize these psychodrama interventions for adolescent and adult clients:
✅ sociometric warmups (locograms, spectograms, etc.)
✅ attachment and resilience timelines
✅ social atoms
✅ letter writing
✅ roleplay/empty chair work

To learn more about my professional development workshops, please see: https://www.birrelltherapy.com/wellness-workshops.html

Each 80-minute session is $80. There is no refund for missed sessions. There will be a maximum of 8 participants.

Email [email protected] to register.