Danni Lei

President

Danni (she/her) is a registered psychologist, with a Master of Science degree in Counselling Psychology. Danni has been working at post-secondary counselling centres for the majority of her career and is currently working as a counsellor at Mount Royal University. Danni is passionate about providing counselling to undergraduate students navigating various life stressors and concerns, as well as sitting on several institutional committees and providing graduate student supervision.

Danni has previously been part of  the CCPA’s Career Counsellors Chapter and is now excited to join the Post-Secondary Counsellor’s Chapter in the summer of 2023

Sheldon Hill

Past-President

Sheldon is an experienced psychotherapist and student affairs professional, with a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology. Having worked at three different Canadian universities as a counsellor, mental health educator, case manager and manager, Sheldon is passionate about supporting students meet their academic potential by obtaining balance in their life.
Sheldon has been the president of the Post-Secondary Counsellor’s Chapter since May 2021. He joined the chapter to connect and develop the support for post-secondary counsellors, and to understand the current climate of post-secondary counselling in Canada.

Vacant

President-elect

We are looking! If you are interested in this position, please contact the executive team at [email protected]

Jeananne Robertson

Member at Large

Jeananne (she/her) is a seasoned counsellor and student affairs professional, with a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, Higher Education (UBC) and a Master of Education in Higher Education, Student Development and Student Services (OISE).  In her current role Jeananne works collaboratively with graduate students to support students’ success through developing strategies to mitigate challenges and minimize disruptions to personal well-being and academic success.  She recognizes that students and institutions are partners in post-secondary education and endeavors to advocate for systemic solutions to complement her more individualized student-centred approach to addressing barriers to success.
Jeananne has been a member of the Post-Secondary Counsellors Chapter since 2017, and joined the executive as a member at large in 2020 to participate in the community of practice and contribute to advocacy efforts on behalf of post-secondary counsellors across Canada.

Annelise Lyseng

Member at Large

Annelise is a registered psychologist and has a Master of Education in Counselling Psychology. She has worked as a counsellor at a post-secondary institution in Alberta since 2016. Annelise believes strongly in the importance of providing accessible, strengths-based, trauma-informed counselling services to support students as they navigate their studies.

Annelise has been a Member-at-Large on the Post-Secondary Counsellor’s Chapter Executive since December 2019. She connected with the chapter to meet other Canadian post-secondary counsellors, learn about issues that are impacting counsellors across Canada, and contribute to the chapter’s research and advocacy efforts.

Denyse Lane

Member at Large

Denyse was born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She holds Bachelors of Music and Music Education degrees (conjoint) and a Master’s in Education in Counselling Psychology from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Denyse is also a Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC). Denyse initially taught Music Education in the St. John’s Public school system for numerous years before transitioning to the area of Counselling. She initially began her work in the community non-profit setting in St. John’s before coming to Memorial University in the role of Wellness Navigator at the Student Wellness and Counselling Centre. Denyse’s role there is to assist local and International students who are studying at the undergraduate or graduate level. Her passion is connecting in a positive way with Post Secondary students at Memorial, and to help them navigate on a short-term basis in the area of mental health and other personal issues that may arise throughout their study. In addition, Denyse also assists students with referrals within Memorial or outside in the community as needed.
Denyse is currently a Member at Large for the CCPA Post Secondary Chapter and has served in this position since 2021.

Jessica Isenor

Treasurer

Jessica is a career counsellor and student services professional, with a Master of Education in Counselling Psychology. Having worked at five Canadian universities as a counsellor and counsellor educator. She currently works at the Nova Scotia Community College as a Manager in their Central Student & Career Services Office, working to deliver equitable, accessible, and meaningful career development opportunities for students and new graduates.
Jessica has been president of the CCPA’s Career Counsellors Chapter and now sits on the Post-Secondary Counsellor’s Chapter as their Treasurer since the Summer of 2021 to continue supporting our counselling community in their ongoing development and building of professional connections.

