Amanda Rocheleau, MSW, RSW Compassion Fatigue Therapy

26/10/2026

Hello RSW and RSSWs,

It's that time of year again! Soon it will be time to renew our OCSWSSW memberships and you'll have to make sure that CCP paperwork is complete before checking the box.

I know you've been learning and professionally developing all year - but when it comes to the documentation some of us just freeze up!

I have a whole bunch of tips to help make working on the Self-Assessment Tool and Professional Development Plan much easier.

Join me for this 2 hour online workshop and get your CCP document complete.

What you’ll get by joining this workshop:
- A clear overview of CCP requirement
- A Professional Development Tracker
- A CCP Guide packed with over 50 prompts and real examples of learning goals
- Strategies to beat writer's block and document your learning goals like a pro
- Tips to avoid the last-minute scramble next year!

Date: December 7, 2026 - 1:30pm to 3:30pm

Register for just $40 at https://www.amandarocheleau.com/upcoming-events

-- Have you previously attended this workshop in the past?
Email me to a get a 25% off discount

-- Are you a Social Work Student not yet an RSW or RSSW?
Email me to get a coupon code to register for free

-- Is it your first time completing the CCP as a RSW or RSSW?
Email me to get coupon code to register for free

Send me a DM or email at [email protected]

19/10/2026

Last chance to register for Ontario Association of Social Worker's Preparing For Practice fall workshops with yours truly for a 3 part Wellness Series

Social work is meaningful work, but it carries real psychological demands: trauma exposure, emotional labour, ethical tension, and workplace conditions that can wear practitioners down over time. This 3-part series helps social work students build the foundation for a sustainable career before they....

07/10/2026

05/10/2026

We tell social workers all the time: “You can’t do this work alone.”

But knowing that peer support matters and actually having access to meaningful, supportive professional community are two different things.

This is why we created the Building the Bridge project, funded by the Evelyn Maud McCorkell Foundation (EMMF) with the School of Social Work at Carleton University.

This fall, we’re bringing together BSW and MSW students, recent graduates, and early-career social workers (1–5 years in the field) for a series of facilitated, online Community of Practice meetings.

These 90-minute gatherings are an opportunity to:
• connect with other emerging social workers
• reflect and debrief about the realities of the work
• learn from different perspectives and experiences
• begin building professional connections that can carry forward into your career

Come to one meeting, a few, or all of them.

Interested in participating?
Visit the project website: https://sites.google.com/view/building-the-bridge/home?authuser=0 to learn more and register for meetings.
And please share this with other social work students, new graduates, field placement students, and early-career practitioners in your network.

We’d love to get this opportunity in front of the people it was created for.

25/09/2026

September brings a lot of change.

New schools. New routines. A child leaving for college or university. A return to work. A career shift. Changing family roles. Sometimes, a growing sense that the next chapter of life needs to look a little different.

Transitions can be exciting, but they can also bring uncertainty, stress, grief, overwhelm, and questions about what comes next.

Erin Shaheen, Med, RSSW supports youth, adults, and parents navigating major life transitions, including:

• Post-secondary adjustment and the transition into adulthood
• Parenting and changing family roles
• Menopause and midlife transitions
• Career exploration and goal setting
• Stress, overwhelm, and finding your footing during periods of change

Whether you are adjusting to a new stage yourself or supporting someone you love through one, therapy can offer a place to slow down, make sense of what is changing, and consider what you need moving forward.

Erin is currently accepting new clients for virtual therapy through Amaro Collective.

08/07/2026

Life doesn't always change gradually.
Sometimes it changes all at once.

A new baby. A child who needs more support than expected. A late ADHD diagnosis. Menopause. Sending your teenager off to college. Caring for aging parents. A career change. A season where you no longer recognize yourself.

These "launching moments" can leave us feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, and stretched in ways we never anticipated.

We're delighted to share that Erin Shaheen, M.Ed., RSSW is currently welcoming new counselling clients across Ontario, with Walk and Talk therapy also available in Ottawa. Erin specializes in helping people navigate life's major transitions with greater confidence, clarity, and self-compassion.

With more than 25 years of experience in mental health, education, and family support, Erin offers practical, compassionate counselling grounded in attachment theory, neurodiversity-affirming practice, and strengths-based care.

Erin provides support for:
• ADHD and Autism burnout
• Neurodivergent adults and masking
• Parenting and caregiver stress
• Pregnancy and postpartum transitions
• Parents of neurodivergent children
• Caring for aging parents
• Anxiety and everyday stress
• Post-secondary and career transitions
• Menopause and midlife changes
• Self-esteem and relationship challenges

You don't have to navigate life's biggest transitions alone.

Whether you're stepping into a new chapter or trying to find your footing in one you never expected, therapy can offer a space to slow down, feel understood, and move forward with greater confidence.

If Erin sounds like the right fit for you, we'd love to help you get connected.

Visit www.amandarocheleau.com/counselling to learn more or complete our intake form to get started.

04/07/2026

Sometimes we don't just need to "cope."

