As an Ontario Registered Social Worker, ACE-Certified Health Coach, ACE-Certified Medical Exercise Specialist, ACE-Certified Personal Trainer, and an AAHFRP-Certified Post Rehabilitation Conditioning Specialist, and as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the American Council on Exercise, I help my clients define what their goals are. Goals are related to physical wellness, mental health, stress management, sleep problems, functionality in activities of daily living, and chronic pain/pain management.  I will help you feel better!

Using coaching techniques, counselling/psychotherapy strategies, and a wealth of knowledge, I help move you where you find yourself in the present, to where you wish to be in the future. Over the past 25 years, I have created a unique practice that combines registered social work, health coaching, medical exercise, and personal training. I am fascinated by the intersection of physical and mental health, and have been a pioneer in bridging the gap between these two realms.  I enable my clients to achieve successes they did not think possible.  I am based in Toronto, and work with clients locally as well as throughout Canada. Sessions happen in person, or virtually via FaceTime, Zoom or Skype.

Eighty percent of the population experiences low back pain at some point in their lives.  This condition (for which there can be a myriad of causative factors) is extremely debilitating, accounting for one of the top reasons people visit their family doctors and take time off work.  The biggest predictor of low back pain is having experienced it in the past.  That being said, there are many things you can do to prevent future occurrences, and reduce their intensity and duration when episodes do happen.  To read more about low back pain, see my article from the CAN-FIT-PRO Journal, on the Resources page of my website.

Exercise Specialist Recommendations:

• The most important thing you can do is avoid forward flexion of the lumbar spine.  Leaning forward, especially if it is repeated, causes disc delamination - wearing away of the discs between the vertebrate of the lumbar spine.  Squat down to pick things up off the floor, or even better, use a "golfer's squat" - take a big step back with one foot, then bend down keeping your back as straight as possible.  Do not lean over to tie shoes, rummage around a backpack that is on the floor, or over a table to sign a cheque.  Keep your back straight as much as possible by placing the backpack on a table, sitting down to write and to tie up shoes or fasten boots.
• Avoid hours of uninterrupted sitting.  Get up to take breaks every 30 minutes.
• Strengthen your core musculature with evidence-based exercises, starting with very low reps and a very gradual progression.
• Strengthen your upper body, so that when you lift objects your arms will be able to absorb the work, as opposed to your lower back.
• Strengthen your gluteals.  Most people with low back pain have a condition called "gluteal amnesia", where the gluts are weak and dysfunctional, causing the lower back muscles to bear the brunt of dynamic forces that the gluts should be taking on.
• Sleep with a pillow in between your knees, or under your knees if you sleep on your back.  Use an extra firm, king-size pillow.  Soft down-filled pillows will not work for this purpose.

There is much more!  But the above suggestions are a good start.