Forrest Maridas

Secretary

Forrest completed a Clinical Counselling Psychology MA and graduate certificate in Art Therapy from Antioch University.  In an over 20-year long career in case management and mental health, Forrest has been able to work with a large range of consumers.

She has a special interest in art therapy, trauma work and sex therapy interventions.  Additionally, she has supported people with developmental delays, brain injuries, and those who identify as sexual and gender minorities.  Settings for her work have included an inpatient addiction treatment centre, intensive youth group care and treatment foster care, as well as being a referred counsellor from the justice/probation office.  Forrest works in Edmonton, AB with relationship and family counselling, youth and adults individually, as well as group treatment.

Forrest has worked as a counsellor at MacEwan University for 13 years.  The Wellness and Psychological services department she is a part of, provides professional support to formulate individually-driven solutions to issues often revolving around personal, mental health, relationship, career and academic concerns.  Post-Secondary mental health is so important to the future leaders of our world, Forrest is pleased to have a part in this community.”

Janis Campbell

Board Liaison

Reports

Purpose & History

The Post-Secondary Counsellor’s Chapter was formed in September of 2016 to create a space and representation for post-secondary counsellors all across Canada. With the increasing demand for counsellors in the post-secondary field, including mental health, careers, learning skills and disability, and life skills counselling, the need for this chapter was clear. The objectives of this chapter are:

    • To provide an opportunity for post-secondary counsellors to meet for discussion of critical issues in the area of post-secondary counselling.
    • To provide a forum for ongoing information exchange and professional development (skill and knowledge based).
    • To provide a forum for mentoring practitioners, researchers, and policy makers new to the field of counselling.
    • To provide a means by which post-secondary counsellors can help one another to develop and obtain research support provincially and federally through increased collaboration.
    • To serve as a direct link with the National Association, thereby providing for the presentation of mutually sought aims and objectives.
    • To serve, with full collaboration and consultation with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, as a means to interact with government departments and/or other groups for the purpose of promoting the Chapter.

Constitution and Bylaws

The Post-Secondary Counsellors’ Chapter’s constitution outlines the fundamental principles and objectives of the chapter, while the bylaws explain the rules set for the members and describe the functioning of the chapter. All members are encouraged to review the constitution and bylaws as a chapter member. The constitution and bylaws can be found here.


Practitioner Research Grant

The Post-Secondary Counsellors’ Chapter awards an annual grant to members who are interested in completing research within their role. The application to complete is available here, and for transparency about the creation and assessment of this grant, the proposal and evaluation criteria are available in ‘Reports & Documents’ below.


Chapter Update – Spring 2023 Newsletter

Hello Post-Secondary Counsellors!

We hope that the start of the school year has been treating you as gently as it can. At our last executive meeting, which was at the end of August, we all recognized our busyness and anticipation of students returning to campus. We imagine that many of you have felt the same, so we hope that you’ve been able to find balance where possible during the start-of-the-year whirlwind!

 

As usual, we have some updates for you below.

 

Membership Survey – Professional Development

As an executive team, we met at the end of the summer to discuss the initiatives that we are planning throughout the academic year. One of those things is bringing in speakers for professional development opportunities and continuing education credits. We wanted to know what topics you would be interested in. If you could take two minutes to complete this very short survey, that would be very helpful to guide us into what our membership wants: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N6WJHKQ.

 

Community Conversations

Last year, we held a couple of virtual events aimed at supporting and connecting our membership. We plan to continue this event later this year, with a greater focus on peer support. We don’t have any dates confirmed yet, as we are seeking approval for these sessions to count as continuing education. Stay tuned for more information once we have it!

 

Chapter Members

If you have colleagues who would like to be a part of the chapter, encourage them to add our chapter’s membership to their CCPA membership. We are so happy that we have members from all across Canada, and we’ve had asks before if non-members can attend our events. Since your membership fees pay for our events and what we have to offer, our events are for our chapter. However, we welcome new members if they want to partake!

 

Contact

If you want to reach our chapter executive team, send an email to [email protected]

 

Keep on rockin’,

Your Chapter Executive Team



Contact

If you have any questions or comments, please email the executive team at [email protected]