We need a space where we feel safe enough to finally put everything down.

Maybe you're living with the effects of trauma. Maybe anxiety feels like it's always just beneath the surface. Perhaps you're carrying the weight of caregiving, navigating a difficult relationship, or trying to make sense of experiences that have left you feeling disconnected from yourself.

Whatever has brought you here, you don't have to carry it alone.

We're pleased to share that Amanda Ahmed, RN Psychotherapist, BScN, MACP, RP (Qualifying) is currently welcoming new counselling clients in Ottawa and virtually across Ontario. With more than 15 years of experience in mental health and community care, Amanda provides compassionate, trauma-informed therapy that honours each person's unique story, strengths, and capacity for healing.

Amanda's experience spans street health, mental health services, Indigenous communities, outreach, harm reduction, humanitarian work, and supporting individuals in active military service. Her approach is grounded in safety, connection, and collaboration, drawing from attachment-based therapy, somatic approaches, Internal Family Systems, Narrative Therapy, and Narrative Exposure Therapy to help clients reconnect with themselves and move toward lasting healing.

Amanda provides support for:
• Complex trauma and relational wounds
• Anxiety and panic
• Chronic stress and burnout
• Caregivers and helping professionals
• Emotional regulation and self-trust
• Family members impacted by mental illness or substance use
• Justice-involved individuals and their loved ones
• Identity, belonging, and healing from systemic harm
• Life transitions and emotional overwhelm

Healing doesn't mean erasing your past. It means developing a different relationship with it, one where you can move through life with greater safety, connection, and self-compassion.

If Amanda sounds like the right fit for you, we'd be honoured to help you get connected.

Visit www.amandarocheleau.com and complete our intake form to get started.

02/07/2026

There comes a point when being the strong one starts to feel exhausting.

Maybe you've spent years caring for everyone else. Maybe you've been holding your family together, supporting aging parents, navigating relationship challenges, grieving a loss, or simply trying to keep up with the demands of everyday life.

From the outside, everything may look fine.
On the inside, you're overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and wondering when it became so hard to take care of yourself.

We're pleased to share that Susan Taylor, MSW, RSW is currently welcoming new counselling clients across Ontario.

With more than 25 years of experience in women's mental health, trauma counselling, crisis services, and primary care, Susan offers a compassionate, thoughtful space where you can slow down, make sense of what you're carrying, and begin reconnecting with yourself. Her work is grounded in trauma-informed, feminist, attachment-oriented, and evidence-informed practice.

Susan provides support for:
• Burnout and chronic stress
• Caregiver fatigue
• Grief and loss
• Relationship and boundary concerns
• Anxiety and overwhelm
• Identity shifts and life transitions
• Women's mental health

You don't have to wait until you're completely depleted before reaching out. Therapy can be a place to understand what's happening beneath the surface, strengthen your capacity to cope, and create more sustainable ways of living and caring.

If you're ready to take that next step, we'd be honoured to connect you with Susan.

Visit the link in our bio to learn more or complete our intake form to get started.

06/05/2026

Today, I travelled from Ottawa to Kitchener-Waterloo to spend the evening with a room full of educators and helping professionals, people who give so much of themselves, often without enough space to land.

We spoke about burnout, compassion fatigue, and the real toll of caring deeply in systems that do not always care for us in return. But more than that, we created something together. There were moments where you could feel the room soften into a shared understanding, a quiet recognition of “me too.”

What stayed with me most was what happened after.

The questions.
The stories.
The people who lingered when the session ended, not quite ready to leave the space we had created together.

You could see it in people’s eyes, that mix of exhaustion and relief when something finally feels understood.

There was so much honesty in those moments. So much courage in naming the hard parts of this work.

One person shared something that I will carry with me for a long time. She said she was not only taking notes on what I was saying, but on how I was saying it, that I began with connection. With story. With presence. With being with, not talking at.

That is my mission.

Not just sharing information, but creating space where people feel seen, understood, and a little less alone in what they carry.

I am deeply grateful for the trust in that room tonight. I had one of those happy cries when I got back to my hotel room. I am honoured to be invited to spaces like that and create connections like I did tonight.

If you are someone who holds space for others, I hope you are finding moments where someone holds space for you too. And if not, I hope you begin to seek that out. You deserve it.

27/04/2026

I've taught in some interesting places over the years, but today was the first time I delivered a workshop in a barn!

Our meeting today was a reminder that self-care for educators is not about doing more, it is about relating differently to what you carry.

You are working in systems that ask a lot. You care deeply. And that combination can quietly lead to overextending, overgiving, and running on empty.

Self-care, in this context, looks like:
• Noticing when your capacity is low
• Allowing yourself to have limits
• Letting go of the pressure to meet every need
• Choosing what is sustainable, not just what is possible

You do not have to earn your rest.
You do not have to carry it all to make a difference.

Small, steady shifts in how you care for yourself will shape how you show up, not just today, but over the long run.

Thank you for the work you do and the care you bring into your classrooms every day.